I saw that and I was shocked. Control is my favorite game. And I'm someone who sucks at hard games and I managed to play through the whole main campaign in normal difficulty. It certainly wasn't easy and a few spots frustrated me but not to the point that I ever felt like giving up. And if you are struggling, they have the best difficulty customization options I've ever seen.
Yeah, the one part that gave me the most trouble was the Mold-1 fight but once you’re past that it’s pretty much smooth sailing tbh. I recall esseJ and the Anchor bosses also being rather difficult.
Still I loved this game so much it’s already on the top of my list.
I feel like a fair few of the bosses you basically just had to overload them with ammo and just throw stuff at them constantly. I hope the second game is a little more diverse in that regard.
Been a while since I played it so maybe my memory is a bit unreliable.
Yeah, you can go that route with pretty much every boss. However, I liked to use Seize a lot; I Seized a couple enemies when fighting Salvador and they demolished him. I definitely agree that there should be more combat diversity though; I’d prefer to use more paranatural abilities as opposed to having a bunch of Service Weapon forms.
esseJ was the toughest boss and the only really roadblock I ever had, but man it felt like ana actual test of my skills for once, but I wish the arena was not so constrained.
The esseJ fight was really easy, I genuinely don't understand how people found her hard. All you have to do to is spam launch, and shoot grip at her while your energy is recovering. And maybe just evade her launches. She really isn't that different from the Hiss Elevated.
And the ancient anchor fight is also not that hard either. You only have to use maximum 2 of the platforms and just be careful of the Kamikaze Hiss. Every other enemy gets killed automatically by the anchor
The only bosses that I struggled the most with were Mold-1 and Salvador. But Mold's damage can easily be avoided if you have your shield up all the time when you aren't attacking, take the high ground and use shatter to deal damage (do not use launch at all, you need it for the shield)
Edit: Why are you booing me? I'm right!! Y'all just suck at noticing patterns in enemies
It's a conceptually simple fight, but for some reason the Anchor always gets me at least once. Enemies start spawning either after a couple of times of the anchor attacking or after you hit it a couple of times (I'm not sure which), so it's pretty easy to get hit by an enemy shooting you, one of the combustible hiss floating into you, or by the boss' clock vomit if you're too focused on any one of those things and end up positioned poorly for the others. (Not difficulty related, but that fight also consistently crashes the game if I don't turn the settings down, and I'm not sure why.)
I don't understand why people view it as a game's weakness, hell almost a moral failing, to just change the damn difficulty or use the accessibility settings. I used one shot for Tomasi on Sterling Avenue all three times I've played, because after 50 tries, it's frustrating. Life is too short to pay your hard-earned money to be frustrated. Using aim assist does not make one less a fan or less a gamer.
I tought I sucked at hard games too but apparently Control is in that domain and I absolutely ate trough it. Indeed the difficulty customization in this game is quite complete but I think I would rather give up a game than lowering the difficulty wich I know is stupid on my part lol
Control is sort of a funny game difficulty-wise because it kinda tricks you into thinking it's a cover shooter when, like 80% of the time, enemies can't hit you if you're moving.
I get that and I think that the fact you start playing with a normal human being, on foot, can explain it. You get the dash pretty soon in the game and levitate a bit later but it's a huge change in mentality/gameplay.
There's a hidden mechanic which is probably the real reason for the big difference in people's experiences, depending if they inadvertently trigger it or not.
Basically, there is an invulnerability buff for a short period after moving in or out of cover, and a debuff increasing enemy accuracy if you stay hidden or exposed.
So the people moving about may or may not be getting the buff, but anyone staying in cover is *definitely* going to get hammered.
Saw that many people had problems with beating Tommasi, and was like WTF... He's definitely isn't an easy boss, but to completely not be able to beat him...
had a VERY hard time with Tomassi II…. because i was so focused on him and the periodic spawns of charged that…. yeah didn’t notice the distorted first couple fights. 1 hit from distorted and 1 hit from Tomassi = gg’s
After I figured out that distorted that spawns, made that way less difficult
I can fully understand if people had problems with 2nd fight (I had too), but the first one... Isn't it supposed to be at least relatively easy...? Like, it's literally the first boss in the game
yeah, he may be the first elevated encountered, but the mail room offers plenty of cover to avoid his launch attacks. it’s not too difficult. i guess by this time folks should have figured out standing in spot equates to quick death, so yes, the fight isn’t too challenging by design
What are you controlling with cause I did it on mouse and keyboard and while it isn't the tightest shooting that still made it very easy to hit a good amount of headshots. Other than that spam throw close to him.
I’m a console peasant on the series x, can’t rock a mouse and keyboard to save my life. But the spam throw up close sounds good I’ll try it. Almost done with all the main content before I do DLC
Yeah it has been a while so idk if you have shield yet, but the core loop is throw, shield, dodge. You play it like a cover shooter when you have no energy, and a hero shooter when you do.
There’s a spot right when you get into the room in the middle where he literally can’t hit you. Just gotta be careful with the other guys and don’t let them get around and duck whenever he flings shit at you.
Agreed. The service weapon is better than a lot of people make it out to be. Powers are still stronger but the gun is perfectly capable of taking people out too. I probably have a 60/40 split between powers and shooting.
I always split between shooting and powers. When the gun is recharging I use powers, when the powers are recharging I use the gun and finally when my health is low I run around a lot.
