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Finland's own Remedy Entertainment began inauspiciously enough, quietly releasing a mid-'90s vehicular combat game before happening across an early-aughts classic: Max Payne. In more recent years, though, Remedy found its way around the Xbox ecosystem with the likes of Alan Wake and Quantum Break, and now the developer has returned to PlayStation for the first time in 16 years with Control. Steeped in deep and confounding lore and littered with kinetic gameplay, Control is fun to both play and talk about. Today's episode of Sacred Symbols+, not surprisingly, is dedicated to the latter. Let's try and make sense of what Control is all about, argue over the quality of its design, and endeavor to understand just what's going on at the FBC, anyway.

Files

Comments

Darren Steele

Love this game so much. Love Remedy as a whole. Max Payne, Alan Wake, Control all stellar video games. Quantum Break is a but hit and miss bit I still enjoyed it. I'm fascinated by this connected universe they have going with AW and Control. Super hyped for AW2 and Control 2. It's not a lake it's an ocean.

Kenneth Oms

With all the games that came out I had to pass on this one, but this episode made me want to check it out, it reminds me of Second Sight (ps2/Xbox)

Richard Duflo

I played it on a base PS4 (launch console actually) and it ran fine outside of the issues you guys experienced. the game lagged coming out of the Pause menu and the map wouldn't load sometimes. Performance didn't really get in my way. Really fun game though! Enjoyed it quite a bit

Kendall Helmstetter Gelner

I played it on a PS4 Pro, I also just got platinum - I really loved this game. For me I really enjoyed the non-linearity, because I loved exploring and finding new things or actions, I mixed up reading with action. One thing I'd say is that not everything relates to the Astral plane, there are other planes of existence as well (though maybe all are linked through the Astral plane). The mirror dimension was one example... that was a lot of part of the fun was that there were so many strange corners of the game to find, especially as you start to find hidden rooms and areas. I liked how you were wandering around a incoherent world because you had just entered a building that is part of a very old and vastly larger universe than what you knew... I thought it was funny you said you liked the shotgun form, that was by far my least favorite form - in contrast I loved Spin and it seemed the most effective weapon to me. That said I also used Launch mostly and used weapons only when I ran out of energy. Also awesome aspect of Launch, is how the item doesn't have to be drawn all the way to you before you can throw it, which adds to the stylish possibilities... You mentioned you wanted something like a horde mode, but then you said you skipped out the missions - those are where something more like horde mode happens, it's where they spawn some really challenging enemies and a lot more of them. I think what you experienced with no enemies must have been some kind of bug, if I went to the right area I always found enemies there. Totally agree that you should have been able to listen to audio while you were wandering around. Also I would not worry about reading so much that it's over-explained, not the case at all... I think there may be 6 Threshold Kids videos, I've found five so far - there are some with hidden videos. Really enjoyed listening to your thoughts!

Aurang

Just an Fyi for you Colin , Dagan, and Chris. This was easily the best 5 dollars I spent this month. Wish I had done it earlier!

LastStandMedia

It really makes me wonder how many collectibles I missed if I only found two of those videos. I was pretty friggin' thorough...

Carlos Quintanilla

Really enjoyed the mirror Essej boss fight. It felt much more exciting than the other bosses. Also, being able to rehear the soldier interview in the mirror world to understand what he was trying to say was a nice touch.

Kendall Helmstetter Gelner

I also thought that mirrored audio log thing was awesome, I was really hoping to find that on the other side and there it was! It made it worth sitting there to listen to audio logs just to hear that one. Also made the whole area much creepier since it was the first thing I did when I got to the other side, so I knew something was coming for me.

Watch Ergo Proxy

Just beat the game last night, can't wait to see what you guys thought of the game I just wanted to say that the Ashtray Maze is something I will never EVER forget

Watch Ergo Proxy

By the way you guys are totally right about base PS4. When the game first launched, you couldn't even destroy desks because the debris would make the game freeze up and go down to less than 5 FPS for several seconds. The patch helped a LOT, but the game still loads slowly and there's a lot of really bad texture pop-in (especially on things like paintings). At least the physics is way more stable than on launch but WOW performance is atrocious at times.

LastStandMedia

It's weird, because we're getting a lot of different kinds of feedback on this front. Some saying they had no issues, others saying they did. We both had issues on Pro!

John the Nabo

I think its funny how chris remembered the "ordinary" stuff from Alan Wake, but there are like 5 files talking about the happenings of Alan Wake, even calling wake by name. Apparently one of the annouced DLC's (AWE) Is going to have Alan Wake stuff

John the Nabo

I really love the ammount of detail put into this game, i feel like can fully grasp the concepts touched on by this game, the world building is awesome, even on optional shit that you get by just experimenting with the physics of the world, like synchronyzing the Newton's Cradles in one of the deparments

Sharlock93

I wonder if you guys skipped over the entire part where AWE and OoP are generally caused by the collective unconscious of the human race. That is what I understood from it.

