Control Ultimate Edition

This review comes years after I completed the game. Its balance, aesthetics, and rich storytelling truly stand out. My boyfriend encouraged me to play Alan Wake first for a better understanding of the world, and I did. While it’s possible to enjoy this game without playing AW, doing so does spark additional curiosity.

I loved how engrossing the story became as it unfolded. I often felt like I was using a console, even with my Discord being bombarded with messages—I hardly noticed!

In my opinion, it’s a well-polished game, but kinda ends you to a cliff hanger. There are plenty of notes scattered throughout, and I enjoy reading them. The Easter eggs found on whiteboards, walls, and in NPC dialogues are fantastic.

I definitely recommend it if you want to immerse yourself in lore and unanswered questions. Just kidding—play it!

The game is advertised as Verified on Steam Deck but in the first two hours it's gone twice into slideshow mode near specific areas making it genuinely unplayable. I really advise you against getting it if you plan to play on the Deck

What a mind fuck. Absolutely awesome game. Stunned at how fun this was. My last sesh to complete it was 6 hours straight.

I picked this one up years ago but found it gave me motion sickness but braved it again as I recently played and loved the OG Alan Wake game and DLC. It’s was fun to see and appreciate the similarities and I enjoyed the Alan Wake mentions throughout too!

The gun play was very satisfying and fun and it was my kind of simplistic meaning i didn’t get too overwhelmed with my load out choices while also being able to customise it a bit.

Loved the Old House and the way they explained how it worked. I was always on the edge of wtf is happening but still managed to understand enough to keep on going. The stunning locations were really cool to play through and I loved the maze bit.

The story was great but I’d love to know more, I need to know more. Looking at all the observation areas with each object of power was so interesting and got me really invested in reading/listening to most of the collectibles.

Looking forward to Control 2!

Pretty interesting and challenging. The story is mysterious enough to keep you engaged, the action is there, and the game keeps evolving into a more interesting and complicated maze.
It could get repetitive at times, but that's the nature of many games of this genre.

Control looks mysterious and appealing, the premise is actually really engaging and there is so much to like about it. However, I was utterly bored for most parts as the gameplay became so stale after the novelty wears off.

In essence, you're trapped in a building that shifts in its architecture while otherworldly elements are actively manipulating everything. The protagonist has an intriguing background story and the game starts off great, really pushing you to explore more. The game looks fantastic and the soundscape is equally impressive.

Unfortunately, this game feels like a lackluster Metroidvania with an open world that has side quests for some odd reason. The combat is serviceable and feels good but there isn't much variety to it. You'll be using the same moves and weapons the entire time and it gets old really fast.

As mentioned, the premise of the game is intriguing but the game doesn't do much to develop the core ideas. There are a million documents to read and it quickly halted the flow of Control to a point where I skipped them. There are also audio logs and messages relayed via a phone and you can only listen to these in a menu where the same video is being replayed. It's such an odd decision that really drags down the exposition.

I don't know, I tried to push through it but nothing drew me in so I just stopped playing. Your mileage may vary.

This game is amazing! The story is great, and the development is amazing. I love the lore. And the sci-fi aspect of it is amazing!!!

I tried it on steam deck since it's verified. I lowered the graphics but it doesn't resolve the issue, there are specific points where the game goes from 60 fps to 1 instantly, becoming impossible to progress.

It crashed the game and the steam deck itself, by restarting the game I was able to cross one of those zones, but there are more.

How is this the ultimate edition...

The combat and powers are fun, the art direction is amazing, and the story is fascinating.

I played Alan Wake 1 for the first time this year and loved it, quickly moving on to Control. Wow, Remedy is a singular developer. I can't wait to play more of their stuff. It's clear what art and media inspires them and their love for these things is so joyful and earnest. This inspiration leads to some games unlike any I've played in terms of ambition and tone. There's nothing else out there quite like it. I know it's simplistic to say Control is really weird and because of that it's really awesome and unique, but it's true. There were so many times when I was playing this game where I was just delightfully surprised with the strange things happening before me.