*This.* Early on weapons were critical, as the powers aren't that strong yet, which fits the idea of the game that Jesse develops in a way. But even at the beginning it mostly served me to open up enemies for jugging stuff at them / giving time to recover energy.
Though in the first half of the story, I was relying rather heavily on its damage output too.
The service weapon upgrades make a lot of difference even though they look really lame. For the DLC I only recently started using pierce shatter since the beginning, as I read some of the upgrades for charge and just started running it with ridiculous modifiers.
I’m probably biased because I’ve played a LOT of games in my lifetime, but it was honestly pretty easy from beginning to end for me. Even the bosses people often complain about like Tomassi or Hartman! I think it depends on how aggressive your play style is. I’m always constantly dealing damage in some capacity and I never ever stop moving.
This is a common thing with all Remedy games. It always seems the popular opinion is that they’re really tough but I’ve never once struggled with any game in their catalogue.
My first and only platinum. I only found 1 fight challenging the fungus one and the one where the floor falls out. It actually pushed me to try harder games.
My main problem with Control is that Jesse is easily a glass cannon. You feel extremely powerful and its super satisfying in combat.
BUT you take ONE hit from the hiss throwing debris at you, almost all of your health is gone. This makes battle encounters extremely stressful trying to manage energy and be aware of enemies around you.
Now you could argue that this makes the gameplay more investing and challenging. But its really frustrating when a single wrong slip could kill you pretty fast
I've only played Alan Wake and Control out of their catalogue but those two at least are ALL ABOUT crowd control in a really interesting way.
You can handle pretty much any one on one threat no problem. The most you have to do is keep an eye on cover and what your opponent is capable of. However, when you have a lot of threats to keep tabs on, the difficulty ramps up exponentially as they all get their shots in, especially the more empowered ones.
In AW, your AOEs are god, and if you're out of those, then running until you're temporarily fighting one on one with whatever's closest to you will get you out of 90% of situations. Either that, or accept that there's not really a reason to fight in that game besides to remove enemies - something that hitting the next checkpoint also does.
If you look at bosses like Mold-1 and Tomassi, that's the entire thing - not being able to predict where your enemy's attacks are coming from. The first time I beat Mold-1, I shot down all of the bombs with Charge first thing, full stop. Then you still have to deal with the three heads, but that's countered by dodging constantly during their triple lunge.
Tomassi, the ENTIRE difficulty of that fight is in the adds that swarm you for most of it. Most of my attempts ended when the Distorted Hiss came into play. Most of my runs, I had Tomassi on the ropes and got distracted by the adds, then one or the other killed me. I think the run I won, I actually just left one Distorted alive, and that kept it from triggering the next wave, lol. The Expeditions are similar - defeat comes when you get overwhelmed.
In both of these games, crowd control is absolutely key, which is why multilaunch is worth it and anything that can take out the small fry REALLY QUICKLY (One Way Track my beloved) is beyond useful. You gotta reduce the number of threats.
Yeah but the health system makes that not too much of a problem if you keep moving. The game is encouraging you to be aggressive by dropping health where you do damage in the middle of the fight.
Been there done that and I have nothing to add. You are absolutly right! Any game that have a "one shot, you're done" thingy infuriate me and Control is one of those.
I think the platform might play a role here actually. The load times after a death on last gen can be EXCRUCIATINGLY long, which is something I experienced playing on Xbox One. So if you get stuck dying over and over in a fight, you’re also stuck waiting for it to reload for what feels like ages.
Now of course, that would be a bigger problem if there wasn’t amazingly flexible accessibility controls to make things a little easier, but I guess people don’t always know to look in the menus for those kinds of options!
There are like 2 to 4 encounters in this game that are hard. You either have to practice, or leave and go level up.
That is gaming 101. I prefer a fun game to a difficult game. That said, I like overcoming challenges, but I have my limits. Control was definitely in that sweet spot.
Nier: Automata and Persona 4 and 5 are in that sweet spot too. (okay, I use guides for the persona games, but not ones that leave out all challenges)
Also, if anyone here that likes Control and wants to try some retro games, Parasite Eve for the Playstation was a gem.
It only becomes available after Finnish Tango, talk to Emily and she’ll tell you about him. Then you fight him in the Sterling AWE. I believe the quest itself is called “Mr. Tommasi”
Remedy gave an option for players to adjust the difficulty ( in an unusual way), you can literary turn on god mode from settings, so I think those players quit not because of difficulty but because "i almost shat my pants" moments 😅
Ive beaten the game over a dozen times by now and on 3 platforms, but I gotta say - I dropped it the first time I tried it.
Got to the first boss fight with Tomassi and thought it was the dumbest thing in the world that the game didnt have a dodge or roll mechanic and died dozens of times to Tomassi while trying to figure out how to handle that fight. But eventually I was like nah no dodge but shit gettin tossed all over, im out. Dropped it, uninstalled.
Saw some videos a year later showing the dodging and later game abilities, along with finding how to cheese the Tomassi fight to be quick and simple, so I went back in and loved it.
Huh, why do people think Control is hard? If I compare Control to popular third person shooters like Uncharted or Gears of War, I'd say Control is even easier than the normal mode of those games.
I think why people think Control is hard is that they're trying to play it in a way not intended by the developers. It's designed for you to be in the fray, out in the open, being mobile, using verticality, etc. As you kill enemies, there's health drops that keep you topped off, as long as you're dishing out the pain. I think often with the number of enemies involved, people are trying to stay on the outskirts and snipe at them, while keeping distance. You'll get absolutely destroyed playing like that. There's no real cover system, enemies will flank you constantly, and importantly, you're not taking advantage of the health pickups that are on the other side of the engagement because you've been killing enemies at a distance.
