Control Ultimate Edition

I wish Remedy could make even more games, because Control reminded me of this studio’s knack for crafting engrossing, oddball worlds with an incredible sense of place. Control is perhaps Remedy’s weirdest yet, with the talking upside down pyramid who’s also your boss being about the sixth-strangest part. But thanks to sharp writing, a set of awesome and varied psychic combat abilities, and an impressively thought-out world, it was easy to wrap my head around what made this adventure tick.
Infiltrating the Federal Bureau of Control as Jesse Faden and her blue wavy spirit buddy, I found myself fascinated. The Bureau’s headquarters seem like a drab, nondescript office building at first, and Jesse’s search for answers to events in her past were equally mundane. But Control quickly reveals what lies behind those concrete walls: within the first chapter I became both the janitor’s assistant and the new acting director of the Bureau.

game requires an internet connection every time you launch it to "confirm you have a license for the game" once again punished for legally purchasing a product

CindGestures "Project 2025" - Random Number Generated 450 Game Backlog Clearing with a Brief 10 Hour+ Review

#3 - Control: Ultimate Edition

My #1 favorite game!! Amazing environment design, super satisfying combat and interesting lore. Fans of the SCP Foundation will find the general conceit familiar but it is 100% it's own thing.

Very good game, main story isn't too long but there is additional stuff to do if you'd like. The visuals are great and the combat is the best ive played in a while. The story is interesting but can get a little confusing at times. 8.5/10

Control is a great game overall, with engaging combat and exploration that keeps you hooked. The storyline can feel a bit confusing at times, but the telekinetic abilities and environmental interactions make the gameplay exciting. The ray tracing feature really shines, adding a stunning visual layer that fits the eerie atmosphere perfectly.

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

Game was very entertaining, enjoyed every bit of it .8/10.
Wish that some parts were longer (Ashtray maze, some of the face animations were a little weird. Waiting for AW2 for steam. would recommend.

I love this game. The loading screens are long if you don't have a solid state drive (which I don't). But, I was having so much fun, that the long loads just encouraged me to die less. Totally worth it.

Sidenote: This game is a great way to forget about how much your ankle, and hip hurt from being an idiot.

The combat is outright infuriating at times. Two shot kills and flying mobs that repeatedly dodge is just tiring to play for hours.

Story 10/10
Story 10/10
Gameplay 100/10
Graphics 10/10
Sounds 8/10
Optimization 10/10

[Story]
During the first playthrough, I thought I understood the story, but during the second playthrough it turned out to be much deeper than it might seem.

[Gameplay]
I liked the gameplay most of all because of its variety, namely: destruction, explosions, telekinesis, levitation, throwing everything you can see. In short, chaos during the game

[Graphics]
Graphics in this game in my opinion is unique it has its own atmosphere, the effects look incredibly beautiful, and most importantly optimized

[Sounds]
The sounds did not cause me any incredible impressions like the previous points, but I'm not saying they are bad, they are just normal

[Optimization]
Optimization of the game is just something incredible, despite my old video card I was able to play on the highest settings at 1920x1080 60fps [my monitor has only 60 hertz]

Like another reviewer said, this is a game I wish I could recommend just because of its extremely unique style and setting, but really can't after finishing it.

The first few hours are intriguing as you navigate your way through the labyrinthian levels while figuring out how the Federal Bureau of Control was brought to its knees. But, after you orient yourself, the game's flaws make themselves apparent.

The biggest problem is with the story and its characters. Jesse Faden is lead to the Bureau by a mysterious entity that only she can hear to find her abducted brother, Dylan. It's an interesting premise, but the story hardly does anything to characterize Jesse, the entity in her head, or Dylan past their introductions. There's nothing to latch onto with these characters, no sympathetic personality or interesting moral ambiguity. Not to mention the side characters, who are even more underdeveloped than the main three, and serve no purpose but to nudge Jesse in the right plot direction. They don't mean anything, they don't do anything, and nothing happens to them in the end.

If the story isn't good, then the effort must have been diverted towards the gameplay, right? But, much like Control's story, its combat sandbox wanes in substance as you progress. There are a multitude of supernatural powers Jesse can unlock and wield, but nothing ever beats the FIRST power you unlock: Launch. Its like the gravity-gun in Half Life, and can similarly be used to solve every single combat puzzle. But unlike the gravity-gun, its so good that I found myself using it to kill 90% of the enemies I encountered. Everything else from my Service Weapon to the 4 other combat powers became mere sidegrades, used only when I didn't have enough energy to hit the Launch button.

