Control left as if they were pushing the latest generation of consoles to their breaking points, with a lot of performance issues on old cars. Despite these problems, it was a great game, my favorite of 2019. Now, with the launch of the next generation of Control, many of these problems have disappeared, and an already extraordinary game is improved with better performance and new features.
Control, developed by Remedy, the people behind Max Payne and Alan Wake, was released in August 2019 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The PC version, after a few patches, was a fantastic way to play this creepy third-person shooter, full of supernatural enemies. The console ports did not work so well. On PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, the most powerful and modernized cars of the latest generation, Control would still struggle to maintain its 30 fps target. During big fights, with a lot of flying objects and particle effects appearing, it could fall well below that target. And on older base consoles, it was more likely to cling or become extremely slow to play. Add long charging time and you get a little messy.
Control Ultimate Edition, released today for PS5 and Xbox Series X / S, is a true next-generation game port. It features ray reflections, improved frame rates, faster loading times and higher resolution. But there are some caveats. First, if you do not own Control Ultimate Edition I shall redemption the game as the original version of Control will not upgrade to the next generation port. It’s a completely annoying thing which upset many and is still a shitty situation.
Another catch: Savings from the latest versions of the game are not transferred. Remedy says this is because the engine is so different that it would have taken a lot of extra work to get the savings to transfer them properly. One last catch is that on the Xbox Series S, the game has no ray tracing and will run at an internal resolution of 900p, which is then raised to an output resolution of 1080p. I haven’t played the Xbox Series X port since Last edition, although Remedy says it should be visually identical to the PS5 game and I expect it to be true.
G / O Media may receive a commission
So with these things out of the way, how to do it Control on the PS5 game? In a word: heavenly.
You have a choice of PS5 and Xbox Series X: performance mode and graphics mode. In performance mode, the game targets 60 fps and mostly reaches it. We’ve seen a few minor drops during larger, enemy-filled areas, but these have been hard to spot and compared to how the game worked on the PS4, it’s still a huge improvement.
The other option, the graphics mode, is locked at 30 fps, but accepts reflections drawn on the rays. Radius tracking function in Control Ultimate Edition they are not as impressive as in some high quality games such as Subway: Exod. But it still adds an extra layer of detail to the world. The bright walls, glass windows and reflective marble floors all have realistic and precise reflections that add to the visual appeal of the game.
However, during the fight, I rarely woke up noticing reflections and missed the 60 fps feeling. Apart from the reflections drawn by the rays, both modes seem to look almost identical. For example, shadows do not look better in graphics mode or worse in performance. So, it seems that the big decision you will have to make is whether you want a 60 fps action or a 30 fps action with reflections drawn on the rays. I guess Control, on all platforms, already looks great, so the ray tracing features don’t feel like a big improvement, especially with the price of halving the performance. However, it is a nice option to include. Both modes, by the way, play at an internal resolution of 1440p and come out at an upscaled 4k, creating a clear and clean image.
Charging times are also much shorter on the PS5, with most charging screens ending in less than 12 seconds. Although this is fast, especially compared to charging times on old cars that could exceed 30 or even 40 seconds, PS5 charging times are not nearly as fast as I hoped. However, this is mainly the result of getting used to other PS5 games, such as Miles Morales, which have fast charging time of a few seconds or less. Regardless, you will spend much less time on a loading screen Control Ultimate Edition, which is great.
Control Ultimate Edition also comes with all the previously released DLCs, which is great for me because I’ve never played Control DLC, choosing instead to wait for a next generation port. Lucky for me!
If you can get over the need to recompose the game again and not be able to transfer over the old saves, Last edition on the latest generation consoles is the best way to play Control apart from a powerful PC. If you didn’t like it Control when it first came out, because it was too hard or you didn’t find the world interesting, this new port won’t change your mind. But if you’re out of the old game because of long loading times or performance issues, this might be the best time to go back.