To try to be more specific about Control, the graphics and art direction are excellent. The world and characters look great, especially considering when the game came out, but even beyond that, the different locations throughout the game are incredible and surprising. The DLCs do a great job of remixing the already unusual places you've already seen and throw some wholly unexpected stuff at you. The use of live action is wonderful; I'm not sure how Remedy is able to mix so many disparate ideas together and still have a cohesive whole but it works. Nothing feels out of place, it all makes sense even though nothing makes sense.

The acting and music in the game is great. There's a sequence that I think probably stands out to anyone who has played the game when you navigate the ashtray maze. There are a few other musical sequences that I found very fun, Dr. Darling's song in the Oceanview Motel being a particular standout.

The combat is challenging but you get a cool range of powers and abilities. Being able to launch basically anything across a room is always satisfying. The different enemy types will keep you on your toes in every fight. The upgrade systems for weapons and abilities are straightforward but impactful so I never felt like I had to tinker with tiny details, which I appreciated.

By the time I was done with Control, I had played through every single mission and both DLCs and found it fun the whole way through. I can't wait to play Alan Wake 2 and whatever Remedy decides to do next. I hope it continues to be weird, fun, and original, just like Control.

A bit shorter than i was expecting but still extremely fun and interesting. Ray tracing can make the game pretty unplayable on the current patch.

I7-14700K
5070ti
32Gb DDR5 Ram

The Ashtray Maze is one of the best levels in gaming—an absolute highlight. My only real complaint is that the ending felt a bit rushed, though the DLC helps smooth that out somewhat.

Full disclosure at least half my playtime is from benchmarking GPU overclocks, but I did beat the base game and played a bit of the expansions as well. It's very good, if you're into SCP Foundation stuff this is a similar vibe with dynamic gameplay and an interesting narrative. Oh and also the game looks great and is very impressive with all the settings cranked up, hence the usage in benchmarking.

its a must have in the alan wake world. different play and not really my style but i really enjoyed it all the same

Well done game. The focus is on the story of the protagonist. Smooth game play with minor bugs (nothing crucial). Overall great experience I recommend it.

So, after probably a year, I was finally able to complete Control.

"Control" is a game that demands time and attention. It doesn’t tolerate rushing, but it rewards you for immersing yourself in its world. The game is crafted brilliantly: graphics, gameplay, atmosphere — everything is top-notch.

1) The Main Game
The main campaign is a highlight of the experience. Exploring every corner of the Oldest House feels rewarding, as each location has its own unique style and meaning. One of the standout features is how the game doesn’t hold your hand. There’s always a mission to guide you, but how you approach it is entirely up to you. Sooner or later, by exploring the vast environment, you’ll naturally progress through the story.

The game also introduces mechanics gradually, immersing you deeper into its strange and fascinating world. Boss battles are memorable, and the locations are diverse, encouraging curiosity and exploration.

2) DLC: The Foundation
"The Foundation" is an excellent DLC that expands the story and adds new mechanics. However, be prepared to do a lot of running, as you’ll essentially need to explore the map twice if you’re aiming for achievements or collectibles. Despite the extra effort, this DLC feels like a natural extension of the base game, offering even more depth to the world of Control.

3) DLC: AWE
Unfortunately, "AWE" didn’t resonate with me as much as the rest of the game. This DLC leans heavily into the Alan Wake universe, creating a darker, flashlight-focused experience. While technically well-executed, the constant gloom and reliance on light mechanics felt repetitive to me. That said, it’s a short DLC, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Fans of Alan Wake might appreciate the crossover elements more than I did.

Overall Experience
All three parts of the game — the main campaign, "The Foundation," and "AWE" — work together harmoniously to create a cohesive and captivating experience. Visually, the game still looks stunning, though some filters may make certain areas feel slightly dated if you look too closely.

The community around the game is fantastic, with players taking full advantage of the photo mode to capture breathtaking screenshots. This adds another layer of appreciation for the game’s atmosphere.

