Transcript
Speaker: How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. That's it. That's it. That's the whole thing. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host, as always, Dave. I'm not asking how Dave's doing today. have you played Control Resonant?
Speaker: Yeah, dude, I actually just finished it this morning. Oh my gosh. And um I'm currently, I have a side quest open that I had missed, um but I want to know the lore around it. So I'm trying to find and start that side quest.
Speaker: Yes, very fair. um Just as a heads up, we're playing around with the format a little bit. Sometimes in the past, we would go into a lot of non-spoilery detail and then just try to like trim it down, hedge it, you know, ah try to keep things to minor spoilers.
Speaker: Not going to do that today. I'm just going to open with either thumbs up or thumbs down for recommending the game and then we'll see you go next to right into spoilers. Yeah. So if you're on the fence about playing Control Resident, should they play it, Dave?
Speaker: Yeah, it's a really fucking good. Yeah. I will say for me, it was a little bit of a slow start. and i mean i felt like a little a little baby man running around um but you know after some exploration some main mission progression some side quests and like a little more exploration of the world in the combat and stuff i became so much more engaged as it went on oh yeah yeah i think that's fair to say as well i i
Speaker: um had a similar experience. I did pick the Control recap because it's been like seven years or whatever nonsense since the previous. I was thinking about doing that, but I had incidentally just played Control a couple days before. That does help. That does help.
Speaker: um Yeah, i would I'm also a thumbs up for this. If you like third-person action games, if you like um I would say like a little bit of souls like combat, at least action, third person action, open world type games.
Speaker: um It has dodging. So there you go. Souls like combat. um But definitely recommend it. And especially like if you haven't gone back and played Control, like I do think that will give you a pretty good picture of whether you would enjoy this game or not. Even though the combat is very different, the world is the same.
Speaker: And like some of the pacing and the you know SCP-based storytelling and stuff like that, it's all it's all there. right It's still Control. yeah.
Speaker: um definitely check it out if you do pick it up and you're picking it up on steam i recommend grabbing it from green man gaming i think it's like 15 or 20 off there fuck um so you can get it for like 48 bucks or something like that because i believe it retails 60 um if i remember correctly so just save a couple bucks it's like 12 or whatever but that's it that's your off ramp we're going talk about the game now Goodbye. i See you next week or two weeks from now. Whenever we record. i don't know. no No, you hang up. Yeah, exactly. You're not supposed to hang up. We're just that supposed to say that. out of the video. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Speaker: Control Resonant. I have not completed the game. I will say that up front. But I've probably reached what I think is a midpoint or maybe something closer to uh 60 70 uh just if i had to guess um so so i would
Speaker: i'm trying to remember i think there's like a number of major boss fights yeah so i've uh done the dancer i've done uh deserter the dancer was the head yes the dancer is like i think the canonical first boss i think you're you're funneled to that one um Actually, no, no, no no The dancer's not the head. Who was the head?
Speaker: ah You're right. That is the first boss, but the dancer is actually like a dancer. She's walking around. She's doing ballet and stuff like that. She's a giant. She's got like legs for days, they would say. um i And yeah, I think those are the ones I've done.
Speaker: Actually, there's not like... I haven't done a ton of bosses, actually. Not that I'm none of them saying it, but... I guess I'm also kind of used to like Dark Souls boss pacing and they throw bosses at you all the time.
Speaker: um These are more like set pieces. Yeah, I think for each major area or something, there's typically a big story boss at some point.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, we should we should talk about the character, too. So like what with ah this is third person action game you play is Dylan. um i didn iylon dalon da ah I'll be honest I didn't even remember who Dylan was and so I was like watching the recap and I was like oh yeah yeah that guy that guy he's basically just a long lost spoopy brother in the first game yeah and he's his controlled right that's like his whole shtick
Speaker: um And I know this is jumping immediately to characterization a little bit. I do find it a little bit novel. It's kind of a... It's not the only time this trope has been used. But, like... Everybody hates him. Basically. Oh, dude. yeah um Because he killed so many people. Like, 526 or something like that. whatever.
Speaker: by I will say they kind of like they they sort of give him the out of being like, oh, it's like he he killed that many people in Minecraft or in this case, like while controlled by the Hiss. Right. It's like it's not like he himself was doing all of this, which would make him outright irredeemable. Instead, it's just like everybody else is judging him for something he didn't really have any control over.
Speaker: which does kind of just turn it almost into like victim blaming a little bit. Right. Yeah. um
Speaker: It gets a little more into the, the lore around some events in the past and things that have merely been alluded to either early on in resonance or just in control.
Speaker: Right. Um, And I really enjoy going back and learning more. feel like Control being obviously this giant ever expanding and shifting SCP facility.
Speaker: So many cool things were introduced as questions of what exists in the world. um And they did not answer many of them. Yes.
Speaker: Which is important, actually, for this genre, um because that's actually how you fall apart. Right. Like they can answer some questions, but they actually have to be replacing them with questions that are just as interesting or else something in the like detective noir mystery type space is going to just fall to pieces. You'll just be like, oh, all the intrigue is gone.
Speaker: um hey here are the defined uh rules and stuff of everything we have it here like a little nice concise thing for you to read yeah exactly the artist is the first one by the way that's the the face and the ground yeah that runs across then the deserter and the dancer um that's as far as i got I'm not scrolling any further on that page. But yeah, dylan's Dylan's kind of like an interesting character because he was in a coma after Jesse, the director, um like purged the hiss from his mind, which they specifically i ran across an NPC dialogue. And it was actually really sad. They're really they're good at pulling the heartstrings a little bit in this game.
