“Control” is the newest game by Remedy Entertainment, known for their attempts to emulate Hollywood films. 

The game opens with Jesse Faden, a seemingly innocuous woman entering a New York City department of the “Federal Bureau of Control,” a branch of government dedicated to dispatch agents around the world to deal with other-worldly phenomenon. Think of “Men in Black” meets “Rick and Morty”. Things quickly spiral as the only person in charge dies, which leads to Jesse being labeled as the Bureaus new “director.” What this means, or why, is left for the player to discover.

The storytelling over all is a mixed bag, the game is able to set up strong intrigue and leave players with a lot of questions but at the same time, is more than happy to do incredibly goofy things like introduce an omniscient janitor, magical carousels and tons of watercooler talk happening right next to beings from realities incomprehensible to our own, a lot of which is thrown in fairly early on. 

Jesse comes off as an aloof character. While at first her inner monologue seems to be that of someone thinking things through, it becomes clearer that she’s talking to the deity inside her mind, which gives her the appearance of a madwoman. However, audiences will likely still find themselves rooting for her as her goals are fairly sympathetic. 

The gameplay is based around a very fluid chain of jumps, dashes and telekinetic blasts that never cease to be exciting until the frame rate issues start up. While your repertoire of psychic abilities looks spectacular as you rip concrete from its frame and lob it at a flying zombie, it also means that depending on your console of choice, this review was done with a normal PS4, players could experience game stutter and glitches. Many of the later battles will bring Jesse into larger areas with more enemies and what should be a swashbuckling adventure gets bogged down and turned into a drip feed because of the strain put on the console.

This also leaks onto the in-game map. While the environment itself does a good job of signposting each department in the building, having to navigate the map is still difficult. The map itself will occasionally glitch, and the poorly drawn series of spiraling stairways does not translate well into 2D. 

This is a bit of a shame when everything else fits together so well. The story can be very absorbing at times and when the frame rate can be tamed the tactical mixture of taking cover, shooting and controlling time and space is a blast. The documents scattered throughout the map each function as a bizarre short story of their own and the sheer other-worldliness of the “Oldest House” is captivating.

Audiences will find the opening intrigue enough to really sell Control, especially if they are familiar with things like the SCP Foundation and Remedy’s previous stories. The game is only slightly hindered by poor optimization and level design.

Image from PlayStation via YouTube