Control by Remedy Catch All

I did all the missions, but wasn’t aware secret areas granted ability points.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I did all the missions, but wasn’t aware secret areas granted ability points.

Yeah, they each give you an ability point. When I worked on getting the platinum in the game, I had to look up a guide to find them so I could max out the ability tree.

They are much easier to access later on when you get the REDACTED ability.

I’m several hours in and have picked up a few new abilities along the way. Storywise,

Spoiler:

I got levitation and met Dylan.

I feel like the game is picking up now. Early on it was fine, but didn't feel anywhere near the sort of game that picks up a GOTY award. FWIW, I have no background with anything like Twin Peaks, X-Files, SCP, or the like, so I’m enjoying a lot of the themes and eeriness of the game, but I’m not in love with it. But now I’ve found several main story bosses and some optional bosses, and now it’s going harder with the style and weirdness in a way that I’m down with.

Spoiler:

Particularly the Fridge and Anchor boss fights.

Also, the bosses continue to be somewhat difficult, in a way that is kind of surprising. I figure out the patterns pretty quick, but they just do SO MUCH DAMAGE and/or I get distracted by the adds that a couple of slips (and the game is a tad loosey goosey with controls) and that’s it for a life. So even if I know what to do, I’m still dying 4-6 times per boss or so. And the game needs a better checkpoint system, since after each death, I have to run about a minute to get back to the fight. That part could have been tightened up.

Still, it feels like the game is in full swing, and I'll be happy to see this one to the end.

I take it back, I don't like this game anymore. It's super hard and then punishes you for dying by taking away 10% of the currency that I would presumably use to improve myself so I can fight better. F*ck that.

Let me know if they patch in a difficulty setting.

Mixolyde wrote:

I take it back, I don't like this game anymore. It's super hard and then punishes you for dying by taking away 10% of the currency that I would presumably use to improve myself so I can fight better. F*ck that.

Let me know if they patch in a difficulty setting.

Doesn’t sound like you’re gonna change your mind but generally the currency you lose isn’t really great for making you fight better. Unless you happen to be short on it for a gun upgrade, but I found that usually wasn’t a game changer anyway.

I treated it like Dark Souls: if you’re about to fight a boss, spend all your money. 10% of 500 source is inconsequential. If you’re close to an upgrade grind it out, then fight the boss.

So I beat the game! My play time was about 18 hours, which is longer than I thought it would be. Maybe all the dying and running back to the fight added an hour or something. Thoughts in spoilers.

Spoiler:

Hey, so the Ashtray maze was rad. Don’t know if y'all know that yet.

The fake credits were real good. But the fight before it was way too long, and was a checkpoint nightmare. I wound up having to fight my way through the whole things 3 times before I beat it.

The final ‘boss’ level was again very long, and was in dire need of more checkpoints. That seems to be the theme for this game. But one or two shotting everyone with the pistol, while levitating nonstop was a cool feeling.

Hearing Fear of a Blank Planet was a really weird thing for the credits. Mainly because I used to listen to Porcupine Tree years ago, so when the guitar kicked in, it sounded incredibly familiar but I couldn’t quite place it at first, and then I couldn’t believe that they had licensed it for the credits. It also only sort of works with the themes of the game. Like, if you only listened to half the chorus about being uncertain of ones self and ignore the rest of the song about being a teenager trying to find meaning in the haze of monotony and prescription drugs, then sure, it could sort of fit with the game. I’ll still take it, but its a weird choice unless someone has a better explanation.

I feel like I haven’t talked about gameplay much. It was good! It was hard during the longer fights and boss fights, but the upgrades felt meaningful, the weapons felt good, and I threw every upgrade I could into the Throw ability and it was my main weapon. I generally flung objects and enemies until I ran out of energy, then fired my gun until I ran out of ammo, then flipped back to tossing things. Rinse and repeat. The levitation was also useful for better vantage points, and I got shot at way less than one would think for being exposed like that.

I think the summary is that this was a pretty cool game. The back half of the game was easily the strongest, from a narrative/reveal standpoint, from a combat standpoint, and from a cool stuff happening on the screen standpoint. I’d be curious to see what it looks like with Ray Tracing on. I think it will be somewhere on my GOTY list, but I don’t think it will be near the top, unless it really sticks with me. Still, I’m glad I grabbed it and played through it, just to see what the fuss was all about.

And never watch the Threshold Kids at night. Or maybe ever?