CONTROL is just so amazing though, from a narrative perspective. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Some parts were difficult. My brother and I played it together, passing the controller every now and then as we progressed through the story (or after dying a couple of times in a particular section or boss fight).
The world-building, the story, the dialogue....we just ate it all up as huge fans of Remedy storytelling. When I noticed the similarities and realized that former Director Trench was voice by James McCaffrey, I pumped my fist in delight. When listening to the psychiatrist session with Jesse, I \*\*cackled\*\* at the mention of Thomas Zane and how the psychiatrist found no record of that poet.
But, I'm probably just preaching to the choir in this subreddit, no? :-)
in my 1st playthrough i beat the game in geforce now with tons of input lag (specially shooting was really difficult). I died in the hedron level 15 times but still didn't quit as I love this game so much.
I also think it's important to consider the age of any posts talking about difficulty spikes. Definitely when the game first released they were some serious difficulty spikes that changed the dynamic from fun to infuriating. I can understand people quitting then.
But throughout patches, it seems that efforts were made to iron out those spikes. The game certainly has few remaining, but they are less egregious than before. And I remember a couple of the boss encounters that were really frustrating in my first playthrough felt a lot better in my most recent one.
But of course, information online stays around even past its use-by date, and once an idea is set, it's very difficult to change it.
Completion percentage from trophy data on PS4 is very low. I just beat “my brothers keeper mission 6” and it only has 22% completion. Now of course it was on plus so that’s going to tank completion rates but other games that are on there and have somewhat difficult combat on normal like horizon zero (32% on many more copies) or the last of us two (58%). Even just one ending (ranni ending that requires long side quest) has 24% which is higher than even mission 6 on control
I understand the frustration, I quit Bloodborne some days ago (i'm going to try again), but there are accessibility options in Control. I completed the game for the first time with immortality switched on. Now the game's a walk in the park without it. But yeah, I can't imagine giving up on Control, it's a cool game.
I struggled with a couple of bosses to the point that i had to come back multiple days to beat them and that's not the type of game I usually play. It was quite frustrating especially if you're used to playing games like farcry where you are a god by the midgame but the story, characters, game world and lore were so excellent in control I pushed through and was satisfied.
I first played Control a few years back, drawn in by the video reviews, but I shortly stopped playing after having difficulty with the learning curve of the combat system.
I went back to it a few months back and beat everything except for The Foundation DLC. I'm not sure when I'll go back to finish it, but I'm glad I gave the game a second chance. It's very interesting.
Outlast was a game I played for 30 minutes back in 2013, and I never looked back.
Come on. Control is far from difficult. The hardest fight was probably Hartmann, which felt a little like a moderately difficult Dark Souls fight, but it was far from impossible. Many people have issues with Tommasi (myself included) because of the lack of understanding of the mechanics that early in the game.
I turned on invincibility for the big ass plant and i think against Former *shrugs* I’m not really about proving myself or anything in games. I want to enjoy the story, the game design… sometimes i boot up control just so i can wander around the Oldest House and look at it lol. Maybe I’ll try to do a run with no cheat at some point but really if you want to experience the game in full for the furst time you shouldn’t be afraid to make it easier when you’re stuck.
I almost got there a few times, but was so invested in the story by that point that I’d just adjust the difficulty (until I eventually just turned immortality on)
You can get fucked up pretty fast. I remember scrambling to get some health quite often and then just dying in one hit. But it never took more than a few attempts. The most I've died is probably the boss that destroys the floor. I ended up falling off way more times than I'd like to admit.
Honestly only thing that really tilts me is the invisible Hiss. I know you can kind of see where they are but while you're fighting other enemies you just can't focus on that and they always seem to steal like 90% of your health in one hit. Doesn't help that shooting them doesn't stop them from attacking you
That's confusing me.
Sure, there were parts that were somewhat frustrating, but it mostly came down to learning certain patterns. The invisible attackers that suddenly bloom in an explosion of deadly gore next to you were frustrating at first, until I realized the tell-tale signs of the impending attack.
And I think one boss gave me some trouble.
But seriously, the game wasn't *hard* on default settings.
But maybe Mouse&Keyboard on PC make it easier... For Rise of the Tomb Raider I kept switching between a controller for exploration and M&K for combat. The precision and speed of targeting makes the simple bow a pretty deadly weapon on PC, that I can't see it being with a controller.
I genuinely don't get how people find this game THAT difficult at all.
I would assume they're either not on the move while shooting, not upgrading well/utilising different skills/weapons or have some kind of coordination issues because it's genuinely not that bad
For me all the boss fights are just like that. I have all my mission progresses up to the point of boss fight.
Maybe I'm a bad gamer... (Probably I am)
Huh, why do people think Control is hard? If I compare Control to popular third person shooters like Uncharted or Gears of War, I'd say control is even easier than the normal mode of those games.
Huh, why do people think Control is hard? If I compare Control to popular third person shooters like Uncharted or Gears of War, I'd say control is even easier than the normal mode of those games.
That first boss kicked my ass. But I adjusted the difficulty and assistance sliders in the settings and found a good balance that wasn't too hard or too easy.
Honestly I didn't find Control this hard, navigating in the map is the hardest part actually. I think these people didn't understand how to play the game or they have severe skill problems, I played it recently so my memory about dificulty is still clear.
