Have it your way
Controlis about to get easier for everyone, and much easier for anyone who wants it. The highly-anticipated Alan Wake-themed AWEexpansion releases in less than two weeks, and it’ll be accompanied by a free update that makes the game much more accessible.
One of the most rampant complaints about Controlwas the punitive checkpointing. Long, difficult boss encounters have to be one-shotted, as there are no mid-fight saves. Adding insult to injury, dying and retrying often requires a protracted jaunt all the way back to the boss.
Remedy’s addressing that specific complaint in the August update. During yesterday’s AWElivestream, the developer detailed how it’s making Controla breezier experience. One example is that new control points are being added in the game’s toughest story missions and closer to certain boss fights. There are also “soft checkpoints” in some missions, although Remedy stopped short of confirming they’re a way of breaking up boss fights.
That’s the stuff that will affect everybody. However, there’s a new suite of accessibility options called “Assist Mode” which is a set of game features that can be enabled or disabled separate from one another in the options menu. Remedy says “Assist mode lets you modify the rules of the game to suit your specific needs. It’s important to us that as many people as possible get to experience Controlthe way they want.”
Assist mode can be tweaked to your heart’s content. Remedy gives you control over how much damage Jesse deals, how much damage she takes, and how quickly energy and ammo reload. If you really don’t feel like dealing with any difficulty at all, you can just turn off dying altogether. That’s right — Remedy has taken Controlfrom a reasonably difficult game (that some people bounced off of because the learning curve is a bit steep) to one where failure is a toggle button.
As for new abilities, Jesse’s getting her Launch souped-up. Now, she has Multi-Launch which can throw three objects at once. It sounds pretty powerful, but nowhere near as powerful as Alan Wake’s bright-ass flashlight.