Final Thoughts
In conclusion, "Control" is a masterclass in storytelling, level design, and atmosphere. While some DLCs may appeal more to specific audiences, the overall package is a must-play for fans of action-adventure games. Whether you’re drawn to its mysterious plot, its satisfying combat, or its eerie yet beautiful world, "Control" offers an unforgettable journey into the unknown.

Where to begin-says Ive played 79 hours but Im sure Ive done more through multiple playthroughs.

Recommend this game if:
You like getting lost easily or losing sense of direction.
Enjoy any SCP related.
Enjoy wandering and exploring and reading up on world lore
Have played Alan Wake.
Enjoy throwing fridges at beings and being able to float and fly around.
Enjoy working combinations for gun and self in game modifications
Story is enjoyable but milage will vary as with all things. There is an (imo) cool story here, but to me its the connecting feed to exploration of an SCP type structure. If youre playing for a really cool twist and turns in depth meaty contemplations of life and stuff like that-you wont find that here-theres some surface level musings about what the "real world" means, but this is definitely a journey not destination type of game.

Not recommended if
you dont like surface level stories that arent deep twisting meaningful stories
you just want to get from A-B (there is a map but if anything it adds to the fugue state, not clarify
dont find getting lost "fun" in anyway.
want different set piece types (you're in a brutalist architecture building, stairs, cubicles, concrete, flat grey, square straight edges as far as the eye can see on multiple floors.

8/10

Control is a stunning, mind-bending experience, with jaw-dropping visuals, nice combat, and a decent? story. Which is great, because I’m also constantly guessing whether the next five minutes will involve playing the game or hard-rebooting my entire PC.

It doesn’t crash often. Just every time I’m having fun. It waits until I’m emotionally invested, then shuts everything down and pretends nothing happened.

At this point, I don’t know if I’m fighting paranormal entities or just the game’s code. Either way, I lose.
Shame, that it's too buggy to be enjoyable.

Control is a beautiful game graphically. Environment looks realistic enough to think this could be a real place, but just off enough to know something isn't right.
Plot was very interesting at it's core, but falls flat from the writing. Characters seem unfazed at least, or mildly perturbed at most regarding the horrors around them. It doesn't help when everyone's face edges into uncanny valley when you look at them long enough.
Jesse, however, is the worst of it all. Your character seems to feel the need to say how she feels about something, instead of allowing the player to infer her emotions through dialogue. Constantly making small quips, I could honestly say I didn't care for her, as she acted like this was just an awkward Tuesday. For someone experiencing some of the events of this game for the first time, she seemed remarkably calm and indifferent to fighting monsters that used to be people. To be honest, I had started thinking that we were meant to infer that this wasn't the first time that Jesse had been in this position in the Federal Bureau of Control, and that perhaps her competency was linked to another cause such as some time travel wack, or alternate universe Jesse influence. Unfortunately, no. Turns out, Jesse Faden is just a Mary Sue that picked up a gun and stumbled her way through solving a world ending crisis. Oh, and she's super strong and good with the para-natural the likes of which no one has ever seen, just because... Nor do I need her telling me I should go investigate something every ten seconds as soon as I walk into proximity of something. If a player is wandering around an area that an objective is located, I could understand the dialogue to give a hint as to where to go. But giving the player a hint just because they walk towards it, unnecessary and grating to the experience.
The lead up to the big reveal was ultimately a let down. No boss fight, just a wave battle. Learning the truth behind it all? Still confusing and awkward to swallow as when I first started the game.
Environment is littered with reports you can find and read. I loved this for the most part, however, finding every other report to be littered with blatantly unnecessary and overused redaction was annoying, to say the least.

Overall, I would say it's a solid 6/10. I can see and appreciate the hard work put in by the devs, but I feel like I was handed an itchy sweater, despite the nice design on the front.

Good, but kind of frustrating at times. Played it once and had enough to not play it again.

The gameplay, story, mystery, and artistic direction are all top notch. In the last 10 years I'd say this is a top 10 game for me.

Long story short: Great game with a great story with many unique gameplay mechanics.
I haven;t beaten the game just yet but in the 2 days I've owned it I had made major progress.
For anyone looking for a great story/puzzle game with great graphics I insist on checking this game out.