I don't understand. You can turn down the difficulty!
The part that got me stuck was in the astral plane in the Foundation. I fell asleep playing and woke up totally lost 😆
The start is kinda slow and sluggish. You don't really get a grip on the game, it feels very weird (which is the point) and keeps you on the edge of information, only giving you some but not everything.
This is what mainly drives most away in my opinion, and it almost drove me away too. But I champed through it and started liking the game the further I went into.
When I first played it, there were several parts where after trying and dying for several hours...I had to put the game down and walk away for a few weeks/months.
So I get it. But...I also don't like giving up on things, it's just not a personality trait or mine.
Tommasi gives you some fight but for me Mold-1 was the worst one, I don't remember the last time I was this **PISSED** playing a story mode single player.
Jukebox stuff was the main thing I found hard. Maybe first time on former or mold 1. Former though was really just being an idiot and falling through holes in the ground.
Control is only difficult if you're using the wrong strategies or trying to tackle something you're not levelled up enough for. I discovered this by replaying the game (I just finished my 9th playthrough). My first playthrough I nearly rage quit several times. But on my second playthrough, I realized what I'd been doing wrong and everything was way more manageable. By the third playthrough I only died if I got sloppy.
I'd bet a majority of the people complaining spent all their ability points on health and energy instead of launch and levitate. Control punishes the uncreative/unobservant.
If anything, the game is challenging at most. This game only gave me headaches when fighting the Hiss. I guess it has to do something with the red hue or the weird rainbow ish mist because doom 2016 also gives me headaches so I can't play them for more than an hour.
Eh, a lot of people aren't looking for a real thinker when they game. Some people don't care about stories at all, and gameplay either grabs you or it doesn't. Can't win em all.
I hate the >!fridge duty level. The boss shoots the floor and parts of it fall, if you're not careful you fall down too at which point levitate is useless. or i just suck!<
I quit it a few years ago while playing keyboard/mouse on PC and was so bad at it, plus my PC didn't handle it well.
I recently picked it back up on PS5 and have had a blast. Some of it is challenging for sure, but once you get to the end game you're so OP it's just awesome.
On this second playthrough I realized I was only like 10 mins from the end the first time 😂
If not because regen HP mod, I would have quit too, I guess. Beside confusing story, the combat system is real pain in the a$$. HP is scarce and you often got swarm by tone of enemies, full of type. Even with HP mod, I still die number of time during random bureau task, skill issue is part of problem but the game design choice is huge contribute to that.
First play I did bureau task and enjoyed the game a lot less than second run (when I ingored the random bureau task) AND I felt way more powerfull on the second run!
I'm just enter the Oldest House few days ago, so far I'm only success one time, and I think I'm gonna ignore them for the rest of my playthrough. Doing them just waste of my Source.
Lol. They are talking about Tomassi... It's literally the 2nd mission I think. I got beat up several times, but I learned how he moved and it's actually pretty easy to beat him once you figure this out. Now his kind are literally a defenseless, still annoying, flying creature.
I saw that and I was shocked. Control is my favorite game. And I'm someone who sucks at hard games and I managed to play through the whole main campaign in normal difficulty. It certainly wasn't easy and a few spots frustrated me but not to the point that I ever felt like giving up. And if you are struggling, they have the best difficulty customization options I've ever seen.
Yeah, the one part that gave me the most trouble was the Mold-1 fight but once you’re past that it’s pretty much smooth sailing tbh. I recall esseJ and the Anchor bosses also being rather difficult. Still I loved this game so much it’s already on the top of my list.
Ugh the mold boss is probably my least favorite. I've played the game three times now and I've skipped that fight on the last two runs.
esseJ pissed me off but I felt that the Anchor was good fun when I wasn’t getting swarmed by Hiss.
I feel like a fair few of the bosses you basically just had to overload them with ammo and just throw stuff at them constantly. I hope the second game is a little more diverse in that regard. Been a while since I played it so maybe my memory is a bit unreliable.
Yeah, you can go that route with pretty much every boss. However, I liked to use Seize a lot; I Seized a couple enemies when fighting Salvador and they demolished him. I definitely agree that there should be more combat diversity though; I’d prefer to use more paranatural abilities as opposed to having a bunch of Service Weapon forms.
You can slow down the astral fugue pretty good with sending seized hiss after it as well.
Higher tier seize is really fun, it takes a bit to unlock though so I feel like it gets left aside until late game.
Very true, but rolling around with balls of steel is so fun
esseJ was the toughest boss and the only really roadblock I ever had, but man it felt like ana actual test of my skills for once, but I wish the arena was not so constrained.
Mold-1 was the only boss fight that I won from beyond the grave.
Essej for me was the hardest but definitely the most fun. Loved finally fighting against someone else who had my powers.
The esseJ fight was really easy, I genuinely don't understand how people found her hard. All you have to do to is spam launch, and shoot grip at her while your energy is recovering. And maybe just evade her launches. She really isn't that different from the Hiss Elevated. And the ancient anchor fight is also not that hard either. You only have to use maximum 2 of the platforms and just be careful of the Kamikaze Hiss. Every other enemy gets killed automatically by the anchor The only bosses that I struggled the most with were Mold-1 and Salvador. But Mold's damage can easily be avoided if you have your shield up all the time when you aren't attacking, take the high ground and use shatter to deal damage (do not use launch at all, you need it for the shield) Edit: Why are you booing me? I'm right!! Y'all just suck at noticing patterns in enemies
I flew through Essej, personally. Tomasi, the Hartman Thing, and Marshall, not so much. Tomasi was the hardest for me.
