Control

[one-armed dwarf]

I didn't necessarily not enjoy it, but I found it extremely uncomfortable to play due to the map, absolutely unreadable text and bad performance.

 

I think I will beat it eventually but these elements were making it feel like work for me.

 

I think the idea is you're supposed to read the signs around the building to find places and not the map anyway

[DANGERMAN]

It's been patched a bit I assume, there's only one bit where the frame rate had proper issues. I do find the reconstruction and the screen space dependent effects distracting, but it's running better on Pro than I was expecting. 

[DANGERMAN]

I finished this yesterday, it gets a bit rote towards the end, maybe it's just the little one long with not enough variety in gameplay, but on the whole I really enjoyed it. Definitely one of last years better games. 

 

The performance wasn't too bad either, I'd have rather been playing on pc but instead of slowing down, the few times there was an issue it just wouldn't draw the frames and would skip, which made for a smoother experience than lots of tearing and slow down imo 

 

I did find the screen space hiding of effects hugely distracting. Plague Tale does the same thing to a much lesser degree, there's a constant halo around your character, who is right in the centre of the screen. I get why it's done but it's really hard not to see it. 

 

I barely used the shield and for a sequel I'd like some more useful powers, not that chucking shit at people wasn't fun, another game of that might get old quicker than this did. 

 

Anyway, the style obviously played a huge part but I really enjoyed this, I'd definitely play another 

[DANGERMAN]

I'm quite close to 100% this. There's a boss I need to track down and beat, and I need to max out the skill tree. It's the latter that's a problem. Beating that boss will get me 4 points, I've got 2 saved up, but but I'm missing 6 skills iirc, it's 3 points per skill. 

 

There's a mission I've got to kill some mould people, then that's it for missions. You get points for finding hidden locations, but that's monotonous, I could do with getting another few missions. Does anyone know if the jukebox gives you any? 

[Nag]

That was pretty much the reason I quit trying to 100% the game, like you say, finding hidden area's is boring as...

 

I'm not sure I even know anything about the jukebox either. Sorry, that wasn't much help.?

[DANGERMAN]

was the Jukebox added after release or something? I seem to remember there being some sort of free update, and Spatular didn't remember anything about the Jukebox either... unless that's it's power

[Nag]

Think it must have been, I know there's been some sort of expeditions update that I never saw.

[DANGERMAN]

I got the platinum. There's a few little things you can do here and there that get you a few extra points, one of which is the luck puzzle (where the Japanese lucky cat is etc), doing that gets you a couple, so you can comfortably do it without needing to visit every secret location, but it's only a couple you'd miss.

 

It's kind of made me want to pick up Quantum Break at some point

[Nag]

I rate Quantum Break quite highly, even with the weird real life tv thing going on.

[Maf]

Quantum Break is wack 

[Maf]

I finally started this tonight, have just got to the maintenance area. I’m really, really loving it actually. It’s the perfect level of horror for me where everything is super fucked up and the air is filled with tension but it’s never ramming it down your throat. It has an ever present sense of dread, claustrophobia and like you are being watched, but it hasn’t been graphic violence or throwing monsters at me. It’s not trying to make me shit myself all at once it’s just clenching up the butt one step at a time. 
 

That is a terrible way to describe it but you know what I mean.

 

It really is my kind of paranormal mystery type thing as well. To me it most recalls the cyborg ninja moments from MGS before you know who he is. Except instead of entering and exiting the story, that is the feeling of the whole story. And as much as it creeps me out I’m really in to it. I like this a lot.

 

The gameplay is simple but good, too. I’m expecting moments of frustrations on boss runs because I’ve heard that happens. And I haven’t died in combat yet (I did walk off a ledge at the Hotline bit) but come close to just dropping in combat a couple of times now. Even though it hasn’t happened to me yet I can see the oddly punishing part of it. 
 

The only thing that puts me off so far is all the side missions and challenges and stuff. I think I’m going to have to go around and explore every bit of this place to do them all and I just don’t want to. I like staying on the main path. It’s scary to leave the path ?

[one-armed dwarf]

Surprised you're into it. I've got it on PC now so might start it again.

 

The ray tracing on it is too much for my GPU lol. 

 

Do you kind of feel like it has a made for TV vibe, like a 90s Stephen King miniseries. But in a good way I mean

[Maf]

I don’t really know, not a thing I’ve seen a lot of or know of. To me it just feels like a Remedy game. Super genre heavy 3rd person shooter. I really love the games they make. Not in a hardcore/super fan way but I always enjoy them when I play them. 
 

