E3 2019 - Hands on with Control

E3 2018 was where we got to see Control for the first time as Remedy took the covers off, since then, there has been little about the title released, thankfully in the months leading up to E3, that began to change, but it was at E3 2019, that I got to go hands on with the game and I am quite intrigued by this latest title from the studio.

Playing as Jesse Faden a member of the FBC, the Federal Bureau of Control, players are tasked with taking down an enemy know as the Hiss, who are able to take over the bodies of anyone they want, while Jesse herself has some supernatural abilities. The section of the game that I played, had Jesse without the bulk of those powers, just access to her weapon and a telekinetic option and as a newly installed head of the FBC, it was time to get out and try to solve what was happening. The mission started out quite easy, reboot a system, so the lockdown can be lifted in a specific section of the facility, so the story can move on, but as always things never go the way they are planned.

In order to get through to where the controls are, Jesse must first fight a few waves of Hiss, who have different abilities, depending on the person they are controlling, the easiest are the ones that are basic soldiers. Using the gun that Jesse has, taking out the enemies from a distance is not to hard, if they get close though, the gun has a secondary mode that allows for a stronger punch, though at a reduced shot count. Once the enemies in front were cleared out, there was the matter of cleansing a point, that helped reset the room back to normal, as any room where the Hiss are in control is reshaped from its normal layout.

Seeing a point be cleansed is actually quite fun, as the walls will start to pull back into themselves, which in turn opens up a path to move on through, giving the game a metroidvania feeling. The developers have stated that the game will allow for a lot of exploration and that was easy to discover here, with offices to explore and corridors leading elsewhere, that I lacked the right tools to get into. But pushing on, I soon came across the Janitor, whose names eludes me right now, and this guy was on something special, as he made little sense, but at the same time, made the most sense of anyone else that I had interacted with in the demo. Somehow, he dubs Jesse as his replacement, so he can go on his holidays, oblivious of the imposing threat, thankfully what tasks he assigns align with the mission we were already on, so it was time to push on.

My time with the demo was drawing to a close, but I was able to start a puzzle, where this alien gunk had covered up a series of fans and the result was that the power plant was getting dangerously close to exploding, something we did not want to happen. Clearing out the gunk was not difficult, however there was a challenge later, as in order to restart the fans, the telekinetic power was required to raise some power cells onto the fan control units, but all the time, taking out waves of enemies attempting to stop that from happening. Sadly it was while fighting these guys that my time with the game ended and I was sad at that, as once again Remedy have created a story that you will want to know more about, I know I do.

What surprised me most about the game, was how well the powers blended in with the gunplay, given that powers were so overpowered in their last title, Quantum Break. The world itself is fun to explore, given how it shifts around, which had me thinking as I left, what if rooms that looked normal, were anything but and only later in the game, they would shift back to what was needed. The game is out at the end of August and I can’t wait for it to arrive, as I want to dive back in and keep on playing.