Speaker: But there is like one um I'm going to keep saying SCP, but it's the control team. um federal bureau of control fbc uh one of the rangers is talking to a scientist and is like hey do you have any way to cure people that are corrupted by the hiss and they're like no and it's like but like the director was able to save Dylan and the the person's like, yeah, but she basically fried his brain and he was in a coma for seven years. And if it was anyone else, they would have died.
Speaker: and I think she's tried. i think that was like literally the dialogue. um And so he's a little bit of a special child because both he and Jesse are the survivors of um using the projector as kids. They found an altered item, ah the projector, and I think it destroyed their town or something like all of the people in the town other than them are gone.
Speaker: um Yes. But all of the grownups disappeared. Yeah. And so ah Control FBC found them and ah Well, actually, Jesse made it out. Jesse escaped.
Speaker: They didn't capture her. But Dylan was captured and became a prime candidate to become the director. um And that didn't go very well because they treated him like garbage. And then he got corrupted by the hiss. And then he killed over 500 people. so So that's Dylan's backstory. Then he gets in a coma, stabbed in the chest with Aberrant, which I freaking love, by the way. We got to talk about Aberrant. Dude, as soon as that thing happened and, like, the menu came up for, like, which weapon do you want to choose? I'm like, Jake's going to fucking time with this. So good. You know, my favorite thing. So we got you. Can I guess what it is? You take the point. You take the point. Yeah.
Speaker: I think one of your favorite things about Aberrant, the weapon, is the basically... Oh my god, who the fuck is the guy from Overwatch? Oh, I mean, there's a lot of them.
Speaker: The one with the shotguns, dark, raveny. Reaper. Reaper. Yeah. How he will reload by just like throwing away his guns and getting new guns. Yeah. um Well, basically, every after every attack, like when you pull your arm back, at least for the weapon I'm using, basically a copy of it kind of like pops out or like it's like a piece of breaks off. Yeah. yeah And then as you go to attack, like another piece kind of forms where you're going. um
Speaker: That's exactly really cool. That's exactly it That's the thing I love about it. I was just like watching the animation because it kind of works like the um the ah like baking powder and or no, baking soda, whatever the the combination was that gave you the non-Niclodian fluid where it's like, oh, when it's in movement, it works like this. When it's not in movement, it works like this. So the reason i describe it like that is because you can have like a three hit combo or whatever, finish the combo.
Speaker: And then every time, like you stop exerting the will to hurt somebody with a weapon, it just falls to pieces and then like reforms as you continue. And they could have made it so much less cool if it was just like magically recalling back to the hilt. Cause that's basically what you keep. You keep like a bar of metal all the time. gotta say, um,
Speaker: i was I grew up an only child. Still am. but Any day now. Mom and dad, get on it. When are you guys having kids? When am I going to have a brother or sister?
Speaker: um But like, obviously, if you spend a lot of time alone, ah you become very creative, lost your own thoughts, have imaginary friends, ideas, fake characters, fake universes and stuff.
Speaker: Right. And um
Speaker: It's 1.33 on a Saturday, and i'm I'm feeling the vibe, so I'll bare my soul a little bit. Sure. I created in my head this character called X because it was the edgiest thing I could think of at the time. It's a pretty edgy name, yeah. And... um His brother was Vega from Street Fighter.
Speaker: And Vega had like this ever shifting or type thing called Alpha, but it was inferior to ever shifting thing that X had called Omega. Of course. Yeah. yeah um But I wanted like simplicity in the design. I'm like, what would be like really cool for this person to like run around with and i'm like oh just like a simple stick of rebar would be the thing yeah so where's my money remedy shows uh scraps of wet and burnt napkin uh-huh right you'll be you'll be hearing from my lawyer um
Speaker: But it's a really cool idea, and i visually it does also like so here's the reason I love it. It opens up the game design space. If it's just like, hey, the hilt of the weapon is basically always the same.
Speaker: um You basically get like the same freedom that you had in something like prototype. Where it's like, hey, you're just making claws and hammers and mauls and all these weapons out of biomass. It's nanomachines, basically.
Speaker: But the intersection between nanomachines and resonant is like, it's grounded in the universe. And this is a distinct like object of power or altered item.
Speaker: um It's basically his magic item. Love it. But yeah, like the weapon itself, Aberrant is adaptive and you can change it, you know, based off of your play style and your choices for what you want to unlock.
Speaker: And some of those options are really cool and they interplay um into the actual like build crafting, which doesn't hit early. I wouldn't say like early on, it doesn't seem like you really have enough options to be like, oh, I'm making a build out of this. But later it seems like it's more of a thing.
Speaker: Yeah, it's ah very much a drip feed of build making, which I kind of like... because it kind of incentivizes you to go and do more and should say the way that progression works in this game is um you level up an area as you level up an area you get quote unquote like level upper talent points and you can invest that in yourself or a weapon style or something
Speaker: I do think that's a little controversial to the idea of leveling up an area because like not to me necessarily like I agree with it but I could see how it could be a little inconvenient to feel like you need to write like sometimes there's a vendor in an area and its stock might be locked until your world level for that area is higher which requires just running around doing random encounters doing quests stuff like that mm-hmm The reward, though, is you also see map markers for things that you haven't encountered yet. Because that was that's always my first concern when I see an open world game. It's like, cool, are you wasting my time?
Speaker: Right? like i don't want to I'm fine if you have some hints and I'm tracking something down or whatever, but I don't want to just like look around an area that I've already been to because I feel like I missed something. right like That's miserable.
