Control: 5 Years Later 

Capture/Contain/Bind your best gaming moments. Eat!/Download!! Outplayed free: www.influencerlink.org/SHKXC

No fucking way it's been five years. I cannot be this old

Control, to me, is an archetypical AA game. Someone had an Idea, and was really passionate about making that game. And while the quality of the game may dip and waver through the playthrough, that Idea is brought to bare and you leave the experience just as in love with it as the Author.

Ahh, another Raycevick video to kick back and relax for

Barely pushing over the ten minute mark

06:08 i actually like the delay in the indirect destruction caused by evade. It feels as if you're moving at an incredible speed and it's the shockwave carried behind you, which takes a split second longer to catch up, that causes the destruction. Kinda like a jet breaking the sound barrier. It moves forward, but it takes a little longer to hear the boom

I'll admit that this game certainly had its problems, a few things that weren't thought through enough, but boy do they pale in comparison to the WORLD that Control created. I'm not someone who reads the little lore entries in videogames, but I read almost all of them in Control. It's the imaginative cosmic horror atmosphere mixed with a surprisingly good power fantasy that kept me playing. I still remember the first time I saw the Quarry, and the inside of the Ashtray Maze. So many questions, so few answers, but Jesse is along for the ride. Really fun game, extremely solid 8/10 for me, made me truly appreciate brutalist architecture

14:44 The musical artist Poe is the sister of House of Leave's author, Mark Z. Danielewski. Her album "Haunted" had multiple songs in it that served as companions to the book. One of these songs was featured in Alan Wake. Poe stopped making music cuz of legal fallout with her label (classic music exec nonsense), but she returned to make new music for... Alan Wake II. It's the song that plays, in pieces, at the end of every Alan chapter. She and Sam Lake wrote the lyrics together and she performed it. I just find it cool that there's a strong link between Alan Wake 1&2, CONTROL, House of Leaves, Poe, and Sam Lake. A conversation between all this art and artists.

35:18 Bro, you owe me so much money right now, Arish is literally my second or third fav person out of all the people you interact with. I find his attitude towards his job super relatable. And occasionally funny.

This game is $10 with the Steam summer sale. Just got it super hype to play. Idk how I've never heard of this this game is right up my alley

"I have full Control" -John Control 2019

Eerie That's the best way to explain Control's vibe. It's not horror and it's not scary but there is something there. Like there is a shadow that shows someone is standing behind the corner but there is nothing there. Eerie

Control is a very special game to me. It’s one of the few games I brought the DLC for, it’s one of the few games I turned the difficulty up after starting because I loved the combat so much and wanted a challenge, it’s one of the few games I say I’ll play again but don’t because I’m afraid of ruining my original experience.

How in the DLC they give you both the power to break and grow crystals without makings some puzzles requiring you to break ones you grew earlier of vis versa for completion is beyond me.

I always thought Severance could exist within Control's "The Oldest House".

Intro caught me off guard

30:57 i think that picture is there to indicate you can break that wall. the pictures of broken walls in the game mean there is a secret behind the wall.

I got frustrated at the map for like 10 minutes... before I realized the building is literally like any bureacratic housing for idiots and has signs EVERYWHERE to point in the right direction. The map to give you basics, the signs to give specifics.

something you didn't mention, one of my favorite things to do in control has always been seizing Hiss clusters so they heal you and you have an easier time in combat and managing to damage them just enough to seize them while not killing them as fast as possible. made the combat much more interesting to me

"You really should play this game. I'm no longer asking." True and real

We got this before Joseph Andersons Witcher 3 video

Control is one of the most special gaming experiences I’ve ever had. The atmosphere is second to none

Your old Control vid got me to play the game, which got me into Remedy’s other games, thank you for that.

"Incentives are like gravity" that's why your mother is the *greatest* 'incentive' of all

I always thought the deal with Jesse Polaris was that Polaris was dead, she did die, but her years long presence has forever altered a part of Jesse that lets Jesse produce her own Hedron Field, mentally imaged as a version of herself that feels like Polaris.

loved when john troll controlled all over the controls

0:52 when the ad ends

Control was great I loved the combat and didn't expect a game like that. The worst part that I can remember about the game was the map, takes a while to get used to.

I don't remember a problem of launch being the major solve everything ability. My memory was that whatever version of the gun I was using at the time dictated the playstyle, with launch covering what the gun couldn't. Launch could round out whatever I was doing. Levitate was also often a get me to where I needed ability, so it made the architecture even more in mind as I would consider where cover might be where walking wouldn't help. And I think the guard thing was what brought being able to do melee combat more feasible, that it could give different guns a go where I would need to worry so much about up close. I believe there was an element that soaking up damage could turn in a wide up close damage without being too left open.

