Control by Remedy Catch All

Looking for advice on how to spend the first 12 ability points. From what I’ve read, it’d look something like
8/12 split between health and energy.
4 into launch damage?

Thoughts?’

Thanks
Chad

I focused a little more on health than energy, and I did bump up my launch damage 1 or 2. I don't remember how exactly I spent the first 12 points though.

Honestly, it kinda depends on your play style, and what abilities you enjoy using.

I think I put my first 4 points (you get 4 in the first batch, right?) into the first tier each of Health, Energy, Melee, and Launch. After that, I think I split between Health and Launch, then I dipped into some of the other ability lines when they showed up. It wasn't until near the end of the game when I finally went back and got more tiers of Energy, but I also was using modifiers to increase my Energy recovery rate, and reduce Launch cost for just about the whole game.

Health is definitely a nice to have. I only just bought two levels of health (8 hours in) and it makes engagements much more forgiving.

I probably did things backwards. Pumped a tonne of points into launch damage and just run around levels blowing people up with rocks and it’s great.

As Merphle mentioned you can use modifiers to compensate and fill out areas of your kit. But an important note is there is launch damage modifier. Meaning the only way to buff that is through ability points. The health mods also tend to be a lot higher on the % scale (20-50% boosts) than anything I’ve seen on the energy side, so you’re likely further ahead to get more bang-for-your-ability-point-buck by spending it on energy and using mods for health

staygold wrote:

Health is definitely a nice to have. I only just bought two levels of health (8 hours in) and it makes engagements much more forgiving.

I probably did things backwards. Pumped a tonne of points into launch damage and just run around levels blowing people up with rocks and it’s great.

As Merphle mentioned you can use modifiers to compensate and fill out areas of your kit. But an important note is there is launch damage modifier. Meaning the only way to buff that is through ability points. The health mods also tend to be a lot higher on the % scale (20-50% boosts) than anything I’ve seen on the energy side, so you’re likely further ahead to get more bang-for-your-ability-point-buck by spending it on energy and using mods for health

Agree with this, I put most points into Launch early on and used mods to boost Health and reduce energy recharge time. I don't know if it's randomised but I got a good health boost mod from one of the first bosses I encountered.

Thank you. Good advice.
I haven’t put any points into melee. I’m not even sure I’ve used melee.

Thank you,
Chad

chooka1 wrote:

Thank you. Good advice.
I haven’t put any points into melee. I’m not even sure I’ve used melee.

Thank you,
Chad

Melee is what Shatter is for

chooka1 wrote:

Thank you. Good advice.
I haven’t put any points into melee. I’m not even sure I’ve used melee.

Thank you,
Chad

Don’t sleep on melee. Especially since you typically need to push forward to get some health melee can be an effective finisher. Especially against armored foes. But Health and Launch are solid early choice since Launch can one shot many opponents.

I've gotta say Control has some of the most creative and weird moments in a game. It's also one of the few games I've bothered to go back and do side missions after I finished the main story. I just did The Mirror and it's great and everything about that mission just fits together.

For example,

Spoiler:

in the lab before going through the mirror you can listen to an audio log. The guy who came back from the mirror is talking backwards. After you go through the mirror you can play the same audiolog and the other person is speaking backwards. The both think the other is speaking gibberish. None of it is needed to solve the mission, but is just a touch to flesh the whole thing out.

I'm in the pump up launch damage camp. I actually never put any points into health until after I found Dylan.

I alternated between health and launch early until both were maxed.

I'm pretty sure I never put anything into melee. I don't remember meleeing any enemies throughout the game.

I have been enjoying the game but I am kind of finding it repetitious. I am at the find Dylan misson and so far they have all been pretty much the same. Run around killing everyone and collecting everything until you are done. I guess a few of the monsters have changed but the overall strategy hasn't really shifted. I must admit that I feel this way after 10 hours or so in almost all shooters.

I have certainly enjoyed it but I don't know if I really care to keep doing the same stuff over and over.

I'm finding those jukebox expeditions pretty difficult, even at the easiest level. They are time constrained and some of the islands I can clear pretty quickly and others are just a constant barrage of enemies and I can't stay safe long enough to accomplish the goal. It's pretty cool to mess around with. The high point of Control was the story so I don't know how much I'll play the missions as they are only combat. Still, worth trying out.

Anyone able to finish an expedition on time?

robc wrote:

I'm finding those jukebox expeditions pretty difficult, even at the easiest level. They are time constrained and some of the islands I can clear pretty quickly and others are just a constant barrage of enemies and I can't stay safe long enough to accomplish the goal. It's pretty cool to mess around with. The high point of Control was the story so I don't know how much I'll play the missions as they are only combat. Still, worth trying out.

Anyone able to finish an expedition on time?

I did the initial mission thing for the jukebox, but decided I wasn't really interested in taking on additional ones. Like you, if I thought there was some kind of story goal for "completing" the content, I might have delved deeper. Without one, I lost interest quickly.

Holy wow

Spoiler:

Just finished the "Mirror" mini-mission and A) it played out exactly as I expected but B) that was one of the coolest gaming sequences I've ever experienced

This is one of those games I wish I could wipe my mind and experience fresh every time because it's so gosh darn good. So deserving of the GWJ Game of 2019 and it should be on the Game of the Decade list with an iron-clad bullet point

I finished it the other day. Great game.