Speaker: Yeah. i So it's a solution, I think. I felt like a lot of times was just kind of coming across stuff. I'm definitely somebody who will try and take the off the road less followed, road less taken, ah just because I want to find some goodies.
Speaker: And typically, if you are that type of person, you will encounter a little loot box. And I felt like at that rate, throughout the game, I felt...
Speaker: pretty strong after playing for a couple of hours. Yeah, you can definitely, if you are not just chasing like the main story, you can definitely kind of out level a lot.
Speaker: It's not like, um it's not like freaking expedition 33, where it's like, if you're going for completionists, then you will literally be sequence skipping late game bosses. Cause you are just so powerful compared to them.
Speaker: But yeah, Yeah, you can the game. The game is not going to like push you out of a zone until you're kind of like ready to leave. It does.
Speaker: i guess the other thing that some people might not ah be super fans of is you can be clearing an area of like random hiss encounters. And when you level up the world, it repopulates or when you level up the area, it repopulates that area because it's got to feed into the next like exp budget to get the next you know world level up. Right.
Speaker: But that does mean you're like, oh, now I can run through here without worrying about anything yeah or feeling the need that you need to do the random encounters. But then they're back and you're like, all right, I'm doing it. Do them again. But the combat's good game. So I think I think the design makes sense.
Speaker: I'm for it. don't really have any negatives to say at this point. I feel like the random encounter stuff is just a way for you to as you progress through the game, come back and essentially keep measuring yourself.
Speaker: mean, I guess in the same way with as you face the different bosses throughout the game, um you'd be like, oh, I now have an answer for this thing that I was struggling against. Yeah.
Speaker: Kind of lets you battle test a bit. It also is part of like the material economy for like farming. How do you feel about that? like the The way that the resources are split across different regions plus the shop.
Speaker: So again, I'm very much an Onga Bunga gamer when I do first playthroughs and often second um subsequent playthroughs as well. But I'm somebody who will typically not engage with a crafting thing unless I feel that I need it.
Speaker: So for like a long time, I didn't look into the gap and doing stuff with said resources like i don't know like for people that are in the in the loop this means that dave was doing a challenge run because this is how your attack goes up well actually your attack goes up from finding stuff in world Well, so you you you do get power level ups, but it does specifically say that Aberrant itself gets stronger every time you allocate points. Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah. Even if it's actually weapons and things that you don't have equipped, um Aberrant, like it has a power percentage on the side and that number will go up as you keep unlocking things.
Speaker: I feel like I should have picked up on that or noticed that at some point. But here we are. have beaten the game and this is news to me. You didn't need it. You didn't need it. to There was a point later on where I was looking to kind of complete my build and have things that benefited me versus this is something I have. yeah And then it has actual no actual use.
Speaker: um So i was starting to then look for ah some unique currency items. Yeah. But a lot of times i would just go to a shop and be like, ah what do I need and not have? Do you have that?
Speaker: Cool. yeah We buy it. So I wasn't ever going out and hunting for specific resources. Mm hmm. Yeah, I agree with that take. Like, you generally don't have to, but it's kind of ingenious in a way, like the whole, the whole, the way the system works, because it's like, for me, I never really interacted with the mold enemies all yeah all through the mid game.
Speaker: So outside of the shops, I didn't have any access to the mold resources. And And so I basically either ended up spending my currency at the shop, which is what I generally did, um to like buy the stuff I was missing. Also, insert a Malcolm War edit here.
Speaker: Or i would you know be incentivized because the the the one downside, ah the thing I wish they would change in the UI a little bit, is like when you go to pin recipes, you can be like, hey, I want these parts. i Show me these in the shop or or whatever.
Speaker: um I think there's also like a compendium area or something where you can just look at the materials and it'll just tell you, hey, these are found in this area. um But unless you go to the compendium, you don't like really see that um or if you look at them in the shop.
Speaker: by um But it's it's a smart game design decision because it incentivizes. It's like, hey, are you just camping in Central for some reason? Like, you probably want something from, you know, from evac or you want something from like the west side or whatever.
Speaker: And um so it gives you an incentive to go out and explore those areas and your character strength progression as far as unlocking these skills, combo finishers, stuff like that, other weapon types sometimes.
Speaker: Like it's all incentivizing you to explore more of the world um and not just farm up a stack of 30 of everything from Central, which I i did.
Speaker: um fun
Speaker: But yeah, that's just ah that's my psychosis. um i do think it's i think I do think it's good game design. And I'll be honest, like I'm a sucker for farming. I play Warframe. Come on. Like I'm a sucker for farming. So when they're like, hey,
Speaker: Go here with your targeted objective. Kill these enemies and engage in the sandbox. You know, um ah have a good time with that. Yeah, it never really felt like the combat encounters that I ran into were like, oh, it's too fucking many. It was usually like a nice break from, again, as you were saying before, ah running from point A to point B over however long of a distance.
Speaker: Yeah. And if you ever don't want to... unless it's specifically gated by it, you don't have to engage in fights. It's true. Dylan's very agile. And even if they engage in combat, like enemies leash.
Speaker: So there's, it's in a loading tip. It's like, Hey, if you get too far away from enemies, they're just going to respond back where they were at full health. And you're like, cool. I mean, and that's an MMO thing, but cool. um Yeah, I, I agree. was going to say something about that and I forgot.