BRO. I have fell in love with your channel, gaming content is hard to find that isn’t irritating or cartoonish and man you reach above and beyond every time. So far now that I have paused at 20 mins and bought control souly on your rec. the length of your videos leaves so much space for every last detail to be analyzed, critiqued, appreciated, everything man great stuff. Genuinely analyzing Ubisoft games is the best thing you can do to point out their flaws because you highlight their potential and your other content does that in a way I haven’t seen voiced so elegantly. Your criticism makes sense and your praise has value so a video like this I feel justified in listening to your opinion. It’s more than just RU-vid vids for some people and you’ve filled some long hours for me lately man I really appreciate it! Keep it up!

12mins in and this is your greatest video for certain. Your writing here was fucking immaculate, the way you drew parallels between breaking free from the norm through spirit and creativity, and the destructive force by which Jesse navigates and interacts with The Oldest House. Genius. Damn, is it wrong that I want everyone I know to watch this despite none of them being interested in games? Like you said, this is art.

There is a church that was used at the major reference of "Dead Letters" that my grandfather in law helped design / build. Really strange brutalist place.

Without going into terribly much detail, it's worth noting that there's an additional secret to the furnace containing a one of the best buffs in the game

control was a weird surprise on how good the 3rd eprson shooting element is. usually these types of games have the most barebones boring shooting imaginable, instead this feels like an indie game with all the graphics on top of it

I actually think the overpraise did more harm than good. If you go in expecting the 10/10s it got you'll be disappointed at the 8/10 it is

take a shot everytime you hear the word control

One of the most beautiful and enthralling experiences I've had in a game. The atmosphere, the soundtrack, the story, the VA, the tightly woven narrative, the intricate worldbuilding, and the absolutely bewitching visuals, are some of the best I've been lucky enough to experience. Sure, some of the areas felt a bit less polished and a bit repetitive, however, they were greatly transcended by the sheer brilliance and a clear product of love and care and conscientiousness that is Control. Ugh even just thinking about it makes me want to play it again.

about the launch thing, it is dominant like you said, but it has one major weakness : it can't be upgraded with mods. It's better at sniping than pierce, until you've added 3 damage up mods to pierce. it's better at dealing with smaller ennemies, until you've added two damage up and a blast radius increase to surge. Yeah, it's patchwork and make 90% of all weapons mods worthless, but at less your gun is usefull/even better than launch. Also surge completely invalidate Hiss distorted, you can just levitate and blow up the entire arena until you hit it. the only down side is that sometime it won't be clear you already killed it.

In my corner of the world, we call this type of video a blockbuster!! Perfect for a weekend evening.

Very glad you reviewed this! I always thought it never got enough attention. It also happens to do the very best "Star Wars" powers imitation of any game I've ever seen. The only thing missing was a light saber.

would love to see “GTA IV: 16 years later”

You’re the reason I played control and now im addicted to brutalist architecture especially in video games

This past few days I've literally been playing control watching your old videos including the one you made about Control. This literally made my day.

I loved control. While I had some performance issues on PS4 I got really sucked in and ended up platting it and explored everything I could. The gameplay was fun and the world created by Control was the ultimate appeal. Exploring and finding the altered items a d then suddenly finding yourself in a boss fight was rewarding. I ended up going down the plant hole early and had the very challenging but satisfying objective to get my way through that level and boss fight. I didn’t use launch as much as you implied most would, I enjoyed exploring different gun modules. While balancing with launch damage may be an issue, it isn’t an issue unique to control. A lot of games end up being shallow when a player doesn’t purposefully switch things up a bit. My biggest gripe was that the final sequence of the main game was too easy (especially with extra DLC upgrades to make you super-powered earlier) and it really needed a final boss of some sort. If you’re not the type of person to explore and engage in notes outside of where you’re directed then the game likely won’t be for you. For me, I read every single bit of the lore.

Bro I love your videos, they provide me peace. Please never stop.

Just finished this game again a week ago and now an almost 2 hour long Whitelight video? Perfect timing

A feature film length analysis of one of the best and most innovative games of the past five years? And I'm catching it on the day it's uploaded? Sure, I'll dedicate a significant portion of my Sunday afternoon to watching that.

Good stuff, man. Need an Alan Wake Whitelight video yesterday.

After so many years… the most iconic part is the weird text / **Panini**

oldest house is my favourite setting in media. it just fits my taste perfectly

The first play through of this game is a insane experience. The feeling and creepyness is so fucking awesome.