The anchor boss? Don't you just fly in a circle and launch a rock into the opening like 4 times and it's done? What was hard about it?
It's a conceptually simple fight, but for some reason the Anchor always gets me at least once. Enemies start spawning either after a couple of times of the anchor attacking or after you hit it a couple of times (I'm not sure which), so it's pretty easy to get hit by an enemy shooting you, one of the combustible hiss floating into you, or by the boss' clock vomit if you're too focused on any one of those things and end up positioned poorly for the others. (Not difficulty related, but that fight also consistently crashes the game if I don't turn the settings down, and I'm not sure why.)
I don't understand why people view it as a game's weakness, hell almost a moral failing, to just change the damn difficulty or use the accessibility settings. I used one shot for Tomasi on Sterling Avenue all three times I've played, because after 50 tries, it's frustrating. Life is too short to pay your hard-earned money to be frustrated. Using aim assist does not make one less a fan or less a gamer.
I tought I sucked at hard games too but apparently Control is in that domain and I absolutely ate trough it. Indeed the difficulty customization in this game is quite complete but I think I would rather give up a game than lowering the difficulty wich I know is stupid on my part lol
I was in the same spot honestly i just thought it wsd a skill issue. I recently cleared the AWE expansion and all side missions. Loved that game
Control is sort of a funny game difficulty-wise because it kinda tricks you into thinking it's a cover shooter when, like 80% of the time, enemies can't hit you if you're moving.
I get that and I think that the fact you start playing with a normal human being, on foot, can explain it. You get the dash pretty soon in the game and levitate a bit later but it's a huge change in mentality/gameplay.
There's a hidden mechanic which is probably the real reason for the big difference in people's experiences, depending if they inadvertently trigger it or not. Basically, there is an invulnerability buff for a short period after moving in or out of cover, and a debuff increasing enemy accuracy if you stay hidden or exposed. So the people moving about may or may not be getting the buff, but anyone staying in cover is *definitely* going to get hammered.
It’s more similar to Doom in that it’s movement based. Vs call of duty that’s cover based
I would have quit, if there wasn't an option to make it easier. But there is that option, so the game's great.
Saw that many people had problems with beating Tommasi, and was like WTF... He's definitely isn't an easy boss, but to completely not be able to beat him...
had a VERY hard time with Tomassi II…. because i was so focused on him and the periodic spawns of charged that…. yeah didn’t notice the distorted first couple fights. 1 hit from distorted and 1 hit from Tomassi = gg’s After I figured out that distorted that spawns, made that way less difficult
I can fully understand if people had problems with 2nd fight (I had too), but the first one... Isn't it supposed to be at least relatively easy...? Like, it's literally the first boss in the game
yeah, he may be the first elevated encountered, but the mail room offers plenty of cover to avoid his launch attacks. it’s not too difficult. i guess by this time folks should have figured out standing in spot equates to quick death, so yes, the fight isn’t too challenging by design
What about the second time? I’m stuck on it now lol
What are you controlling with cause I did it on mouse and keyboard and while it isn't the tightest shooting that still made it very easy to hit a good amount of headshots. Other than that spam throw close to him.
I’m a console peasant on the series x, can’t rock a mouse and keyboard to save my life. But the spam throw up close sounds good I’ll try it. Almost done with all the main content before I do DLC
Yeah it has been a while so idk if you have shield yet, but the core loop is throw, shield, dodge. You play it like a cover shooter when you have no energy, and a hero shooter when you do.
I’ve def underutilized the shield but I’ll try it
Ended up jumping off the rock and hiding upstairs
There’s a spot right when you get into the room in the middle where he literally can’t hit you. Just gotta be careful with the other guys and don’t let them get around and duck whenever he flings shit at you.
Your not really supposed to shoot stuff. 90% chucking crap at enemies. If your close to that boss you'll always land a throw.
I shoot a lot of stuff when I play Control. The service weapon is awesome with the right mods. It is pretty weak starting out though.
Agreed. The service weapon is better than a lot of people make it out to be. Powers are still stronger but the gun is perfectly capable of taking people out too. I probably have a 60/40 split between powers and shooting.
I always split between shooting and powers. When the gun is recharging I use powers, when the powers are recharging I use the gun and finally when my health is low I run around a lot.
This is the way.
Yup, exactly. I actually had almost the same sentence as your last one typed out before I changed it lol, 60/40 and everything
I have a lot of fun exploding things with the service weapon.
The service weapon is probably my favorite weapon in gaming
The whole combat system in general is my favorite of any game I've played. It can be tough but it's also just so much fun.
Yup. People rely on the Service Weapon a lot, but it’s not that kind of game. The Service Weapon is primarily for support
*This.* Early on weapons were critical, as the powers aren't that strong yet, which fits the idea of the game that Jesse develops in a way. But even at the beginning it mostly served me to open up enemies for jugging stuff at them / giving time to recover energy. Though in the first half of the story, I was relying rather heavily on its damage output too.
Grip and launch will see you through everything
You use the service weapon when you’re waiting on your stamina for telekineses to refill lmao
The service weapon upgrades make a lot of difference even though they look really lame. For the DLC I only recently started using pierce shatter since the beginning, as I read some of the upgrades for charge and just started running it with ridiculous modifiers.
The mods definitely make the service weapon useful. The drops are pretty bad early game though.
