Sacred Symbols+, Episode VI: Control Spoilercast and Review Discussion
Added 2019-09-13 16:00:03 +0000 UTCFinland's own Remedy Entertainment began inauspiciously enough, quietly releasing a mid-'90s vehicular combat game before happening across an early-aughts classic: Max Payne. In more recent years, though, Remedy found its way around the Xbox ecosystem with the likes of Alan Wake and Quantum Break, and now the developer has returned to PlayStation for the first time in 16 years with Control. Steeped in deep and confounding lore and littered with kinetic gameplay, Control is fun to both play and talk about. Today's episode of Sacred Symbols+, not surprisingly, is dedicated to the latter. Let's try and make sense of what Control is all about, argue over the quality of its design, and endeavor to understand just what's going on at the FBC, anyway.
Comments
Love this game so much. Love Remedy as a whole. Max Payne, Alan Wake, Control all stellar video games. Quantum Break is a but hit and miss bit I still enjoyed it. I'm fascinated by this connected universe they have going with AW and Control. Super hyped for AW2 and Control 2. It's not a lake it's an ocean.
Darren Steele
2023-10-06 13:26:20 +0000 UTCHey C&C, Just finished this absolute beast of a game. Such a refreshing game from both a narrative and gameplay point of view. Sounds like you guys were both quite happy with the game. Curious if you guys are going to pick up the DLC? Especially since it's suppose to provide more lore to sink our teeth into. It even has a arena mode for Chris to test his metal. Anyways, love these spoiler casts. I thorougly enjoy coming back to these after finishing the games and hearing your opinions on it. Cheers, Pete
Pete
2020-04-08 19:38:09 +0000 UTCDefinitely enjoyed it. The only thing I strongly disagreed with is the idea that Sony definitely doesn't need a studio like Remedy. It may be that they make third person narrative games like every other Sony 1st party, but their narratives are unlike any other. Hell, I bought a 360 for the sole purpose of playing Alan Wake back in 2010 or 11. And then sold it after I was done :D
Dank Yharnam Nugz
2019-09-20 16:21:37 +0000 UTCI know it’s pretty late but if you enjoy the O.o.P’s and Alter Items and the documentation around them then you should check out the SCP Found website. I think you can see how it might have influenced this game with the objects and the containment procedures. http://www.scp-wiki.net
Will Pasker
2019-09-20 15:41:51 +0000 UTCIts not for everyone, i enjoy reading files because im a fucking nerd, also my work doesnt depend on me finishing this game so i could take my time.
John the Nabo
2019-09-20 04:18:58 +0000 UTCIf I said something wrong, sorry.
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:15:01 +0000 UTCYeah, I think I may have messed up my notes. Sorry!
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:14:48 +0000 UTCI did that for a while, but I felt like I was kinda getting bogged-down and just wanted to play.
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:14:34 +0000 UTCI don't think it sounds crazy. Chris is very high on it too!
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:14:19 +0000 UTCI don't know what that means, so I'm going to say Salt (Lake) City Punk.
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:14:05 +0000 UTCWell, I did my best. Glad it's appreciated. =)
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:13:41 +0000 UTCI Platinumed the game and I didn't get that, but again, I don't know that I really get it.
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:13:29 +0000 UTCHit me up with something you dont get and i'll try to explain, somethings cant, and thats the point of them, thats why the bureau exists.
John the Nabo
2019-09-20 04:12:43 +0000 UTCI hope you enjoy(ed)!
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:07:11 +0000 UTCI still don't really quite understand all of it.
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:07:06 +0000 UTCI didn't find any of those documents (or simply didn't read them properly).
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-20 04:06:56 +0000 UTCOh I gotcha. So he was basically saying the character played the character. I hadn't played Quantum Break, so I didn't understand-- especially since I think the real names of the other actors were used (like Matthew Porretta as Alan Wake). Thanks for the explanation!!
