I definitely enjoyed Control. It’s worth grabbing on sale.
I had picked it up on sale for $10, left it in my backlog until 2024 when I was looking for a little palate cleanser. I was expecting a quick little shooter, maybe 10-20 hours, something to occupy a couple of weekends. I ended up spending 100 hours to get it 100% complete, watching lore videos with my wife, and now we are going back and playing Alan Wake.
Still have no interest in a multiplayer live-service game though. These companies all convince themselves that THEY will be the next “big thing” and it usually fails.
You’ll have a ball with Alan Wake, especially the second one which has turned out to be one of my all time favorite games. I love what Remedy are cooking (at least on their single player games). I feel like we all knew Firebreak was going to be bad and collectively just wished Remedy focused on Control 2 and Alan Wake 3 instead.
I will say that while I like Alan Wake so far (I think 3 chapters in), it’s nowhere near as good as Control.
Playing on PC with a controller, AW is clunky and slow. It’s a stealth/adventure/survival horror game where the systems seem to be designed to take on 1 or 2 enemies at a time, but the game routinely throws 3+ enemies at you at once even on the lowest difficulty. They are stingy with ammo, but the enemies tend to be bullet sponges. The levels are designed so that you killing the enemies is usually mandatory- I keep trying to stealth or run past them, but there is inevitably some mandatory fight or a puzzle that requires combat. The story and characters are good, but so far not as good as Control’s were. Honestly I wonder whether they would have been better off re-making Alan Wake instead of FBC.
I am still enjoying Alan Wake and intend to finish it, but I’d say it’s a C tier game. Ironically what I was expecting from Control. I’ll probably play Alan Wake 2 eventually, though I may need to upgrade my PC first to get a better experience.
I think that’s fair, Alan Wake 1 is quite clunky and is also getting on in years by now. The gameplay is much more polished in the sequel, you can tell both that it’s significantly newer and also that Remedy has learned and improved. I think the survival horror and shooting gameplay in AW2 is quite smooth and enjoyable.
It is certainly very demanding on your PC though, but also one of the best looking games out there.
This is almost exactly what happened with me and my wife as well. I love SCPs, and this game is probably one of the best realizations we will get of that universe. So well done and the lore is easily digestible.
One thing these companies seem to fail to realise is that such a genre doesn’t appeal to the 100% market share they want, no matter the coat of paint they spray on it. The one that stood the greatest chance of appealing to me was cancelled before it was even announced and it was a very specific coat of paint that made me interested so nothing else will ever manage to hook me.
Definitely, it’s one of my favourite games.
It was a complete mindfuck when I realized it takes place in the Alan Wake universe. Currently working on the Alan Wake remaster so the DLC isn’t full of spoilers. Really interesting storytelling in both.
I could not get into this game. Felt like wandering around vacant offices. I found it incredibly dull and gave up after about four hours of gameplay.
