Super late to the party but Control is really good…
It’s been on my ‘one of those days’ list for years now, and with Resonance out, they ran a $6 Steam sale for the original which put it in the impulse buy category. Fast forward a week and I’m out of town for work with some hotel time to kill so hooked my Steamdeck up to the TV and gave it a go and wow… I see what the hype is about.
Any non spoiler tips, tricks, or things I should be on the lookout for?
64 replies
Just started this week. It's fun and atmospheric. But I hate the darkness and screen mobbing of effects. Like it gets so bad that you can't see shit during a fight and somehow fall down endless voids that exist for reasons.
Control is my favorite game ever.
I only just played it as well! (At least the main story and one DLC, not entirely done). I also like it a lot. The whole SCP atmosphere is fun, and I loved Ahti especially.
Tip: You should do the quest "My Brother's Keeper" earlier rather than later. I tried doing all the side quests first, but got a little stuck because I was missing something.
Tip: If you bought the DLCs (for example if you got Ultimate Edition), one of them starts rather randomly so if you start seeing Alan Wake, you've entered the crossover DLC. You can do it in between or after the main mission, it doesn't hurt to do it early. The other DLC starts after the last main quest of the main game.
Take! Control! (it will take a while to get there and understand)
I only started it a couple of weeks ago and it’s one of the few games I’ve kept going with. Highly recommended it to my daughter who is loving it too.
Read/watch everything. Maybe after dealing with an object of power, there'll be a slightly redacted memo about it. There's inner office politics in other memos.
The world building is absolutely amazing if you choose to be patient and read everything you can.
Yeah I'm usually not a lore guy in games but man, this game did it amazingly well.
I just completed Control Resonate and I was happy to see they kept that level of detail in the sequel.
I don't consider what I'm about to say a spoiler, but some people might.
::: spoiler spoiler There is a part of this game that is going to knock your socks off. It raised my bar for how good a section of a game could be. It's up there with the intro to Ocarina of Time, sneaking into the second building in Into the Radius where things finally started to click but I was still scared shitless, and the lake scene in FFX, carved into my soul.
Once you've gotten to that part, let me know because I just like going back and forth about how incredible it is. If you get through a part of the game and wonder if you've gotten there, you haven't gotten there yet. When you get there, you won't wonder. :::
::: spoiler Spoiler TAKE CONTROL! :::
Loved this game. Loved Alan Wake 2 even more! Definitely give it a try when you have the chance. AW1 Remastered holds up as well if you haven’t played it.
Damn, I've had this game sitting at 0 hours played in my library for a while now. Worth giving it a shot it sounds like?
10/10 never had this much fun in an office building
Huge recommend to bump that 0 up, yeah. I’m having a blast!
Absolutely. Even if the story (which IMO is fantastic) isn't up your alley the gameplay alone is worth an experience.
This is one of the few games I’ve played where I’m constantly hoping to find new random scraps of paper. One of the most interesting places to explore.
Every paper I’ve found so far had such a cool little story snipped, I love it
I found the game got more and more fun the further into the game I got, since more abilities started being unlocked that added much more variety to the gameplay.
I really ended up loving it by the time I finished it.
This was my experience with Shadow of Mordor.
This is another one I keep meaning to play
Looks like that is on my next to play list. I've been slowly getting through my backlog and finished Mad Max after years of having it on my backlog.
Loved Control. Currently playing through the sequel.
The game really rewards being aggressive. There's a reason enemies drop health pickups where they die - keep moving and take advantage of that.
I think now that I have TK Throw I’ll try this more, seems like I can knock out a few mooks at a time with a filing cabinet
Fire extinguishers are your friend.
I loved it, it’s a pretty unique experience. But to be totally honest, I hated it until I messed with the assist mode settings. So my personal tip, which is definitely not for everyone, is to completely customize those settings as much as you want. Some of the default combat and QOL features are way off in my opinion, and once I got over the shame of changing some fundamental settings, the game opened way up for me and I was able to get completely into the story.
The devs added the settings a year or two after the game’s release, so they must have been getting a lot of feedback.
Enjoy! You’re in for a wild ride.
Yeah, I'm with you on this, and wish I had done so in hindsight. The gameplay was interesting for about a couple of hours, but ultimately I think the game's more about the graphics in the quieter moments--although as a raytracing showcase, it's less impressive now than it was in 2019--and the wacky stuff it comes up with than anything.
What did you change? I played with mouse+kb and found it to be pretty easy tbh. Only some occasional Board Countermeasures seemed to be a bit unbalanced at the beginning.
Reload times, damage multipliers, you name it. I played it years ago so I don’t remember the exact specifics, but I came up with a sweet spot that worked for how I wanted to play.
That's what's so nice about these settings. You can gradually ease up the stuff you're having trouble with, without cheesing it up all the way.