Speaker: But that's okay. We'll come back to it. Well, I definitely had some instances where I'm like, i don't want to fight. I just want to progress MSQ. yeah give me Give me lore and content. yeah And so I was just booking by a couple of fights. i'm like, nope, not today. No, no, no. yeah yeah Leave me alone. I go to church. I remember what it was. ah Before the game launched, I think they had either a day one or like a day two patch.
Speaker: that reduced the ah the health pool of a lot of the open world enemies. And I've only played the game with the current health pool. And I would definitely mark that as a con if they had another 50 100% health. like right now it feels like if i'm at equal level equal power and stuff if the grunt type enemies took like any more hits hits they're called drones if they took like any more hits i'd be like ah i don't know um so again this is a an audio podcast so you can't see my eyes darting back and forth um but another thing that's cool about the the combat design of that is
Speaker: you have the large enemies that you need to defeat ultimately to make that camp or mob spawn go away. And the drones are kind of there and it will keep spawning yeah as a way for you to essentially...
Speaker: get health back uh possibly power yeah and build up power as well which you can then that's your resource for combat abilities which they are good they are good they are very good yeah Can I ask what you have picked so far as far as combat abilities? Yeah. So that I and ultimately we may judge you. Yeah, that's fair. So I started with um the glaive, which basically is a scythe.
Speaker: um And then my secondary was the drill. And the drill, like, applies hit stun, and you can hold it to charge. And so, generally, if there's just a single enemy, like, and they're just dead. i hear There's just nothing they can do against the drill. It also, like, applies a decent amount of stagger, but not as much as, like, hammer-type weapons and things like that.
Speaker: Falter is what they call it. the build the execute bar on them, right? We're back to Sekiro. um But ah those two and then the, ah what was it? The combo finisher I eventually got was I had like the blade thing. it it looks like an extension of the glaive because I wasn't 100% sure how the if like the combo finishers attached to certain weapons or not. The game wasn't really clear about that.
Speaker: Yes. So I just picked something that looked like it would. I think there's two options for each weapon. Okay. Yeah, because I ultimately like switched it out eventually and I I I must picked the other option, or maybe they just let you form it into whatever. Because the the combo finisher I went away from was the this continual slice and dice. You like send the blade out and it keeps chopping, but that inflicts weakness.
Speaker: And the drill already inflicts weakness. So I'm like, oh, I'm double dipping here i'm not I'm not taking advantage of my synergies. So I switched it out for like the rock'em sock'em fist that like punches the guy up into the air.
Speaker: um And then ah that starts like an air juggle and the build gets more power off of hitting enemies that are in the air and does more damage to enemies in the air. Oh, OK. So I'll be like, yeah, so many times I'd be trying to fight an enemy in the air.
Speaker: And I'm like, oh, I can do some hits in the air. But after like six or seven, i apologize for the number, but that's what it is. i would typically then drop and I couldn't keep hitting and me attacking. It would move myself towards the enemy.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. This is like it's a really good tool. Yeah, I needed something like that. And I just a lot of times would be like, ah my time has come and I would fall into the pit and respawn. Uh-huh. I do think like that the other way that's solved is having more stagger in your build. Because if you do executions in this game are insane.
Speaker: Like you just other thing I knew you're going to like, like you just magnetize across the map. like fly to somebody, regardless of what sorts of movement resources you have just to like Dylan's aggression towards the hiss is what enables this. I think it just breaks the bounds of even his own power set in order to go execute some guy.
Speaker: um But when you do that, it resets your movement options. So if you're doing the devil may cry thing and you're just yeah airborne all the time, um I use that. I also use the the summon. I use the pet.
Speaker: And I just got the ability to fire infuse. So now I'll fire infuse, buff myself, which starts my bar depleting. I start fighting a little bit, usually do like two drills, which is enough to like stagger an unshielded enemy, maybe like with a punch of a little bit extra. At this point, my bar is almost depleted.
Speaker: i execute that enemy. ah Right before the bar depletes, I summon, which just uses the rest of my power, regardless of how much is left. So it's actually like more efficient than if you just fire into summon immediately. You can fire fight summon and then you're using your power more.
Speaker: And then just skirmish, just fight as much as I can to get the power back so I can detonate the pet before it runs out of health because it does more damage based off of how low its health is.
Speaker: um Yeah, I found that out a couple of times. It's so good. It's so good. The pet was an early pick for me as well that mean, I stuck with. Yeah. Yeah. but i'd be fighting and stuff and i'd be fighting a larger enemy typically because i went more single target with the chopsticks and ah my guy by flying around and i would have just enough power and the falter meter i'm like maybe maybe this will do it and i would be like like it just throw the bomb at him
Speaker: the And um it would usually explode. And then I'd be able to chain execute the large enemy that I was going after. And then a bunch of little drones that were nearby. Yeah.
Speaker: And since the enemies drop health when they die, it was a nice way to have as a comeback mechanic. Yeah. If enemies are just rocking your shit. It kind of like it it's almost got some some doom to it where it's like, hey, you could sit back and try to try to like chip these guys out. But like, what if you don't care if you get hit?
Speaker: Right. What if you get hit like a lot, but you're just killing enough people that it doesn't matter. and it's And this game is good for it. I'll figure out your berserker ratio. It's the berserker ratio. Exactly.
Speaker: Like it still has things like perfect dodges and whatnot that feel really good, especially with a retaliation buff that like increases your damage. And like the execution, increasing your damage for a time.
Speaker: ah so there's so many like little incentives in the sandbox for mechanics. Like even what we were describ like what I was describing with the um ah trying to chase. Your your pet, is its life bar is always dropping.
