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hello there Control thread. What are people's overall thoughts on AWE? It might just be my lack of investment in the Alan Wake games but I was... underwhelmed? It felt like it missed the big draw points of the base game and Foundation (for me). In my mind those are the character interactions and Jesse learning about the FDC and wtf is going on, as well as the NPC interaction and dialogue. AWE was just... Alan narrating at you via hotline and some spooky darkness poo poo I guess with Jesse kind acting like this is kinda par for the course at this point with that crazy poo poo she's already dealt with.
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Sep 3, 2020 19:11
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 11:50 |
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ScootsMcSkirt posted:i was a bit underwhelmed too. Im wondering if that has to do with the fact that I never played Alan Wake. That being said, I liked how the new area played with the lighting and the multi-part boss fight with hartman was pretty fun. I think i just expected more. I was really hoping for a new OOP and surge is probably my least favorite gun form since its so fiddly to use. Outside of the darkness, the new area didnt really seem that different from the main game. Im currently doing Foundation for the 1st time and its cool being in this sandy open area after spending the whole game in offices and hallways Never have I been simultaneously glad and sad over a few other people agreeing with me. Ultimately I don't agree on Hartman, I kind of thought he was boring and uninspired. I think my greatest disappointment is that is was just... more Hiss enemies + giant mutant dude who the darkness and hiss fought over and boringly just because immune in darkness. I was hoping for new enemy designs or just something aside from more Hiss (I liked the mold hosts in the base game! They broke up enemy variety!) and the occasional Darkness hump you seared off with light. Hell an OOP based on light that originated from Alan Wake or was adjacent to but appropriated for dealing with Hartman and the whole Brightlake AWE as a whole would have been very, very neat. But no. It was just an extended advertisement for a new Alan Wake game. That's what it kinda felt like and came off as to me. I'm more than okay for the dev team to come out with a new game, and getting into the Alan Wake stuff actually sounds neat! Just don't uh, make a glorified DLC advertisement doing it, it just undercuts your already really good game.
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Sep 3, 2020 20:42
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All good points. Multi-Launch is pretty much the best thing, along with infinite shots at Ashtray maze.
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Sep 3, 2020 21:16
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I found enough of the hidden locations/secret stuff in the base game + foundation literally all I needed to do was respec and dump whatever points I had shoved into Melee into Multi-Launch. But yeah, Respec good.
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Sep 3, 2020 21:53
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Paul Zuvella posted:ive been trying literally everything with this orb for like 20 minutes, so I have a hard time believing that im just going too slow but I guess i'll just keep trying I think know which orb you're talking about, and I had a bit of trouble too at the time. Someone mentioned work top down, but also try and figure out which route around it will allow you to do it the most efficiently. You'll get it down and if you really can't figure it out, try assist mode maybe? See if that'll help you push past with infinite energy or something.
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Sep 5, 2020 15:35
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Paul Zuvella posted:oh boy can't wait then. Im curious what people actually like about the foundation, because it seems like the most generic, bland extension of the gameplay of the main game without basically any of the interesting story or charm. I disagree? Foundation has some of those quirky story moments, along with an actual alien landscape that is vastly different from the offices. Jesse also still gets people to interact with (Pope mostly) and it's obvious she's still dealing with the growing pains of having just accepted being the Director properly. Also the whole interaction with big boy and trying to figure that out, and more fleshed out details of the Board making you wonder if they actually do have your best interests in mind. Not to mention all the hotlines give you more insight into Marshall as well, who was not as there in the main game.
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Sep 5, 2020 16:07
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Paul Zuvella posted:I guess it all just seems extremely nothing to me because... of course the board can't be trusted, they are some weird eldrich nightmare horror cabal that is without shape or form. Nothing in the main game suggests they should be trusted, or have Jesse's best interest in mind, or even really care all that much about humanity other than trying to prevent the fabric of space time from being torn asunder. Can't say I totally agree with this, as if nothing else the Board did do it's best to be helpful in main game and also clearly started to suffer and became a sort of 'damsel' if you will. Being genre savvy enough to immediately distrust them off the bat is understandable (and I dare say realistic even if you aren't genre savvy) but I think that Foundation sets a much firmer, more obvious point of really you shouldn't trust the Board at all. Mind you, I don't think Foundation as a whole is at anywhere near the standard set by the main game in terms of story engagement. The main game set the bar so drat high that really any DLC is just going to fall flat in some way imo. AWE on the other hand is like, just a giant teaser for the new Alan Wake game but hey you get to play Control while doing it! You didn't like all the investment in character development in the base game right? You don't need that. At least we're giving you Multi-Launch!
