After the great appreciation from critics over the past year, Remedy Entertainment takes us back inside the mysterious Oldest House, the heart of the Federal Bureau of Control to find out what mysteries are hidden in its foundations with the first DLC of Control, The Foundation. Will Remedy manage to keep the interest in its new New Weird universe high? Let's find out in this review.
New story new powers
The Foundation plot takes place right after the events of the main story, we want to point it out right away, yes, to play The Foundation you must have finished the main story. The protagonist, Jesse Faden, will have to investigate the disappearance of the head of operations Helen Marshall, who disappeared during the events of the main Control campaign. The advice calls our attention to an impending crisis: the astral plane (a kind of ethereal realm placed outside our reality) is collapsing in our reality and the only way to stop this crisis is to find out what lies in the foundations of the Oldest House.
After a first phase of exploration we will be placed in front of a choice that will affect the order of exploration of the structures present in the foundations. Two new powers join Jesse's diverse arsenal: Manipulation and Rupture. In the foundations there are particular rock formations that we can grow or break (based on what we have chosen), this choice will define the limits of exploration during the first half of The Foundation.
In addition to these two new skills, "Aries with Shield" is also introduced, a particular skill that will allow you to sprint towards the enemy while keeping the shield active, allowing you to remain covered and attack at the same time. Still on the subject of skills, with the free update of March, you will also have the possibility to relocate your skill points (by paying a certain amount in fragments), thus allowing you to build a build suited to your style of play to your liking.
Structure and enemies
As Remedy got used to it during the main Control campaign, also in The Foundation we will find great diversification in the environments we will explore. Don't expect only mere caves, but an interesting and bizarre mash-up (also due to the narrative context) of old structures of the Oldest House, Caves, Laboratories and the ethereal aspect of the Astral Plane, all strictly in line with the brutalist design which has been able to distinguish the level design of Control from any other title never seen so far.
If exploration satisfies, so are the clashes with the Hiss. The enemies in The Foundation get nastier and significantly more aggressive than in the main campaign and we can assure you that attention must be kept high in any encounter in order not to be brutally sent to the ground.
The clashes become more reasoned and it is possible to perceive how the developers have tried to offer greater freedom in the fighting by inserting many more objects that can be thrown at the enemies. If things get too complicated, we will find phones scattered around the map that will allow Jesse to call an explorer who will support us in the battles (most of the time it is used as a diversion). In addition to the renewed aggression of the enemies, we also find a new type of Hiss - now armed with a pickaxe - who can throw his tool at us or use it for a pure melee attack, useless to outline that this new enemy, added to the varied series of Hiss makes the clashes even more difficult.
Technical Department
From a technical point of view, Control does not disappoint, played on PC with maximum details and RTX technology enabled, we were able to enjoy breathtaking scenery with spectacular light and shadow games. Remedy reconfirms the great technical work that confirms the uniqueness in knowing how to work at atmospheres capable of giving moments of tension during the exploratory phases.
As with the main campaign, there is no Spanish dubbing, but we found no problems with localization. The interpretation in English by Courtney Hope and the other actors is confirmed as solid and convincing, also managing to give us some comic moments, due in part to the maturation of the s between the various characters and that only in The Foundation could have been consistently realized.
We also want to dedicate a positive note to the free update made available for everyone that modifies the much discussed map, now much more readable and showing a sharp contrast between the upper and lower floors, making it much easier to interpret the routes to be explored. . The update also introduces support for DLSS 2.0 which improves visual quality in larger resolutions on PC, as well as an overall performance improvement in terms of frame-rate and stability.
In conclusion, The Foundation continues the almost perfect pace of the main Control campaign, introducing a new game area that you can explore with main and secondary missions in an attempt to seek answers to the mysteries of the Oldest House, bringing up numerous new questions that we will have to answer. only in the second AWE expansion that we will see for the end of summer 2020. An efficient technical sector and a painstaking level design are the setting for increasingly demanding and elaborate clashes, wise use of new skills and choices that determine our paths in the foundations of Federal Bureau of Control. However, it should be emphasized that The Foundation is an experience aimed mostly at those who want to continue their adventure in Control, for those who want to find out more about the mysteries of the New Weird universe created by Sam Lake, but we would like to recommend Control and the related Season Pass (also to save money in buying the expansions separately) if you are looking for a metroidvania with an innovative and fun to play combat system that will keep you with many questions until the next expansion.
