Weird, supernatural phenomena?
Check.
Fancy shmancy superpowers?
Check!
Destructible environments and kick-ass weaponry?
Double check!
While everything about Control sounds rad
as hell, the upcoming Remedy Entertainment
title has managed to fly a bit under the radar,
so allow us to bring you up to speed on what
to expect.
Here's the nitty-gritty on Control: You play
as a character named Jesse Faden who will
explore a large environment called the "Oldest
House" using a variety of supernatural abilities
and weapons.
In the process, you'll battle an otherworldly,
invading force known as the Hiss.
Rock Paper Shotgun describes Control as, quote,
"Max Payne meets David Lynch."
"We live inside a dream."
It also sounds like Control has some Metroidvania
and Dark Souls elements to it: Players will
need to pay attention to their environment
and remember what abilities are needed to
fulfill certain objectives.
Once those new abilities have been discovered,
the player will be able to backtrack and open
up even more places to explore.
It will also feature a surreal story and plenty
of bizarre shenanigans to go along with it.
"The Oldest House is a shifting place."
Control is scheduled to release on Aug. 27,
2019 for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Control is developed by Remedy Entertainment,
which has a small but fairly high-quality
lineup of games to their name.
Their first-ever game was 1996's Death Rally,
but it was really the Max Payne series that
put them on the map.
After Max Payne came the critically acclaimed
Alan Wake games, while their most recent effort
was the ambitious but rocky Quantum Break.
Quantum Break did not do quite as well as
Remedy was hoping it would, so Control seems
like a bit of a course correction, taking
some of their ideas from Quantum Break but
melding them back into the comfort zone of
Alan Wake.
Control is also being published by 505 Games,
who have taken some fliers on ambitious, non-AAA
games that have gone on to huge success.
Rocket League, No Man's Sky, and Don't Starve
all fall under their umbrella.
In Control, our hero Jesse heads to the Federal
Bureau of Control, a fictional agency that
investigates the paranormal, to try to piece
together information about her past: specifically,
why she has psychic abilities.
Yeah, it's basically Fringe the video game…which,
in case you haven't watched Fringe the TV
show, is AWESOME.
"I've seen things that people only dream about.
I've seen the seams between universes ripped
apart."
Anyway, once Jesse arrives and the Hiss crashes
the party, an "Object of Power" called the
Service Weapon essentially chooses her, amplifying
her abilities and granting her all sorts of
new ones.
This powerful artifact and your own abilities
will be all you need to battle the forces
of evil, and, get this: the thing freaking
shapeshifts.
There are a variety of forms you can unlock
for the gun, and you can assign two different
forms to switch between at any given time.
What better way to take down an evil, otherworldly
menace than with a killer hand cannon?
With a focus on storytelling, Control will
need to have a few things.
Besides having a good story to tell, it will
also need some talented actors to tell it.
Luckily, there are plenty of veterans who
voice characters in the game.
Courtney Hope voices Jesse, and she has experience
working in several television shows as well
as doing voice work in several games.
She's even worked with Remedy before; she
played Beth Wilder in Quantum Break.
"Hey guys, it's Jesse Faden.
I'm going to be showing you around Remedy
who apparently is making a game about me."
Max Payne himself, James McCaffrey, has a
role in Control as well.
He also appeared in Alan Wake, and has acted
in several movies and television shows.
Speaking of Alan Wake, Matthew Porretta also
makes an appearance in Control.
The man behind the voice of Alan, who also
played Will Scarlett O'Hara in Robin Hood:
Men in Tights, will play the awesomely named
Dr. Casper Darling.
"Don't worry.
It'll be, uh, quick and painless.
I'm kidding."
Alright, Control sounds like a winner.
So what are your options for buying it?
It's releasing for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
And for consoles, it's a pretty simple solution.
One thing you'll want to watch out for if
you're planning on picking up Control on PC,
however, is that you won't be able to get
it on Steam, at least not for a while.
For the first year, Control will be an Epic
Games Store exclusive.
After that, you can expect it to show up on
other platforms.
We know, we know, commence with the booing.
Get it out of your system.
"I knew it was too good to be true!"
Yes, it's a controversial move.
Yes, we realize that nobody likes Epic's creepy,
manipulative exclusivity practices.
But maybe, just maybe, the game will be so
good, you'll want to give Steam's competitor
a shot.
Maybe.
If you're planning on picking up Control on
the console of your choice, then strap yourself
in.
You have a lot of options on how to buy it.
In fact, there are so many different versions,
pre-order bonuses, and exclusive items available
for Control that there had to be two separate
charts to understand it all: one for PS4 and
one for Xbox One.
The PS4 will have four versions of Control:
Retail Standard, Digital Standard, Retail
Deluxe, and Digital Deluxe.
The Xbox One version will only have three
of those: no Digital Deluxe for Xbox One owners.
However, each PS4 version of the game includes
exclusive content, so what you get with, say,
the Digital Standard PS4 version of Control
will not be the same as what you get with
the Digital Standard Xbox One version.
The PC version only has the Standard Digital
version listed for pre-order, which is probably
the same as the Xbox One version.
Hey, we're all for choices.
But this time, it seems as though Remedy may
have just…lost control.
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