Imitation is said to be the greatest form of flattery: While this is true, sometimes the line between homage and imitation is so thin that it can define a title's success or failure. Yet this constant search for appeal, homage and inspiration is what allows artists of all caliber to churn out those rare pearls, which we can define as unique if we talk strictly about the video game. Remedy Entertainment, founded by Markus Maki and the best known Sam Lake (who you can recognize as the face of the first Max Payne) is the protagonist of this concept precisely with Control, new title released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Cards to the player
Let's start from the beginning: Control's script was written by Sam lake, inspired by the genre of the New Weird novels, a fantasy subgenre that blends the fantastic with science (or science fiction), often blending everything with horror tints. This genre was born in the 90s, the same year of the arrival on TV of Twin Peaks, a great work by David Lynch shares with the literary genre this strange persecution of the bizarre. Few games had tried before to bring themes and styles of this genre, either because of the niche they hit, or because of their particularity.
For this reason, the plot of Control, despite not shining with genius, always remains in step with the player, without revealing too much (not even once the title is finished), so as to keep in suspense. So many questions, many oddities and a handful of dark scenes are the travel companions in this adventure of about ten hours (which certainly becomes longer with the secondary missions, never trivial and with the highest level of difficulty in the main story). However, everything remains in the hands of the player: the freedom of exploration, the way you can exploit the environment to your advantage and the discovery of the plots that hide behind this strange building.
Not just shootings
After the interesting part of the plot, the gameplay is not far behind: starting from the base, already the weapon of the game is different from the usual shooters. In fact, it will not have depleted ammunition, but will recharge over time, leaving moments of discharge in which the player will have to juggle the fights through the skills (which we will talk about shortly). Furthermore, the weapon itself will have various unlockable shapes, which will change the way the shots are fired (thus imitating other weapons such as shotgun, sniper rifle, etc.). All these forms can be enhanced through collectibles and gear, which will give additional bonuses to the character (and will join the three enhancement slots that will instead give space to bonuses for the character such as vitality and power bar).
In the moments of discharge the ability will be your only salvation: from telekinesis al control of enemies, passing through levitation and the shield, all these skills of Jesse they will fit into the gameplay becoming one with the shooting phases (and prompting the player to alternate weapon and skill for a better result). All these abilities will be upgradeable through points, and once you have traveled a part of the branch dedicated to power, you can even unlock additional details of that power (such as throwing enemies or the shield itself). Finally, the level design, which takes weight of the weakness of having only one location - which we will discuss shortly - and makes it its strong point thanks to the skilful use of spaces and sizes.
Welcome to the Oldest House
The whole Control adventure is set inside the Federal Bureau of Control, where the protagonist Jesse will find herself having to face an evil entity. The building that houses the FBC is called The Oldest House, an iridescent building of several floors inspired by a real building in New York City that has the distinction of not having even a window. The whole setting, combined with the sound design that manages to be suggestive (especially with headphones), gives the player an atmosphere halfway between the disturbing and the scary, a perfect setting that welcomes the textures of Control and cradles them up to to the last chapter.
To make everything even closer to the player we think the style of the narration: pad in hand, some scenes will give space to Jesse's thoughts, creating interesting interludes that will make you discover many things about the plot and the building, but always keeping in mind the point of view of the character.
Finally, some scenes of the game are noteworthy which, with exceptional level design constructions, del gunplay artfully created and a soundtrack which sees a couple of memorable tracks, will transport you into adrenaline and fun moments, which we will surely hear about in the coming years as well.
Finally, I can only dedicate this paragraph to the skill that the team used to tell this story: with strong references to Twin Peaks and a wise use of red, a color that means the evil to be fought throughout the game (against blue which instead represents the good), to date Control is what comes closest to it, not so much for the plot or setting, but for the way it tells the plot to the player. All this, however, would not be possible without some ingenious ideas (such as dialogues with some people, who will even take advantage of real movies overlaid on the game), which make Control unique and unforgettable.
Not free from errors, the Remedy title has serious frame rate problems (which we hope will be fixed in the short term): once this obstacle has been overcome, there will be no other major problems to report, making everything go smoothly in a definitive way.
