There are many titles that have accompanied us during the last generation and which, after the launch of the next-gen consoles, have been updated to make the most of the potential of PlayStation 5 e Xbox Series X / S. Among these, it is finally added Control Ultimate Edition, the highly acclaimed title Remedy Entertainment released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One at the end of 2019. The signed TPS Sam lake it was also one of the key points of the video card advertising campaign NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series, the first to boast technology Ray Tracing. Real-time Ray Tracing is one of the strengths of the title on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, which finally approaches the PC version of the work. Before leaving you to read the review, we remind you that the next-gen Control update is only available for owners of the Ultimate Edition version. Also, as announced a few days ago, Control Ultimate Edition is available for free for subscribers to PlayStation Plus. The Remedy title is in fact among the free games of February.
Full Control
Once the title is launched for the first time, Control Ultimate Edition immediately catapults the player into the mind of Jesse, protagonist of the work. There are many doubts that afflict the girl, but her goal is well defined: she must discover the truth and for this reason she is faced with the Oldest Home, headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control. Once inside the building, Jesse immediately feels a strange feeling, a bad feeling, and needless to say, she's right. The FBC headquarters was in fact attacked by a strange supernatural presence named Elevator in the building who took control of the people who populated the structure, subjugating their minds and causing them to enter a sort of stasis. While exploring Oldest House in search of clues that allow her to find out what happened, Jesse stumbles upon theService Weapon, a special pistol with extraordinary abilities, which will allow her to make her way inside the macabre building.
Obviously we have only sketched, in very broad lines, what is there plot of Control, to allow even those who have not yet played the title to fully enjoy the incredible story written by Sam Lake. In fact, the Remedy work presents a excellent narrative sector, which intrigues the player and leaves behind several clues that can help him understand the background of the plot, without however blurting out the solution in his face. Various papers scattered throughout the entire structure, moreover, they help to create a narrative that is certainly of an excellent level, but a minority of players may not find it suitable and slightly confusing. Despite this, even those who do not appreciate the collectibles at the end of the title will have quite clear the solution of the great journey that is Control. Control Ultimate Edition also includes all released DLCs, including The Foundation and AWE, which are in addition to around 20 hours necessary to complete the base game.
The Service Weapon
Now let's talk about Control's biggest selling point: the gameplay. In fact, despite an extraordinary narrative sector, it is from a purely playful point of view that the Remedy production shows its value to everyone. With a structure very similar to the Metroidvania, the player will be led to carefully explore every area of Oldest House, many of which will be barred from obtaining from one access key. The game map, structured on several floors, also presents several control points, which once reached will allow Jesse to be quickly moved and customized, both from an aesthetic point of view, through different costumes, and in terms of skills and upgrades of the weapon.
As anticipated, in fact, theonly weapon available it will be the Service Weapon, a special supernatural pistol, obviously with different peculiarities: the weapon is in fact equipped with infinite bullets, but needing a short amount of time to be used after finishing a magazine. This is therefore where the soul gives GST of the game takes over, without obviously falling into banality. In fact, the title presents a solid and satisfying gunplay, which, as you will understand from the first moments of the game, however, requires the use of a good strategy. Despite the gameplay being extremely frenetic, in fact, the player is led to carefully calibrate the use of his weapon, which cooldown it could lead to game over in a few moments.
The Service Weapon is the only one available, but this does not mean that the title lacks variety, on the contrary. Exploring the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, the player will have the opportunity to come across some boxes containing different ones against applicable to the weapon, which will allow not only to enhance purely statistical aspects, such as reload time, but also to unlock, as you progress in the game, some variants that allow you to shoot different shots: it goes from classic shotgun to the sniper rifle, and several other fire modes that we don't intend to spoil you.
To make e layered the gameplay does Jesse's supernatural abilities. Our protagonist has in fact several telekinetic abilities, which can also be improved at the control points, which allow her to throw objects at enemies, use debris as cover, subjugate the minds of opponents and even defeat the force of gravity. Everything is absolutely not out of place with the production and indeed, as mentioned a little while ago, these powers allow us to further deepen a extremely solid play structure, deep e diversified. Furthermore, unlocking all skills is not mandatory: although some of these are obtainable through the completion of the main missions, for others it is necessary to complete the side quests. The latter are all decidedly thorough, perfectly integrated into the title as a whole and undoubtedly well written.
Speaking instead of enemies, in general they seemed to us quite differentiated, even if from this point of view Remedy Entertainment could certainly have done something more. The agency guards are the only opponents the player will encounter and there are different types, each with their own abilities and characteristics: from simple soldiers armed with a rifle, to those protected by an energy barrier up to those equipped with special explosive weapons. There are also some very interesting ones boss fight who wisely exploit theexcellent level design and that bring to light exhaustive and extremely entertaining fights. Despite Jesse's diverse and powerful abilities, the level of challenge it is always well balanced, even in the more advanced stages of the game.
Go further
Jesse's telekinesis goes hand in hand with one of the most extraordinary aspects of Control Ultimate Edition: the technical sector and, more precisely, the game engine and the management of physics. With Control, Remedy manages to give the player the impression of being an integral part of the game world, which ceases to be a simple "container" and thus becomes one of the foundations of production. Nothing is left to chance, everything is studied in detail: Jesse and his enemies can destroy the surrounding environment; our protagonist can use telekinesis on any object on the screen and, in the absence of them, can weed out debris directly from a wall. It all happens in a manner incredibly natural, a feast for the eyes, an environment immersive, which completely envelops the player and transports him into the very close and at the same time really distant world of Control.
On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, everything is even more pronounced. Although Control Ultimate Edition is only remotely close to the PC version of the title, the new generation consoles still manage to have their say, leading to a significant leap in quality compared to the old-gen counterparts. In addition to having reduced loading times, on PS5 and Xbox Series X there are two graphics modes: Performances and, precisely, Graphics. The first boasts the fluidity of 60FPS, all rendered at 1440p with 4K; the second instead, drops to 30FPS, but gains the beauty of the Ray Tracing in real time, here too we find 2K native resolution with upscale up to 4K. Both modes run optimally, with a perfectly stable framerate and, in the case of Graphics Mode, incredible reflections, light effects and particle effects.
Bad news for owners of Xbox series s: Series X's little sister can only count on Performance Mode at 60FPS, without Ray Tracing, with a native resolution at 900p upscaled to 1080p, due to the technical limitations of the console. Thanks to the capabilities of the Dualense, PlayStation 5 also boasts some peculiarities such as the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, which manage to make a greater sense of immersion. The Sony flagship also has support for the Activity and Help tabs. Then, of course, the strengths that already characterized the old-gen version of Control from a technical point of view remain. In fact, in addition to the aforementioned splendid level design, we have polygonal models extremely clean and animations all in all good, even if there are sometimes some slips. Still a huge shame regarding the dubbing in many other languages, which unfortunately is not even present in Control Ultimate Edition. The interpretations in original language they are in any case really convincing and splendidly accompanied by an excellent soundtrack that perfectly accompanies the game phases. It turned out to be of great quality as well sound design, which, once again, allows for total immersion in the experience.
