Review: Control: AWE

I’m going to make this as spoiler free as possible for both Alan Wake and Control.

Taking a game like Remedy’s Control and expanding on it for DLC has to be an interesting challenge for its developers. Control is a game shrouded in mystery and intrigue, filled with questions that sometimes don’t have clear answers. Any expansion of that world requires answers to some of those questions while still retaining the sense of eeriness and foreboding that resulted in critical acclaim last year. However, AWE feels like less of an expansion of the world in Control and more of a bridge to what’s next for Remedy, for better or worse.

The biggest draw of AWE (outside of more Control) was the promise of further combining Remedy’s shared game universe with cult classic Alan Wake. While Wake was teased and had references scattered throughout the base game of Control, Remedy used AWE as a way to show that the character of Alan Wake not only exists in the world of Control, but is hugely important in the overarching mythos of the universe.

While this connection is exciting–especially considering fans have been hungry for a Wake sequel for years–the AWE expansion does little to tell a new story or expand the world of Control. Instead, it feels like a several hour journey filled with references to Wake but devoid of a satisfying conclusion to the mission you undertake. That’s not to say the expansion doesn’t offer satisfying moment to moment discoveries as you uncover more about the events that took place before Control, because it has those in spades, but from the opening moments of AWE, Remedy assumes players have played through Wake and remember the entire plot of a ten year old game. Without the context of Wake, it seems unlikely that AWE will mean much to Control players–or even make much sense. And not in the “Control is mysterious and is supposed to be obtuse” way of not making sense, but just from a fundamental lack of context for who Alan is, what his story was, and his relation to the monster you spend three hours chasing through the Investigations Sector of The Oldest House.

This isn’t to say there are no incentives for players who haven’t played Wake to play AWE, it’s simply that they will feel surface level as a result. Exploring the previously sealed off Investigations Sector, discovering past  Altered World Events (paranormal events that happen throughout the world), and learning about the Bureau of Control’s response to them is exciting and interesting, despite the lack of any earth shattering moments.

While there is a steady drip of story beats and lore, there’s less added gameplay features in AWE than there was in Control’s previous DLC, The Foundation. There are no new telekinetic powers outside of some upgrades to your powers from the base game, which contrasts heavily with the new power from The Foundation. The new gun mod introduced in AWE for Jesse’s service weapon acts as a sticky grenade launcher which, while feeling incredibly different from any of the other mods, ended up causing so much splash damage that it made it easier to kill yourself in confined spaces than kill enemies.

Where AWE truly hits though, for both Wake fans and those who have only finished Control, is the last few minutes of the expansion. It hints at the future of this world, how these two IPs could further become intertwined, and opens up a floodgate for fan theories to spread online. With Remedy having already confirmed that their next game takes place in the same universe as Control, the ending to AWE sets things in motion that will make fans of Control, and especially fans of Alan Wake, particularly excited for what Remedy is cooking up next.

AWE serves as a bridge between both Remedy’s past and future. While it might not be the most exciting sendoff for Control,, it lays the groundwork for a potential exciting future of what this world could be and what mysteries are still left to unravel.