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Sep 5, 2020 17:46
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Did you all know you can grab the projectiles of Charge with Launch? Easiest way to kill flying enemies is shoot a Charge rocket at them then grab it as they dodge and slam it into their backside for explosion AND launch damage.
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Sep 12, 2020 04:12
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Charge is OP as hell and literally how I slept through the game after getting it. Slap two +weapon damage mods on and either reload speed or ammo efficency while levitating and be amazed as you never change to another weapon form again! Charge up Charge to fire three rockets at once and delete literally everything! The only part of the game I started having actual difficulty with only Charge+Launch was Expeditions where literally everything has absurd (or ludicrous with the wrong mutators) health pools and you need an actual DPS weapon. It's really kind of a shame because the rest of the weapons are all neat and obviously supposed to fill a niche, but when that niche is overshadowed by "I exploded it with Charge instantly" you get a much less interesting experience. edit: The only time Charge isn't amazing is very specific bosses too but you just solved the issue with Launch, like many things in this game. Evil Kit fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Sep 12, 2020 |
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Sep 12, 2020 04:21
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CJacobs posted:I seriously just cannot get over the AWE DLC. It was exactly what I wanted. I am probably the biggest fan of Alan Wake you will find out in the wild (besides Remedy themselves I guess) and it proved to be pitch-perfect fanservice without being purposeless like fanservice often can be. Remedy has never let me down with a game of theirs, not once. Their track record is just second-to-none. Hit after hit for years. I'm glad to hear someone enjoyed the DLC, but as someone not heavily invested in Alan Wake it really did feel flat to me. However, I will allow after some more thinking from some previous posts on the matter that COVID probably heavily impacted the development of the DLC and maybe even caused it to be a little more on the thin side game content wise. Whether that happens to be in terms of lack of extra enemy variety in only adding Hartman as a new enemy (unlike Foundation which at least had 1 new basic enemy aside from the bosses it added) or a lack of interesting use of the new game mechanic (the lighting thing was cool! Shame its only literal use was as a door lock/chest blocker). I would have LOVED to get to shine lights on enemies before being able to hurt them, especially if they had brought in a new OOP to give you a way to bring your own light source around later on as a kind of upgrade for dealing with them. Hell, I was expecting it since you got two new powers with Foundation that let you interact in fun ways with the environment, but nope. That probably added to my disappointment. Overall I think AWE is not as bad as I framed it earlier in the thread, as I was exaggerating for effect but in terms of an actual addition to the gameplay and story of Control itself I find it kind of lackluster overall. It def makes a great Alan Wake trailer though, so I can 100% understand anyone who is a massive fan loving the hell out of it.
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Sep 12, 2020 15:52
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haveblue posted:AWE also uses the new enemies introduced in Foundation, which is weird if it's true that it inserts itself into the game progression before Foundation on new runs. That's a good point actually. I forgot it apparently happens earlier on cannonically which does make it very weird, but considering the release dates of the actual DLCs I can't really consider them new enemies I think. Especially if you do it in the intended order you'll see those enemies briefly, then never again after beating the DLC and beating the game to get access to Foundation. Hm.
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Sep 12, 2020 16:04
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The Expeditions are straight up dumb and really show off the faults with the core of the combat system if you inflate numbers. My very first proper run (not the introduction to it, I fell off a cliff and that booted me out since it was a fail state) I got the +75% enemy health modifier and no actual weapon/power damage bonus modifiers. I literally timed out vs the final challenge due to how horrifically long it took to kill everything. If you turn on one-shot enemies + invuln in assist mode to get the outfit I would not blame anyone here in the slightest.Kharn_The_Betrayer posted:I'm currently going through the foundation dlc and i cant seem to be able to progress. I'm right after the choice of power, i chose fracture (kinda disappointing imo). I went back to the crossroads and i break open this wall near the mobile lab. I fell into the astral collision. I then do the whole sequence of climbing to get to the top of the towers and make the central platform appear, i get to the slab i touch it, i complete the ritual and it sends me back to the central platform. On the central platform there was a beam of light that sends me back to the crossroads. That's where I'm stuck i can't seem to find anywhere to go from there since it seems like you need the create power to reach the next parts. Did i miss something? Uh, check your objectives and try looking around. It's been forever but I def had the same trouble, I think as long as you've activated both towers there should be a bit further on from the central where it teleports you that you should be able to advance to. Levitating from the tops of one of the towers is probably easier? It's been forever since then so my memory is a little hazy, but I think I tripped up in the same place you did for a bit.