Except for Quantum Break but maybe on reflection is because it didn’t really feel like a genre of anything. Just a really straight forward, superficial, 3rd person shooter. 

[one-armed dwarf]

For me gameplay wise it is a little too frustrating, but the main reason I dropped it first is I got lost and it's very hard to figure out where to go in this game. I'll definitely start it again soon I think. But it needs a difficulty slider. I'm not interested in challenge in a third person shooter game like this.

[Maf]

So far I think the gameplay is really fun. I like scrappy, always on the move shooters and the pick up and throw ability is really generous and very empowering. Even when there’s nothing in sight I just hold down RB and Jessie (Jessie?) will just grab something in the room and break someone in half with it. 

[Maf]

I just had an optional mission where I had to protect ally NPC’s. And when I got there they were fighting the enemies that explode. I tried my best, but there’s little I can do when the allies start punching the things that blow up ?

 

That’s enough for today.

[Maf]

Just done the punch card puzzle and had a huge audio bug and missed tonnes of dialogue ?

[Maf]

Finding it really hard to tell how deep I am into this game. Did mission 5 last night and felt like I was maybe a 3rd of the way, did a few side missions, beat some asshole bosses and one main mission and now feel like I’m in the back third. I could be really off. I did a lot today without moving the story forward much at all so it’s sort of thrown my perception. 

 

Like I said I did manage to beat some side bosses today. I’ll just say the TV and the Anchor. The first one was tricky until I realised the ground was disappearing, the second one was just kind of legit tough. A boss where there is lots to keep track of, and you have to keep moving, and you need to find a decent rhythm/timing. 
 

But video games are video games and the best strategy as always is the charge shot (Or in this game they call it “Pierce”. There’s actually another gun called “Charge” so worth differentiating). Whether it’s Halo, Cuphead, Doom or Control the best weapons are the one you hold the trigger down to charge before releasing. Add some mods on to this thing and the damage difference between it and everything else is huge and I think very key to taking down these bosses. 
 

Anyway, still really enjoying it and appear to have done all the necessary Alert and Counter Measure missions so now I can just get on with the main game and do the story and side missions. Still really liking it, definitely think this game is a one and done. I do think the gameplay is solid and actually very fun, it has good 3rd person shooting. But the game is highly repetitive and the skill ceiling is super low so don’t feel like there’s much replay value to be had here. The story is still interesting and that’s the main draw, but video game stories you mostly only need to see once and I don’t think this is going to prove that wrong.

[Maryokutai]

I think the moment-to-moment gameplay (shooting and throwing stuff around while flying) is very strong and that alone could definitely fuel a second playthrough. If they ever rebuild it or patch it for next-gen so that console people can play it with a stable framerate then I'll definitely go through it again.

[Maf]

I finished it this morning and for me I know I won’t be playing through it again. That is not to say I think the game is bad, I think it’s quite good. For most of the game it is a square 7 until the end where the story goes limp and the environment gets old and I have thrown things at guys more than enough it starts to fall in to the high 6 area. 

 

Also I have to add one of the big reasons I don’t want to play it again is because it is so creepy. I just can’t stomach any more of it. That atmosphere is on the edge of too much the entire time and after 20 hours of having a dark, nervous pit in my stomach, I don’t need any more of that. It’s just a bit too scary for a bit too long

 

Agreed with the fact that the shooting is really fun and feels good and the story is...has an interesting premise and the Janitor is a cool character. But the action is super repetitive. In one of the end fight sequences I died maybe 4 times and I realised why, it was because I had enough and was trying to just rush to the finish line. It’s a good shooter but I’m more than done with it (Also ran pretty solidly on Xbox One X. A few times the frame rate would tank for a second but then pick it self back up). 

 

This might be unpopular but I kind of felt overall the story was pretty boring. I don’t want to go in to specifics but here are some quick notes on things I just don’t think worked very well.

 

1) Having a game about exploring in a building that, narratively, constantly shifts but in practice doesn’t shift at all because you have to explore it is hyper contradictory

 

2) The characters in this game are incredibly dull. All of the intrigue for me comes from the Oldest House and it’s connections but the game really tries to centre on Jessie and her stuff and she’s very, very boring and one note.

 

3) The game has many pet peeves of mine in it that drag me out of the story. Putting world building in documents and not in the world, NPC’s in earshot of player having a gun fight and no reaction, bringing in a bunch of information in to the late game that all happened before the game started. 
 

4) Without any details I’ll just say the game never lies to you. Sometimes it doesn’t tell you stuff because if it did then you would have context, and the game wants to be weird so it doesn’t want to give you that. But it never lies to you, which is both odd and left me with a sense of disappointment. I was expecting a big reveal.