HomeFeaturesControl
Control’s new AWE DLC doesn’t have much Alan Wake, but it has a great monsterIf you go down to the Bureau today…
If you go down to the Bureau today…
Control’s new AWE DLC might technically stand for “Altered World Events” - the term the game’s FBI-but-magic organisation The Federal Bureau of Control uses for the weird stuff they investigate - but let’s be honest, we all know it’s going to be remembered as the “Alan WakeExpansion”. That’s the theme for this second and final DLC for Remedy’s third-person action-adventure, which we called an accomplished and fun version of X-Files with more guns but less Mulder when we put it on ourbest action games for PClist earlier in the year.
Alan is in it a bit, sometimes. Here he is, look.
Jesse, new badass boss babe of the Bureau, gets a psychic hotline from Alan warning her that something is happening down on the Investigations level of the Oldest House, so off you toddle to have a look. Like the previous DLC, Foundation, AWE doesn’t throw loads of combat at you (though there are a few challenges). Instead, you find the weird darkness from Alan Wake has infested the floor. In some areas, it takes up whole rooms, and you take damage for standing in it too long.
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
It is really good because, at this point in Control, Jesse is basically an unstoppable flying killing machine in a cool leather coat. Hartman should be an easy target for her, but AWE really ups the stakes to make you feel just as unsure and unsteady as you were right at the start of Control. Your interactions with Hartman become more like ahorror game, where you’re nervously hiding in pools of light and sprinting to get to the next one, because if he grabs you he can suck out almost all your health in one go.
This is mostly how you experience Dr. Hartman
It’s why I would recommend this DLC if you liked Control but have never played Alan Wake, because the author himself (who actually I think is a bit of a rubbish writer) doesn’t turn up very often, whereas Hartman is a constant creepy presence even when he’s absent.
This is, unfortunately, slightly undermined when you do get into a final boss fight with him when all the lights are on, because you then you can see what he properly looks like and find out that he’s got a little white bum. Butup until then, he’s mega scary.
AWE is out today to purchase separately on theEpic Games Storeif you already have Control, and also bundled in the Control Ultimate Edition onSteamand theEpic Games Store.