Speaker: And if it just dies, there's like no payoff. You didn't use it as a big detonator. So you're really incentivized to get your power back in time to throw the pet.
Speaker: um And so like these little things are all happening in a given encounter. And it's like, okay, well, that enemy doesn't have a full stack of weekend. So I need to hit him with like two drill combos.
Speaker: um Then he'll take like an extra 30 or 50% damage or whatever. And it's like all of these things are happening while you're just trying also not to die. And it makes the game gameplay just fun. Like the combat is very engaging.
Speaker: yeah It's nice to make those on the fly decisions. um There are a lot of times where it in an inadvertently I save my own ass by chaining together some stuff like that. I was like, oh thank God that worked out because I was just on a razor's edge of death.
Speaker: Yeah. but get While we're on the combat, though, i mean like how do you feel about how do you feel about some of the bosses that were mentioned? Things like the artist, dancer, a deserter. um I don't remember their specific combat patterns at the moment, but i have liked all of the major health bar at the top named bosses. Yeah, yeah music kicks in.
Speaker: I have mixed feelings on the bosses. I think they're awesome. Like aesthetically, they're all like top tier Dark Souls bosses so far. But a lot of what we just described in like the combat...
Speaker: ah sandbox really isn't in play for the bosses. Like, it's kind of just dodge their thing and then attack them again. And you might be hitting multiple buttons, right? Like, you might still be having your rotation, but, like, picking on the de deserter specifically.
Speaker: Like, there weren't, as far as I could tell at least, really any adds or ways to heal much in the fight. I think you just heal at, like, certain percentages on his health bar. And then it just turns into, a like, a don't-get-hit attack. Don't-get-hit attack.
Speaker: And I don't personally have a huge problem with that. But that's what people had against Dark Souls 2. It's like, is it my turn? Oh, sorry. It was not my turn. I'll take my damage and and try to recover. I'll wait for my turn next time.
Speaker: um So I feel like in some ways, like the sandbox isn't online in the same respect for a boss fight when it isn't just like the open world.
Speaker: Yeah, it's they definitely throttle you a bit. ah There are some bosses that will have ad phases or just okay some ads.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Depending on the situation as a a means. Right. Yeah, that probably would close the gap for me a lot because, no pun intended, because the i there's certain mechanics like the execution buff or like backstabs getting you more power and stuff like that. And it's like those aren't, I say backstabs, but it's attacks to the back. There's no special animation or anything like that before people get confused.
Speaker: um It would be good to have those in flight, like while the boss is going on, as long as you're not overwhelming people, I guess. And I don't want to understate it. These bosses look awesome. And their arenas are all like awesome.
Speaker: Everything is ah very creative and well designed. And I think it only gets better. Yeah, there's some there's some really cool standouts. Like the um the dancer approach in the theater is just like they do the whole like long hallway symmetrical doors on each side, stuff like that.
Speaker: But then you get to like the actual theater proper, the viewing area. And the whole thing is just shaped like a an eye, like a human eye shape.
Speaker: um What is that? It's not elliptical. You know what I'm talking about. And like the theater just like wraps in on the ends. So it's kind of like collapsing in on itself in order to like solidify the shape as a human eye. And it's just like, oh that's so cool.
Speaker: ah's So cool. Yeah, I feel like and not a dig because they did super cool design shit with this. And I want to talk about so much more of it. um But like, hey, what if we just copy and paste of this asset?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah. We got to touch that. Yeah. Because they do literally. yeah That's not hyperbole. How many coffee shops have the exact same layout? Yeah.
Speaker: um I'm fine with that stuff, um but I know what you mean. Yeah. um I'm also fine with it because like I'm just like, ah, this I register in the moment that it's kind of like a game development conceit.
Speaker: It's like you literally run across the same laundromat so many times. you You have two ways of doing it. Yes. Right. You have the Elden Ring way, which is we need a way to space out some of these items and finds.
Speaker: We need to have a bonus thing for them to engage with. And then what can we do for that and what we do to try and make it diverse. And a lot of those things were not diverse. So people didn't like slugging through it.
Speaker: The catacombs and stuff, right? Yeah. Whereas a lot of these coffee shops or things you'll step into will typically be just a room, yeah a loot box, and then maybe some lore or notes you can find. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, and that's kind of the way I think about it, too. Like, there's enough variety in the game and narrative and stuff like that that I can just I can overlook it.
Speaker: i i I want to say if they're meaning to be at times, it seems like they're trying to be intentional with it. Like some of these areas will have a puzzle and I enjoy the puzzles. um They're a little they almost all of the puzzles I've encountered in the game are like pattern recognition.
Speaker: um to some degree and oh okay talk about the puzzles after this but um you solve the puzzle and it's like hey this is actually an agent hideout for some people that are like observing the FBC and And their hideout layout is always exactly the same. Sometimes they like put some mold on the wall or sometimes they'll move some things a little bit, but it's like the actual stairs down are always in the same location and everything like that. And it's like, it's just kind of weird.
Speaker: I could see it being intentional if they were like, hey, we want to give this sort of an uncanny valley feeling of like, of course, a three letter government agent would standardize their stairs every time. So they their their agent sell. Well, here's the thing. You can argue that it is actually part of the game world, that it is intentional.
Speaker: Yeah. You can't because of the pattern. Yeah. There's like some patterning happening. That's, um, making copies and duplicates of stuff, which is why New York currently looks the way it does. Um, and it probably, that probably is the explanation.
