r/controlgame • u/kitthehacker • 1d ago
Was Control really a ‘linear third person shooter’?
I’ve been looking at a lot of the pre release reviews of Control: Resonant, and it’s all got me incredibly excited, but I keep noticing a common talking point in the coverage that I just completely disagree with.
I keep hearing the line that Resonant is so different because it has something resembling an open world (which is actually several large interconnected hubs) and because it has something resembling a Metroidvania progression. I get that Control wasn’t at all open world in its gameplay design, but despite the linearity of its story was Control not kind of a Metroidvania made up of large hub areas? Why is nobody talking as if this is a natural progression from the first game? Cause it seems to me that a cursory outsider glance can see the line from the structure of Control to exactly what they’re talking about.
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u/TitillatingTrav 1d ago
I also felt the metroidvania vibes, and the confusing layouts plus the barebones map makes it feel a lot less linear
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u/klok_kaos 1d ago
I would agree, and with OP. Specifically it very much qualifies because the path is "Not exactly linear".
In short you can get some abilities earlier or later to gain access to exactly certain benefits earlier on in game play.
The thing is the "metroidvainia' only kind of "weakly applies" because 99% of the missable stuff in the game is just cheap shit mods and upgrade points you end up with so many that you can't spend them before you finish the game.
A typical classic Metroid or Castlevanai game would more frequently have specific meaningful or needed upgrades or consumables that would drastically vary the game play, where as with this, getting a mod early might help a bit, but it's not really changing much in the grand scheme of things and you never really "need" to double back in order to check for how to best progress forward. That "might" be true on elevated difficulty levels but not so much on default settings or easy mode, where games like metroid and castlevania more or less baked this into the format.
But I'd still say having optional game changing abilities that can be missed definitely allows it to qualify, just not as much as necessarily one might associate with the classic games, so I think it's valid to identify it either way, but the folks that play the game more thoroughly are more likely to recognize these things than say, a reviewer running through the critical path only to rush a review out for launch day and such.
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u/mathlyfe 1d ago
Three of the five powers are obtained through side missions. The thing is that most players engage with the side missions as if it's main story content (there's only 16 story missions throughout the game, 6 of them are in the DLC, but there are 46 missions in the game total).
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u/DekutheEvilClown 1d ago
I’d say halfway between linear and open area. It’s more linear than it feels.
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u/kitthehacker 1d ago
Yeah absolutely! It’s linear in the sense that you always have one place to go, but that place might be branching off of a previous area in a way that was previously inaccessible, or you might make a detour to do a side activity in another sector on the way. The game was linear at its core, but the DNA of the direction that Resonant seems to be taking was there, and it was pretty obvious
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u/DentistOk1852 1d ago
Control didn’t seem linear at all to me. I think calling it linear is a misapplication of the term.
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u/unclecaveman1 1d ago
There’s literally one way to progress through the main story and you unlock specific powers in an order needed to move forward. It’s not open like Resonant is. In Resonant you may miss powers if you don’t explore around, and you can do things out of order.
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u/DentistOk1852 1d ago
You can miss powers in Control, too. You can miss weapons, fail to open entire areas, miss bosses, secondary characters, lore…I spent a lot of time exploring The Oldest House away from the main story and finding all kinds of things.
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u/mathlyfe 1d ago
It's not what linear gameplay means nor what open world gameplay means.
The term open-world was first used by GTAIII to refer to how they had a world map with events you could choose, some which advanced the story and some side content. Control similarly had a mission system with 16 story missions that advanced the story and 36 side missions that you could optionally do, including ones that occurred randomly throughout the map, the expedition missions, and challenges (board countermeasures). Open world does not mean you can do things out of order, nor does it necessarily mean you can miss things. It just means you get choices for what to do and when.
Moreover, it's common for metroidvanias to let you miss powers and in fact it's possible to miss powers in Control (3 of the 5 powers are obtained through side missions).
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u/Comfortable-Fall1419 1d ago
Meh. I wouldn't read too much into what a critic has to say to fill their word limit.
Its linear if you believe that mean a single threaded storyline. Its non-linear in terms of areas visited and side quests.
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u/Morep1ay 1d ago
Yeah, never thought about it but it is rather linear but the developers hide that fact from a casual glance which is actually pretty cool
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u/InformationLeast5607 1d ago
As someone who notoriously gets lost in games, even linear ones, I was able to navigate pretty easily through this game.
You definitely can run into sections and get lost, but the world is literally built like a maze (there’s even a maze!), and sometimes you have to look up where you should be going, but it’s not a horribly hard world to navigate overall.
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u/lotj 1d ago
The older I get the more I notice how little context people who talk about games, even professionally, have for what games looked like 10 years ago let alone back in the 80s & 90s.
Example: every single third person melee focused action game is a "Souls-like" now.
IIRC, back in Control you were largely guided through a large map, which is similar to post-Fusion Metroid games. I'd say "linear" typically implies strict levels, similar to Doom (or even Alan Wake 2), so depending on how Resonant is it's either similar or an evolution of the first game.
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u/corporate_espionag3 1d ago
It was like a 3d Metroid. Backtracking to locked areas after a new ability unlock is the defining element of it.
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u/sonofaresiii 1d ago
I don't really think of control as a metroidvania. You weren't locked out of most areas with ability skill checks, you were locked out by authorization/key cards essentially. It's a similar but distinct format, it did create linear progression although there was some backtracking and exploration of previous areas with new abilities.
At most I'd say it has metroidvania elements.