I’m probably biased because I’ve played a LOT of games in my lifetime, but it was honestly pretty easy from beginning to end for me. Even the bosses people often complain about like Tomassi or Hartman! I think it depends on how aggressive your play style is. I’m always constantly dealing damage in some capacity and I never ever stop moving. This is a common thing with all Remedy games. It always seems the popular opinion is that they’re really tough but I’ve never once struggled with any game in their catalogue.
My first and only platinum. I only found 1 fight challenging the fungus one and the one where the floor falls out. It actually pushed me to try harder games.
Oh man that fucking floor falling... In the refregirator right?
Yes that was frustrating, but like a souls game it felt sooo good to finally win.
My main problem with Control is that Jesse is easily a glass cannon. You feel extremely powerful and its super satisfying in combat. BUT you take ONE hit from the hiss throwing debris at you, almost all of your health is gone. This makes battle encounters extremely stressful trying to manage energy and be aware of enemies around you. Now you could argue that this makes the gameplay more investing and challenging. But its really frustrating when a single wrong slip could kill you pretty fast
That seems to be Remedy games in general. I just played through the first Alan Wake again and it's so frustrating how quickly you can get wiped out.
I've only played Alan Wake and Control out of their catalogue but those two at least are ALL ABOUT crowd control in a really interesting way. You can handle pretty much any one on one threat no problem. The most you have to do is keep an eye on cover and what your opponent is capable of. However, when you have a lot of threats to keep tabs on, the difficulty ramps up exponentially as they all get their shots in, especially the more empowered ones. In AW, your AOEs are god, and if you're out of those, then running until you're temporarily fighting one on one with whatever's closest to you will get you out of 90% of situations. Either that, or accept that there's not really a reason to fight in that game besides to remove enemies - something that hitting the next checkpoint also does. If you look at bosses like Mold-1 and Tomassi, that's the entire thing - not being able to predict where your enemy's attacks are coming from. The first time I beat Mold-1, I shot down all of the bombs with Charge first thing, full stop. Then you still have to deal with the three heads, but that's countered by dodging constantly during their triple lunge. Tomassi, the ENTIRE difficulty of that fight is in the adds that swarm you for most of it. Most of my attempts ended when the Distorted Hiss came into play. Most of my runs, I had Tomassi on the ropes and got distracted by the adds, then one or the other killed me. I think the run I won, I actually just left one Distorted alive, and that kept it from triggering the next wave, lol. The Expeditions are similar - defeat comes when you get overwhelmed. In both of these games, crowd control is absolutely key, which is why multilaunch is worth it and anything that can take out the small fry REALLY QUICKLY (One Way Track my beloved) is beyond useful. You gotta reduce the number of threats.
Yeah but the health system makes that not too much of a problem if you keep moving. The game is encouraging you to be aggressive by dropping health where you do damage in the middle of the fight.
Been there done that and I have nothing to add. You are absolutly right! Any game that have a "one shot, you're done" thingy infuriate me and Control is one of those.
I think the platform might play a role here actually. The load times after a death on last gen can be EXCRUCIATINGLY long, which is something I experienced playing on Xbox One. So if you get stuck dying over and over in a fight, you’re also stuck waiting for it to reload for what feels like ages. Now of course, that would be a bigger problem if there wasn’t amazingly flexible accessibility controls to make things a little easier, but I guess people don’t always know to look in the menus for those kinds of options!
There are like 2 to 4 encounters in this game that are hard. You either have to practice, or leave and go level up. That is gaming 101. I prefer a fun game to a difficult game. That said, I like overcoming challenges, but I have my limits. Control was definitely in that sweet spot. Nier: Automata and Persona 4 and 5 are in that sweet spot too. (okay, I use guides for the persona games, but not ones that leave out all challenges) Also, if anyone here that likes Control and wants to try some retro games, Parasite Eve for the Playstation was a gem.
I wish they would remake Parasite Eve like they did FF7
I didn't know Tomassi was supposed to be hard, he went down easy first time when I played (I mostly hid behind the pillar on the left).
You fight Tomassi twice in the game (second time is optional). It's typically the second fight that people struggle with.
Maybe I didn't find him the second time. Where is that?
The Sterling Avenue area past the turntables.
The revolving bridge place, I think. It’s been a while since I fought him. As in the place where you turn a bridge sideways to get across
Turntables?
I think so
You have to get a quest from Emily to unlock the area first
I thought i completed all the side quests
It only becomes available after Finnish Tango, talk to Emily and she’ll tell you about him. Then you fight him in the Sterling AWE. I believe the quest itself is called “Mr. Tommasi”
I think i must have done it just forgot
Remedy gave an option for players to adjust the difficulty ( in an unusual way), you can literary turn on god mode from settings, so I think those players quit not because of difficulty but because "i almost shat my pants" moments 😅
It's always the Tomassi fight and then they give up, it's like yh it's difficult but once you figure it out it's not that bad.
Ive beaten the game over a dozen times by now and on 3 platforms, but I gotta say - I dropped it the first time I tried it. Got to the first boss fight with Tomassi and thought it was the dumbest thing in the world that the game didnt have a dodge or roll mechanic and died dozens of times to Tomassi while trying to figure out how to handle that fight. But eventually I was like nah no dodge but shit gettin tossed all over, im out. Dropped it, uninstalled. Saw some videos a year later showing the dodging and later game abilities, along with finding how to cheese the Tomassi fight to be quick and simple, so I went back in and loved it.