It's not all bad, though. Like I said at the beginning, Control's art direction and setting make it wholly unique, and its the only game where I found myself trying to get every single collectible since they're all either pieces of SCP articles or high-budget multimedia productions.

3/5

Control is a third-person action-adventure game that is set in a captivating and strange paranormal world. It is an intricate game that has an intriguing and mysterious story, and a compelling and thrilling gameplay. It has a remarkable sound design, outstanding attention to detail, and an exceptionally rendered character models. The art style is astounding that effectively evokes dread and wonder, and the atmosphere is ominous and dreamlike. Regardless of having a small number of bugs and glitches, Control delivers through creative science fiction concepts. Also, The Foundation and AWE continues to extend what was left off from the main game. It retains at being as eerie and astonishing as the base game, and it does an incredible job of showing how much more Control can offer.

Combat became repetitive, puzzles were borderline fetch quests and pages of incoherent lore flooding every room was annoying.

Super fun combat and very interesting setting. Combat feels great and was much more arcadey than I expected (which is a great thing for this game). Seeing the Remedy universe reveal itself throughout was also super fun as a massive Alan Wake fan.

8.5/10

This is the best story game that I have played. The story is a little hard to follow some times but other then that its amazing! But when I found out that there is a janitor that's called Ahti and he speaks Finnish, that just made the game a lot better 😍

I am 10 hours into the game and although I can say that the story had be engaged in the beginning, but it just lost me after a couple of hours. The world is interesting and really well designed visually, but traversing it is a whole other story.

The gameplay is interesting, especially the powers and how the movement systems changes after a couple hours into the game, it brings it on another level, which felt fresh. Unfortunately, that is where my enjoyment stopped. As I mentioned before, the story was interesting in the beginning but it stopped drawing me in after a few more hours. There were some interesting characters, especially the janitor, but the others I didn't really care for all that much.

A personal dislike was the fact that when you died, you wouldn't spawn a few meters away from your current objective, instead you get spawned back to the latest fast travel point you used, so if the objective was a more than a few meters away, it meant that you have to traverse all the way to it again. Furthermore, in some cases there were a couple of enemies that you had to go through in order to progress to said objective, but each time you died, you had to go through them again, and again, and again....These two game mechanic choices pulled me out of the game many times, which was frustrating.

This might be considered a spoiler concerning gameplay mechanics, so I'll blur it out and you can read it if you like.

In the game you can get some abilities/personal mods that assist either your character or the weapons you are using. These mods have levels (1-5, at least I think it's up to five, that's the latest I saw), and they take up space in your inventory, which at first isn't an issue, but a few hours of gameplay, the inventory fills up and you have to deconstruct these mods to get some points which are used for upgrades. Well into the game, you still get mods that are level 1 or 2 and they just take up space and sometimes they are duplicates as well. The reason this was annoying wasn't only the fact that you had to inventory manage, which personally took me out of the game (once again...) but if an enemy you killed somewhere has dropped a mod that is better, you can't pick it up obviously, so when the fight is over with the rest of the enemies, you have to go looking for them again. In some cases that can be quick, but since the movement system changes and you can levitate elsewhere in the area in which you are fighting, through corridors, big halls, it can be frustrating to having to look where they dropped.

I should also mention that I played the game both on Windows and Linux and the experience was great on both. Windows did have a couple of more FPS, but that could have been due to the AMD Adrenalin app using scaling settings, not quite sure. But the experience was great on Linux as well, so it shouldn't be an issue for anyone else.

I have friends that played the game and really enjoyed it, so i was excited to finally play it myself and see what all the hype is about. But in the end, it's just not a game that is for me.

Gameplay and visuals are amazing, writing is downright insulting. Still fun

I own this game for PS4 and PS5 already and have played it many, many times - it's easily in my top 5 favorite games ever, which I'd group into the Remedyverse with the Alan Wake games. If you haven't played those yet and you love this, you'll likely love those too!

Can't wait for the sequel!!!

It deserves a positive review.

But. holy shit the map sucks.
Look forward to being lost,and than even more lost after trying to look at the map. ah, immersive. lets look for directions in game. got you again. the place your looking for, no directions. go fuck yoursefl.