Speaker: Like, to be fair, it's why it's the same laundromat or whatever. um Yeah, we haven't really talked about the open world much, but that's really cool too. like I like the traversal.
Speaker: It's mind-boggling inception-ness for like how you're just changing gravity. What things do you have access to? So run fast, um change localized gravity, and ah jump to like access point and change gravity.
Speaker: the The little bubbles you latch onto. and wo The R. Then going to fly over there. Are you doing keyboard and mouse or controller, by the way? I'm using controller. okay I'm using keyboard and mouse. Dang, okay. It's been working pretty smooth. don't know.
Speaker: No, that's fair. I'm not sure why. i think I just didn't have the controller plugged in. That was my decision. yeah I was going to say, that's a little surprising. because like I think that this would fall under...
Speaker: a traditional controller game. Oh yeah. hundred percent. Third person action. And it would have been nice because sometimes you just want to have a trigger input. Whereas keyboard and mouse, I think it's like one, two, three QW E for your combat abilities. And that's a little wonky. That is a little bit. Probably not W is forward. Yeah. Yeah. that That would be very funny. You need to back step everywhere.
Speaker: um But yeah, we talked about combat, some of the bosses, some of the area design. Yeah, the localized gravity thing was really cool. Like the world folding in on itself and then fighting enemies on different planes.
Speaker: Like talk about that one, Dave. It's really fun. um Because enemies will sometimes just be on different planes of gravity where they will just be up on a wall or on the ceiling.
Speaker: Ceiling the funniest to me. I'm just looking up like, hi. you're going to come I'm going to come to you. you have to zoop over there and... shift so you're looking at them eye to eye and then you beat their ass uh-huh it's always really funny when i'm like jumping in the air quote-unquote like to attack somebody who's just standing on a different plane because i'll i'll just be like floating here here in the air it looks like i'm putting in all this effort and the guy's just standing there looking at me as he's getting wailed on at head level has some guys show up from his periphery like ah
Speaker: it's just It's just really incredible. And the um one little tech I give, I don't know who who at Remedy decided this is the way it should work, but it was a really good thing to identify.
Speaker: If you move to execute an enemy that has localized gravity, you assume their gravity after the execution. um which makes transitioning from fighting on one plane to another plane the most cinematic thing.
Speaker: Like, so good. Yeah, once once you actually get to experience chain executions, you will understand why we're talking about it this way. The one thing I wish it does, it it does and I'm literally a single skill point from getting it, at least for like the elite tier enemies, is get power back on execution.
Speaker: um I I zooped my way down that list. It wasn't even like once I saw the node, it's not the rest of the stuff wasn't even fitting my build exactly like for of the way I wanted to play. I pick something that gives a buff to a skill I do not have unlocked specifically so I can get like power back on elite execution because I was like, this can change. This can change my loop. This can change my starter loop for combat.
Speaker: But that's what the that's what the game does to you, right? Like, I don't know. I'm really interested to see like where the um where it all goes for effects because they have like they have stagger, you have standard attack, you have attacks from the back, you have the weakness element, you have fire. i assume that there's like spores or something. I know there's infection because that was in a tooltip. It's like if you hit an enemy with fire and infection, they explode.
Speaker: And I was like, I'm going to try this. I'm going to find this out. I think infection is essentially like poison, which you can get from the mold enemies.
Speaker: I have been I have been infected several times. It is. But there's a lot. Fire beats the shit out of mold and it builds up their falter insanely fast. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So very nice to use on them. Yeah, I freaking love it. I don't know. The combat's good, and they keep like, they're doing it the right way, which is like layering things on. So if you want to engage more, you can, but it's not just going to overwhelm you off the jump.
Speaker: Yeah, it's, again, touting a good game design. um Like, early on, it felt very much like there are two enemies, the short ones and the tall ones. Uh-huh, yeah. yeah And then you're like, yeah, i kind of get how those work. And they'll be like, and there's a flyer. And you're like, all right. guess I'll jump. And there's a flyer that shoots lasers. You're like,
Speaker: All right. And then they just keep adding things in. So um the combat never feels stale, really, because you will probably either be encountering a new enemy at some point or getting a new a node on your tree, which opens up more combat options.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's it's really good. we We got to talk about some stuff other than the combat, but you mentioned the laser flyers. I like their introduction because it's they're the priority enemy, right? They add them to the encounter and it's like, OK, well, do you want to just die to a high damage laser? No, you should probably go deal with that then.
Speaker: But I'm sure you had a similar experience, but the perfect dodges like through the laser doing the bullet time slowdown. ah It's just so good.
Speaker: i haven't done the zigzag, but I have I have definitely chained some together. huh. It's always it's always fun to just be. Yeah. Anyways, combat good in the game.
Speaker: Game has other stuff, though. ah Just from a quick Gamesline question, what are your thoughts of the addition of Zoe? Zoe the handler? and Yeah, Agent Devera.
Speaker: Yeah, i think I think she's really good. With one caveat, and I think I kind of like tripped into it myself just based off my own game sequencing. But like she is the sympathetic character to everyone else in the FBC hating.
Speaker: um a lot of her her voice acting like direction. It was clearly in the the side of like, hey, this person is supposed to be relatable, sympathetic.
Speaker: She's supposed to like grow to not like hate your character. you know and basically she's she's the hope. for Dylan in a way because like everybody else is like, Hey, you killed my friend seven years ago.
Speaker: And she's like, it's really nice how you save those people. You know, like, you know, it gives you some sort of redemptive path. um But I did do um the evacuation center late.