This review might be long and confusing and all over the place, It's because I really don't know where to start. The CONTROL experience is just surreal. This is like playing in a Christopher Nolan film. With that said, It really did feel like it had Christopher Nolan touch to it by how REMEDY constructed the storytelling of the game and also the intricacy of the cinematography. But the vibe/theme? Instantly felt like it was from Guillermo Del Toro and Stephen King.

First, I wanna talk about the UI of the game. It is just so freaking simple! and I love it!!!! Perfect for someone who just wanted to game and chill. You don't have to think deeply about the upgrades. Why? You only have 8 things to upgrade. 3 of them are basic stuff like health, stamina and melee damage. 4 of those upgrades are your skills that you will acquire throughout the game. And lastly, the 8th upgrade is your service weapon. Now, with your skills, each of them has a simple talent tree that you will surely find easy to follow. And with the service weapon? You have like 6 weapons to choose and you can carry 2. so whatever floats your boat upgrade the gun you find interesting and fun to use. Upgrading your skills and gun will bear no burden because you will get to progress those naturally on your gameplay.


Second, I will now talk about the gameplay mechanics for this game and let me tell you IT IS FRIGGING FUN!!!!!!!!!!! The moment you get the "LAUNCH" skill It will change the gameplay and it will further evolve if you finally get the "LEVITATE" skill. Why? BECAUSE IT'S LEVITATE!!! THAT MEANS YOU CAN GET TO FLOAT AROUND THE OLDEST HOUSE!!!! And I guarantee you, once you have it you'll look more badass from above. You can get to launch things at them like magneto while floating. With efficient mechanics like that it really works on me. TOTALLY SOLD!!


Might be the last thing for me to tackle are the Story/Lore/Environment/DLC's

The story is quite forward. The moment you entered the FBC that was it. Just give it a few minutes of searching then you will now have your service weapon and from there it will now be a crazy ride but, don't expect too much because the story is somewhat cliche for me but I cannot deny the feeling that it had the effects of how Stephen King and Christopher Nolan would write a story. In the settings of a horror/mystery, You went to the FBC to probe on the whereabouts of your brother but got only entangled into some cosmic entities stuff and some crazy anomaly encounters. *not close to eldtrich horror* *YET*.

The world environment of control is just amazing. It's a FBC building they call the *OLDEST HOUSE* somewhere in New York but it's not your ordinary building as it was stated in one of the logs that the OLDEST HOUSE itself is an object of power. So the rooms are forever changing and shifting therefore, You will encounter some mind blowing shit there like for an example a FUCKING BLACK ROCK QUARRY!!! A QUARRY???? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA just what the actual frogs!!

Now with LORE, This is the moneybag!!! I AM LOSING IT WITH THE SHARED REMEDYVERSE!!!!! This is what keeps the game more interesting because of this very concept of shared universe!!!!!!! The way it was connected to Alan Wake *and hopefully Quantum Break*. It keeps the previous game interesting to look back and play. They made sure that the FBC took a hold on the Alan Wake situation with the assistance of the FBI! But in the conclusion of AWE DLC, It was clearly a setup for Alan Wake 2. *I know I'm late to the party* NOW WHERE THE FUCK IS ALAN WAKE 2!!!!!!!!!!! I have been watching clips of ALAN WAKE 2 hinting that there will be a CONTROL 2!!!!!!!!!!
STEAM!!! DO SOMETHING!!!!!! BRING ALAN WAKE 2 HERE!!!!!!!

Anyway, so yea, I'm also hyped to play AW2 as long as they will put it here on STEAM.
With the conclusion of the FOUNDATION DLC, It might seem to serve the next catalyst event for CONTROL. Because of how Dylan hinted something on ALAN WAKE 2. Not sure for it but my conspiracy theorist ass is shaking. HAHAHAHAH.





