E3 2018 Impressions — Control

While at E3, I was able to see Control in a more intimate setting than just a trailer. Here is my take on Control.

Another of the interesting titles that we saw get the reveal out at this year’s E3 was Control from Remedy. It came at us all with a weird and unusual trailer, as was to be expected, and made a huge splash during the Sony conference where 505 Games opted to show it all off to the world. Maybe to hit home that their game was going to be on all platforms here or just the right place to unleash Control to the world. Either way, it was announced and slated to hit us in 2019 on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It also happened to have a bit more to show behind some closed doors during E3 and I had a chance to check it all out.

As is basically described, in Control we play as Jesse Faden. She becomes the head of the Federal Bureau of Control through story events after the previous head dies and a weird ritual takes place. This is all important as the bureau here is in charge of keeping all of those supernatural things in check and balanced out. Something has apparently gone wrong as the home-based, called The Oldest House, has been sieged by some new threat called the Hiss. A shimmering entity that can take over and “Control” others and has done so in the entire building. It is Jesse and our job to get things running smoothly again.

Now that we have the basis for the game’s world and story out of the way, we can dive into what was shown in terms of gameplay. Control is an action-adventure game with some elements of the Metroidvania style mixed right in. The Oldest House is a huge place inside of a small building in the real world and that is where all of the events will be taking place. Certain events will trigger other things and we will need to revisit locations we saw before and so on. All to learn what happened, fix it, and expand the story of this new character and the world that has been developed here. It is a mashup of a whole lot of ideas and it looks like it is paying off.

Obviously, Control would not be a great title in the set world if there were not some way for Jesse to fight off the Hiss. She is coming with a gun, called the Service Weapon, which can become whatever she can imagine it to be. The demo shown to me had it switching between a pistol style of weapon and a shotgun style of weapon. There is word from Remedy that there will be more, which I had no doubt of, but this is what they had for demo purposes. Nonetheless, they both looked to do what they were intended to do and lent themselves well to the third-person view that Control will be having us play in.

In addition to the weapon here, we will also have a handful of supernatural abilities mixed in to use. All that was shown in the demo here was the ability to levitate and some other telekinetic abilities that we can see in all of the gameplay that was released for Control so far. It does look like Remedy took care to make sure that Jesse did not seem too proficient with these abilities as she just acquired them, but it looks like it is all cosmetic and does not impact gameplay. She looks a little unstable while flying around and such, but can be deadly accurate when it was time to get into the mix of things. More storytelling through environment instead of dialog and such.

More or less, Control looked to be another game that could be defined as a Remedy title. If you have experienced their past titles, then you know what I mean as it always looks cinematic and has some great gameplay to back it all up. I am also digging the fact that Control is going to be more open and require us to revisit locations and not another linear story that the team has been known for. I do have a few reservations for the story so far, but if the gameplay keeps itself at the level we have been shown, it will be a great addition to the list of titles they are putting out there. We will just have to wait for more.