This game is awesome! It has easily become one of my favorite games. The experience is unlike anything else I’ve played, and the story is amazing. The gameplay and combat are really good. Be sure to read all the documents you collect and watch/listen to the other collectibles—the extra lore they provide is well worth it.

I had heard and seen this game before. It didn’t seem real when it first came out. I also installed the HDR patch DF recommended.

The intro felt very tung and check. Did not like it at first but it did start to grow on me. Especially when you direct Faden to fire at something. Because sometimes she misses.

The oldest house is interesting but i hated navigating the map. I know it’s supposed to feel like a maze but this was to much for me. It took me a long time to figure out what and where the jukebox was.

Everything about this game shouts we are like X-files. I wasn’t sure if i would like this. Because in it they never actually solve anything. And through the game they fail to keep the vibe. They start to explain more and more because it is a game. You need to be motivated to keep going.

Dr Darling is fucking buff. He must be hiding some kind of dumbbell OOP.

Objects Of Power the main meat of the game. The reason for the story. They are interesting concept. But you never really capture them to be put back in containment. You just kill them. Most of the time in pretty static arenas. Although the camera in the nail dlc is rememberable. And so is the flamingo.

Faiden doesn’t earn the title director she just is. So the player won’t earn that position. There was still character development. She became more confident throughout the game. And then in the Nail DLC they just threw that out the window.

The brother was the main force for the first half of the game. And when we meet him. There should be an emotional discharge. We haven’t seen him since he was forcefully taken away as a kid. And you know what we get is an inner dialog with the word ‘shit’ followed with can you hear me. This was shit. The first word out of her mouth should have been ‘Dylan!’.

The hiss is what Dylan got in his might and is also the main enemy. They do get harder and harder and mutate i guess. But man the invisible ones are not a fun enemy. One hit and you are near death.

Which brings me to survivability. It doesn’t really exist. Like if your health is low you are out of luck. You have like the rock that can stop attacks or you can try and fly away. But you have to kill to gain health. This is bad for the power fantasy. Like there is in theory a melee build possible. But it just doesn’t seem viable.

So then we have these personal mods. There is no experimenting. You can only pick more health, more health regen and more energy. There is no real room to experiment even on later levels. And they made the vanilla ones to good. Like i never used any of the DLC ones. They all felt lacking and no upgrade.

The gun was better. It was more about how you want to play it then a single one being the best. I favored distance over close combat. You had the explosive mod. But that one just got invalidated in the game when you got to the DLC where you had fast charging enemies.

The foundation DLC had stalagmites you could grow or destroy. You could use these to kill enemies. However the AI did not complement this play style. They rather avoid then just stand on the stalagmites.

The powers are good. Throwing objects around is fun. Seeing the enemies flying was great. You don’t even want to use your gun. The floating also worked really well. It’s solid. However when you take risk or land wrong and die. You get punished by the game. Your side mission disappears and you lose a bunch of credits for upgrades. This felt very bad.

AWE the connection with Alan wake 2. It was to dark for my HDR monitor. Now given it’s not that good of a monitor. And for some weird reason i thought this was the fate DR darling was bestowed upon. But apparently this was someone completely different.

The DLC did made me go ‘ow they are the same company that made this’. And i knew the company is ambitious to make a bigger universe and have some synergy between titles. It is commendable that they are trying. I do feel like they need more gameplay developers or more senior ones. To get games to an 11.

Control is a truly special game, the combat feels very smooth and fun, especially with how you can throw pretty much anything at enemies. Story-wise it is very lovely and expands a lot on the Remedyverse. I can't wait for Control 2!

good game overall , the storyline felt a bit incomprehensible for me , but the combat and exploration was enjoyable , raytracing feature also shines and it suits the game perfectly.

