Man... Control is such a weird game. I'm trying to take my sweet time with it. I also play in pretty short spurts because the longer I play, the more I get lost... both literally and in just being able to detect enough to be really making any sense of things.
My running theory is that whatever is behind This Old House actually controls everyone in the Bureau... like, I mean total, absolute control... cruelly enough through the mechanisms which also manifest individuality. It uses their natural curiosity and desire for their own preconceived brand of order to basically coerce them into 'learning' the things it knows it needs to feed them in order for them to willingly and organically manifest the behavior it wants. I mean, it can manifest pretty much any reality it wants for them in order to probe their reactions and thus steer them where it wants to go. It can be seen as whatever it wants to be seen as, or even not be seen at all. Which makes you wonder... who's really studying who? And I think the people at the very top, particularly the ones who've been there since the discovery, can sense it... sometimes they crack a little in this spooky sort of way. They're tiny moments, but they grab you. Or at least they grab me. I can feel the fear. Darling sees it. From where I'm at in the game and just picking up the side stuff scattered about, he knows there's no control on the part of the Bureau... and probably knows there never was, though that part he only recently pieced together.
But still they forge ahead, as if they've lost the ability to truly see anything else. There's an inherent emptiness to it - a superficiality. They're simply consumed by the whole affair and have been for so long they've sort of forgotten themselves... just not quite enough that they fully realize, which I suspect is part of the illusion maintained by the house. As far as they can see, nothing has really changed over time. Business as usual, inside and out. But from the outside looking in they are entirely predictable caricatures, you and Jesse both are lead to that observation pretty much immediately. They appear as puppets with the motions so firmly embedded into their identities that the master needs no strings. The people and the roles have all become one in the same. They all behave fairly normally, but you can just tell that something isn't right in the air.
The whole thing really keeps coming back to that archetype of the tyrannical bureaucracy. You submit willingly to its influence on you and your personhood, but because of the tunnel-vision induced in the process are unable to recognize you are not steering in the direction you think you are. Hell, you build it yourself, never thinking anything of it. You don't think to question it, let alone defy it. It's a new reality. A new paradigm. But it looks just like the old one, while simultaneously promising you a newness that never actually reaches you. You keep pushing for it and never consider this. You're almost there! Just keep crawling through the system's labyrinths. As far as I can tell, the entire world of this game and the characters' interactions with it are just a big metaphor for that. I'd like to know what its answer to that interpretation might be, as it greatly contradicts Jesse's motivations for involving herself with the place... and I'm not referring to looking for her brother. Sometimes I don't think that's ever what it's been about for her. There are a couple of others who seem to deviate... who operate alongside the rest but aren't 'with' the rest. They aren't there for any lofty, underlying goal. Even if they implicitly say they are, that's not what they answer to with their actions. Begs the question of what the real distractions are. I think they're there for themselves... to be immersed in the moments. And in doing so manage to remain themselves in spite of all of the forces tugging and mazes leading. And their ways of navigating things reflect that. There is the small handful of what I'd call true individuals and then there is the heard of pseudo-individuals... they themselves are organs in a unified entity while a character like Jesse is more like a virus in disguise. The organs and even the smaller cells are all distinctive in shape, size, color, and function but their make-up and roles lack the agency of the body they serve.
I dunno... these ideas are hard to parse when dealing with a world that is presented as being equally as surreal as it is mundane. Maybe it's a critique of the procedural mindset? Maybe it's trying to say that sometimes in trying to take control of things so much bigger than you, no... bigger than people you actually wind-up unwittingly at the mercy of their influence on you. I *feel* like they're trying to say something smart about the human condition, but I'm having a hard time getting the full way there. Is this game honestly trying to make me question the entire human race's ideas about understanding the universe and our notions on putting that to use? Or maybe it's all about self-insight, identity, and introspection... the many "I's" of the you and me. *shrugs* hell if I know. I find it pretty damned interesting though! The whole thing is this unholy union of business, science, government, and mythical thinking. This is my shit. The whole thing is like a big, convoluted postmodernist joke. It's all bullshit and I eat it up. It's been a while since a game made me think like this. That's usually something unique to books for me. For all I know the ending sucks, but a lot of my favorite stuff across mediums has lacked a lot of the things that make up a good, complete story... but because they captivated my imagination in ways that things more immediately 'good' often don't, I remember them better.
Also the combat gets fuggen awwweeesome when you get going with some skills. I primarily focused on maxing launch and energy. Early in I went for health so I could afford to be more reactive, and that paid off. Once you start working a lil levitate in with dodge AND you get the hang of launching shit all at the same time, things get pretty crazy. Seize is also good for drawing off most of the heat, but kind of boring. I'd rather be hoisting large objects and fallen enemies as I float up over balconies to start tossing shit at enemies below... alternating between that and the upgraded grip as I carve out my mid-air reign over the area. Let them shoot rockets for me to volley back! Forget the shield. No need. All-out offense works best... though only if you use every means at every immediate opportunity.
Nah, but the gameplay is really, really good as you get further along. You find yourself juggling all of these different moves and it all just feels so right. I take back what I said about feeling constrained. Once you get rolling with the right skills it's like you can do anything. Though that's not to say it's not still a challenge. It's more to stay on top of. And the basic premise is that you have to believe you can really do anything and then act it out. Try to face it like a mere mortal and you die like one. Fight like a psychokinetic deity and you become that. It's sick as all hell.
