CONTROL: ULTIMATE EDITION - REVIEW

“…For all the hype, the wonder, and the weirdness, the story of CONTROL fails to do what so many great games have done in the past – take me beyond the End-of-the-Line.”

CONTROL Ultimate Edition stands out as one of the most interesting setups of any near-to-reality fiction I’ve ever encountered. However, for all the hype, the wonder, and the weirdness, the story of CONTROL fails to do what so many great games have done in the past – take me beyond the End-of-the-Line.

What do I mean by End-of-the-Line? WARNING: Spoilers for CONTROL Ultimate Edition ahead.

Actual gameplay screenshot - not everything is as it seems.

If you’re familiar with me, or my story analyses up to this point, you’ve probably heard me use this phrase. It was brought to my attention in the magnum opus ‘Story’ by Robert McKee and does the best job describing one of the key ways writers subvert the expectations of their audience.

When we start any story, we can infer where the story will end based on the information provided at the beginning.

In CONTROL, it’s revealed relatively early that Jesse Feden, your character, has arrived at the Federal Bureau of Control to find her long-lost brother. Logical conclusion? She finds him – duh. Another major point is the order in which you meet characters. The first character Jesse meets when entering the Bureau is Ahti, the creepy but mostly harmless (right?...RIGHT?!) janitor. In any other story, this sets up one of two things – the sage/guide for the hero on their journey, or the major antagonist.

Back to the End-of-the-Line, based on this setup, Jesse will find her brother, and realize that Ahti – for some obscure reason – has been helping her along the way, only to discover that Ahti either has something to do with why Jesse and her brother are there in the first place, or that he’s the ultimate bad guy.

This is the End-of-the-Line.

Good storytellers stop here, and, though this isn’t exactly how CONTROL plays out, it’s not far off. The story is good but falls short of being great because it doesn’t find a way to push beyond this point.

CONTROL drops the ball on some great storytelling potential all around. First, Jesse’s brother is built up to be some kind of psychopath. I suppose we would be to if we were kidnapped by a secret government agency at the age of 10 and tortured till our latent psychic abilities emerged; and that’s all before interdimensional demons start corrupting his mind (yeah, there’s a lot going on here.)

Not actual gameplay - Dylan Feden, Jesse’s brother, Unhinged

Turns out, this psychotic nature isn’t too far from the truth. The problem is that, after a fairly tense journey to finally find the guy, we find nothing more than an empty cell and get a phone call that the dude has made it back to the Executive Offices (the safe hub where most other characters hang out at.) Talk about anti-climactic, but fine – let’s travel back the way we came (or fast travel if you’re lazy like me) and walk into the board room where… Yup! No brother, no conflict. Turns out, in a jolt of kindness and sanity, this psychotic guy who’s been treated like a lab rat for the past decade or more just happens to… turn himself in. Subjecting himself to more testing.

Makes about as much sense as the rest of the game to this point.

Fast forward through more divergent questlines and dead-ends that force you to fast travel to a different part of the game to get a simple item and experience yet another part of the lore that will never be explained, all of which miraculously end up having the creepy janitor be your saving grace, and you finally reach the climax.

Which comes out of bloody nowhere.

We get slapped with a climax faster than Will Smith did Chris Rock at the Oscars either because it’s a game that allows you to take your time in other places (the story and world are as convoluted as the multi-verse it never attempts to explain), or because the writing simply failed in the pacing department.

This climax hits one main point: the discovery of self-worth.

This is great! Kind of. Jesse has been relying on an unseen outer entity to ‘guide’ her through the events of the game thus far, (which does a disservice to Ahti who is far more helpful in the grand scheme of things.) In the climax, she loses her connection to this entity, only to discover that the source of it is actually within herself, or bonded to her, or something, it’s really not clear. Then, through faith and belief in herself, (and a visit to the weirdest/coolest/freakiest motel in multi-verse) she becomes who everyone around her has already accepted her to be: The Director of the Federal Bureau of Control.

Whoot! Time to face down the evil entity, save the brother from its influence, and figure out why it was here in the first place!

Actual gameplay screenshot - Ahti, the Janitor

Or so you think. Sure, you face off against the entity, but it’s no different than the enemies you’ve been facing before. Your brother never actually becomes the bad guy he’s alluded to being, and Jesse’s discovery of self-worth doesn’t help her brother save himself. Instead, she cleanses him of the demonic voice, he goes into a coma.

With a brother in a coma and Jesse as the director, you would think there would be an Act 3 that has her fighting through some multi-verse dimension to help her brother realize his self-worth, awaken from his coma, and go after the real bad guy – either a manifestation of the demonic voice from another dimension, or maybe Ahti, through this sadistic ritual that costs tens, if not hundreds, of lives in the process.

That, ladies and gentlemen, would have been taking the story ‘beyond the End-of-the-Line.’  Whatever story you think you have, you get to the end of it and ask yourself, “what happens next?” Better yet, increase the stakes by asking yourself “if the problem still isn’t solved, what happens next?”

CONTROL was fascinating. It was creepy, new, and exciting. For being as old as it is, I am thrilled to have been able to experience it without any major spoilers. The build-up, the concept, and the intrigue are all executed with amazing vision, and for that, I would recommend anyone play this game. Sadly, the game lacks in its ultimate payoff, which is only made tolerable by the relatively limited time investment this game requires to enjoy.