Speaker: Like I had, it was pretty much the last thing I did in the game. was going to the evacuation center where you save Arish. And it's pretty much like scripted that she reads more into your files like when you go there.
Speaker: And so i kind of like... I don't want to like rag on remedy for this, but most of the game she's been building up this, like, Hey, you know, no, you gotta, you know, have some faith. So we'll get through this or whatever. Not like that on the nose, but generally in your corner.
Speaker: And then it's like, Oh, she finally got around to reading your file a little bit more. And now she's like, I don't know, like maybe I was wrong about you and all of this. And it's just like,
Speaker: it's not like it's not canonical. It's not like it's broken the game in any way, but it's jarring. i would say to kind of like have her encounter all of that. Now, after you've saved all of these people and then be like, I don't know, maybe you kind of like a douchebag, I guess. Maybe you sort of just kill people. i don't know. That's weird.
Speaker: It, it felt a little cliche, little cliche, like a little bit of ah a trope type thing. Um, It's also kind of like short-lived in that sequence because you don't have a choice to save Orish or not. There's not like you're not playing either prototype or the ah the PlayStation game.
Speaker: Infamous. You're not playing Infamous where it's like, oh, you want like red or blue lightning or whatever. no no, you're Dylan. It's just you can choose how you want to respond. Yeah. And so you are going to save Arish. And after that, she's like, oh, yeah, i'm back in your corner. And it's just like, yeah.
Speaker: I don't know. i anticipate there's probably not going to be too much more of that in the game because it would it would be like a yo-yo. um There might be some, but I mean, I think you see...
Speaker: Hi, thank you for the kisses, puppy. Very nice of you. ah But I think you see the attitude towards Dylan change as yeah it seems like he's the only one with special powers that can do shit. yeah Everyone else has guns or like, man, this whole ah reality shifting thing kind of sucks, huh?
Speaker: That is like my favorite trope in stories like this, though, where it's like, should we stop antagonizing and absolutely ragging on the only person who gets anything done? And that feeds chomp.
Speaker: Uh-huh. Love that guy. Um, oh, but for Zoe, I mean, ah I also think she keeps the game she she keeps the game from being like too isolationist.
Speaker: Otherwise, it would basically be Dylan in his own head. But she provides like a um ah responsiveness to sometimes what you're experiencing yeah don't in the game.
Speaker: I think that's good. Initially, I wasn't on board because I'm like, this feels like AAA. But then as it went on, I'm like... oh, like I understand the character more, I like the character more, and how they're interacting with the world. um But also, they're giving Dylan a social connection yes that he would not otherwise have.
Speaker: yeah This is the Esmeralda to Quasimodo, if you will. Exactly. I watched Hunchback of Notre Dame very recently. But yeah, like...
Speaker: He was a kid. Shit happened. He went to the FBC. They put him in a cell. Yeah. And then he was corrupted and killed a bunch of people. But like, you're not, this is D and D one Oh one.
Speaker: You are not legally responsible for what you do under enchantment. Like we all know it, you know, it's, it's, it's just the way it works. Right. Honey, I swear. and nige Did you do the, uh, the karaoke? Uh, yes, you did I did. I did get around to it.
Speaker: freaking love the do you want to describe the karaoke scene and you should you should you should mention that one because that that's actually a standout for me in the game so far uh so for anybody who's not aware um there are objects of power or altered items where a seemingly normal household object um behaves in magical and es strange ways And this quest, you kind of like hear some music going from an apartment.
Speaker: ah You find a way into the apartment and doesn't really seem like anybody's there, but the music's blasting. And then you go around the corner and you see like a bunch of borderline like shuffling zombies of people saying, turn it off, please turn it off.
Speaker: and you go and try and turn it off. And they're like, no, we have to finish the song for it to end. And so you start to sing along with the karaoke machine yeah and you need to pick the the right word for the next part of the song to go along with it.
Speaker: Otherwise, somebody dies. Somebody dies. yeah i I made a mistake once where I was just distracted. I'm like, oh, we'll let it time out. It doesn't matter anyway. I don't need to find the perfect rhyming thing.
Speaker: And then a body dropped. I'm like, oh, yeah, there was a I had basically the exact same encounter. um And ultimately, I did reload. Thankfully, the game lets you reload some of these things. You can save scum.
Speaker: There is an achievement. If you don't let anybody die, I will say that. um And the dialogue a little bit different, but it's kind of nice to see both. um But yeah, this is this is actually also the ideal way to do like an open world encounter. i didn't know anything about the building. I didn't even see the like singing or sounds or whatever on the map, I don't think.
Speaker: But there's a corpse out front. And it's like it looks like somebody fell to their death. And you can like examine that and then be like, well, where'd they fall from? Look up. See that there's a roof out there. OK, maybe we can path around. It's a sort of like organic ah world design that's really cool.
Speaker: um But the specific reason this ties back to Zoe is afterwards, um you'll basically do the recap where you're like, hey, you know, there's an altered item here.
Speaker: The survivors need help. If any of them survived your karaoke singing. And ah one of the things was like she'll she'll talk about like how um I think she went to karaoke with someone in the past or something like that. And you can remark like in Dylan's really awkward kind of plotting ways like I think I think I like karaoke.
Speaker: And it's just very funny after, you know, potentially accidentally have killed somebody if you did it wrong. But in this canon save, haven't killed anybody like that.
Speaker: um And then she's like, oh, you know, after this is all over, we'll have to go sometime or something like that. And I'm like, the inn right there. There you go, Dylan. And it's I don't think anything's going to come of that. It really is just like.
