Game of the Year – Control

Shannon: The best grim near-future type game since the Deus Ex series and I am a sucker for “guns but also magic powers.” Buggy, but who gives a damn when you’re owning everything in sight?

Spencer: Control is easily one of the most fun and entrancing games of 2019. The various powers are all fun to use thanks to the game’s excellent physics, which had me gleefully obliterating every piece of furniture around me for what was definitely far too long a time. The surreal and eerie atmosphere is excellent as well, with the optional instructional videos and puppet shows standing out as excellent (and horribly unsettling) world-building tools. Though Control’s boss fights feel mediocre, everything else in the game is maddeningly fun. 

Samantha: I enjoyed the time I’ve spent playing Control so far. I love finding collectibles to learn more about the world, the atmosphere is top-notch and has a nice touch of cosmic horror, and while I’m more into it for its story than its gameplay, there’s just something fun about flinging objects at enemies with telekinesis. Unfortunately, I ran into such a terrible glitch I’ll need to start over from the beginning, but I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of Control when I get there.

Danny: As time has gone on for me in this hobby, I’ve strived to seek out and play games which are unique and edifying in some manner. Control is full of imagination with its abrasively mute setting, astonishingly inventive gameplay, and mind-bending storyline. It fills in a void that was present in gaming last year and went criminally underappreciated/underplayed. 

Diego: Remedy took out their X-Files and Twin Peaks toys to play with and Control was the result of that. Here we finally have the perfect marriage of their tight gunplay from Max Payne, and their atmospheric storytelling process they flexed back in Alan Wake. I’ve spoken at length on how much I love this game and think I’ve exhausted every thought on the game, just go play it.

Nick: This entire game was just the best, I’m not sure what more I need to say. Remedy knows how to make fun and interesting gameplay mechanics and marry them to a story that I don’t want to end. It’s going to end. It did end and I was fascinated.