Only a few hours in, so I obviously cant conclude anything just yet. But right now it pretty much feels like a somewhat worse version of Prey.
Great atmosphere, but sub-par area design, exploration, combat, enemies.
The reception to Prey was kinda lukewarm, and this game has been praised a lot, which might influence my perception a bit as well.

I've just started Control since it was on PS Now. I knew literally nothing about it going in other than the player character has abilities. I don't know what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn't expecting horror...

Alex79uk wrote:

I've just started Control since it was on PS Now. I knew literally nothing about it going in other than the player character has abilities. I don't know what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn't expecting horror... :cry:

Subjective but I really wouldn't call it horror at all. Suspense, yes. Alan Wake closer to horror than this is. I guess it depends on whether you would consider The X-Files and Twin Peaks horror but those are probably the closest TV analogues to this game, not, say, American Horror Story. I guess it depends on if you're the type of person who just doesn't like any spookies in games but there's no gore, no jump scares, and the player character is basically always empowered to fight and prevail against any threat instead of having to run/hide.

Yeah I only just made it through Resi 7 having to play with the lights on half the time

(I generally play in a dark room with headphones).

It's more all the whispers and weird sounds than visual horror with Control I think. Still, enjoying it so far. I've only got as far as the mission where you have to... (spoilers in case, but it's very early on)

Spoiler:

Go and burn the trash for the janitor

Performance-wise, I'm on a base PS4 (albeit the newer revision that came out around the same time as Uncharted 4) and it runs OK but stutters like a mother-trucker coming out of the pause menu!

You'll get used to all those sounds eventually. It'll stop being horrifying in time.

Embrace the voices. Let them into your head.

The voices get less unsettling IMO once you realize they're all actually just repeating the same thing, I picked up on a few recurring phrases on my own in the first couple hours of gameplay but it didn't click with me that it's literally the same "speech" every time until I saw someone on a forum say so.

This is the translation/transcription. It's an interesting mix of stuff that might sort of be relevant to what the Hiss "really" is and what seems to just be off-putting nonsense.

I wouldn't say it's a particularly scary game, but I'd definitely consider Control a horror game.

Spoiler:

It incorporates elements of eldritch horror, psychological horror and body horror plus things like mold zombies, human experimentation, evil doppelgängers...

And finally the greatest horror of all: doing mindless office temp work in a massive bureaucratic institution

The Foundation expansion will release March 26

https://twitter.com/ControlRemedy/st...

That's cool, it'll still be on PS Now at that point.

I just finished the game the other night. I'm afraid it seems I'm not as positive on it as a lot of people. Played through it in a week or so and fairly enjoyed it. I wasn't blown away, performance was poor on base PS4 and the lack of variety in locations and enemies was disappointing. The story was OK, but not amazing. The best part of the game was really the moment to moment combat - flying through the air, launching desks at enemies before slamming in to them was always exciting.

There were one or two standout moments - I won't spoil it, but navigating that maze once you have the item that enables you to do so was cool. Jesse's out loud "that was awesome!" once you clear it almost mirrored the words coming out of my own mouth at the same time! I liked the very final mission, enjoyed what they did there (I'm always a fan of that quite specific plot device, again I won't spoil it, but if you think about what the very last mission did that's what I'm talking about). Overall glad I played it, but not a game that'll go down as one of my favorites.

Alex79uk wrote:

That's cool, it'll still be on PS Now at that point.

I just finished the game the other night. I'm afraid it seems I'm not as positive on it as a lot of people. Played through it in a week or so and fairly enjoyed it. I wasn't blown away, performance was poor on base PS4 and the lack of variety in locations and enemies was disappointing. The story was OK, but not amazing. The best part of the game was really the moment to moment combat - flying through the air, launching desks at enemies before slamming in to them was always exciting.

There were one or two standout moments - I won't spoil it, but navigating that maze once you have the item that enables you to do so was cool. Jesse's out loud "that was awesome!" once you clear it almost mirrored the words coming out of my own mouth at the same time! I liked the very final mission, enjoyed what they did there (I'm always a fan of that quite specific plot device, again I won't spoil it, but if you think about what the very last mission did that's what I'm talking about). Overall glad I played it, but not a game that'll go down as one of my favorites.

Agree. I played the rough Control. I liked it but didn’t love it. I enjoyed Alan Wake more.

Tried this out in a PSNow trial. Didn’t feel like the service suits my life, but was very intrigued by the game so I picked it up on sale from Amazon.

I love the vibe and storytelling especially. It’s that sort of fully immersive, lean-into-it creepy sci-fi that I love, like Annihilation.

For some reason I thought the expansions were going to be timed-exclusives for PS4, but the Epic store claims the first of them will be available on 3/26. This is an unexpected bonus - I thought I'd have to wait a year to play more Control.

merphle wrote:

For some reason I thought the expansions were going to be timed-exclusives for PS4, but the Epic store claims the first of them will be available on 3/26. This is an unexpected bonus - I thought I'd have to wait a year to play more Control. :D

They are timed exclusives on console... basically only Xbox players have to wait. It's slightly weird.