First time playing I thought she was talking to the player which would have made it different but way cooler in my opinion.

these vids r so well written and entertaining and insightful, im able to watch 1 or 2 hour vid on a game ive never played cause theyre so well made i want to make videos like this myself one day

I can express nothing short of pure elation that you're covering this GEM of a game! Many thank.

1:13:32 Bro called the Astral Dive Suit ''mid'' when it made Jessie look thicc as hell and gave her a giant ass. That suit was GOATED! 🥵

The problem with getting lost in this game wasn’t just that you had to try and navigate using the signs in the oldest house, it was that the map suffered the same problem as the textures and wouldn’t load half the time. Even when it did load, the map was poorly designed. I loved control but it was a technical disaster at launch much like quantum break

I thought it was cool that one of the director fuels the power to the building and you can see him on the heat map in the generator, where you meet the head of security

Definitely hope we get more enemy types in Control 2 I felt that on max difficulty there was enough going on more or less, but looking back it would have been much more intense in fun ways to have guys equivalent to the axe dudes throughout the main game. Definitely agree the points system needs to be retooled. I didnt think about it at the time because i enjoyed shotgun blast then melee combo, but it is insane that melee would cost the same as launch upgrades. Overall it's def one of my faves. Sits lovingly on my shelf. Not sure if I want another playthrough since my old ps4 might not handle it. One of these days I'll get a grand pc and pee myself in glee to see such sights to make me go whee. Great to see that I missed this one cause it lets me think another comes soon enough.

With the gameplay critique, they really almost solved a lot of these issues with the flying enemies by making them immune to launch. The game tells you they can dodge your launched objects. Dodging their projectiles while trying to aim at them while simultaneously watching out for the big hitters on the ground and using launch on those enemies is really interesting and fun and varied… until I realized the air enemies only dodge your first launch and get hit by the second 🤦‍♂️ still better than nothing because you consume twice as much energy to hit them, but come on, it was so close to perfect!!

One more Whitelight movie to watch. You love to see it!

24:54 I think Control approaches the bosses this way to push us into the banality of the bureau and office atmosphere we are in. That is not some grand adventure to Jesse but another Wednesday in the office (literally).

played it last year, absolute blast. Just finished AW2, also the GOAT

This game has a lot of great moments, meeting Ahti, the Finnish Tango cart ride, the Shawshank Redemption joke, and nearly every Dr. Darling video but moments like The Ashtray Maze, the AWE DLC and especially the ending make it absolute peak fiction

5 years! Where does time go?

i was not expecting another control vid from you!, but as always... illl always apreciate another vid from this channel, and more remedy love! the callback to the og vid with the music was so good!

Man, I just wanted to know why I was now Director, and why I was doing basic bitch work to open doors. The game felt like it had a prequel I'd missed.

I just watched your first Control video few days back, so excited to watch this tomorrow!

Genuinely one of the coolest sponsors I’ve seen on a RU-vid video for a while. Not just one I haven’t heard of before, but damn, it would have saved me a ton of time in managing video files back when I was making videos. Will check them out if I ever manage to start creating stuff again!

Honestly, I think a cool idea for Control 2 would be to completely do away with mechanically-different loot and basically just do what Jedi: Survivor did - realize that drip is eternal, and all you need to give your players to keep them going is a snazzy new coat and a different look for their gun. I would be absolutely so down for a Control game whose primary rewards for exploration was more outfits and cosmetic alterations to the service weapon. Toss a lore entry on each of those and you’re set, baby.

Can't help but think reducing enemy numbers would solve the launch issue. Do away with arena fights and indulge in the open world concept, have enemies spread along the Oldest House, following the path you are travelling on. That way you come across them and gain the ability to position yourself more easily than in the current form of combat, ergo: "Oh fuck, launch, launch, launch!!!" Which would therefore increase depth, as you are able to perform the mechanical depth, i.e: See a hiss at the end of a corridor and sneak through the offices beside the corridor, then barreling a launch through it and the other hiss patrolling with it. Also though, yeah. Abilities need balancing, and the Service Weapon does too. They should all be viable forms of attack that don't pointlessly stun you for a second like melee does, or slow you down when using the shield, making them feel awful to perform.

You're wrong about the furnace; the barrels gives way to finding the flaming televisions, that grant you Eternal Fire for the Grip (which basically gives you unlimited ammo). The barrel mission is just a warm up.

Did you not talk to Dylan when you had the chance? Because he talks about how he gets to go to all the different dreams/games. He talks about past games and presumably future games. He even talks about the very scene in which he's talking about the games. I don't see you reference this at all.

They should’ve added an enemy that has gravity around it, which catches objects launched at it and uses them as a shield. This would incentivise using the service weapon

I tried playing it like 3 or 4 times, and every time I'd be excited to jump in but I could never get more than a few hours or less into it before I just lose interest for some reason.

