Control (Remedy Games) PC, PS4, XB1

johnny_ultimate

As I said earlier in the thread, it’s definitely a really good game - but it undeniably has problems too as far as I’m concerned. There’s way too much combat in the back-end: as satisfying as the combat is, they fall back on it too much to pad the length. Some of the bosses are annoying, and the side ones - while often wonderful ideas for fights - rarely feel properly balanced. Also sadly think the best visual and storytelling ideas are at the start of the game (some of the cool late game side quests aside), and the main story settles into a pretty standard flow after that with lots of repetition and only occasional bursts of real flair.

None of this ruins the game: indeed, I’d still cite it as one of my favourite big studio releases of recent times, and when it’s good it’s exceptionally good. As said, while there is too much combat the foundations are pretty great. The setting is a wonder, and some of the side stuff is delightful. But yeah it definitely has problems that meant I lost some interest as I progressed through its lengthy campaign.

goon_magee

Not sure I agree with the comments on the bosses not feeling properly balanced. 9 times out of ten if I died it was due to my own error; not timing my levitation correctly, forgetting that I had a shield half the time etc. The game gives you so many tools between mods, powers and weapons that you can pretty much always switch up your build to even the playing field.

Mold-1 kicked my ass for a while as an example. I couldn't dodge quick enough and he would melt my health bar. Took a look at my setup, realised pierce was no good as the charge time was too slow to hit weak spots consistently, so i switched to shatter which was quick to fire would decimate weak spots at close range. Also took off my levitation buffing mods and stacked stacked launch damage and health boosts instead and boom, beat the encounter first try.

Similarly when I would fight the Former, I knew that being on the ground was a huge danger and he is really weak to launch damage, so I would stack levitation and launch damage boost, and switch the servive weapon back to pierce form as his crit spot is open for plenty long enough to get pierce shots off.

Not saying you weren't switching it up, just don't really see how any of the bosses could be considered unbalanced when there is pretty much something in the game designed to counter each one.

johnny_ultimate

I’ll have to agree to disagree there. My problem with a few of the bosses - the Anchor being the one that immediately springs to mind - is that they toss annoying and sometimes exploding adds at you, and that’s what makes it hard as opposed to meaningfully attempting to figure out the main enemy. I think this carries over to some of the combat generally, and it’s often simply the relentless amount of enemies that knock up the challenge rather than having to figure out the smartest and most effective path through a fight.

Again, I like the game a lot and generally the combat too. But like many games of its ilk (over-reliance on combat being what stops a lot of AA or AAA games being truly great for me) I’d have loved to see some of the fighting scaled back or edited out - especially when exploring it can be deeply irritating to have to battle through another two or three levitating chair guys.

Sephiroth_dude

goon_magee wrote: »

I thought the boss fights were fantastic for the most part, apart from some of the critical path bosses which were just souped up version of standard enemies.

Loved the optional bosses though, the Anchor and the Former in particular. My only gripe would be some of them could have done with checkpoints closer to the boss. Even then though as someone who plays every Fromsoft game that comes out religiously, annoying boss runs are nothing new to me lol.

I got stuck on the 7th boss I think

Mr. Tomassi

, I rage quit the game because of them LOL.

goon_magee

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I’ll have to agree to disagree there. My problem with a few of the bosses - the Anchor being the one that immediately springs to mind - is that they toss annoying and sometimes exploding adds at you, and that’s what makes it hard as opposed to meaningfully attempting to figure out the main enemy. I think this carries over to some of the combat generally, and it’s often simply the relentless amount of enemies that knock up the challenge rather than having to figure out the smartest and most effective path through a fight.

Again, I like the game a lot and generally the combat too. But like many games of its ilk (over-reliance on combat being what stops a lot of AA or AAA games being truly great for me) I’d have loved to see some of the fighting scaled back or edited out - especially when exploring it can be deeply irritating to have to battle through another two or three levitating chair guys.

Yeah I mean people's experiences are going to differ. The adds on Anchor were a pain, but again if you utilise the seize power effectively you can totally use those adds as an asset; whittle one exploding enemy down enough to seize and with those enemy types usually bunched up, that one seized enemy usually takes out the pack (or at least the majority) once he detonates. And to argue slightly against not being presented with a chance to meaningfully figure out the the enemy, at least as far as the Anchor is concerned, the adds don't start spawning in until you have him down at 50% health;. You're afforded two free shots at him using the main mechanic of the fight before anything else spawns in, so by that stage the fight is figured out.

Never really found enemy volume an issue myself but as said, people's experiences are going to differ. Enemy management seemed, for me at least, easily countered by seize so I suppose it will really depend on how people have built their characters.