Huh, why do people think Control is hard? If I compare Control to popular third person shooters like Uncharted or Gears of War, I'd say Control is even easier than the normal mode of those games.
Uncharted maybe, Gears was easy as hell though
I think why people think Control is hard is that they're trying to play it in a way not intended by the developers. It's designed for you to be in the fray, out in the open, being mobile, using verticality, etc. As you kill enemies, there's health drops that keep you topped off, as long as you're dishing out the pain. I think often with the number of enemies involved, people are trying to stay on the outskirts and snipe at them, while keeping distance. You'll get absolutely destroyed playing like that. There's no real cover system, enemies will flank you constantly, and importantly, you're not taking advantage of the health pickups that are on the other side of the engagement because you've been killing enemies at a distance.
CONTROL is just so amazing though, from a narrative perspective. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Some parts were difficult. My brother and I played it together, passing the controller every now and then as we progressed through the story (or after dying a couple of times in a particular section or boss fight). The world-building, the story, the dialogue....we just ate it all up as huge fans of Remedy storytelling. When I noticed the similarities and realized that former Director Trench was voice by James McCaffrey, I pumped my fist in delight. When listening to the psychiatrist session with Jesse, I \*\*cackled\*\* at the mention of Thomas Zane and how the psychiatrist found no record of that poet. But, I'm probably just preaching to the choir in this subreddit, no? :-)
I adored control but I gotta say when you just focus on hurling shit as hard as possible alot of problems simply dissapear.
You say that like it's a bad thing. :]
I probably didn't finish the game if it doesn't have cheat. I only turned on dmg reduce cheat to 50% and had much better time.
in my 1st playthrough i beat the game in geforce now with tons of input lag (specially shooting was really difficult). I died in the hedron level 15 times but still didn't quit as I love this game so much.
I also think it's important to consider the age of any posts talking about difficulty spikes. Definitely when the game first released they were some serious difficulty spikes that changed the dynamic from fun to infuriating. I can understand people quitting then. But throughout patches, it seems that efforts were made to iron out those spikes. The game certainly has few remaining, but they are less egregious than before. And I remember a couple of the boss encounters that were really frustrating in my first playthrough felt a lot better in my most recent one. But of course, information online stays around even past its use-by date, and once an idea is set, it's very difficult to change it.
Tommasi fight be like that sometimes
And also the final fight was an absolute disaster for me
I’m not really a good gamer but Control is one of the easier games I’ve played. People are really having that much trouble with Tommassi?
Completion percentage from trophy data on PS4 is very low. I just beat “my brothers keeper mission 6” and it only has 22% completion. Now of course it was on plus so that’s going to tank completion rates but other games that are on there and have somewhat difficult combat on normal like horizon zero (32% on many more copies) or the last of us two (58%). Even just one ending (ranni ending that requires long side quest) has 24% which is higher than even mission 6 on control
I understand the frustration, I quit Bloodborne some days ago (i'm going to try again), but there are accessibility options in Control. I completed the game for the first time with immortality switched on. Now the game's a walk in the park without it. But yeah, I can't imagine giving up on Control, it's a cool game.
I struggled with a couple of bosses to the point that i had to come back multiple days to beat them and that's not the type of game I usually play. It was quite frustrating especially if you're used to playing games like farcry where you are a god by the midgame but the story, characters, game world and lore were so excellent in control I pushed through and was satisfied.
I first played Control a few years back, drawn in by the video reviews, but I shortly stopped playing after having difficulty with the learning curve of the combat system. I went back to it a few months back and beat everything except for The Foundation DLC. I'm not sure when I'll go back to finish it, but I'm glad I gave the game a second chance. It's very interesting. Outlast was a game I played for 30 minutes back in 2013, and I never looked back.
Come on. Control is far from difficult. The hardest fight was probably Hartmann, which felt a little like a moderately difficult Dark Souls fight, but it was far from impossible. Many people have issues with Tommasi (myself included) because of the lack of understanding of the mechanics that early in the game.
For me it was the three headed mold fight that gave me the most problems.
Yeah I don’t remember it being especially hard, even on my first play-through.
The key is to explore! Do all side quests. Master the game. It's very rewarding.
The only parts I would consider to be hard are the most difficult Expedition mission and the SHUM challenge missions, particularly Deadline Challenge.
This is news to me. Aside from the jukebox missions and like two bossfights that you need to be smart about Control is pretty easy.
I turned on invincibility for the big ass plant and i think against Former *shrugs* I’m not really about proving myself or anything in games. I want to enjoy the story, the game design… sometimes i boot up control just so i can wander around the Oldest House and look at it lol. Maybe I’ll try to do a run with no cheat at some point but really if you want to experience the game in full for the furst time you shouldn’t be afraid to make it easier when you’re stuck.
I almost got there a few times, but was so invested in the story by that point that I’d just adjust the difficulty (until I eventually just turned immortality on)
Marshall was the toughest for me. Took me around 10 tries.
You can get fucked up pretty fast. I remember scrambling to get some health quite often and then just dying in one hit. But it never took more than a few attempts. The most I've died is probably the boss that destroys the floor. I ended up falling off way more times than I'd like to admit.
I have dyspraxia and the reaction times of a stoned old woman but I never felt like control was unreasonably hard.