Dave Carsley
2019-09-19 14:04:22 +0000 UTCTh clarify, Courtney Hope is her actual name haha.
Nlindz27
2019-09-19 06:57:20 +0000 UTCI believe beth wilder was the character the same actress played in Quantum Break
Nlindz27
2019-09-19 06:57:03 +0000 UTCColin mentions that someone named Beth Wilder plays Jesse. But I just finished the game a few minutes ago and I swear Jesse was played by someone named Courtney Hope (or maybe Courtney Hopp) per the end game credits. Maybe I'm wrong-- I'll look it up and delete this if I am.
Dave Carsley
2019-09-19 05:52:38 +0000 UTCTo be honest the best way to play this game is stoping and reading all of the files as you get them, some people might not enjoy this since it breaks the pace of the game, but i really like doing this. I feel like i can fully grasp the world that is presented and at least conceptually understand all of it. So far its my game of the year, it hit all my buttons
John the Nabo
2019-09-18 15:11:45 +0000 UTCHey Colin, great review! So happy to give y’all my $5. This might be a crazy opinion, but this is actually my game of the year so far. I know it’s not a perfect game, but it was so fun and memorable for me. Something about the story and the way it was told really stuck with me, and the strange, psychological nature of the game was very cool. I also played it on a launch ps4, and a lot of the lag was fixed after the patch. It was still there, but didn’t get in the way of my personal enjoyment of the game and really was only super noticeable after the pause menus and in large scale fights. Can’t wait for DLC already. I agree a bit more with Chris in this review, but I’m glad you two had different opinions. Made for a better review. Thanks again!
Birdo64
2019-09-18 10:09:43 +0000 UTCThe story of this game sounds straight out of the SCP universe.
Gary & Carl
2019-09-18 09:10:44 +0000 UTCColin, thanks for taking the time to at least try and break down the story and the lore a bit. I’ve been wanting to hear some more deep discussion about this, but I feel like most of the podcasts and YouTube channels that I’ve gone to are trying to go for some cheap humor by being all “The story is so weird and bonkers and fucked up and I have no idea what’s going on but I love it!” But in my experience with the game, the story was pretty straightforward and there was even one part toward the end of the main campaign where Jesse breaks everything down and puts it all out there. I mean, yeah, the subject matter is bizarre, and you can certainly read a lot of metaphor into it, but the story itself was excellent and I think Remedy did a great job of taking something so bonkers and ethereal and making it seem real and approachable. Maybe I’m alone in that though, I dunno.
MostlyCharlie
2019-09-17 13:42:01 +0000 UTCOne of the files even said that the happenings in Alan Wake were deemed to be an AWE, and Alan Wake himself was considered a paranatural candidate
Dank Yharnam Nugz
2019-09-17 05:02:58 +0000 UTCI wonder if you guys skipped over the entire part where AWE and OoP are generally caused by the collective unconscious of the human race. That is what I understood from it.
Sharlock93
2019-09-16 23:34:18 +0000 UTCI cannot fucking wait to hear this!
Dank Yharnam Nugz
2019-09-16 21:11:33 +0000 UTCI really love the ammount of detail put into this game, i feel like can fully grasp the concepts touched on by this game, the world building is awesome, even on optional shit that you get by just experimenting with the physics of the world, like synchronyzing the Newton's Cradles in one of the deparments
John the Nabo
2019-09-16 21:02:22 +0000 UTCI think its funny how chris remembered the "ordinary" stuff from Alan Wake, but there are like 5 files talking about the happenings of Alan Wake, even calling wake by name. Apparently one of the annouced DLC's (AWE) Is going to have Alan Wake stuff
John the Nabo
2019-09-16 20:58:10 +0000 UTCIt's weird, because we're getting a lot of different kinds of feedback on this front. Some saying they had no issues, others saying they did. We both had issues on Pro!
