Control DLC-The Foundation Review

Seven months after release, Remedy has released the first of two planned story driven downloadable content for Control, their newest single-player mind trip of an action adventure game.

The Foundation continues after the main game’s storyline, so if you haven’t finished the base game avoid the rest of this review, but if you want to know if the newest piece of DLC is worth getting, the answer is based on how much you enjoyed the base game.

The Foundation is a mixed bag of new and old, the new powers introduced are fun and the new weapon is nearly useless during combat. But before we get into what’s new gameplay-wise, the biggest question needs to be answered now, is The Foundation worth playing for the story? The quickest answer is, not really.

One of the best parts of Control was the bonkers story and piecing everything together using collectables and NPCs, in The Foundation the story feels a little lackluster, seeing as this is an expansion you wouldn’t be in the wrong for expecting more. The story between Jesse and her brother is never brought up and nearly nothing from the main story that was left up in the air is resolved here, despite continued talk about the Old House.

After the events of the original storyline a new mysterious item, called The Nail, has surfaced and is causing the Astral Plane to bleed over into reality. The Board has warned that the Oldest House is in danger and that Jesse must put a stop to the collision from happening, lest it destroy the Bureau and everything in our reality,

Soon enough Jesse finds herself questioning The Board when an entity called Former, a creature that looks like a boss in the base game, connects with her and provides her with information and a new power that The Board refuses to give. It’s unclear what Former is after as they speak in a broken language that makes it hard to make out what they want. Another issue Jesse must deal with is the disappearance of Marshal and her connection with The Nail.

The Foundation introduces a new enemy and new obstacles. A new type of Hiss is introduced that is melee and speed focused. The new Hiss Sharpened enemy carry pickaxes and dash quickly like Jesse, they use this ability to dodge launched items and to chase down a fleeing Jesse. Even if the player uses levitation to create distance the Sharpened can throw their axes with accuracy and spawn a new one.

They also attack in groups of twos and threes, ensuring that players will need to master their timing of dashing and launching, although the Shatter tool also makes quick work of them.

Speaking of tools, The Foundation adds a new one in the form a handheld rocket launcher called Charge. This tool holds three rounds which be fired one by one or charged up two fire all three at once. The Charge tool is great for destroying objects and damaging multiple enemies at once, unfortunately it doesn’t cause much damage and will soon be sitting on the sideline more than the Grip tool, Shatter and Pierce are still the two best tools to use in combat.

A new power, called Shape/Manipulate according to The Board, allows Jesse to force crystals in certain areas to create new bridges, walls and spikes. Shape/Manipulate plays a big part in The Foundation, sections of the new levels are filled with traps for the player to use against the Hiss and aid them to access unreachable sections.

Unfortunately, this new power has no use or purpose outside of The Foundation, replaying sections from the base game is of course possible and Shape/Manipulate plays absolutely no part in older levels. This makes the new ability feel more like a gimmick and less like an add-on, having new ways to play old unfinished missions would have been a great addition and could have given the game further replayability and quality of life.

It is important to know that I played Control on the base PS4 and not the Pro. The Foundation suffers the same performance issues as the base game, framerate chugs when multiple enemies are on screen and particle effects start flying and during the review play through, Jesse fell through a piece of a level only once.

The Foundation feels like scrapped content that Remedy threw out because it didn’t work with the main story, playing this story isn’t going to add or take away from the journey of the main game, but it’s a missed opportunity to create a bigger story and continuation.

The Foundation has only one boss, and it’s quite disappointing, barely makes use of the new tool and power and still suffers from framerate issues and small glitches. It’s an interesting add-on but not enough to strongly recommend, what’s worse is that this expansion can be finished within three hours if side missions are ignored, perhaps the second DLC will make this one feel worthy of players time.

This review was made using the season pass provided by 505 Games