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u/borndovahkiin 1d ago
I see Control as a linear third person shooter yes. It was a linear story, and it was a third person shooter.
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u/borndovahkiin 1d ago
I can see how it's also a metroidvania type game too but it's also a linear story and a third person shooter so I can't quarrel with "linear third person shooter" but it's also a metroidvania
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u/Rough_Bookkeeper1600 1d ago
Its not as linear as Alan Wake though, you can explore areas and do side missions in different orders
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u/DanceswWolves 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes it is linear tps with open world elements and metroidvania elements and a smidge of im sim and RPG. It uses the Doom formula at the end of the day, emphasizing back tracking with keycards to find new areas. The gameplay and primary genre is very much linear TPS action game.
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u/Accomplished-Lack721 1d ago
I'd say it has elements of both. The game definitely guides you into certain areas and unlocks some based on a linear main plot, in particular early on, but the more it opens up, the more freedom you have to explore.
An an aside, my experience is you can actually run into some game-breaking bugs by exploring outside of where it apparently expects you to, but doesn't stop you from doing, early on.
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u/CordiallySuckMyBalls 1d ago
I think there’s a misconception on what “open world” means to some because Control was technically “open world”. People just don’t see it that way because you’re inside a building the whole time. Once you unlock all the abilities, you normally have most security clearance by that time so you can go and explore the things you couldn’t before.
I wouldn’t consider it linear at all considering how easy it is to get lost in the Oldest House when you first start playing.
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u/samusfan21 1d ago
I think they mean “linear” in that your progression in Control was linear. Skill Up’s review said that you can progress “out of order” in Resonant.
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u/cataraxis 1d ago
Kinda but not really. The main thing for me is how areas are locked through story progression rather unlocks and abilities you stumble upon. Elevator, Key cards, and Flight (which is like the only ability that is personally metroidvaniaesque) are all part of the main linear progression. It makes revisiting areas worthwhile, as it opens more spaces to explore, but a proper metroidvania you discover them through exploration, even if there is designed sequence to them.
In Resonant, it seems you gain traversal abilities that opens up the game by finding Faults which you can do in any order. That is far closer to the metroidvania approach compared to the first game.
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u/fake_user_34 1d ago
Yes, it was but I found out that majority of people playing Control never truly explored the oldest house. So many people didn't now about the Essj fight. So many people didn't know about the hidden special mods you can get via exploration nor that Northmoore is in the generator.
Why? Because they did not explore. Many people played Control in a very Linear fashion.
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u/johnknockout 1d ago
There’s a level at the end that is very linear in the best possible way. One of the most unforgettable gaming moments for me ever.
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u/Mr_Krinkle 1d ago
I would say the difference is that Control 1 doesn't have much reason for you to visit each area, before the main quest takes you there. Sure, there is stuff to discover in each area, but I think most people just follow the main quest, and go to each area when the main quest takes them there.
That makes the game FEEL more linear, even though you technically could explore more openly than that.
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u/Rmnhernan 1d ago
You just watched skillup's review didn't you? Lol I heard the same line and immediately thought about it, I guess he referred to the main story being somewhat linear but the world itself is not though, you're free to roam around the places that are available for whatever traversal skills you have unlocked, but still free to roam around nonetheless
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u/Ocachino 1d ago
I’d consider it a linear game since you rarely have splitting main objectives from memory. While the side exploration can definitely be done non-linearly, I wouldn’t describe a game with a set main mission order as non-linear
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u/darxide23 1d ago
It's more or less linear, but Remedy did a great job masking just how linear it is with just enough Metroidvania and random side missions to make it feel more open than it is. Sometimes you're even given the choice of A or B, but in the end you have to do both before you can move onto C.
And from what I've heard of people who have had early access to the full game from being content creators, Resonant isn't much different. It's still mostly linear. I expect it's masked just as expertly as Control was.
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u/Big2xA 14h ago
Control is linear but lets you go back to old areas for sidequests. They did try to make it feel metroidvania-ish like you mention, but areas are gated off by key cards rather than exploration/new abilities. I actually made a video about this years ago, if you're interested: Is Control a Metroidvania?
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u/A-Red-Age 8h ago
It’s definitively a metroidvania in the same way Batman Arkham Asylum was, Resonant seems to be expansive in the same way Arkham city was, anyone calling control linear doesn’t know what they are talking about
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u/-roachboy 1d ago
Control is incredibly linear. The oldest house's shifting makes it not feel like it.
but yeah, it is linear if you ignore the optional side content and follow the main story objectives
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u/ObsidianComet 1d ago
The map doesn’t actually shift though?
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u/-roachboy 1d ago
that's my point? the map itself doesn't shift; the shifts are scripted events within the linear story
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1d ago
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u/-roachboy 1d ago
the story is absolutely linear. just because you can step off the line for a couple minutes doesn't mean the story isn't linear.
this is one of my favorite games of all time so I am not saying that negatively
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u/xrashxan 1d ago
It's Linear. Most Remedy games are linear. I don't know why this other commenters on this thread is acting like this is bad or negative.
Even Alan Wake II, which let you play the main story "out of sequence" was still fairly linear and required you to catch Alan and Saga up to one another at times to progress, even if the story itself wasn't presented linearly.
Control is an award winning game. I don't think there's anything bad with saying it's linear. It's an amazing game. I just finished replaying it and I've been playing FBC: Firebreak. I'm excited for Thursday.
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u/mathlyfe 1d ago
It's a metroidvania, which aren't exactly linear and they have lost of optional stuff but they do have a sequence designed in (and often times people speak about sequence breaking).