CONTROL Ultimate Edition

This is a hard one to really write a review for: On one hand, Control is, overall, fine. Great gameplay and worldbuilding that props up the entire experience. On the other, Control is extremely poorly paced, written in a very mediocre way, with a clearly rushed finale that makes me fear for any games Remedy made after it. + The easiest place to start is gameplay: Control is a super-hero game with a gun. That's it. Fly around, shoot guys, telekinesis an explosive barrel into a guy, make a shield out of debris, etc. This all works very well and flows OK, with some caveats - Which also combo's with my first real negative: The game just has extremely mediocre writing. Jesse is just not captivating despite being well acted because this isn't really a game about *her* but those *around* her. And they are considerably less interesting cause you don't spend as much time with them. In essence, each major NPC is introduced, gives you a quest chain, and is dropped, with Jesse's interactions with them never going that deep, reflecting both her hesitancy to be the director and to trust the FBC. However they never really get expanded on. You never see them get hands on basically. Meanwhile Jesse's Ice Queen treatment really does her no favors and she doesn't actually get interesting until roughly halfway through the game, which, by that point, she's done this so much she's kinda accepted her role in all but official terms. There really isn't a solid main villain until that halfway point, and even then it's the biggest "Who cares" ever despite how tied in he is to Jesse's background, But again, cause we don't get that deep into ANY character, I could only really shrug at his existence. + But a lot of this is salvaged via the very constant but well written memos, classified documents and general lore you can find laying around the Old House. Each one giving you info into characters, but most important of all, into the weird items IN Control. The most unique part of Control's worldbuilding is that it's effectively Remedy's own SCP Foundation. Everything from an old carousel to a lawn flamingo can be altered items, each with their own behaviors, histories, and notes. None are that mindbending but they are a fun, quick read. + Speaking of mindbending, the graphical design of Control is exceedingly strong. Everything from the offices you wander to the altered realms you enter are filled to the brim with character. This is definitely the 3rd most memorable thing in the game behind what we covered above. ~ Audio wise I'm mixed. The VA's are overall good but held back by just a mix of other issues, whether it be writing, direction or a lack of screen time. None of them really made an impact on me with two exceptions. The music section was also *just fine* as far as I'm concerned. - I have nowhere else to shove this but the game suffers from a glitched and nigh-nonfunctional texture filtering which causes the game to CONSTANTLY turn muddy and ugly after any number of minor gameplay sequences. This has been a known glitch for YEARS and has never, not once, been fixed. Mostly affects AMDs - End game balancing is garbage and it becomes more about spamming Telekinesis than anything else. - Similarly the extra guns you unlock are just worse than your default handgun. - Ending is the most rushed thing I've ever seen. ~ Technically lots of content, but they're very... OK. I really can't stress enough how much Control is carried by it's worldbuilding and gameplay, to a point of absurdity. Every small to large issue I have with it is not enough to not recommend it. It's not a game I'd 100%, but it's definitely worth at least one full playthrough just cause. * I will note that while I really like Remedy's mixed-media approach I didn't feel like it enhanced Control like it could have. Only so many times you can watch an actor slowly pace in shadow while talking before you get bored ya know?