Control took us on a wild ride when it launched in August 2019, and to be honest, we enjoyed every second of this crazy story, its quirky setting, and its exciting gameplay. The base game was followed by two expansions, The Foundation and AWE, and while we have to admit that both of them disappointed us a little (especially the second since it was tied to the Alan Wake universe), they were still two good excuses to go and here. “Take control” of our protagonist Jesse Faden.
The content is the same Control: Ultimate Edition that was released for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch – a bundle that includes the base game and the two expansions. The big draw of this title, however, is its enhancements that allow the studio to make the most of the superior hardware found on the PS5 and Xbox Series X (although the Xbox Series S doesn’t do that so much, but we’ll talk about it). ). We’re talking about a version that is much smoother, nicer and more attractive than the one we’ve seen for PS4 and Xbox One.
Control usually runs below 30 fps on entry-level consoles, which makes the game dynamics slow and uneven. On PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S, you can choose to play in performance mode at 60 fps or in ray-traced graphics mode at 30 fps. This is a huge improvement, especially in performance mode, which allows us to enjoy controls with a lot more fluidity than previous consoles.
Considering the fact that up to this generation the vast majority of console titles were played at 30 fps, Control: Ultimate Edition could still play perfectly this way and thus enjoy the integration of ray tracing. In summary, this means that when you use the visual quality mode, you will find realistic reflections and shadows in the game world, especially in the mirrors and glass. Also, given the number of reflective surfaces in Control, we can say it is a significant improvement on the graphics. With that said, we’re sticking to the performance mode, which has reflections and shadows based on SSR and SSAO and is great too.
But the improvements don’t end there as this title also has a brutal increase in resolution. Control resolution is 720p on Xbox One and 900p on PS4. Well, it runs at 1440p on both PS5 and Xbox Series X (on Xbox Series S at 900p and at 60 frames per second in non-ray traced mode, which is a bit of a disappointment). In other words, Xbox Series X Performance Mode doubles the Xbox One’s speed and resolution. Something really impressive.
We also have to mention the specific improvements that Control: Ultimate Edition for PS5 has, as this version is compatible with the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of DualSense, as well as the additional cards that help us solve puzzles and trophies from the get menu. Not that it’s that different from the Xbox Series X and Series S versions, but they’re nice touches.
There are other things you should know about Control: Ultime Edition as well. The first, the price. It costs $ 39.99, a pretty reasonable price when you factor it all (and will be offered to PlayStation Plus members in February at no additional cost). On the other hand, it’s important to know that with the Ultimate Edition, the leap from PS4 and Xbox One to PS5 and Xbox Series X | S is free of charge. However, there is no free update with the original release of Control no, which caused some discomfort to the original buyers. Associated with this, neither the progress nor the saved games of the previous versions can be carried over, which means that you will have to start the adventure over on the new generation consoles.
We’re not very happy with some of the decisions Remedy has made regarding the Next Generation Control upgrade and their communication on the matter has been miserable. Other than that, the result was a high quality game with two decent expansions that has significant improvements over the previous generation versions. The Control: Ultimate Edition version for PS5 and Xbox Series X offers great fluidity and high quality graphics and is the best way to play Control. It’s only surpassed by a high-end PC that offers 4k, 60 fps resolution and ray tracing, but you’re going to need luck to get something like this.
