It has been nearly six months since we visited the FBC, the Federal Bureau of Control, a department entirely dedicated to the study of the paranormal. Always six months have passed since we discovered the story of Jesse Faden, new director of the department and solution against all evils, one above all the anxious Hiss. Now, six months later Oldest House he needs our help again: a problem at the base of the building, at the foundations, is generating quite a few headaches, and what should a director do if not solve them?
Obviously this is a review of one DLC: As such, we will not talk about what we have already analyzed in the base game. In case you are interested, you can find our review at the link below.
Another lap, another race
If the main plot of Control also had a theme that Jesse personally interested in, this time the problems are only for the FBC: the foundation is bleeding, and the only solution is to go down, fix the problem and save everything and everyone. . The plot unfolds in an intertwining as basic as it is interesting, which will lead us to discover - albeit with a dropper - new information on the Oldest House, on the advice and on how many dangers and mysteries the Federal Bureau of Control hides. In the 4 hours that are used to complete the DLC, you will gradually discover intriguing news, although they do not change the status quo of the situation so much, nor do they insert shocking truths. Regardless, the DLC lets you play another couple of hours if you are fond of side missions, giving you some small tasks and agency challenges worthy of the game.
Together with the plot, unfortunately the DLC carries the same bugs as always: the version we tried, on Ps4 Pro, had serious slowdowns once the pause was removed, as well as during the choice of menus. For the rest, the game has undergone a fine work to fix the problems already present at the time, certainly becoming more accessible (within the limits of the case).
Finally, the game introduces two new abilities: if in fact the power can be acquired from Jesse will allow you to release protuberances of a strange material (new to the section), the one that can be acquired by the weapon will make you destroy these protuberances (if already formed previously). Despite the novelty, these two skills we tried are not very close to the game philosophy: all Control pushes the player to find his own dynamic mobility, made up of sprints, agile moves and a continuous shooting, using powers and moving in order to survive. The two abilities, respectively, allow you to create cover or destroy platforms, but they are too "static" in comparison to the rest, and this does not fit in well with the pace of the game.
The newness
Control: The Foundation inserts, in addition to the two powers, even new creatures to defeat: in fact, human beings with axes appear for the first time, very difficult to kill, fast and dangerous. In addition to these, we also find soldiers (already seen in the challenges) who now take on greater importance (and more details). With these new features removed, the rest is a fair reuse of the countless enemies seen in the base game, which manage to find new lifeblood in the level design of this DLC.
If aesthetically everything is colored in white, black and red (sand), the level design makes use of the accumulated experience and brings a couple of really good ideas. The power of creation adds sparkle to the platform parts, while the shooting arenas become interesting - although not as much as we would have liked - to be rediscovered with this greater use of the surrounding environment.
A few small ones finish finally, it should be done with regard to the difficulty: in fact we found an incorrect balance of the challenge level by comparing a couple of areas (which we reviewed in backtracking) and the minibosses and final bosses, finding it more difficult to defeat simple enemies rather than real bad guys. The Foundation DLC is already available on PS4 and PC, while it will arrive in late summer on Xbox One. The cost is € 14.99, but it is also available in the Season Pass (€ 24.99).
