I finally got around to playing Control over the weekend. I’ve had it for a while now but put it on the back burner because I heard it was a short game. What I heard turned out to be right, but it’s the kind of thing that gets one thinking even after finishing it.
Control is an action game that feels like it’s set in an episode of the X-Files. There’s a lot of weirdness going on and a lot of it is unexplained. And even when the game explains things there’s still some afterthought required to process the information. I think I’m getting ahead of myself.
Let me talk about the action part first. Control is a third-person shooter. The player takes on the role of Jesse Faden, a girl in search of her brother. Gameplay consists of shooting and platforming. Jesse is armed with a gun that changes forms: one minute it’s a handgun, the next it’s a rocket launcher. All of the forms have some sort of utility over the different enemies and environments in the game, but I definitely found myself playing favorites with a few of them.
Jesse is also equipped with powers and abilities. I’m not going to spoil what they are but suffice to say that she can fight with more than just her gun. Her powers add an element of strategy to combat by giving her options. Balancing between shooting and power usage is key to making the game easier. I’d even argue that the same balancing act is essential to Control’s tougher fights.
Normally, an action game with superpowers is a cool thing. The Infamous series, the latest Spider-Man title and even Prototype 1 and 2 are all examples of this. Control did not feel cool at all. I think most of it is because of the presentation and storytelling. The game is an example of the presentation of the story, not the story itself, getting in the way of gameplay. And it was enough to dampen the mood.
About the story: Jesse’s search leads her to the Federal Bureau of Control, a building that can only be found by those who already know where it is. What the FBC does is to contain and study the supernatural. Well, paranatural, as the game calls it.. Most of the story is told through a combination of cutscenes, documents, audio recordings and live-action video. This means that if a player wants to know more about the narrative, a lot of reading and watching will need to be done. And doing that means pausing from the action and exploration. It eventually becomes a chore to have to stop gameplay in order to go through the latest piece of information. And while using live actors in a video game is rare these days, the novelty—like all the document reading—quickly wears out.
Overall, Control is a great action game that could have been fun if it wasn’t for the storytelling. I really should’ve ignored it, but the game was too good at posing questions. It just wasn’t great at answering them.