With all the things I said, every bit of it works for me. It was simple and fun and I already wrote this before but a game is not a game if it wasn't fun. IT'S TORTURE!!!! And you don't have to implement crazy mechanics just to make your game interesting BUT! BUT BE SURE TO MAKE UP FOR IT! Like make the story compelling to the players. Write a lore that will forever haunt us! Like how Stephen King wrote his novels. *I don't really follow SK's literature but the films that got adapted from his works is something I don't miss.*

Soooo,I would give this game a solid 9/10.
PROPS TO REMEDY and NORTHLIGHT for creating a masterpiece!
Before I forget, HIDEO KOJIMA is also there!!!! HAHAHAHAH GODDAMN! Sir is almost everywhere!!!


For the million dollar question,
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE REMEDYVERSE??!!!!!!

SCP Foundation, только игра. Густая, насыщенная атмосфера - хоть ложкой ешь. Все находки (записки и аудиозаписи) хочется прочитать/прослушать, чтобы сильнее погрузиться в нее. Прочие составляющие - графика, звук, ганплей, эксплоринг тоже на уровне. Мелкие недостатки есть, но их не хочется замечать. Культовая вещь.

Out of all Remedy’s unique ideas, this one is just really solid. Because so many of its elements I’ve already seen in other games, it just didn’t strike any personal chord with me.

Remedy’s Control is a peculiar concept with impressive environmental destructivity and dynamic psychic fights. However, I can’t shake off the feeling that the idea was kind of underutilized.

In search of her missing brother Jesse Faden infiltrates the Federal Bureau of Control – the branch of the US government considered by most just as a conspiracy theory. The HQ of the branch, The Oldest House is a constantly shifting building with twisted corridors leading to peculiar places. Will Jesse find her way around such a place?
It’s certainly a unique idea – a really bizarre world full of mysteries to explore. An organization that catalogues all these different events that you play games for.
However, the main plot just didn’t grip me – and I feel it’s because of two main reasons. One, I always felt distracted by being sent somewhere to first fix this and that, go fight the Hiss, help some random people from the Bureau (which we don’t trust, but now we’re part of the branch so whatever) - all before getting to the meat of the plot – you know, the missing brother, what happened to them as kids or what’s with the Hiss. The only main beats of the story I do remember are Jesse becomes director, we find Dylan, he gets taken by the Hiss, we defeat him. Oh, and Polaris I guess. Besides these points and running around like an errand girl, there wasn’t many more interesting things except...
The second point is that there is more meat in the plot, it’s just not really delivered to the player well. Take the whole Ordinary incident – it is referenced in dialogue a few times, but to actually know what happened you need to read through notes. Notes and audiobooks should be supplementary material to broaden the lore of the world. It’s fine, but the incident in Ordinary is such a cool concept and so important to the story, that I wondered why it is so easily missable.
Not everyone likes to read through a video game – too much of Control feels like it’s in the notes. You either don’t read them and miss out or stop every minute to read through a document, half of which is redacted and then another big chunk of it is just uninteresting (mainly the internal memos, object/incident descriptions were really cool). The whole “redacted” thing was only working in AWE DLC, because if you played the referenced game, you have a fun little gap puzzle to solve in your mind.
The atmosphere is certainly something, but I’ve played through so many secret labs/government facilities filled with internal memos to read, that I just couldn’t get invested. The Oldest House’s constantly shifting nature is implied through weird geometry, blocked passages and contradictory spaces, but not a lot is actually happening when the player is watching. Besides the Ashtray Maze, the only thing that seems confusing is which level of the map you’re currently on.
There is also the matter of the lack of creatures in the game – there are objects doing weird stuff, but the absence of some wacky monsters just makes it a worse SCP.

Enough with dunking on the game however, there was a lot of other stuff I really liked. The Altered Items have cool abilities, containment procedures and stories. Encounters alternating between dialogue and internal thoughts were interesting. Specific incidents happening in the facility, the Ordinary event, references to other games. There are also secret places, pictures hinting at hidden space behind a wall – I just wish there was more to find besides more notes and item chests.
The Hiss is a nice idea for an antagonist. This foreign resonance, a faceless entity intruding and disrupting life is really unique and aesthetically executed very well. While the game isn’t really a horror, if you just stop and think for a minute about these possessed, floating figures, it can really get you creeped out.

