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Control is a game I have mixed emotions on. It does a lot of things right and can hit some incredible high points, but one must tolerate long stretches of incredibly uninspired and repetitive game-play to experience them. Whether that cost is worth it to you will be very subjective. In this review, I will talk about both the plot and game-play. This is a spoiler-free review, so my review of the plot will be high level and abstract.
Story Review
The plot is heavily inspired by the SCP Foundation. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it so shamelessly borrows ideas from it that it almost becomes a fault. Control absolutely showers you in documents to read. Most of them are Remedy's SCP ideas or letters from other Bureau members. You receive so many of them with such frequency that it actually ends up harming the main narrative. It's hard to get invested in the story when I get a memo every five minutes asking for more department funding or a document about a lamp that someone thinks is spooky but needs more testing to verify if it actually is spooky. Yes, I understand that some of it is world building, but it's the lamest kind of world building. Most of the SCP knockoffs are incredibly boring. Only a few are thought provoking or foreshadow future events. The rest were unnecessary.
The main plot begins with a strong introduction. It's interesting, engaging, and leaves many open questions that you want to find the answers to. It's an incredibly good hook that gives you a strong incentive to continue playing.
Unfortunately, it's not long after that things fall apart. The plot slams on the breaks and stays that way until you're near the end of the game. The ending rapidly advances the plot, but then just stops unexpectedly. It leaves far too many threads unfinished. There is actually a segment that begins to answer one of the big mysteries, only for it to do a rug pull and strongly imply that the cut-scene you just witnessed maybe didn't happen. That's not just my interpretation, even the fan wiki states that it's unclear.
There is nothing wrong with leaving elements of a story open to interpretation or fan theory. The problem in Control is the extremely sharp contrast between the tedious and verbose detail in the uninteresting and unoriginal world building elements they copied from SCP compared to the vast chasm of emptiness they relegated their original ideas to. So many minor elements are elaborated on in painfully boring detail, yet numerous creative and inspiring story threads get the treatment of "yadda-yadda, stuff happened, the end". Control makes sure you learn the full backstory of extremely minor characters and gleefully ignores the plot holes surrounding the major ones.
Gameplay Review
Remedy has created a fun and exciting foundation to build from. You start off with a transforming gun known as the service weapon which mimics pistols, shotguns, or sniper rifles from other games depending on the mode you use. You can launch objects with telekinesis. You can shield yourself with rubble. You can levitate to reach new locations or avoid enemies.
Sadly, there are too many minor faults that manage to interrupt the fun. The launch ability that lets you throw objects can be unpredictable. Most of the time, Jesse will grab a nearby object or even pull rubble from the floor if nothing is available to throw at enemies. However, it's not uncommon for the ability to glitch. At random moments, Jesse will inexplicably grab an object all the way across the room and wait for it to be pulled in and arrive at her side before throwing it. These objects can even get stuck on random geometry. I died more than once because Jesse decided that the desk located a mile away was the only suitable object to throw and she would wait for it to arrive while under heavy fire. That's assuming it arrives at all and doesn't get stuck along its path.
There are no difficulty levels in Control. Instead, it seems that Remedy has opted to use RNG to decide enemy difficulty. It doesn't work very well. Enemies have two modes. Sometimes enemies will stand around and offer absolutely no resistance. Other times they are incredibly clever, hiding behind cover, managing to sneak up on you, and are able to deal incredible amounts of damage in a short time. There isn't much in-between. They simply alternate between painfully easy and borderline unfair.
As you play through the game, you will be able to upgrade your abilities with weapon mods and personal mods to get stat bonuses. The problem is that you have a limited inventory to carry mods, even unequipped ones. Control floods your inventory with useless mods. You are constantly having to pause the game to clear out the worthless ones so you don't miss the opportunity to pick up the rare goods ones.
Between all of the document dumps and mod management, you would think the constant interruptions couldn't get any worse, right? Remedy finds a way. After a certain point in the story, you'll unlock these random events that ask you to go to another part of the building to fight enemies. You don't have to do them and can ignore them. However, you are constantly alerted to these random missions during critical story moments. Control seems absolutely determined to do everything in its power to keep you from completing the main campaign. It's borderline parody with the frequency Control throws interruptions at you. They seem absolutely desperate to try to keep the player away from anything fun and exciting.
Navigation is dreadful. The game does provide a map, but it's not very useful. The Bureau has multiple levels, typically three, but sometimes more, in the different sectors. The map layers all the floors on top of each other. The levels aren't usually the same shape, so layering them all on top of each other can sort of work. The first level might extend further west. The second level extends further south. The third level extends further east. However, there will be a large middle section where all three floors intersect, but the map will only display the top floor. Going from A to B on the the top floor might be a straight line, but is actually a winding maze on the first or second floors which are obscured on the map.
Puzzles aren't a big part of the game. They do have a few, simple puzzles that you'll need to solve. They aren't too complex, and can be a bit fun. Unfortunately, Control likes to ruin some them for you. On one of the puzzles, an NPC accompanies you to the room where it take places. As soon as you start, the NPC immediately gives away the solution. I'm left wondering why the developers would go to all the trouble of creating this puzzle, only to have the NPC immediately blurt out the solution. It seems like an incredible waste of their time and mine.
The quality of the side missions varies dramatically. Some are excellent and worthy of being main story missions. Some are just okay. Most are awful. Control is filled with tedious fetch quests. One such mission was given by an NPC who is almost sarcastic in emphasizing how boring and mundane the mission would be. I thought it was a setup; that Remedy was playing mind games to create a boring fetch quest that actually had a surprise twist. I was wrong. It really was just a boring fetch quest.
Conclusion
Control is a game that I want to like. Underneath it all, I see a game with huge potential. There are fascinating story threads and a fun third person shooter. There are some really excellent moments in side missions like Fridge Duty and mainline missions like the Ash Maze. I feel bad that I can't recommend it though. All of the shining triumphs are buried beneath far too much mediocrity and plots that fizzle out. Many will enjoy Control enough to give it a good review anyway and I can understand why. There were just too many low points for me to feel the same way and it's an absolute shame.