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Control freak

Once again, I find myself at the beginning of a review that I had no intention of writing. This time, however, there won't be a page-long breakdown of content and game mechanics, as

1. you get this information in almost every test and review anyway and
2. I don't want to say too much about the game.

A review without substance on this website? Mind blown?Joking aside, of course I hope to convey a certain amount of information through these texts. But explaining Control is like explaining quantum physics to a three-year-old... only in this case by a three-year-old.

I readily admit that I was turned off at the beginning by the artsy-fartsy pseudo-mindfuck of Control and only got back into it at the end. If you're looking for light entertainment in terms of story, you'll come across a page-thick wall of archive texts, dossiers and everything else that tends to spoil my gaming fun. If I want to read, I pick up a book, and since I haven't held a book in my hands for a long time, that should be an indicator of my enthusiasm for backstory info from collectible snippets.

Why did I still play the game and have a lot of fun with it? In terms of the story, for the simple reason that the story takes place in the Federal Bureau of Control, where a mysterious presence, the “hiss”, has broken out and overrides the laws of physics. And because everything is crazy and stupid anyway, I don't have to read any scientific papers trying to make sense of it. For me, the FBC building was a playground that, like a BioShock offers me the remnants of a place where I can let off steam. And that brings me to the second fun factor in Control: the gameplay.

We play Jesse Faden, who is somehow unaffected by the hiss and is given the deceased director's control gun right at the beginning, which automatically promotes her to the new boss. Sounds like a promotion concept that could probably only work in this form in barbarian tribes or the USA, but it does give us an excuse to shoot up heaps of infected agents with a pretty neat gun. We can use the handgun in two configurations, allowing us to switch between pistol shot and grenade launcher at lightning speed. As there is no ammunition and our shot reserve is always automatically recharged, there is a nice flow to the game, although you still have to be careful not to run into several enemies with an recharging magazine.

The Star-Wars-experience

The other part that enhances the shooting and is the real highlight of the game for me is the telekinesis. We get it as one of our first abilities and my goodness, is it fun to throw things at people. The automatic lock-on feature means that chairs, wall pieces and later even enemies almost always hit with pinpoint accuracy, and the literal feeling of power makes me hope that this concept will be used in some future Star-Wars-game. Coupled with the levitation, I was able to live out my Jedi fantasies here like in hardly any game before... and then Control is also so damn pretty.

Light, shadows, fractures, explosions, splinters - everything runs as smooth as butter and conjures up an orgy of destruction that would make even Battlefield look ashamed from behind its tank barrel. In these moments, Control is still fun even after 20 hours, even if the game principle has run its course in the endgame - but what game isn't like that? Only the character models and especially the facial animations fall significantly short in comparison to the other visual brilliance, here more would have been possible.

You could probably say the same about this review, which I'm going to end abruptly at this point. I haven't said anything about the level architecture, storytelling, sound design and atmosphere, nor have I discussed the upgradeable weapon configurations and the two DLCs. I could still do all that, but for me they are not the core of the entertainment. For me, it was actually the gameplay, along with that Indigo Prophecy-esque WTF story, that piqued my curiosity and kept me motivated for long stretches of the game. I did fall into the completionist trap again, which even made Breath of the Wild feel old to me at some point, but that's my own fault. If you strictly play through the story, possibly complete the more interesting side quests and leave the collecting grind behind, you'll get a very good game that does away with the video game concept at AAA level.