Gameplay, although chaotic, appealed to me a lot more. Jesse gets a gun that can shoot in different modes – stuff resembling a pistol, shotgun, machine pistol or a bazooka. You can also find/craft mods for guns and Jesse to give them stat boosts.
Jesse gets various psychic abilities when interacting with the Altered Items. Telekinesis, levitation, shield and mind bending. When completing missions and finding secrets you get points you can spend on making these abilities stronger.
Combat’s very dynamic, but also chaotic. Mixing shooting with utilizing abilities works really well and creates a good spectacle, especially with how destructive the environments are. Enemies have different types and specialties, so it is important to not get surrounded. I just wish there was some option to regenerate a little health in other ways. When you get low the only thing you can do is rush someone to kill him and pick up his health – which in on itself is just risky.
Building your favorite weapons with good mods really makes a difference and encourages finding a personal favorite playstyle.
The Foundation DLC was really cool, but the AWE was what really gripped me. It was frankly the part of the game I was the most invested in. Although it is 2025, and Alan Wake II is already out, in the past this DLC must’ve been a really interesting teaser for the fans of the original. While I was mad at the number of notes to read through in this game, in AWE I read them with immense interest. It also finally has some sort of a creature in this SCP wannabe.

The game looks great, it has detailed environments that are interesting and also pretty interactive – explosions and things swishing around make papers go flying and stuff. I liked the character models; however, I don’t know if it’s just me, but some facial expressions seemed uncanny. It's animated really cool though.
The game has a great and crisp sound design – it has this bass boosted Science Fiction-esque sounds of yanking boxes around, and ambiance really fitting the atmosphere of the Bureau. Really good voice acting. There is of course the obligatory musical section of every Remedy game played by The Old Gods of Asgard (PotF).
The performance was subpar, but I’ll chalk it up to my short misadventure with using Linux for gaming – so don’t take my word on how it works generally, it’s probably fine.

I dunked on the game a lot, but I think it’s a really good product. Gameplay is a spectacle, the story really weird, but also peculiar. There are just a lot of elements that I feel I’ve already seen in some form in other games. Ideas like AWEs and the Oldest House are amazing, I just think there was so much more potential with them. It’s great, but I think I just expected something different from Remedy. Out of all their unique ideas like Quantum Break or Alan Wake – Control is just a solid one, that didn’t strike any personal chord with me.

Catch these ducks or I swear to God, I’ll put you on the Fridge Duty again!

amazing, weird, cool, strange, but in all words, if you like SCI FI, Mystery, action. supernatural abilities then this is the game for you

A solid game all around. The story is captivating but definitely geared towards the adult audience. I'm a 30 year old dude and enjoyed it from start to finish. Got it on sale, but $40 is a fair price. If you wanna follow Alice down the rabbit hole then this one for you.

An outstanding visual style and atmosphere. The story is interesting, great sound design. I didn't expect anything from the game and here I am after 46 hours in it

It's a great game, if only it would work. Unfortunately it's become utterly unplayable at this point with Ray Tracing on my 5080 & 9800x3d system. The game freezes up for a second or so frequently, and will completely lock up permanently every 30 minutes. I reached out to support weeks ago and never got an answer. Judging by several Reddit posts on the topic, I'm not the only one. It's a real bummer because damn I love the art direction, visuals, sound, everything. It's just... unplayable now due to technical issues, and the recent update has made things significantly worse.

Best game ever! After Alan Wake 2 release this game is best game ever on steam.
Remedy know how to make immersive, narrative, deep:
worlds, stories, characters, gameplay, music.

For me Remedy is the best dev studio. Their games are truly meaningful.

PS As a professional QA i spotted few bugs and found some possible improvements but still this is piece of ART.

Super cool visuals throughout with nice situational gun-play mixed with interesting up-gradable abilities. Story is weird and unique for sure but I do love the SCP vibes.

крутая вещь.
больше половины обилок бесполезные и не играбельные.
что касается сюжета, графики, спецэффектов - годнота.