Blind_Evil wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

I take it back, I don't like this game anymore. It's super hard and then punishes you for dying by taking away 10% of the currency that I would presumably use to improve myself so I can fight better. F*ck that.

Let me know if they patch in a difficulty setting.

Doesn’t sound like you’re gonna change your mind but generally the currency you lose isn’t really great for making you fight better. Unless you happen to be short on it for a gun upgrade, but I found that usually wasn’t a game changer anyway.

I treated it like Dark Souls: if you’re about to fight a boss, spend all your money. 10% of 500 source is inconsequential. If you’re close to an upgrade grind it out, then fight the boss.

In my experience source is rarely the bottleneck for upgrades anyway, usually it's the specific upgrade components that are harder to come by. By late game I had more source than I could ever possibly spend.

muttonchop wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

I take it back, I don't like this game anymore. It's super hard and then punishes you for dying by taking away 10% of the currency that I would presumably use to improve myself so I can fight better. F*ck that.

Let me know if they patch in a difficulty setting.

Doesn’t sound like you’re gonna change your mind but generally the currency you lose isn’t really great for making you fight better. Unless you happen to be short on it for a gun upgrade, but I found that usually wasn’t a game changer anyway.

I treated it like Dark Souls: if you’re about to fight a boss, spend all your money. 10% of 500 source is inconsequential. If you’re close to an upgrade grind it out, then fight the boss.

In my experience source is rarely the bottleneck for upgrades anyway, usually it's the specific upgrade components that are harder to come by. By late game I had more source than I could ever possibly spend.

This was also my experience. By mid game, there were very few times when I needed more source for a key weapon upgrade, generally I was missing the components. I often bought upgrades for weapons I didn't use, just to have something to spend the source on so I lost less after a death. The actual thing I always needed more of was ability points, and I dumped most of those into the Throw ability, so my weapons were often secondary, anyway.

I'm a few hours in. Currently at a boss fight after taking an elevator up, and having to clear lots of stuff (trying to be spoiler free). And I'm dieing repeatedly, over and over again. I love the atmosphere of the game, but my health bar is so small that 2-3 shots kills me, not counting the rocket dudes and lucky grenade. I keep doing all the cover shooter type stuff that got me through Uncharted or HZD, and I still end up dead.

I really want to like this game, but the boss fights are punishingly hard atm.

I'd love it if someone told me I'd miss something crucial or I could grind out a better health mod. Because I'm pretty close to just dropping it, and I feel like that would be sad. I can see the great game this could be, but maybe its just doesn't like me.

Are you at a point where you can help Ahti with some side quests? That can get you some ability points to put into the Health unlocks.

forlorn1 wrote:

I'm a few hours in. Currently at a boss fight after taking an elevator up, and having to clear lots of stuff (trying to be spoiler free). And I'm dieing repeatedly, over and over again. I love the atmosphere of the game, but my health bar is so small that 2-3 shots kills me, not counting the rocket dudes and lucky grenade. I keep doing all the cover shooter type stuff that got me through Uncharted or HZD, and I still end up dead.

I really want to like this game, but the boss fights are punishingly hard atm.

I'd love it if someone told me I'd miss something crucial or I could grind out a better health mod. Because I'm pretty close to just dropping it, and I feel like that would be sad. I can see the great game this could be, but maybe its just doesn't like me.

Just say the name of the boss you're talking about or the name of the mission you're on and it will be easier to give you advice, the elevator thing is pretty vague.

I will say that in general with the possible exception of 1-2 specific encounters this is NOT a cover shooter and should not be played like one. Use natural cover to your advantage as you move around but KEEP MOVING, if you camp you will die.

I am not a god gamer by any means and there are exactly two parts of this game that took enough tries to make me somewhat frustrated. One of those was because I failed to understand a crucial mechanic for countering the boss's attacks, the other was because the fight is a long slog with infrequent checkpointing.

Middcore wrote:

I will say that in general with the possible exception of 1-2 specific encounters this is NOT a cover shooter and should not be played like one. Use natural cover to your advantage as you move around but KEEP MOVING, if you camp you will die.

+1

To be honest for most of the game I forgot there even was a dedicated crouch button. I never used it. Just keep moving/dashing around, and use the throw ability as much as possible. When your health gets low prioritize chasing down weaker enemies to regain some HP.

Cover schmover.

Staying still in this game is death. Treat it more like Doom than Gears, and you'll go far.

Also, you need to alternate guns and powers. Use one while the other recharges, switch, rinse repeat.

