Topic: Control

It's free to play at the moment, I'm on at it now and my internet/game is stable. Huzzah, it works!

The 5 mins went over pretty quickly. Not enough time for me to make a purchase decision. The graphics looked pretty low res (720p?). At least it's "only" 40€. Will you guys pick this up?

@jump Free? How? lol

Anyway, it's a great game. I'll test it out if it's free. I can't see myself paying for cloud-based games however.

The reviews seem pretty divisive. I'm unsure if it's worth getting. In addition, you never really "own" the game, not even digitally. Which sucks.

@Octane
It's only free to play for 5 mins.

@dionysos283 The game is good. It's challenging, but rewarding. It's structured like a 3D Metroidvania, and the lore is pretty cool too (if you're into Lovecraftian horror/horror sci-fi). I think most of the mixed reviews were about performance. During battles frame rates would definitely drop to 20-ish. I personally didn't get the feeling that it was making me lose fights, so it wasn't bothersome in that regard, but still a bit of a shame. I'd definitely recommend it on any other console though, but if streaming is your thing, go for it.

@dionysos283 the 40$ gives you a license for how long? I believe the resident evil one in Japan was for 18 months...

Woah, that camera is a bit sensitive. Didn't have time to check the settings (five minutes is a bit mean to get a proper feel for the game) but it was whizzing round at the slightest touch.

Tried on graphics not performance mode, sat about eight foot from our router. Very tiny bit of stutter... hmm. I'm interested but would want a longer trial before I commit.

Seven posts and I'm getting a better feel for this game than in the bloated comment section under the article announcing this lol. The Mini Direct shadow dropped during my work day (a busy one at that) and I still need to watch it.

I'll be trying this out for sure since I've always wanted to play Control (and since my internet connection these days allows for it), though I feel like five minutes is on the short side for a game like this. But I won't be buying it; I'm not dropping money on a game that lives on a cloud server that will eventually be shut down.

Bought the game.

Tried the demo trial and it ran like butter. I couldn’t even tell it wasn’t running natively. It was that good. You could sense an ever so slight bit of lag if you’re looking for it, but it was less than a lot of native switch games I’ve played, such as Darksiders and Alien Isolation. If somebody handed me a Switch Lite with this game running and I played it, I would never even suspect it was streaming. Aside from the MUCH better graphics, of course.

I’m sold. Obviously I prefer native games when given a choice, but for Switch, there is no choice. Games like this will never run or if they do they’ll end up looking like Outer Worlds. Screw that. Give me streaming. Because of the Internet connection it’s really only good for playing at home, but how is that any different from buying a game on PlayStation or Xbox, which are also only good for playing at home? At least on Switch you can still play handheld around the house, play at a hotel room on their WiFi, at a friends house, etc. The game is still portable to an extent.

Of course, your mileage may vary given your internet. Everyone’s is different. May as well download the trial and give it a shot.

@dionysos283

I think it's a very good game. Great, even.

However, it's definitely a game you have to meet halfway. The difficulty can spike, especially with optional bosses. Some battles are nearly ilegible. Control has a marvelous sense of style, but it sometimes sacrifices readability. You'll be fighting enemies protected by red force fields in red rooms while reddish particle effects surround you and you're trying to avoid grenades signposted by a gleaming red light, and it looks glorious but you also just died, sorry. Most encounters force you to move, move, and move. You can't play this like a cover shooter. And because of the shooting mechanics, you can be tricked into thinking that's what this game is. But it's not. Enemies range from mildly annoying to excruciating, unless you learn how to dance around them. Thankfully, by the end of the game, you'll be dancing while levitating and moving debris like hula hoops, so it becomes easier as you go.

You'll be fighting a lot. Enemies respawn regularly. If you don't get your groove on when it comes to your offensive maneuvers and switch tactics on the fly, you'll be bored out of your mind. Control can get very repetitive, if you let it. Thankfully, the game gives you tons of tools at your disposal. Like, all the tools: telekinesis is Half Life 2's gravity gun except you can grab everything around you, including floor tiles. The way you leave behind battlefields of rubble is unmatched in gaming.

Final note on the story: it's deliberately opaque. The developers apparently took notes while watching Twin Peaks and playing Dark Souls. If you don't take the time to read every scrap of paper and weird video, you won't understand the plot at all. Even if you do take that time, you'll still be confused. Less so, but still confused. The ending won't tie everything up with a knot. You'll have to put the pieces together and understand how this world functions. Also, this is one of those games, like Portal, with a fake-out ending so convincing, some people think it's the actual ending. When you hit that point, and you'll notice it, please keep playing. Some people in the comments section evidently didn't. I laughed and was sad all at once.

While I don't have any plans to currently buy Control, on either Switch or PC, I did try the trial out this evening, and just wanted to give my feedback on how my experience with the cloud tech was.

Surprisingly, had no problems playing this at all. I went with the better performance option. I thought the game looked great, ran smoothly. No lag problems, the connection was fine and controls were responsive. Did a lot of pointless jumping just to make sure there wasn't any input lag.

Since the internet varies from person to person, your mileage may vary. I just tried the trial to see how it performs for me at least.

@Tyranexx It's available for cheap on any other platform, so you could check it out over there if you have a PC/PS4/XOne.

@Beaucine
Thanks for the clarification!

Tried the free five minutes again tonight, on performance mode this time.
Sat in the same spot about eight foot from the router... and it was like watching a VHS tape. Pixelated, blocky and blurry, could barely make out what I was shooting at. Much much worse than last night when it ran perfectly clear.

This makes me sad. I don't object to cloud games (these days I tend to stick with one game till I finish it and rarely revisit it), welcome them in fact if we can play games that the Switch normally can't handle. But there is no point if they run so poorly over my Wi-Fi.

@Mii_duck
I played it on graphics mode and also had the impression that I looked like 720p. Performance was good, except for minor frame drops here and there. Not sure if I want to pay 40€ for that.

I tried both modes last night, the first just to try it and the second to blow through the beginning story sections to see how far I could get in five minutes. Performance mode was decent overall, but my right R stick (the camera) was WAY too responsive. I had to be really careful, or else the camera would whip around at mach speed; I could see this causing motion sickness/headaches for the more sensitive. Graphics mode was better, though there were a few slight frame drops. Nothing too drastic or gamebreaking however.

My verdict....I could definitely survive playing the game this way, but I'm still firmly set against renting something that's sitting out on a cloud server. I'm happy the option is there for those who want it, and this may very well be the only way the Switch gets some popular games like Control. But it's not for me.

@Octane I think I will!....When I get one of the other platforms. I have a Windows laptop, but it's not built to run beefy games lol. I'm debating about grabbing a PS4, though not seriously yet.

@Tyranexx May as well grab a next gen system at this point. Since you're also future proofed in that case. But yeah, it really depends on how many must play games there are for you.

Tried graphics mode and it didn’t feel nearly as good. Not sure why. The 30fps with streaming just doesn’t seem to go together well. The performance mode is, IMO, the way to go.

This is all a learning experience for me. Performance mode only for these games.

FYI

Booted up the game and it had a message saying the waiting queue issue was solved due to excessive traffic at launch and that more server space had been allocated.

So anyone who had issues may want to try again now.