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Sep 13, 2020 03:34
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If you haven't yet respec and pick up Multi-Launch. That + Charge let me burst him down. Seriously a ball ache of a fight, only failed it a couple of times cause of surprise shotgun blast one shotting me before I knew what to expect.
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Sep 13, 2020 16:56
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Threshold Kids has this great progression of  to  to suddenly  where you are suddenly questioning if whoever made this is sane and even knows what actual children can relate to or if it somehow the concept of Threshold Kids itself became an altered item whose only purpose is to creep you the hell out.
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Sep 14, 2020 01:12
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Willie Tomg posted:I opened the map while taking the elevator from Parapsychology to the Ritual Division and oh. my. god. that is such a good nod to how elevators can obfuscate player movement in game/map design which makes sense the more you think about it playing the game later--those areas are NOT directly above/below each other!!! why are they able to be reached by each other from an elevator?!?!?! Because Oldest House. What did you expect from a building that rearranges the lobby you first arrive in as soon as you turn around?
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Sep 15, 2020 05:36
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I dunno, I think it's quite the opposite and is quite a weapon of legend. It follows you into the Astral Plane where I'm sure any normal gun wouldn't come with you, and is actually effective vs a lot of the big side bosses like Former and Mold-1, The Anchor where you wouldn't really expect a regular gun to be much health. I can agree with it being a bit underwhelming in practice, but who says the legendary weapons themselves weren't exaggerated beyond belief and actually just kind boring and normal-ish if you actually saw them in person?
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Sep 16, 2020 01:55
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NGL I was confused by the Underhill for the longest time because I just had no idea where it was. The game signposts all the mold rooms you find as very big DON'T GO IN HERE IT MURDERS YOU so when the area you actually need pass through has some actual warning signings and blocking barricades into a bunch of mold on the ground you have been taught is bad/murder is... not actual able to hurt you in the slightest? And is the way you're supposed to go? I go out of my way not to look stuff up that's for progression in games and not just secrets, but after spending almost an hour baffled I finally gave up and looked it up online. I was moldly irritated after finding out.
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Sep 16, 2020 19:11
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CharlestonJew posted:I had the same issue as well. I thought "oh there's no way I'm supposed to be able to go there without some sort of anti-mold upgrade first" Pretty much my exact thoughts too. And this John Murdoch posted:I definitely avoided the Pit when I was doing my initial sweep of Central Research. Once Pope pointed to Underhill I went "oh okay, that's what was up with that" and just went for it. Didn't even click at all because it just feels so signposted as DON'T GO IN HERE I just kinda blocked it out as an option entirely. Also  at no one appreciating my mold jokes. Guess I'm not a fun guy enough to pull it off.
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Sep 16, 2020 19:36
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exquisite tea posted:I guess you could say it was sporely received. There's enough mushroom in here for rest of us with such a fruiting comment like that.
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Sep 16, 2020 19:50
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Yeah, tbh even if you are a tricked out end game Jesse rolling into the Pit, the mold snipers just 2 shot you from across the room with little to no noise and your shield isn't going to help you. They're absolutely the only enemy in the game I will point at as total bullshit design (extremely far range, pretty quiet, 1 or 2 shot you depending on your health upgrades, multiple can spawn in one location) and were kind of baffled to find in an otherwise pretty well and tightly designed game.
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Sep 16, 2020 19:59
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My take on Expeditions was pretty straightforward: it shows off that the combat in the game is not designed to be scaled up MMO style. I too experienced the +100% enemy health modifier without any modifiers to aid Jesse in killing things. There is a real lack of good sustained DPS in the game, and that modifier right there really shoves it in your face how boring the combat can get when you have to shoot/Launch things at a single enemy for up to a minute or longer. Even then some of the challenges are just best solved by ignoring every enemy and just going for the objectives you have to do. I got the outfit legit and it was literally just a matter of rolling an expedition to get some massive damage bonus on a good weapon or Launch, and not getting the enemy +% health mod. The combat is good when it is tightly tuned and encounters are designed for where you are in the story. It is not good when everything does shitloads of damage and takes for loving ever to kill. I can see where they were trying to go with Expeditions, but it really just didn't work imo.