I went and played through the game again due to you releasing this video and now I am back to complete the video. Thanks Whitelight, I forgot how much I enjoyed this game and its world. Such a beautiful game.

We need Control 2.

Ah, a perfect Saturday Morning retrospective to have in my ear while I play games. Never change, Whitelight ❤

One thing that I really appreciate about Control is that there aren't any invisible walls. The entire lack of artificial impediments is what makes navigation and exploration so gratifying.

the running joke of people trying to fucking with whitelight at the patreon credits is becoming quite advanced

I had 3 problems with Control: 1. Many of the side quests were more interesting than the main plot. Like for example the mission with the guy having to watch a fridge without blinking and then being forgotten by his supervisors? Peak SCP situation. 2. The ending was super anti-climactic. Essentially just a horde mode. Super unsatisfying. 3. The SCP research entries were executed really badly. Usually good SCP stories would redacted words which you could then replace on your own and come to your own conclusion. The entries in Control were often filled with redacted bars. So you would start reading and then quickly realize that you just wasted your time looking at black bars which do nothing for you.

Control is one of my favorite games ever, and I play it about once a year as a sort of holiday celebrating the first time i no lifed it while i was sick on the weekend. Great memories made even better because im addicted to the SCP verse.

Wake up babe, Whitelight just posted

The facial animation is definitely where some sacrifices were made for budget elsewhere.

6:46 i would but if i tried to run this on my current hardware..... Les' just say either it would fail to boot, I'd take out electricity for a week on my entire street or i will become 'Oppenheimer destroyer of worlds' which ever comes first

Still love control. Remedy knows how to tell a good story AND have good gameplay. It may not be on the level of metal gear solid in terms of gameplay and stuff to do, but at least, it's good AT what it does. I can't say the same for a lot of games nowadays.

I just don't understand why Remedy can't escape from the claustrophobic box of third person shooter gameplay. Control is a world of magic and mystery, and aside from the one magical attack that you spam over and over you get... a gun. Why can't they be as creative with the gameplay as they are with the world?

An enemy that grabs objects, as well as the objects your trying to throw, and throws them back at you, could quite easily solve the throwing problem, if it can be called that. Just having an enemy like this that removes the win button can be enough to drastically change combat.

There's something about Remedy's games... They never hold me until the end.

this channel has no business being this good this is like the reverse ign

I somewhat recently gave Control another try after a while of people saying it's so good, and I found it just ok. Found the combat to be meh, wasn't really a fan of any of the characters, worst thing for me though was the constant 400% zoom onto the MC face, it happens like every 4 seconds and it was always useless thoughts. Not to mention some face models just look terrible. I can't remember who it is, but one of the guys looked like he was just an Alien in disguise, I thought it was going to be some reveal he wasn't human or something

The mod system and the whole looter shooter style gear thing in general was one of the most out of place things in the game and I'm glad you talked about it so much. It felt like a really cheap way to try and pad replay ability for side missions in search of a reward or just general want to make people want to play more, but it just wasn't the thing they probably wanted it to be. I was only thankful that it could mostly just be completely ignored, but something way better could have been implemented in it's place, something that complimented the metroidvania style of progression and exploration. To be fair though, I am not a fan of those types of gear systems in general, so I may be biased.

You may be late to the game, but I always love your analysis

Wow! I just finished this game last week after remembering your video about it! And i just finished rewatching your video about it yesterday! Absolutely perfect timing. Much move ❤️

if this game was as good as it is the first 2-3 hours the entire way through, it would be a generational game, unfortunately IMO it just ends up being kinda forgetable, but still very much worthy of a playthrough if someone reading this hasnt. The art direction, gunplay, and animations are so good and a breath of fresh air from other third person shooters.

I’ve played through it twice but you’ve convinced me I shall play it again.

I hope you do Arkham Origins instead of just finishing with Arkham Knight

I will say the most important thing about Charge is that it forces flying enemies to dodge the shot, so you can grab and launch the rocket at them at the same time. One shot and one launch instead of two charges that need to be timed out.

This game is interactive heaven. It is convoluted from a story standpoint, hate the backtracking too, but the physics and gameplay was top notch.

WE GET 2 FUCKING CONTROL REVIEWS BEFORE WE GET 1 ARKHAM KNIGHT REVIEW WTF

Halfway through the game I got the Asynchronous/"jedi academy" suit, and control became the best Star Wars game I ever played. Like a Force sensitive Bounty hunter taking on ancient Jedi trials as a padawan inside a shifting sith temple. Awesome