I do agree that when exploring the constant re-populating of enemies is a bit of a pain, but with the need for farming materials for upgrades, perhaps is a necessary evil? There were times when I would be scouring for collectables and after clearing a room, 2 mins later it would be full to the brim again, and by the end it definitely led to a sense of ,"not these f*cking arseholes again". Handy when looking for materials, not so handy when trying to soak in the ambience is what I would say.

KilOit

Only started this yesterday after reading the glowing comments on it, love the whole vibe of it, really feels new and refreshing but holy crap this brings my system to its knees. 3600x rtx 2070 super, the ray tracing is a real hog

goon_magee

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

I got it on ebay for £23 despite all the grumblings about frame rate and general optimisation. My backlog is quite big so hopefully by the time i've got to it they would have patched it better.

I was playing on PS4 Pro, which I think you are also if I recall correctly from other posts, and found the game to be in a decent state relative to the complaints people had at launch. The framerate is fine now for the most part, which I think is what most of the complaints related to. I can only really recall two instances of it tanking, and even then it was over in a flash.

There is an annoying little quirk where the game completely locks up for a few seconds when re-entering the game from the pause menu. Everything freezes and you lose control for those few seconds, but again it is quick to rectify itself.

Probably isn't a bad idea to wait a bit more though to see do any further optimisation patches get released. There is also what sound like two fairly chunky story expansions coming this year, and if Remedy's form with Alan Wake years ago is anything to go by, these will be as integral to the overall story as anything in the base game so it may also be worth waiting for those to drop as well if you want to play the complete experience in one go.

goon_magee

Just a heads up for anyone on PS4 yet to buy the season pass, it's currently on sale on the PSN store.

Quite a big reduction as well, £11.99 in the North, so probably 12-13.99 in the South with the Euro. I'll be picking it up myself as that is a bargain price for me given how eager I am to jump back into that world. Have to say though, it is a bit of a kick in the bollocks for anyone who has paid full price for it, means there was absolutely no point in buying the season pass at full price given that it is getting reduced so drastically before any content for it has even been released.

Potential-Monke

Nice, but I think I'll hold on until nearer the release of the inevitable second one, and play through it all again. Doing the same for Horizon: Zero Dawn, so even though it's currently free on PS Now, I'm not playing it yet!

goon_magee

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Nice, but I think I'll hold on until nearer the release of the inevitable second one, and play through it all again. Doing the same for Horizon: Zero Dawn, so even though it's currently free on PS Now, I'm not playing it yet!

I wish I had your restraint mate!

That is a solid plan though, a complete playthrough at a later date makes more sense. I don't know if I will be able to hold out hoeever. The second DLC judging from the logo they teased, looks as though it's going to tie into a previous Remedy franchise, and if it is what I think it is, I doubt I'll be able to stop myself!

The joys of being weak willed!

Potential-Monke

goon_magee wrote: »

I wish I had your restraint mate!

That is a solid plan though, a complete playthrough at a later date makes more sense. I don't know if I will be able to hold out hoeever. The second DLC judging from the logo they teased, looks as though it's going to tie into a previous Remedy franchise, and if it is what I think it is, I doubt I'll be able to stop myself!

The joys of being weak willed!

The AWE dlc? I do believe it will link to what you think it will link to, but I've never played that one so it may be kinda lost on me. Waiting does give me the option to play through it, but that involves getting a console and the game, which I 99.9% won't do!

And the restraint is a cause more than anything, I find it very hard to play a story driven game through a second time, unless it is amazing. Which this is, but I'll still need to wait a while or I'll get bored. Horizon: Zero Dawn, with the DLC, is on PS Now, and I've never played the DLC. Did platinum the game when it came out, so haven't played it since then, and I'm still reluctant until closer to H:ZD 2!

It's a blessing and a curse.

goon_magee

Potential-Monke wrote: »

The AWE dlc? I do believe it will link to what you think it will link to, but I've never played that one so it may be kinda lost on me. Waiting does give me the option to play through it, but that involves getting a console and the game, which I 99.9% won't do!

And the restraint is a cause more than anything, I find it very hard to play a story driven game through a second time, unless it is amazing. Which this is, but I'll still need to wait a while or I'll get bored. Horizon: Zero Dawn, with the DLC, is on PS Now, and I've never played the DLC. Did platinum the game when it came out, so haven't played it since then, and I'm still reluctant until closer to H:ZD 2!

It's a blessing and a curse.

Yeah I'm with you on the replaying of games. Even God of War which is probably my favourite Ps4 exclusive hasn't gotten a second playthrough from me despite adoring it! I always go to start second playthroughs but can never find the motivation, unless like you it's in service of a refresher for an upcoming game. Even then I have been known to get a few missions in and go "**** this, I'll get a 2 min story recap up on youtube" lol.