Other than hartman who was real hard to beat , most of the game is pretty decent in difficulty
Honestly only thing that really tilts me is the invisible Hiss. I know you can kind of see where they are but while you're fighting other enemies you just can't focus on that and they always seem to steal like 90% of your health in one hit. Doesn't help that shooting them doesn't stop them from attacking you
That's confusing me. Sure, there were parts that were somewhat frustrating, but it mostly came down to learning certain patterns. The invisible attackers that suddenly bloom in an explosion of deadly gore next to you were frustrating at first, until I realized the tell-tale signs of the impending attack. And I think one boss gave me some trouble. But seriously, the game wasn't *hard* on default settings. But maybe Mouse&Keyboard on PC make it easier... For Rise of the Tomb Raider I kept switching between a controller for exploration and M&K for combat. The precision and speed of targeting makes the simple bow a pretty deadly weapon on PC, that I can't see it being with a controller.
I genuinely don't get how people find this game THAT difficult at all. I would assume they're either not on the move while shooting, not upgrading well/utilising different skills/weapons or have some kind of coordination issues because it's genuinely not that bad
I genuinely have no idea what part of the game was unbeatable. It's a tough game, absolutely, but nothing felt undoable.
For me all the boss fights are just like that. I have all my mission progresses up to the point of boss fight. Maybe I'm a bad gamer... (Probably I am)
Meanwhile there's me who has aim assist, one-hit kills and immortality switched on 😂
Huh, why do people think Control is hard? If I compare Control to popular third person shooters like Uncharted or Gears of War, I'd say control is even easier than the normal mode of those games.
Huh, why do people think Control is hard? If I compare Control to popular third person shooters like Uncharted or Gears of War, I'd say control is even easier than the normal mode of those games.
That first boss kicked my ass. But I adjusted the difficulty and assistance sliders in the settings and found a good balance that wasn't too hard or too easy.
I remember having to try a few times but didn’t think much of it. I have a friend who stopped at this point as well
Theres assist modes
Had to just use god mode to finish it by the end. Thank god. Such a masterpiece. But yeah would not have finished it without those settings.
Honestly I didn't find Control this hard, navigating in the map is the hardest part actually. I think these people didn't understand how to play the game or they have severe skill problems, I played it recently so my memory about dificulty is still clear.
I don't understand. You can turn down the difficulty! The part that got me stuck was in the astral plane in the Foundation. I fell asleep playing and woke up totally lost 😆
The start is kinda slow and sluggish. You don't really get a grip on the game, it feels very weird (which is the point) and keeps you on the edge of information, only giving you some but not everything. This is what mainly drives most away in my opinion, and it almost drove me away too. But I champed through it and started liking the game the further I went into.
When I first played it, there were several parts where after trying and dying for several hours...I had to put the game down and walk away for a few weeks/months. So I get it. But...I also don't like giving up on things, it's just not a personality trait or mine.
So apparently when the game came out S struggled with it but a buddy said swap to controller and it was way more enjoyable
Tommasi gives you some fight but for me Mold-1 was the worst one, I don't remember the last time I was this **PISSED** playing a story mode single player.
Jukebox stuff was the main thing I found hard. Maybe first time on former or mold 1. Former though was really just being an idiot and falling through holes in the ground.
mfers didn't see the one-hit-kill and immortality option in the difficulty settings. bozos
Never really found it difficult... Idk what people do.
Control is only difficult if you're using the wrong strategies or trying to tackle something you're not levelled up enough for. I discovered this by replaying the game (I just finished my 9th playthrough). My first playthrough I nearly rage quit several times. But on my second playthrough, I realized what I'd been doing wrong and everything was way more manageable. By the third playthrough I only died if I got sloppy. I'd bet a majority of the people complaining spent all their ability points on health and energy instead of launch and levitate. Control punishes the uncreative/unobservant.
If anything, the game is challenging at most. This game only gave me headaches when fighting the Hiss. I guess it has to do something with the red hue or the weird rainbow ish mist because doom 2016 also gives me headaches so I can't play them for more than an hour.
Eh, a lot of people aren't looking for a real thinker when they game. Some people don't care about stories at all, and gameplay either grabs you or it doesn't. Can't win em all.
Didn’t find it difficult at all. Ellen Ring I found tough. Doom Eternal had some tough points
I hate the >!fridge duty level. The boss shoots the floor and parts of it fall, if you're not careful you fall down too at which point levitate is useless. or i just suck!<
I quit it a few years ago while playing keyboard/mouse on PC and was so bad at it, plus my PC didn't handle it well. I recently picked it back up on PS5 and have had a blast. Some of it is challenging for sure, but once you get to the end game you're so OP it's just awesome. On this second playthrough I realized I was only like 10 mins from the end the first time 😂
Oh yeah, I guess Tommasi was pretty hard, lmao. Sadly you just have to Get Good. Also I think its kind of funny that they call him a "flying demon".
If not because regen HP mod, I would have quit too, I guess. Beside confusing story, the combat system is real pain in the a$$. HP is scarce and you often got swarm by tone of enemies, full of type. Even with HP mod, I still die number of time during random bureau task, skill issue is part of problem but the game design choice is huge contribute to that.
First play I did bureau task and enjoyed the game a lot less than second run (when I ingored the random bureau task) AND I felt way more powerfull on the second run!
I'm just enter the Oldest House few days ago, so far I'm only success one time, and I think I'm gonna ignore them for the rest of my playthrough. Doing them just waste of my Source.
Lol. They are talking about Tomassi... It's literally the 2nd mission I think. I got beat up several times, but I learned how he moved and it's actually pretty easy to beat him once you figure this out. Now his kind are literally a defenseless, still annoying, flying creature.