Board 8 > Currently playing Control. It's fairly dope.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's basically a AAA SCP game and I'm all for it. Writing, atmosphere, environments, and art design are very good. Goes for the the humorously-creepy tone and nails it. What keeps it at the 'great' level instead of the 'really great' level is that it throws so many freaking enemies at you. The combat is pretty fun so it somewhat gets away with this, but a lot of times I just want to explore and take in the world and oh no I can't because some red-tinted fuckers teleported in and I have to deal with them again. The checkpoint system and penalty for death are kind of stupid as well. Aside from that, would recommend.

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Have you seen an episode of "Threshold Kids" yet?

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I thought Outer Wilds did a similar thing with discovering stories of various objects but with much better writing. I didn't like Control's writing at all.

Also hated the shooting.
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Grand Kirby posted...

Have you seen an episode of "Threshold Kids" yet?

I'm like 3/4 through the game and have hunted down all the supplemental material I could find. The best part of being Director is I can now officially fire whoever made Threshold Kids. Also really like the Darling videos.

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Top five game last year.

Did you play Alan Wake? Might recognize Darling's actor if you did. Darling is great.

Agree that sometimes just trying to explore got annoying with enemies respawning.

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I liked it fine. I kind of wanted to to be even stranger. I couldn't help but feel that underneath all the fun weirdness, it was somehow generic? Like the skill tree and stuff just had me so unenthused. And yes, the shooting was not fun; lacked impact. Oh and I didn't like how the campaign seemed to "Princess is in another Castle" you all the damn time.

But I did enjoy it for the most part. The weirdness, some of the powers, certain set-pieces, the world-building etc were really excellent.

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Darling is a phenomenal character, dynamite every time he's on the screen.

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This was one of those cases where everybody loved the story and only tolerated the gameplay, while for me it the opposite. I loved the gunplay and regenerating ammo, I loved flinging physics objects around, flying, the whole shebang. It was the story that left me kinda cold.

No spoilers, but this game has the worst ending I have seen in a video game in years, if not ever. Like oh my God.

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KamikazePotato posted...

What keeps it at the 'great' level instead of the 'really great' level is that it throws so many freaking enemies at you.

That's not going to change.

Also going to second the ending being bad, though I haven't touched the DLC so maybe that makes it better.

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Although on the other hand this game had one of the best sequences I've played in a shooter ever. If you played the game you know what I'm talking about.

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fuck yeah I knew you'd get to it eventually

happy you like it


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For once, I played a game KP would have recommended before KP told me to play it!

You will love this game bro.

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I'm waiting for all the DLC to be out but I was totally fine with the ending, knowing it was setting up for more. Also everything past the fake credit roll is fire so the ending sequence is great.

I do agree that the game could stand to be a bit weirder. There's some cool and tippy stuff but not a lot of the truly off-the-wall weirdness that SCP gets into sometimes. Still liked it a lot, the writing and characters are extremely up my alley and once you're fully tricked out the combat is great.

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I like the shooting mainly because the timing between ammo and energy recharge was perfect. You just cycle between those 2 to do damage, while dodging. It's really simple but it never really got old, until maybe the last few hours.

I do think it felt generic, but in a PS2 third person shooter kind of way, which actually made it more fun. It had this weird nostalgic feeling running through it the whole time, even though it feels very modern. I don't know much about SCP, so maybe it was reminding me more of those cheesy sci-fi channel shows like Eureka and Tremors. Oh and obviously The Lost Room. It's just pure guilty pleasure.

The best part was stacking boxes and drums to sequence break things. The fact that they made the items unaffected by your character's physics was amazing and had to be intentional. Most things that can be accessed with the levitation can be accessed that way (and even after that, it's still useful in a lot of cases, which is even more genius). You can't really get anywhere important with it, but it's still fun.

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Beated. I saw some hype for the Astray Maze online but honestly Take Control was easily the best part of the game. Ending could have been more definitive but it's honestly top tier in terms of western AAA game endings so I'll take it! The bar's not high but it got met!

Also did Darling seriously encourage me across the multiverse with a music video because that is just the best

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Ashtray Maze is hyped partly because it's awesome and partly because it's a callback to a sequence in Alan Wake that also features a song from the same fictional band, The Old Gods of Asgard, played by real band Poets of the Fall.

Take Control is also really good though!

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Ah, that's cool. I never played Alan Wake but I knew a bit about the game and enjoyed the references in Control anyway. It fit right in with the setting.

Ashtray Maze DID prove one thing to me - Control's combat against basic enemies is pretty thrilling when there's actual music! Or at least something outside of weird generic dubstep sounds in the background. I don't know why western games skimp on the soundtrack so often.

Overall a slid 8.5/10 experience I think. Had some flaws, could have gone even weirder with the SCP elements at times, way too many enemies, but it was a good time. I'd definitely get a hypothetical Control 2.

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Ashtray Maze "saved" the game for me

It was the one thing that blew my mind and that was so totally unlike anything I'd played before. It was the game at its fullest potential. Not sure if I wanted more or if it was so good because it stood out so much.

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Sounds about right it was in the bottom half of my top 10 last year

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don't get the complaints about the combat because i really liked it and felt it was pretty punchy! all the different forms of the service weapon had their use, and they all had just the right amount of kick when you fired them. and if you aren't flying and flinging around stuff constantly, you aren't having fun!

the ashtray maze was neat, but it got a bit overhyped for me. it wasn't the revelatory experience that it apparently was for a lot of people.

but yeah, that game is cool crystallized and just weird enough to keep the narrative intriguing all the way through. definitely one of the best of 2019.

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The sniper firm of the service weapon was extremely satisfying to use, and bopping enemies with TK never got old. There were just soon many waves of enemies sometimes.

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