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-15 23:52:11 +0000 UTCBy the way you guys are totally right about base PS4. When the game first launched, you couldn't even destroy desks because the debris would make the game freeze up and go down to less than 5 FPS for several seconds. The patch helped a LOT, but the game still loads slowly and there's a lot of really bad texture pop-in (especially on things like paintings). At least the physics is way more stable than on launch but WOW performance is atrocious at times.
Watch Ergo Proxy
2019-09-14 20:00:42 +0000 UTCJust beat the game last night, can't wait to see what you guys thought of the game I just wanted to say that the Ashtray Maze is something I will never EVER forget
Watch Ergo Proxy
2019-09-14 18:52:38 +0000 UTCI also thought that mirrored audio log thing was awesome, I was really hoping to find that on the other side and there it was! It made it worth sitting there to listen to audio logs just to hear that one. Also made the whole area much creepier since it was the first thing I did when I got to the other side, so I knew something was coming for me.
Kendall Helmstetter Gelner
2019-09-14 16:31:21 +0000 UTCReally enjoyed the mirror Essej boss fight. It felt much more exciting than the other bosses. Also, being able to rehear the soldier interview in the mirror world to understand what he was trying to say was a nice touch.
Carlos Quintanilla
2019-09-14 02:34:59 +0000 UTCThank you so much. That means a great deal!
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-14 02:08:46 +0000 UTCIt really makes me wonder how many collectibles I missed if I only found two of those videos. I was pretty friggin' thorough...
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-14 02:08:39 +0000 UTCI'm glad that it didn't give you issues!
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-14 02:08:18 +0000 UTCMay be worth waiting for a lil discount. But I liked it a lot, and Chris loved it.
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-14 02:07:38 +0000 UTC!!!
Colin Moriarty
2019-09-14 02:07:24 +0000 UTCJust an Fyi for you Colin , Dagan, and Chris. This was easily the best 5 dollars I spent this month. Wish I had done it earlier!
Aurang
2019-09-13 21:01:31 +0000 UTCI played it on a PS4 Pro, I also just got platinum - I really loved this game. For me I really enjoyed the non-linearity, because I loved exploring and finding new things or actions, I mixed up reading with action. One thing I'd say is that not everything relates to the Astral plane, there are other planes of existence as well (though maybe all are linked through the Astral plane). The mirror dimension was one example... that was a lot of part of the fun was that there were so many strange corners of the game to find, especially as you start to find hidden rooms and areas. I liked how you were wandering around a incoherent world because you had just entered a building that is part of a very old and vastly larger universe than what you knew... I thought it was funny you said you liked the shotgun form, that was by far my least favorite form - in contrast I loved Spin and it seemed the most effective weapon to me. That said I also used Launch mostly and used weapons only when I ran out of energy. Also awesome aspect of Launch, is how the item doesn't have to be drawn all the way to you before you can throw it, which adds to the stylish possibilities... You mentioned you wanted something like a horde mode, but then you said you skipped out the missions - those are where something more like horde mode happens, it's where they spawn some really challenging enemies and a lot more of them. I think what you experienced with no enemies must have been some kind of bug, if I went to the right area I always found enemies there. Totally agree that you should have been able to listen to audio while you were wandering around. Also I would not worry about reading so much that it's over-explained, not the case at all... I think there may be 6 Threshold Kids videos, I've found five so far - there are some with hidden videos. Really enjoyed listening to your thoughts!
Kendall Helmstetter Gelner
2019-09-13 20:39:33 +0000 UTCI played it on a base PS4 (launch console actually) and it ran fine outside of the issues you guys experienced. the game lagged coming out of the Pause menu and the map wouldn't load sometimes. Performance didn't really get in my way. Really fun game though! Enjoyed it quite a bit
Richard Duflo
2019-09-13 18:43:55 +0000 UTCWith all the games that came out I had to pass on this one, but this episode made me want to check it out, it reminds me of Second Sight (ps2/Xbox)
Kenneth Oms
2019-09-13 17:54:22 +0000 UTCHype
Captain Canada
2019-09-13 16:02:48 +0000 UTC