Oh nice, I’ll dig into those, thanks!
I never got tired of the basic powers, breaking and throwing stuff always satisfying.
Also, /c/patientgamers
Control is fantastic! I'm really excited to pick up Resonance soon, and I've been trying not to spoil myself too much on it.
As for tips, a lot of things can be done in any order, so if you find yourself dying over and over to a certain encounter, go look for some side-objectives to do and level up a bit, then come back and take down that thing that was kicking your ass.
This bears repeating for those playing Control Resonant as well.
You're not late, you are a Patient gamer :D
Still in my pile of shame xD
I heard it's a spooky game, but is it spooky in Silent Hill way or Prey 2017 way?
I find the comparison to Prey very fitting. To me Prey was even a little scarier.
Spooky like the X-files. Creepy, but still primetime tv.
FWIW, I'd urge you to give it a try. I generally don't like "horror horror" games and I loved Control. The best TV parallel for me is neither x-files nor twin peaks (though the vibe is undeniably Lynchy) but rather "the lost room" from the early noughties, which is also worth a watch if you haven't seen it and happen to like control's vibe.
Edit: forgot to add, I loved Prey 2017 as well and control is WAY less scary. Once the abilities click, Jesse becomes an unstoppable whirlwind of ripped concrete and office furniture. This is by design, the spoiler is in the name.
Much closer to Prey.
That's better, thanks
I haven’t played either but from what I know of them much more toward Prey, yeah
It's in my top 5 games of all time. One of very few games I've played through multiple times. I love the universe, lore, design, characters, feel and everything else. And it's still one of the best looking hames ever made IMO, and one of the few games who used RTX almost perfectly.
Hey, better late than never! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Resonant is just as good if not better.
I miss the Service Weapon honestly but I am still very much enjoying the more melee focused gameplay.
One of the best games of all time. You don't need any tips. Just explore and play. Try different guns. Try different abilities. Look around environments to appreciate how amazing the areas look.
I am definitely hyped to get home and check it out on my full PC, it looks decent on the ‘deck but can easily see it’s scoped way down
I feel ya. Patient gamers save a lot of money!
If you haven’t played Alan Wake, it takes place in the same universe.
How creepy/scary are the AW games? I’m digging Control a lot but it’s definitely stressing me out at times!
It can be creepy at times, but mostly it feels like an 80s-90s triller/mystery. Spooky, absurd, and weirdly comfy.
Oh nice okay, I can roll with that, thanks!
Alan Wake 2 is much scarier but in a tension that keeps on building and building and that you never feel prepared for when shit hits the fan kind of way rather than a jumpscarey kind of way.
I am 100% not a horror game fan but the Alan Wake games are still in my "everybody should play these" list. 2 is probably in my top 10 maybe even top 5 list of all time favourites.
Fuuuuck I need to finish this. Fell off the wagon HARD.
I feel like I'm the only person who didn't like it? I hated not being able to figure out where to go
I didn't make it very far at all because of not knowing what I was supposed to do. My ADHD requires some kind of direction at the beginning of a game because I cannot retain enough information to make choices from failing a bunch of things and not knowing why.
Same reason I bounced off Elden Ring. I just don't notice the things the designers expect me to the first 50 times I try something. It is like trying to find a thing without knowing what it is.
haha, totally feel you but highly recommend trying elden ring again after a break! It took me about 5 attempts of dark souls games over 8 or so years before it clicked, and now elden ring would be in my top games
For me I loved it for several hours then suddenly got bored, I thought it ended being too repetitive for me (the monochrome decors get old)
Nah you're not alone, one of the few games that I refunded. I think it can really push some people away pretty strongly.
I've had it on Steam forever, but never played it when I had a PC. It runs okay on my Mac, but kinda looks like ass. I'm hoping for a good sale on Xbox so I can play it in 4K. (If not, the TV will upscale it and my old ass won't care if I can tell the difference.)
The game is awesome, and you can customise the heck out of the difficulty settings. Can make it so you straight up don't take damage if you just want the story. That's wild to me, with so many games punishing people who work full-time... or perhaps they'd say it rewards the time and effort they take to learn the intricate parry/dodge systems... Not a fan of souls-likes. I love accessible gaming. Let people make it as easy or as hard as they want. Bethesda ties it to XP in Starfield — if you want it easy, you're working for less XP. So I pick up all the guns and spacesuits and I buy the cool upgrades for my ship. I got up to level 183 on my first game, I don't need all that.
So yeah... figure out the difficulty/accessibility settings and make the experience yours... then go own it.
One of my favorite games! The abilities are so cool and they nailed story and atmosphere.
I’m still playing through this on my phone!
Oh wow. Didn’t realize it had a phone port and it shooks shockingly good
Yeah, I’m often on the road doing photography, so my phone has become my main gaming console. I’m not hurting for choice.