Control Ultimate Edition

The images are scaled from 1920 wide to 1600

I originally played Control through on the Geforce streaming service a few years back (2022 apparently), having the product on Epic account. Later I bought the Control Ultimate Edition on Steam so I could play it more easily on Linux through the Proton compatibility layer.

That streaming service did introduce some lag, which in hindsight was quite a bad thing, given the hectic combat and the necessity to "play piano" while fiddling around with the mouse. So, I had been looking at an opportunity to enter the world of Control again.

You are Jesse Faden, who has just entered the building called the Oldest House in New York, occupied by an institution called the FBC. Soon you learn Jessie is looking for her brother who disappeared a long ago, and that the building is under a lockdown due to a parasitic paranormal infestation. And there's some kind of entity in Jessie's head telling what to do, reminiscent of Chocky from that 1984 TV show. Off you go. 

Descending

Completion took about 8 to 9 hours, in part because I had some idea where not to waste time. For example, I felt no need to actually read or listen to the multitudes of media scattered around the Oldest House. Just collecting them would be enough. During the first play I thought they might yield necessary clues, but they are mostly just world building.

First time around I also wasted time wandering around in the office environments, trying to find locations and openings. Maybe I also thought this was a good way to grind. Now I just used the Fast Travel whenever possible. The iconic office environments had a far smaller role than I remembered as the story proceeded in a faster pace. To improve the character it's much more effective to complete the minor, optional missions.

I also decided not to spread the ability points evenly, but to concentrate on health, energy and launch, prioritising launch damage. (Launch is the "force" style ability for throwing items and pieces of rock at the enemy). I ignored melee completely. I also chose not to develop all weapons, but only upgrade Grip, then develop and upgrade the Pierce weapon as I recalled it as kind of "sniper rifle" in this game. In addition, a 40% energy recovery mod fairly early on made things easier. 

The ability planning screen

I had also forgotten a lot, such as the Seize ability, which I acquired only after completion. Some of the boss battles that I expected to be tough from previous experience, were sometimes surprisingly easy.

Control builds up nicely in complexity, in the beginning you barely need to do much else except move, jump, sprint and fire the weapon. Each of the objects of power add a gameplay mechanic and usually a key that activates the mechanic. After acquiring you are whisked to the astral plane to solve a mini-mission requiring that mechanic. Basically this is a tutorial masquerading as main content. Clever.

Early on the Launch ability is added and generally the combat requires the player to juggle between the weapon and the launch, using one when the other is regenerating. Add to this the Dodge ability, and there's already quite a few keys to operate. Personally, I couldn't play this on a controller because mouse aiming feels better for me.

More secrets uncovered

There's a bunch of David Lynch/Stanley Kubrick/Stephen King sensibilities dropped here and there, and to an extent this recipe is a little off-putting at first because much of it is so familiar already to me. Perhaps it's a part of the shared cultural education of a generation of Finns from a particular background. Add to this the Martti Suosalo character whose Finnicisms either make a Finn yip in delight, or cringe.

I tend to appreciate Control more for its ludology than narrative content, but I have to admit even the story setting is quite ambitious and restrained compared to the usual action adventure BS we see even in huge games. Contrary to many games, Control saves some of its best bits towards the end. (Looking at you The Ashtray Maze) I also have to like the idea that typical game mechanics and idiosyncrasies have an in-world reason because of the the paranormal setting.

If I still find energy to play Control, I'll be looking at the rest of the missions and the DLCs, AWE and Foundation.

The trusty old 1660TI GPU did well in 60hz at 1920x1200 resolution. It's not silky smooth in all occasions but quite enough for me and more impressive than that Geforce streaming solution. It was now far clearer to spot that the various overlaid "psychedelic" effects and other content were lower resolution videos and not rendered with the engine.