Control Series X Impressions

Despite being a critical darling in 2019, I completely slept on Control during its initial release. As a primarily PlayStation gamer in the past, I’d never played any of Remedy’s previous games. Fast forward to now and playing the Series X version of , I can’t believe I skipped the game previously. But I’m also glad to be playing the best possible console version of the game.

The core setup of the game reminds me of one of my favorite TV series: Fringe. Like that series, Control revolves around a secretive government agency that investigates and clears up unusual events around the country. The game has great style and atmosphere, an intriguing mystery and memorable characters. I’m maybe five hours into the game so far, and it’s a blast.

Control runs great on the Series X. Trying out the graphics mode at first, Control gives maybe the best current example of what Ray Tracing adds to a game on console. It looks breathtakingly good — likely helped by the color scheme and stark environment. However, locked at 30fps, the graphics mode isn’t my preferred way to play.

The performance mode runs at a smooth 60fps, which is vital for the game’s heavy combat portions. What feels a little stiff at 30fps is buttery smooth at 60. The trade off is a slight visual decrease, but it’s absolutely worth it.

The one annoyance that I’ve had is that the game occasionally crashes to the main Xbox dashboard. In my 5ish hours, it’s probably happened 3 or 4 times already. It’s a really strange bug, and something I’ve seen written about elsewhere. Thankfully, I haven’t lost much progress and it’s quick to get back into the game in under a minute.

If you’ve never played Control, there’s no better time than the present to jump in. Even if you’ve played in the past, playing the game at a smooth 60fps, or even testing out the ray tracing, is worth experiencing.