Speaker: This is someone who spent his entire life in the system. um finally being able to socialize a little bit but man all of that happened before the evacuation zone for me and that kind of made me feel things I was like oh you're killing him you're killing this guy like I don't this is not a self insert character for me at all I'm actually kind of concerned if it is a self insert character for anybody it was like man it really sucked how I killed these 500 people trying to come back from that
Speaker: But because of that, I can empathize with Dylan as a character um and what he's going through in all of this. And I'm like, oof. Remedy.
Speaker: They tell stories. Yeah. A very sympathetic character. Very much a victim of circumstance. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Imagine just having a shitty childhood, but now it's like a shitty childhood and... ah
Speaker: Strange paranatural forces have ruined your life. Yeah, he kind of has nothing, right? Like, the fact that Dylan is actually empathetic at all is basically a miracle in control. Because, like, since a child, he's been in the system. He's been put through all of this stuff.
Speaker: to, you know, groom to be a director, which he then fails at, you know, so he's not able to, to use the service weapon and become the director inadvertently kills a bunch of people, goes into a coma, wakes up out of that coma.
Speaker: Basically everyone worships his sister who does the job that he failed at. And then he chooses to go help her. And it's like, I think Dylan might be a good guy. I'm sorry, people. like I feel like Dylan might actually kind of be a nice guy.
Speaker: Not like not Pascal Case, a nice cut guy, but a nice person. yeah um That's my take so far, though. We'll see. Maybe he's the big bad at the end of the game.
Speaker: Dave can't say anything because even though it's spoilers, I haven't gotten there yet. um anything else for control resonant before we close this one out um trying to think if i can say anything high level and vague
Speaker: i will say upon playing mostly everything between alan wake alan wake 2 control control resonance and seeing some of the
Speaker: the in-universe overlap of stuff with DLC. I'm curious to see what they're going to do here, if they're going to continue that tradition. Yeah, I think, I mean, we opened with it, but Control is really freaking cool universe, right? um I do hope they do more in the DLC space.
Speaker: um I will say I did catch one Alan Wake reference, a specific like Night Watchmen-esque TV thing, and I was like, I mean, like this is a good lead up and I get these are in the same universe, but i'm I'm just thrown back to our episode on control. And I'm like, come on, guys, come on. Like, let control breathe. It does not need to have all of your favorite toys in it.
Speaker: um But it wasn't egregious this time. It wasn't like an entire DLC. I hope that if there is a DLC for Resonant, that it's not just like, it's basically a DLC for Alan Wake. you know We wanted to put this mission in, but we didn't have time to put it Alan Wake 2. Therefore, yeah, pretty much, pretty much so.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, I'll see once I'm once I'm through it. But I mean, this is definitely one of the better open world games. ah Yes. Recently, for sure. It it really grew on me a lot, ah partially because the game grows a lot. Like we were talking about that combat progression, but also like design progression of areas and things. It's just oh, it's a fucking ride. It's very fun.
Speaker: Yeah. One last thing going to say is a plus. This is my my my final note. And if you're still on the fence, you're not sure if you want to buy it after all these spoilers and stuff, you can, at the very four first wardrobe area, strip your character down to his skivvies.
Speaker: and play through the game in your boxers. And I recommend it because it is hilarious to be this like socially inept person ah running around with superpowers, helping people, playing it straight, being very serious, and you're just in your boxers the entire time.
Speaker: um The only thing, i'm I'm not sure if it would be better or worse, but they are just like gray boxers. It would be very hilarious to me if they were like white with pink hearts or something like that. I think that would that would close the gap. classic The classic. The classic. Give me that is a wardrobe customization option. so Give me something from Chicken Run. Yeah, I mean, Chicken Run is peak. so I guess that's that's the recap that closes it all off. Watch Chicken Run.
Speaker: Yeah. Cool. Any closing thoughts for people still on the fence or maybe they're they're not sure after all of this if they should jump in? What what is the thing you love most about the game?
Speaker: is there Was there something that you could you could ship? You could say like, hey, I'm going to put this on the box, saran wrap it and deliver it to your doorstep. So I've always been a fan thus far of how Remedy has approached their storytelling.
Speaker: um And some of that is like, you know, reading notes around to kind of build the lore. Other games do that as well. um But just how it's conveyed and then like looking back at something, you're like, oh I can see that as clever foreshadowing or everything just seems to have in-universe justification, and they work very well within the the world they've constructed. Right. And it never feels like ah magic.
Speaker: I mean, to be fair, ah some of it is just kind of alternate... like paranormal stuff that yeah isn't going to have like a perfect explanation. um But it has verisimilitude. Yes.
Speaker: Like everything makes sense within the game. And it's just very. They do so many cool things that I can't get into. But the more I've played the game, the more cool things I've found.
Speaker: or So I'm going to say TLDR has them spending three minutes saying this. The story. The story. I think that's good. Yeah. Definitely agree with that and and the setting and everything you said. so Play control.
Speaker: Resonant. that's ah that's That's the end of the episode. ah Thank you guys for listening to this. um If you've already played Resident, definitely let us know your thoughts.
Speaker: If you haven't played Resident, let us know your thoughts. um and we'll take we'll We'll wait the feedback based off of whether you know you've actually played the game or not. But our socials are down in the show notes. You can check those out. Reach out to us. Let us know if there's other things you want to hear about.
Speaker: um Or if we should just skip the next control game. It's not going to happen. It's not going happen. But as always, thank you guys for listening. And we'll see you in the next one.
Speaker: Have a good night.