SW: Force Unleashed meets X-Files and it's terrific. Gameplay and the story. Amazing experience. Stunning artisticly! Thank you Remedy.

chaos-touched, post-modern brutalism let loose beyond the bounds of structural sanity, precariously-occupied by offices and labs is just peak look. aesthetic. design. like i almost didn't want to cleanse the control points, because the interesting architecture would go away, it's just that good. the environmental patterns and motifs, the interruptions and intersections, the consecutive rotation/spiraling, the mysterious light sources on the walls and ceiling, the concrete. god i love brutalism so much i wish it was real. oh, yeah the game is pretty good—but have you seen the architecture??


also, someone watched TP: The Return and made a DLC about it

The story is disconnected and pretentious. The game tries to take itself seriously, without trying to take itself seriously. The setting is unrealistic, breaks numerous logical boundaries, and overall leaves one dumbfounded. The graphics are stellar, but these kinds of looks demand a fairly high barrier to entry. The gameplay loop is formulaic, almost repetitive, with some elements acting more like unavoidable landmines that keep reappearing in the same place; despite the risk, you'll feel invested and somewhat satisfied as you go. Generally speaking, the other female characters, while slightly flawed and homely, are still morally commendable given the situation; male characters, on the other hand, are either subdued secondaries or opponents; except you, the main character, who is emotionally deep, independent, conventionally attractive, and reasonably fit.

You're not playing a game, you're playing a woman's mind.

I somewhat enjoyed playing this game, but at almost every point I felt like there were better things to be doing. I didn't enjoy the combat, the exploration, the service weapon power-up system, or the reading. There is a lot of tedious reading and video watching/audio listening to get the story, but what's the central story, side fluff, and in-between is not very clear. The intended ambiguity in the story doesn't help. Every story piece and every activity in the gameplay loop seemed like it would get better just around the corner, but never quite got there. And a couple of the key puzzles were really just unclear, not helped by not having the tools you use in the rest of the game. There's almost nothing that I couldn't overlook if it were the only issue, but sorting through it all, there are no parts without issues, and there is nothing I can wholeheartedly recommend about the game.

I continue to think this game's story, art, and gameplay hold up extremely well on yet another pick up and play through.

This became one of my favorite games, I really liked the scientific weirdness. Great history, nice graphics and one of the best playability.

Love the story and atmosphere. And just the right amount of gameplay challenge.

This game so good I bought it 3 times.

It's a AAA metroidvania with a plot that sucked me in completely and led me to discover SCPs (search: SCP Foundation).

Classic walky-shooty game. Walk around offices, read weirdo documents, touch a fridge, talk to people and watch PSAs. Shoot uninteresting faceless mooks.

Walky = effin excellent; shooty = boring af. Love the atmosphere & story, I just wish there was less shooty.

It's interesting, it's stylish, and killing enemies with office chairs is a lot of fun

Fantastic game with a terrific atmosphere. The environment is spot on and carries when the story might be lacking just a bit. Ray tracing really shines in this game which makes it look absolutely stunning.
The combat is satisfying and I love the sound effects when using the telekinetic powers.
Picked this game up for 8€ during sale which is an absolute steal.

Super great game. Very thrilling and exiting game. Graphics are superb, story is interesting yet midtwisting, mechanics are weird at first but youll get used to it quite fast. RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE.

I had this one tucked in my library for a long time, and if you ask me i would say for far too long in light of my recent experience.
I was positively surprised by how well made and paced this game is.
Despite being enclosed in a giant building trying to uncover the secrets of some kind of an alien outbreak and understanding the story of our main protagonist, i didn't feel claustrophobic nor bored of the same design or limited verticality thanks to a nicely crafted map and open fighting areas crowned with amazing visuals.
But the story was what made this game shine ! The intrigue, the build up, the ending ... simply excellent
And last but not least, artistically this game was really well made ( Spoiler : the maze mission settings was flawless)
Highly recommended !

[h3]Beautiful picture and boring gameplay.

I played this with no prior knowledge of Alan wake or anything from remedy, and it was an amazing experience. I thought it would be horror, but not at all, it just had supernatural themes.

The game is really really creative especially with the story and it is such an amazing experience that I just wanted to immerse myself in the world as much as possible. The combat is very unique you get a gun and quite a few superpowers to go with it, it's all so amazing.

In summary, I had a lot of fun playing this and I definitely recommend.

superb game, amazing gun play and interesting puzzle design,side mission,puzzles,main mission,power ups,never gets boring.i would have continued playing it to 100% and then i started cyberpunk

Awesome game play and really intriguing story. I have a hard time playing single player games but this one really grabbed me and kept my attention. Highly recommend to older gamers looking to get back into gaming.

Fun, competent third person shooter gameplay, gorgeous visuals, compelling story and worldbuilding, at minimum worth a buy at sale price, it's been a great experience.