I'm guessing the boss in question is Tomassi. It's the first part of the game that forces you to use the move-or-die approach.

Yeah I stopped at him for a couple days. The old “fresh eyes” thing worked and I beat him first try when I went back.

I've had to do that a few times in this game

I completely agree that the game is not flexible about different playstyles. It wants you to keep moving and keep alternating between throws and different weapons to manage cooldowns; if you do not, it will kill you mercilessly.

Although the game is certainly easier and less frustrating if you play "the right way," it remains difficult, and you have to expect bosses to kill you multiple times before you get through them. (Optional bosses, even more often.) If it doesn't become satisfying soon, you might want to cut your losses, forlorn1.

I enjoyed the story but after this and Quantum Break and Alan Wake, I don't think I ever want to play another Remedy game unless it has an easy mode. By the time I hit the wall, my masochistic stubbornness has set in, and I end up slogging through a couple dozen hours of misery because I badly want to see what happens next. The stories are cool but these are YouTube games for me from now on.

But I totally see how they're fun if you "play right" and enjoy a stiff challenge.

Jonman wrote:

Cover schmover.

Staying still in this game is death. Treat it more like Doom than Gears, and you'll go far.

Also, you need to alternate guns and powers. Use one while the other recharges, switch, rinse repeat.

I'm guessing the boss in question is Tomassi. It's the first part of the game that forces you to use the move-or-die approach.

Depends whether we're talking first Tommasi where he runs away or optional Tommasi rematch, based on the description of being a few hours in I assume the first. But rematch Tommasi is one of the specific situations I mentioned above where I think camping works.

I don't know how the devs managed to make my basement lights flicker while playing the game, but that is damn impressive.

That's the city grid, groaning under the load of your mighty PC.

Just started this and am loving it.

Boy,, they really did completely rip off the SPC foundation in nearly every way. Wonder if they paid them any royalties?

--EDIT--

Ah.

The Creepypasta Community That Influenced Control

I played through the first 2 or 3 hours of the game last month and I don't see why everyone is raving about this game. It has a disjointed story and the controls are meh. I almost feel like I need to be high to properly enjoy the game, so maybe I am missing something. Is the first couple hours not as good as the rest or if I dislike the first part is it worth pushing through?

i...guess if you aren't enjoying the first couple of hours then you'll not really enjoy continuing, especially if you're bouncing off the way it tells it's story. Though unlocking certain abilities will make moving around a lot more fun.

If you’re that far and the combat and environment aren’t doing it for you, move along. They only double down on those two things from there.

I disagree about the controls, particularly once you get all your traversal powers, and found the vibe and story immediately enthralling.

Just started this game. This is my first epic game. I'm liking the weirdness so far. I'm still super early, just picked up the gun.

I'm terrible at this game. I don't believe how many times I died. I think I'm getting worse each time I try it. I'm at a red room with a upside down pyramid. I have to jump down to the lower floor which spawns a guy with a rifle that is tougher than the rent a cops I have been fighting.

Got to the mail room. Gain the ability to throw stuff. So far the actual fighting isn't very good. That might change as I get more powers. Don't like not being able to crouch and shoot. Don't like not being able to shoot around or over things while in cover. Battles don't feel tactical.

I think there was minor mistake in the story. A lady I came across said her and her team were protected from the Hiss because of the device they were wearing. There were people on the team that weren't wearing the device. And some dead bodies didn't have the devices.

Still liking the odd story but feel like you can miss part of it. I'm not sure but I think I picked up some story points that that can be missed. I'm not sure if those nuggets of info are also in other places.

This is not a cover shooter. The sooner you get used to that the better off you will be.

Middcore wrote:

This is not a cover shooter. The sooner you get used to that the better off you will be.

Always be moving; juking and jiving. I also found being overly aggressive worked well on the bosses.

Nimcosi wrote:

Always be moving; juking and jiving. I also found being overly aggressive worked well on the bosses.

Yup. Turtling up will get you flanked and overwhelmed. The game wants you to stay moving and be aggressive with your powers. Use cover to manage how many people are shooting at you at once, but don't get pinned down.

When everything clicked for me in Control's combat, it played almost like FEAR (the first one) - constant motion, using your powers to stay one step ahead of the AI, sh*t gloriously blowing up all over the place.

On that note, I found the "crouch behind cover" function almost entirely useless - you're much better off finding higher cover, or better yet, several bits of high cover to flit between.