This game is pretty awesome. The subject matter and depth of the story is very intense and I relate to it on a pretty gnarly level. It's one of those games about some real ass shit that helped me through one of the worst parts of my life. Seriously it's got such a depth that I didn't really quite appreciate till I played it over again after experiencing some seriously intense stuff in my life. It really does have some aha moments that are about abusive relationships, and when I recognized parts of the story for what they were I appreciated it that much more. It certainly helped me with feeling comfortable about asking for help when I needed it, and it's got some kick ass music in it too.

Wonderful story telling, compelling and fun actors.
Great gameplay, still very solid visuals with 4K and max RT. Ties in nicely with other Remedy games in a cohesive world.

Great game, super fun, interesting story, amazing graphics.

Exciting, captivating, interesting plot. GG at least to this this point.
And... Martti Suosalo.

The latest update added tons of features including native HDR support, lates DLSS support, 3 new outfits (Jesse looks amazing in them) and much more. Control is a must buy as this one of the best games you can get your hands on.

Pretentious game trying to seem deeper than it really is. Showering you with notes and texts about totally-not-scp monsters with all those complex and difficult to understand rules while it's forcing you to kill the same types of generic enemies over and over again.

Oh, you wanted to actually see the stuff they talk about? Sorry, the best they can do is another room filled with a flying enemy, a generic enemy and a shotgun-wielding enemy. The sheer discrepancy between what they are trying to build in the cutscenes or texts and what you actually do in the game is astounding.

Overall it's a bad experience. Story is unfocused, filled with holes for you to fill by over-analyzing it or watching a youtube explanation. Gameplay is repetitive and offensively simple, never offering you anything suitable for the mysterious universe of the game.

Great game. Good story. Options menu that allows mods like infinite health or one shots etc. Helps when grinding achievements post game

Honesty surprised it's not a bad game, from the screenshoots and gameplay trailer thought it would be another unreal engine slop game. I only bought it just because it was bundled with Disco Elysium. But, the game clearly has vision on what it wants to be and it's quite an enjoyable ride. Still, some side mission felt too much like a chore and for a game that rely quite heavily on it's naratives, that ruins the pace severly at some point. There's also one bugged quest where you can get soflocked from clearing it.

In the end, the good still outweight the bad tho.

Had taken a break maybe a quarter through the game because it wasn't really clicking. After getting more powers and taking an interest in the story I played all the way through and loved it. I even went back and played Alan Wake. Learning about the Objects of Power and reading the case studies made the game a lot more engaging and interesting. Once you get the throw ability, a few different guns, and the levitate power the games becomes a lot more fun.

Good game, perfect balance between gameplay and story telling.

All I can say is that game is wild! Really cool mechanics, awesome world and a great story! The Foundation and AWE DLC's were also fantastic! Really looking forward to a Control 2 should the developers make one.

Cool concept and setting, but ultimately disappointing. The characters were cardboard cutouts and the acting was poor all around, with the exception of Darling. Aside from his videos, the hundreds of various video/audio logs and journal entries I had to stop to read were bland and tedious. They made me wish they were part of the game and not just something I was reading about. It's a linear game pretending to be more open, resulting in constant backtracking once the next MacGuffin is mentioned in your mission log. The constantly respawning bullet sponge enemies made traversal a chore. The weapons barely deal any damage compared to the Launch ability, so what could have been an exciting combat system is reduced to hitting enemies with filing cabinets over and over again. Enemy variety is uninspired, with literally every non-boss enemy boiling down to "man" or "slightly deformed man." There is no meaningful character progression, with the entire perk/mod system consisting of minor passive stat boosts with a rare few abilities on the skill tree. There are all sorts of different currencies and side missions that I never understood, but it turns out they don't matter. I think Control would have been much better as a Portal-sized experience. It ran out of anything interesting to say or do after a few hours.

A really good SCP-style game. The atmosphere is awesome and the combat is fun.