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Sep 17, 2020 04:26
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There is also the non-dlc Alan Wake reference in the panopticon.
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Sep 18, 2020 05:13
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Wow! That's actually vastly different than how I had interpreted the whole ending sequence. From what I remember, the dimension the Hiss came from was essentially a prison and Hedron/Polaris was the warden that kept it from spreading. When Jesse/Dylan visited it during the Ordinary AWE, perhaps Hedron/Polaris had already seen the writing on the wall and planted a seed of its own resonance inside of Jess/Dylan as a sort of fail safe. The resonance helped Jesse/Dylan develop a greater affinity for connecting with Altered Items and OoPs because they already had some 4th/5th dimensional predisposition due to having a seed of Polaris in them. Whether or not Dylan ever actually existed aside, fast forward to the end game and Jesse basically realizing as she tries to "rescue" Polaris from the containment unit only to find it empty was essentially her realization that wherever or whatever the original Polaris had come from, it was gone and she was now essentially, Polaris with the seed having grown. They were one in the same, and the Hiss trying to invade her was desperately trying to hide the fact that she was now the new warden/protector with the ability to drive it back. Jesse realizes this and drives it out, then goes to save Dylan, who is essentially the part of the Hiss trying to control the Projector at that point. I didn't think it was too jarring having the Projector getting cleansed handwaved in a fade to black scenario because at that point, it wasn't important. The whole build up and drive for Jesse in the story is finding/rescuing her brother, and the things she did along the way were all towards that goal. So when you've finally rescued him... who cares about some dumb projector? Overall I too have gripes about the mechanics when it was stretched to its limits, but the setting? 
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Sep 19, 2020 01:25
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John Murdoch posted:
 To go into my real conspiracy theory I think that in the Hedron vs Polaris debate Hedron was just the physical manifestation or anchor of whatever put it there to imprison the Hiss, whereas Polaris that tried to connect with Jesse originally is an entirely separate entity and in planting the seed of something so otherworldly an unnatural for a human it caused a split in Jesse's psyche in both a metaphysical and literal sense to create Dylan. Dylan was created to be the one who carried the Polaris seed primarily to deal with the strain, which is why Jesse "lost touch" with Polaris so to speak. When the Dylan self finally shoved Polaris out it simply returned to its original home in a continuation of trying to fulfill its purpose of stopping the Hiss from escaping its prison. Which it knew was escaping at that point so of course it really increased the urgency of the matter to Jesse in addition to dangling the "I know where your brother is!" bait in front of her. Really though a lot of the plot makes sense in that context, with Dylan simply being created to lure Jesse where she needed to be later on while still trying to give her the wish of being able to live her life normally. Weird that only one of them was captured ever yeah? Just saying. There are a lot of takes on the plot though, and really metaphysical fuckery is way out there for me. It's a great way to leave a whole bunch of free plot strings to grab for more story development later with whatever you want to do.
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Sep 19, 2020 02:04
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I personally don't think it's too cheapening because if this is the case of Alan writing Jesse in, all he did from what I remember is push her in the direction to set up another out. The whole Remedy universe also smacks of leaning towards multiple parallel universes/dimensions where slight variations happen, especially with all those big hints from Dylan himself. I think one could argue that rather than rewriting history per say, he may just create an alternative universe where the story he has written has actually taken place. The people who remember the "rewrite" are perhaps just connected enough with their own personal collective unconsciousness of themselves for whatever reason that they remember what is was like in the other universe before Alan wrote the alternative version they inhabit. This is all pretty spitball and theory on my part, I have watched an LP a long time ago of the Alan Wake but don't remember all the details of it so grain of salt and all that. From reading what some posters have written who are more familiar with the setting it just doesn't make sense to me that one man is capable of literally writing history entirely through whatever weird power he has. I find it more believable with all the extra dimensions and parallel universes they've pointed at or hinted at in Control that it might be something more along those lines. edit: e;f loving b lmao. That makes way more sense in terms of what Alan can do.
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Sep 19, 2020 17:32
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site posted:I seem to have hit an unfortunate bug, I got the coin for the introductory expedition side quest but when I use the jukebox it just wants to start a regular expedition, not the quest That's normal, as the quest is literally just "Here's how expeditions work!!" Hop in and be amazed at the wonders of stretching a games combat design beyond it's limit!
