Check Ultimate Edition Review: Action-Shooter is finally on the Mac

Price during the examination

$ 39.99

Best prices today: Control: Ultimate edition

We all know that most A-List games are never published on the Mac, and even if there is a Mac version, it will often take several months to arrive, long after the PC version. However, there are not many games that take as long to reach the Mac as control, which was published for the first time in 2019.

It is certainly better late than ever, however, especially since control is really unique of its kind-an action game Shoot-'EM-UP with really strange X-File vibrations. And, hopefully, the developers of Remedy Games will now think of also bringing some of their other strangely wonderful games to Mac, such as the famous Alan Wake series.

X -File comparisons are inevitable, because the game opens with Jesse Faden arriving at the headquarters of the Federal Control Office, a government agency which is investigating the world's modified world events – known as Awes. Jesse's younger brother has disappeared during a fear, and since then, she was guided by a mysterious voice in her head which led her to the siege of the FBC.

Known as the oldest house, the FBC office is strangely silent when Jesse arrives, with only a mysterious concierge – and rather frightening to give him instructions to the office of the director of the FBC. This opening section acts as a tutorial which gives you a little time to understand the main controls, but also provides history to history while Jesse leads a useful dialogue with her inner voice while she wanders in the corridors of the FBC.

When she finds the director's office, it turns out that he is already dead, having apparently killed, the pistol in hand lying on the ground next to him. It is not an ordinary pistol. Known as a service weapon, it performs instructions to whisper in Jesse, effectively recruiting it in the FBC and the allocation of missions it must carry out.

Jesse's first mission reveals that the oldest house is in a way linked to another dimension, where it meets extraterrestrial figures playing and obtains its first taste for combat. It turns out that the service weapon also has other tips in its sleeve, because it can magically recharge each time Jesse sets out to low ammunition. This is useful because I have never been very good in Shoot-'Em-Up games, and most of my shots lack miles.

However, Jesse also discovers that she has her own magical powers, starting with a kind of psychocinetic punch which allows her to overthrow enemies that are too close. This helps to compensate for my ugly shooting skills, because I find that I can let the frightening creatures get closer in a fairly close way, then overthrow them before pumping them at close range.

Foundry

Jesse can still improve her psychocinetic powers as the game progresses, learning to launch objects to enemies, and also to modernize the service weapon and other weapons that she finds along the way.

The game has rough edges – in particular an irritating automatic backup functionality which only saves the game at specific points. This means that being killed by a particularly hard enemy often forces you to go back and replay the previous section on several occasions, retraced your steps in the oldest house several times when you try to defeat this enemy again.

This is one of the few boring features, however, and the combination of the shooting action and psychic powers guarantees that the fight is fun and varied, even for someone with my limited shooting skills.

The way the action continues to change the locations between the FBC and the astral plane also keeps interesting things while you try to disentangle the mysteries of the oldest house.

Foundry

The age of the game also means that you do not need a powerful Mac to execute it properly. The notes on the App Store indicate that the control requires an M1 processor or a subsequent Sonoma execution (although there is no support for Mac Intel, unfortunately). I played the game on a MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro and I was able to get 34 playable images per second when you run a 2560 × 1440 resolution with average graphic settings, so you should be able to obtain decent performance even with an M1 if you don't mind reducing the resolution and the graphic settings.

It is a shame, however, that there is no demonstration version available so that you can check it first. And, once again, the Mac de Control version is only available on the Mac App Store, so that people who already have the PC version on Epic or Steam will have to buy the Mac version separately. Remedy told us that they hoped to make the Mac version available on Steam at some point, but could not provide a defined release date at the time of this review.

The control is a little more expensive than what we expected for a game of a few years, which costs $ 39.99 / £ 34.99 on the Mac App Store. But this is similar to the price of the PC version, and this ultimate edition includes two extension packs with additional missions and stories to discover.

Should you buy control?

The emphasis on shoot-'-'-up action may not please everyone, but the additional psychic powers that Jesse can learn during the game contributes to maintaining varied and interesting things. And, of course, the conspiracies and mysteries of the Federal Bureau of Control will also call on fans of the X-Files, making it a good option for all those who love stimulating and atmospheric action games.

Do you want to play games on the Mac? We have tried charges and our favorites can be found here: the best games for Mac games: A-List Mac to play.