Story Collectibles & Method (Gaming)

by RocketMoose, Saturday, January 29, 2022, 23:45 (817 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Control also has fantastic in-world lore delivery in the form of the amazing Dr. Darling presentations projected on screens in-game, the wonderfully bizarre Threshold Kids show on televisions in-game, America Overnight playing from radios in-game, etc.

I love how the fixed documents you find in Control weave into the world so thoroughly. You find an old log of a strange mannequin found in 1967 berlin, and later run into it. You read about a spooky baby carriage, and later see it through safety glass and are relieved that it is on the other side of the glass. None of it is required to succeed, but it provides a beautiful flavor to everything you experience.

One of my very favorite documents is the very first one you find in the game (spoilers). Walking into an empty office building, and finding this note that is so deeply bureaucratic, but simultaneously so deeply weird, immediately making you wonder what you have gotten yourself into. I genuinely can't think of a way to deliver that feel in a better way. An audio announcement, or even a sign on the wall wouldn't have been as delightfully unsettling for me.

The lack of a camera pan to the documents didn't bother me any more than having a HUD did. You walk up to a letter, pick it up, and can tap a button to see the document. Overall, I loved this game, the universe it built, and the characters that inhabited it. I totally believe it isn't for everyone, but it is definitely one of my faves.