Potential-Monke

Sounds like some of your enjoyment was taken because of using a base PS4. I didn't have many of the issues you describe. The pause thing, only sometimes. And it did look glorious with all the particles on the Pro. Maybe they need to release a patch for the base model to dial back some of it.

Your first point is funny, you go on to say there's problems but the first 3 paragraphs are basically positives! I was about to get angry when you first started on about levitation, because it changed the game for me and I didn't stop using it from the moment I got it. I thought they did the levitation perfectly and, as you said, at an upgraded level it really starts to shine. By the time I got to that boss, I was already a levitating queen.

I also didn't get the map issues you're having. Half the fun was traversing back through an area and discovering something new. I searched every nook and cranny and as a result I got a better sense of the layout and shortcuts. It's one of my favourite 'maps' in any game, the settings and idea of The Oldest House has found a place in my heart. I think they have hit an ever expanding universe to continue in and I can't wait for it. Going by the story, there's still plenty left in The Oldest House to discover, so I'd imagine the second game will still have the same map, just expanded.

If you have been avoiding the alerts up until now, you'll have a good bit to do after game end, there are 2 trophies linked to completing x amount of them. Still a handy plat though.

Rob2D

I'm pretty sure this is my best game of 2019 even though I haven't played it yet. Can't wait for it to hit Steam!

goon_magee

Enjoy! I'm envious, I'd love to be able to experience it all over again and have it be a surprise; can't think of a game I have enjoyed as much in the past 3 or 4 years.

Hopefully you are going in totally blind, because the story is fantastic as is the universe they have set up. I rarely play games in long stretches anymore, but once I got stuck into Control properly after Christmas, I couldn't put it down and couldn't bring myself to play anything else until I had it beaten. Completely deserving of all the praise that was heaped upon it when game of the year discussions came around last year.

EoinMcLovin

Foundation DLC out on March 26th for PS4 and PC, June 25th for Xbox One

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4be0k2kZZ7w

EoinMcLovin

Standard edition currently on sale on Irish PSN store for €23.99

Zero-Cool

EoinMcLovin wrote: »

Standard edition currently on sale on Irish PSN store for €23.99

My God, absolute bargain for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet. New sale Eoin? Nothing on psprices.

Doctor Nick

I must pick this back up. Got frustrated playing so took a break and played NG+3 Sekiro instead (the irony). Definitely have to get back to this, especially with DLC coming out.

Kingp35

EoinMcLovin wrote: »

Standard edition currently on sale on Irish PSN store for €23.99

It's also on PS Now. If you don't want to keep PS Now just buy a one month sub for €9.99 and you'll have the game for a month. Plenty of time to finish it.

I'm playing it at the moment. I really enjoyed it at the start, however I have stopped searching for an reading collectibles at this stage as there are too many despite them giving an insight into the lore.

EoinMcLovin

Zero-Cool wrote: »

My God, absolute bargain for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet. New sale Eoin? Nothing on psprices.

No new sale and it's not showing in psprices. I'd say its discounted due to new dlc releasing tomorrow

Niska

Zero-Cool wrote: »

My God, absolute bargain for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet. New sale Eoin? Nothing on psprices.

Deal of the week. (save 60%)

J. Marston

Kingp35 wrote: »

It's also on PS Now. If you don't want to keep PS Now just buy a one month sub for €9.99 and you'll have the game for a month. Plenty of time to finish it.

I'm playing it at the moment. I really enjoyed it at the start, however I have stopped searching for an reading collectibles at this stage as there are too many despite them giving an insight into the lore.

Not much insight since

most are structured

like this. It doesn't

convey a sense of mystery

, it just makes

98% of players zone out

after they picked up their 9th letter full of

this.

chrislad

Do games disappear off PS Now? It's a good deal for it at the moment, but I've Assassins Creed and Resi 2 to finish first - so my option is get this for the future, or just get PS Now in a few weeks, as this is on that.

Cordell

Apparently the latest Nvidia drivers add DLSS 2.0 support, I'm checking it out now.
No, not yet, game update coming on 26th.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/news/control-nvidia-dlss-2-0-update/

I tried it for a short while: 3 levels of DLSS / render resolution, all of them seem to produce a better image than before (well, maybe not the lowest one, or only in some places), but with some beefy performance benefit.

Kingp35

chrislad wrote: »

Do games disappear off PS Now? It's a good deal for it at the moment, but I've Assassins Creed and Resi 2 to finish first - so my option is get this for the future, or just get PS Now in a few weeks, as this is on that.

Some games are only on PS Now for a limited time. I think Control is on PS Now until the end of August.