Control is a game that defies convention, delivering a mind-bending experience that feels like stepping into a lucid dream, or a nightmare you can’t escape. Remedy Entertainment has crafted something truly special here, blending its trademark storytelling with stunning visuals and exhilarating gameplay to create an unforgettable journey.

From the moment you step into the Federal Bureau of Control, you’re immersed in a world that feels both eerily familiar and completely alien. The brutalist architecture of the Oldest House is a marvel in itself, constantly shifting and alive, filled with mysteries that beg to be uncovered. Every room tells a story, whether it’s through cryptic memos, unsettling audio logs, or jaw-dropping environmental design. The lore is as deep as it is bizarre, weaving a tale of conspiracies, altered items, and dimensions that keeps you hooked until the very end.

What truly sets Control apart, though, is its gameplay. Taking on the role of Jesse Faden, the new director of the Bureau, you’re armed with the Service Weapon, a gun that shifts forms, and an array of telekinetic abilities that make combat feel dynamic and empowering. Whether you’re hurling desks at enemies, creating shields from debris, or levitating through a battlefield, every encounter feels like a perfectly choreographed dance of destruction. The combat is fast-paced, strategic, and immensely satisfying, especially as you master your arsenal.

The game’s atmosphere is another standout feature. The eerie sound design, coupled with its stunning visual effects, creates a world that feels alive with tension. From the hypnotic hum of the Hiss enemies to the unforgettable Ashtray Maze sequence, the game is packed with moments that leave you breathless and wondering how Remedy pulled it all off.

If I had any critiques, it would be that the map can be a little unwieldy to navigate, and some of the side missions feel repetitive. But these are minor blemishes on an otherwise brilliant experience.

Control is more than just a game; it’s an artistic achievement that blurs the line between reality and the supernatural. For those who crave a surreal story, engaging gameplay, and a world that will keep you thinking long after the credits roll, Control is an absolute must-play.

The story is fun and engaging, the puzzles are simple but enjoyable and the combat is solid and versatile with a good upgrade path. To get the most out of this game _read everything_.

"Take Control" in Ashtray Maze is 10/10 experience.

Control is a great example of the genius, creativity, love and passion of developers for their product. Remedy Entertainment are incredible Finnish creators who create intricate, deep, and interesting stories.

This game is not just a game, but a whole graphic art. The geometry of the levels, the color scheme, the fonts - everything is top-notch.

It's a pity that this product, these developers and their other projects are not appreciated enough.

One of the most interesting worlds and themes I've ever seen. 10/10. Worth every penny and minute spent.

The Visuals are STUNNING, very cinematic. The story so far is incredible, and mixing in live action videos into the world and collectibles adds a lot to the immersion. The controls and combat are very intuitive, and there are a lot of settings you can tweak in Settings to tailor the difficulty of the game (snap aim, health boosts, hit box size) so it can be easer for newer gamers/leave it very story driven, or be a teeth grinder of a shooter. 10/10 so far, almost no notes.

This has become one my favorite, I can't get enough of playing this. This one has a great story, beautiful psychedelic visuals and an epic lore.

The designers really must love offices. You see so many offices and cubicles in this game it's crazy. If you're into that kind of stuff, this game delivers. It looks good otherwise as well.

Then the bad; the quest structure feels sort of linear, the combat relies on a couple of abilities and uninteresting guns, nothing to write home about really.

The game is fairly heavy on dialogue and has a number of cutscenes. To me that's a big minus but to many others probably not. It's especially bad in the beginning, I almost quit before the game finally really got going. I also sort of dreaded the thought of advancing the main plot, since I knew it would involve more talking.

There's a shitton of paper with clues and lore to collect and read. However I have to say, while visually the game often sets a nice mood, both in-game and in cutscenes, some of the text was clumsily written and in my eyes did not fit the tone of the story very well.

Martti Suosalo's character (the janitor) is interesting but I thought he was wasted on dull Finglish jokes instead of being developed into something with more depth.

I did finish the game and got a little bit into the DLCs before getting entirely fed up, so I will recommend it, but only just. Game did remind me of Prey 2017 a little bit, might go and replay that again.

Great Gameplay and Storyline.

Takes a bit of time to warm up, but its worth the wait. I would also recommend playing this on a controller.