CONTROL — Hive

Finnish Remedy Studio can not do games for everyone, but it really makes top titles, the story of which is unique Sam Lake, and they always enjoy a well-done action that adds something extra. That's how we can describe Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and the upcoming Control will be exactly the same. The game has been updated for quite a while, but this year's E3 has finally come to its official performance, and on Gamescome we have the opportunity to look closer to the demo of the current version, which still does not fully represent what we finally get, as there is still a lot of development before the game.

The demo was played somewhere in the middle of the game, and we were accompanied by Remedy people, who were at the same time approaching the story of Sam Lake again, and you know what it means. And from what we've seen and heard, the atmosphere is like the X-Files series, which is definitely just fine. The hero of the game is Jesse Faden (Courtney Hope), whose traumatic childhood was the source of her extraordinary abilities. You decide to investigate the secret office of the Federal Bureau of Control. This is a secret organization dealing with supernatural phenomena, located in the skyscraper called The Oldest House.

Even though the whole game is actually playing in this one building, you will be surprised by what everything will "fit" into it. Jesse is not the only one with mysterious abilities, and this building also has its secrets and abilities. It is changing, opening hidden spaces even where they should not have been under the laws of physics. It's simply bigger inside. Authors describe this world as a "open-end sandbox", you can travel in many ways, search for hidden secrets, even perform side-tasks, as not everyone you come across when walking across the game is your enemy. For example, you can save someone, and so on.

The fact that the world around you is constantly changing can really bring you the unique experiences the demo has shown. For example, with Jesse, you are going down the hall, but the world has changed to the hotel, you almost did not even notice it, it was also organic. Nothing at all may be the way it looks like at first. Large halls suddenly change to claustrophobic corridors and the like. The level design in the demo worked so fascinatingly when it was made of chickens. Even you will have the opportunity to change a little building according to your will. It acts almost surrealistically, as the game looks like this and changes the impression of space. It is all amplified by the dark, cold and brutal processing of the world.

It may even sound strange, but Remedy wanted to incorporate the elements of the metroid of the genre into the game and its world, so action games in a relatively large world that you are gradually opening up by acquiring new skills. This will be the case here. In the course of the game, Jesse will collect new abilities and allow him to open new trips even in previously visited locations. We saw it, for example, that Jesse gained the ability to levitate and, thanks to it, moved to inaccessible places. We will see how these principles will work in such an action game, but at least in the demo it has been very interesting.

And why do you actually face it all? FBC has been the target of attacking entities known as Hiss. They attacked the oldest house and killed the director of the FBC. Jesse's job is to take his place, with the role of the director gained through an ancient ritual that allowed him to control a unique weapon that can change into various other forms. Even though Jesse has only one weapon in the game, it allows him different ways to fight and fight, but I'll be doing that later. So in the main heroine's skin you must prevent invasion and at the same time find your lost team. It all draws on the higher level of the fact that Jesse "chases" the former director Zachariah Trench. It respects what has remained of him.

You can enjoy it in really good scenes when Trench's "spirit" enters the scene in the form of shadow, or through really great exposure like the demo, which just confirmed that Remedy can still get into the story already on your first contact with the game. Perhaps such moments will offer the final game as much as possible and may be repeated, but for a mile you can feel Remedy's game and a fair robot. Jesse, in the course of the game, leads the internal monologues to give you more details and bring some light into some mysteries, but at the same time open another. If you have the advice of Lynch, you can find something from him and the authors do not even know the inspiration.

The weapon mentioned above may act as an ordinary gun, and most of your gaming may be seen, but with the opportunity to change your options it will change shape. In addition, you can upgrade it during the game so it becomes stronger and the like. Control also sees that it is based on ideas that were not finally realized for Quantum Break, where it was also thought that the character might have more abilities. Jesse will have them and the main one will be telekinesis. Jesse, for example, from his debris can create a shield so that the enemies will not reach it. However, this ability can also be used in the attack, not only in the defense. So he can also attack and throw something on the enemies, and he always gently marks such useable objects.

Along with these capabilities, the technology side, in particular the physical engine, is important for the game. While the Quantum Break was running on Havok, the authors use the new technology for Control, but they do not want to talk much about it yet. Certainly, however, they want to bring realistic physics into the game, so the materials will behave as you would expect from them. The same applies to subjects. If you expect you to do something to lift and throw the enemies, you can actually do it in the game. It works well in terms of both playability and visibility when you see, for example, how the glass works.

Even physics in the game takes care of the really great atmosphere and scenes you will experience. For example, they can be "frozen" in the air, and when you do not go over, you can hear a really fine whisper - the frills guaranteed. In terms of atmosphere, the demo really worked as a well-functioning machine, where each detail added something to the whole, whether it was a particular scene, physics, visual, sound, architecture and level design, the shadow of a former director persecuting Jesse, his inner monologues, or many other elements.

In the big game it also benefits from audiovisual processing, which is surprisingly good at Remedy's relatively small independent studio, which is now also a relatively small publisher. Enlightenment works great, as well as effects. Visuals dominate colors such as gray, black, red (which, for example, also represents Hiss). Animated characters are also processed and their depiction is more detailed. There is also a new sound system, but it is a bit harder to evaluate. There was tremendous noise on the exhibition grounds, and even though each reporter got the headphones, we could use the little details, and in some moments they simply rushed the surrounding noise.

Remedy is working on something extraordinary and we need to hold the thumbs to get it done. Potential is huge here, and demo-related demos suggest that this may be one of the most anticipated titles of the year 2019, and for many, it will certainly be a good thing that the game can enjoy the widest range of players this time as the game is in preparation for PC , Xbox One and PS4. However, we do not know yet the date of release and certainly not much more information and details about the game. However, he will definitely take the spotlight on the news of the Control game, as it is described as a really interesting title.

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