Parents' Guide to Control

While mixing scares and shooting has worked well in other games, a myriad of issues makes this action adventure feel dated. In Control, you're the new director of the FBC (Federal Bureau of Control), a government agency tasked with investigating and weaponizing the paranormal. Except that on your first day, you find that a supernatural power called The Hiss has taken over your office and the people in it. Helping you save them, and your job, are your Service Weapon, a versatile pistol with multiple forms that regenerates ammo automatically, and some special mental abilities that include being able to toss chairs and other things at enemies.

While this might sound like it has the makings of solid scary shooter -- something similar to the Resident Evil or Evil Within games -- this comes up a bit short by being shallow and lackluster. Sure, being able to alternate between guns and powers makes the combat interesting, as does the multi-layered approach of the battlefields. While Jesse can crouch, she seems determined to stand upright whenever possible. She can also momentarily generate a shield, but the shield and crouch move are poor substitutes for taking cover like you do in other games. Similarly, your powers can be upgraded, but this is essentially limited to making the effect stronger instead of more versatile for environmental situations. This can actually highlight how shallow the powers can be, even if they're visually striking. Using your dash move, for instance, gets you out of harm's way, but dashing into someone does nothing. Couple that with the game's rather loose controls, unhelpful map and navigation systems, and distracting live action cutscenes, and you'll understand why Control feels like a relic from the days of the PlayStation 2 that's not horribly bad but not terrifyingly good either.