Dank Yharnam Nugz

One of the files even said that the happenings in Alan Wake were deemed to be an AWE, and Alan Wake himself was considered a paranatural candidate

MostlyCharlie

Colin, thanks for taking the time to at least try and break down the story and the lore a bit. I’ve been wanting to hear some more deep discussion about this, but I feel like most of the podcasts and YouTube channels that I’ve gone to are trying to go for some cheap humor by being all “The story is so weird and bonkers and fucked up and I have no idea what’s going on but I love it!” But in my experience with the game, the story was pretty straightforward and there was even one part toward the end of the main campaign where Jesse breaks everything down and puts it all out there. I mean, yeah, the subject matter is bizarre, and you can certainly read a lot of metaphor into it, but the story itself was excellent and I think Remedy did a great job of taking something so bonkers and ethereal and making it seem real and approachable. Maybe I’m alone in that though, I dunno.

Gary & Carl

The story of this game sounds straight out of the SCP universe.

Birdo64

Hey Colin, great review! So happy to give y’all my $5. This might be a crazy opinion, but this is actually my game of the year so far. I know it’s not a perfect game, but it was so fun and memorable for me. Something about the story and the way it was told really stuck with me, and the strange, psychological nature of the game was very cool. I also played it on a launch ps4, and a lot of the lag was fixed after the patch. It was still there, but didn’t get in the way of my personal enjoyment of the game and really was only super noticeable after the pause menus and in large scale fights. Can’t wait for DLC already. I agree a bit more with Chris in this review, but I’m glad you two had different opinions. Made for a better review. Thanks again!

John the Nabo

To be honest the best way to play this game is stoping and reading all of the files as you get them, some people might not enjoy this since it breaks the pace of the game, but i really like doing this. I feel like i can fully grasp the world that is presented and at least conceptually understand all of it. So far its my game of the year, it hit all my buttons

Dave Carsley

Colin mentions that someone named Beth Wilder plays Jesse. But I just finished the game a few minutes ago and I swear Jesse was played by someone named Courtney Hope (or maybe Courtney Hopp) per the end game credits. Maybe I'm wrong-- I'll look it up and delete this if I am.

Nlindz27

I believe beth wilder was the character the same actress played in Quantum Break

Nlindz27

Th clarify, Courtney Hope is her actual name haha.

Dave Carsley

Oh I gotcha. So he was basically saying the character played the character. I hadn't played Quantum Break, so I didn't understand-- especially since I think the real names of the other actors were used (like Matthew Porretta as Alan Wake). Thanks for the explanation!!

John the Nabo

Hit me up with something you dont get and i'll try to explain, somethings cant, and thats the point of them, thats why the bureau exists.

LastStandMedia

I Platinumed the game and I didn't get that, but again, I don't know that I really get it.

LastStandMedia

I did that for a while, but I felt like I was kinda getting bogged-down and just wanted to play.

John the Nabo

Its not for everyone, i enjoy reading files because im a fucking nerd, also my work doesnt depend on me finishing this game so i could take my time.

Anonymous

I know it’s pretty late but if you enjoy the O.o.P’s and Alter Items and the documentation around them then you should check out the SCP Found website. I think you can see how it might have influenced this game with the objects and the containment procedures. http://www.scp-wiki.net

Dank Yharnam Nugz

Definitely enjoyed it. The only thing I strongly disagreed with is the idea that Sony definitely doesn't need a studio like Remedy. It may be that they make third person narrative games like every other Sony 1st party, but their narratives are unlike any other. Hell, I bought a 360 for the sole purpose of playing Alan Wake back in 2010 or 11. And then sold it after I was done :D

Pete (edited)

Comment edits

2022-01-24 08:12:22 Hey C&C, Just finished this absolute beast of a game. Such a refreshing game from both a narrative and gameplay point of view. Sounds like you guys were both quite happy with the game. Curious if you guys are going to pick up the DLC? Especially since it's suppose to provide more lore to sink our teeth into. It even has a arena mode for Chris to test his metal. Anyways, love these spoiler casts. I thorougly enjoy coming back to these after finishing the games and hearing your opinions on it. Cheers, Pete
2020-04-08 19:38:09 Hey C&C, Just finished this absolute beast of a game. Such a refreshing game from both a narrative and gameplay point of view. Sounds like you guys were both quite happy with the game. Curious if you guys are going to pick up the DLC? Especially since it's suppose to provide more lore to sink our teeth into. It even has a arena mode for Chris to test his metal. Anyways, love these spoiler casts. I thorougly enjoy coming back to these after finishing the games and hearing your opinions on it. Cheers, Pete

Hey C&C, Just finished this absolute beast of a game. Such a refreshing game from both a narrative and gameplay point of view. Sounds like you guys were both quite happy with the game. Curious if you guys are going to pick up the DLC? Especially since it's suppose to provide more lore to sink our teeth into. It even has a arena mode for Chris to test his metal. Anyways, love these spoiler casts. I thorougly enjoy coming back to these after finishing the games and hearing your opinions on it. Cheers, Pete