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Sep 21, 2020 05:01
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site posted:Well yes, except I can't complete the quest. My cheevos No I mean I'm pretty sure that's the quest. If you haven't yet, try starting it. If it's actually bugged well hey, you got another good reason to replay the game!
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Sep 21, 2020 05:26
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Johnny Joestar posted:the only valid outfit is the janitor's suit
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Sep 24, 2020 21:41
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Am I the odd one out for finding Tommasi to be a joke? After watching the first bits of the LP which convinced me to pick up the game and play it myself finally, I psyched myself up hella hard because the LPer struggled with it a bit too even with having beaten the game before. Got there myself, discovered literally just shooting Grip at him caused him to dodge and Launched him to death in no time flat. I was kind of disappointed at how much easier it was in comparison to my expectations. Tbf I use m+kb on a pc rather than a ps controller but I dunno if that makes much more of a difference?
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Sep 29, 2020 04:54
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Mymla posted:Tbh I don't really understand how people can have trouble with the combat in this game in general. I think I died maybe 5 or 6 times total, and two of those were backpedaling into a bottomless pit I couldn't see. From my amount of gaming while watching other friends playing the same games as me and having wildly different results and skill levels based on the same amount of time put into a game, it's all relative really. I would label Control combat as pretty brutal and fast which can get frustrating for some people, but Remedy at the very least did a good job of making is satisfying and not too hard to click into the gameplay loop of Launch things at enemies, shoot with weapon when not able to Launch, repeat. Hell, the hardest time I had in the game early on was the first enemy arena due to my overconfidence and the lack of anything but Grip to defend yourself. After that is was some of the big side bosses Former, Mold-1, the Anchor that killed me a lot because those fights have A) Bottomless pits or the equivalent and B) phase changes with unexpected bullshit to catch you off guard that deals shitloads of damage. Bust Rodd posted:I found this game utterly unplayable on mouse and keyboard I found this game utterly unplayable on controller, but I also have a distinct lack of controller use for the past decade+ of my gaming life.
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Sep 29, 2020 17:34
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exquisite tea posted:Mold-1 is more of a "do you know how to use shield" check anyways. Whenever I used Shield in that fight it just blew me up through it so I thought it was just a trap tbh
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Feb 15, 2021 23:50
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As soon as I got Charge I slammed two damage mods and an ammo efficiency mod (so using a full three projectiles didn't force the reload) and just blew up everything. Literally everything but some of the side bosses got chumped by it. Even better as it was originally the only gun form that had Launch synergy. Firing a Charge projectile past a flyer to make them dodge then Launching the projectile into the back of their head is hands down one of the most satisfying thing in this game. Even if the flyer still had their dodge they'd still get hit since the Charge projectile was so close to it already.
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Feb 23, 2021 03:28
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Arglebargle III posted:Metro Redux series is on steam for 80% off today. If you like Control you'll like the Metro series' focus on atmospheric exploration and combat gameplay. Metro is a fantastic series that is not at all like Control. Still a big recommend though.
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Mar 14, 2021 00:08
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the trick to Tomassi and all Hiss elevated that has been sort of mentioned already is they always dodge the first shot of anything when their dash isn't on CD. So you can literally shoot a few bullets and then throw a Launch projectile after he's dodged your bullets like a numbnuts. Alternatively I will always stan the Charge as the best weapon in the game because you can literally shoot a single projectile at Elevated and then grab the projectile after they dodge it and Launch it into the back of their heads. Can't dodge the same rocket twice rear end in a top hat. 
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Sep 3, 2021 01:45
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Health keeps you from being one shot, combine that with the mod that boosts the health recovery you get from drops and I coasted through the game. Also slamming Launch upgrades of course, Launch is just too good.
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Dec 20, 2021 22:24
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 11:50 |
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Purely gameplay wise I dig Control way more, but imo the combat in AW2 is more a way to add to the atmosphere of the game than anything else. And fwiw, I enjoyed it, it was pretty satisfying killing the taken and the guns all sounded and felt good to use. Yeah you aren't blowing away hordes of enemies like Jesse does, but the two games have vastly different power levels. Control and AW2 are both worth playing on their own merits!
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Feb 7, 2024 02:56
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