Regardless of settings, frame rates in this game drop lower and lower the longer the game is played. The patches make this problem worse, not better. At this point in time (3/2025) the game is no longer playable.
i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz
16GB RAM
Windows 10 Home 64 bit
RTX 2060 Super

Control is a third person action game developed by Remedy. Players take control of protagonist Jesse Faden, an agent who works for the Federal Bureau of Control. The FBC deals with supernatural phenomenon and its setting, and that of the game, is within the eerie and ever shifting building known as the Oldest House. The narrative is cryptic, abstract and often told through conversations and collectables. It can be confusing to follow at times. The gameplay generally consists of a variety of guns mixed with telekinetic abilities that grow more powerful as the game progresses. While the combat can be fun, the missions themselves would often feel redundant. I had a difficult time staying engaged towards the end. The DLC's redeemed this issue to some extent, and were a lot more interesting with more focused plot points. Ultimately while this is not a bad game overall, its complex story, monotonous visuals and repetitive gameplay didn't resonate with me.

UPDATE BROKE THE GAME
I'm a huge Remedy fan, and Control is a really fun game with a really great story / atmosphere, but the game is just not optimised well for PC. Just play the console version instead.
Given that DX12 for this game is broken (constant stuttering / freezing / audio randomly muting), I decided to switch to the DX11 version and was happy to find I had no issues playing the game at all.
The new update as of two days ago removed the choice to select which version of the game to play, making the unplayable DX12 version the only option, and I'm now unable to finish the game as even on the lowest graphical settings the game constantly freezes and randomly mutes the audio.
(UPDATE, MARCH 15TH, 2025: Have used -DX11 command [credit to @CaptainPumbo] to force-open DX11 on launch, sadly the audio muting issues / stutters are present on this version of the game after the update as they were with DX12.)

Some kindof mix of previous games from Remedy. It takes place in Oldest House a huge skyscraper but some locations like a quarry made an impression on me. Jesse's abilities are awesome and so much fun, I even forgot about Director's Gun. Also Ahti the janitor and music playing in the end of "Finnish Tango" mission left only the best memories about this game.

I can't wait for Control 2 and nice to know that it's gonna be an action role playing game, but still would like to see Alan Wake 2 on Steam

Just started playing this game last week and was really enjoying it, performance and gameplay were solid and I was able to run it at the highest settings without a single hitch, really beautiful looking game too especially with ray tracing on. But after the March update rolled out, I am now suddenly running into major performance issues, the game stutters every other second now since updating, some stutters hang for like 2-3 whole seconds making combat quite difficult, almost impossible even.. it sorta feels like the game is about to crash due to how long these stutters can hang for, makes for quite an unpleasant experience. Never even got the chance to finish this game and probably never will unless another patch rolls through or if I can somehow figure out a way to fix this, I've already been trying for about 4 hours now and I honestly can't justify wasting any more time than I already have trying to fix this nonsense. I have tried just about everything to get rid of these incredibly frustrating stutters including disabling CFG (control flow guard) with no luck at all- and before anyone asks, yes i reinstalled the game and completely wiped the leftover files for Control in the "steamapps" folder since i heard this worked for someone else, no dice there either.. This is currently the only game in my library that runs this way, and it pains me to say it, but I can not recommend this game in its current state, I wish this update would have been optional because I am having a miserable old time trying to get this thing to work properly like it did before, what a headache this has been. If anybody has any suggestions, I'm open to them. I'd love to be able to play this game normally again. If it's any help, I'm running this on an RTX 4090 and Ryzen 9 7900X3D... more than capable of running this game just fine.

First, I adore this game. I played it on Playstation at launch. This game is stellar. I bought it forever ago on Steam and waited to play it until recently, when I had a PC capable of playing this with max settings. This game is currently unplayable for me with an RTX 5080. The drivers are up to date, and the game received a very recent update, but the game stutters and freezes terribly. Seems to happen the most when the environment is getting destroyed, which is pretty much every time you get into a fight.
I very much hope this gets fixed but I cannot recommend this game to anyone on the newest cards. Maybe the older cards are doing alright, but I saw a lot of mixed results from various users.