So, its time for a new review of sorts, which will look at a couple of DLC's from a game I previously reviewed called Control, featuring Jesse Faden, the director of a paranormal organisation known as the FBC, Federal Bureau of Control. I've decided to actually split the two DLC's into two separate posts.
So, with that said, let's take a look and see how the Foundation DLC to see how it compared to the base game...
And the usual warning is coming up...
PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD
THE FOUNDATION DLC
STORY
So, for starters, I will quote a bit of the plot from Wikipedia for The Foundation DLC to save time below:
"Jesse is summoned by the Board to the Foundation, a cavernous area lying
at the center of the Oldest House which houses the Nail, an object that
connects the Oldest House to the Astral Plane. Jesse finds that the
Nail has been seriously damaged, which is causing the Astral Plane to
leak into the Oldest House, with potentially catastrophic consequences...".
THOUGHTS
The Foundation is easily the best of the two DLC's for Control, as its very well put together expansion with some impressive visuals as well as an interesting narrative, which is again somewhat typically complex to follow (just like the main game!). The DLC also features the game's usual mix of platforming and action and there are also some neat puzzles to figure out as you progress.
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay wise,
the DLC is pretty identical to the base game with very little changes made from the original game and not too many new features.
MOVEMENT AND ABILITIES
In the DLC, Jesse doesn't have much in the way of new abilities but there are a couple of new ones that are the ability to manipulate crystal formations by either creating them or fracturing them. This often comes useful in the DLC when Jesse wants to traverse to higher areas and use the crystals as platforms, or she can even use crystals to destroy certain enemies by making them spike out the ground. One last new feature is the shield rush, where Jesse can launch a full force attack using a combination of the shield move in the base game.
COMBAT AND WEAPONS
As
for the combat, Jesse will primarily use a service weapon that can take
on different forms like she did in the base game but this time round there are no changes to the weapon in this DLC although there will be a new one in the AWE DLC, which I will mention in a bit. However there is one new feature worth a mention here, where Jesse can summon a ranger to support her in combat via a radio link and these radios can be found scattered throughout the Foundation area.
ENEMIES AND BOSSES
As for the game's
enemies, again there are not too many new ones to be found here but the most notable new one is the sharpened hiss, who are standard human infected enemies only difference is these ones use melee weapons to attack Jesse. The sharpened tend to attack you in numbers, so they can be quite dangerous and deal alot of damage.
SIDE MISSIONS
As part of the DLC, Jesse can also take on side missions that will allow her to gain more ability points to upgrade her health, energy and weapons. One of the key side missions in the DLC worth note is the Swift Platform, where Jesse rides a moving platform and fights off a bunch of hiss infected enemies as well as a hiss infected boss, which can get annoying but this mission does have some fun music to it!
GRAPHICS
As for the graphics, The Foundation looks great and the visuals are very impressive and similar to the base game with the cavernous areas of the Foundation looking really good and the scale of the environments also have an expansive feel. The only thing I'd say about the graphics that are not so good are they colour scheme is pretty bland and muted with a mix of red and greys mostly, which gives the DLC's palette a limited feel, other than this, its all good.VOICE ACTING (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
As for the game's voice acting, the cast all do an excellent job.
Starting with Courtney Hope,
who is excellent again in the main role as Jesse Faden, the director of
the Federal Bureau of Control, who is forced to deal with the crisis in the Foundation. Courtney again shows Jesse's authority, bravery as well as her sense of humour in certain scenes such as the one where Jesse runs into a toilet, which is been affected by the Astral bleed and we see a toilet basin float in the air. So, Jesse delivers the line "Someone call a plumber!" and then she quietly says "I'm glad no one was around to hear that!".
Antonia Bernath is also great in her role again as Emily Pope, the FBC research specialist who helps Jesse throughout the DLC is primarily the only person Jesse really communicates with and the two of them enjoy some banter together. The two of them share a fun moment together during the DLC where Emily asks "Have you discovered anything else about the crystals?" and Jesse says "I've discovered I have a power that let's me stretch them" and Emily suprised says "Huh!" and Jesse awkardly says "Yup!". And another line is when Jesse asks Emily "Have you noticed anything odd about the Nail?" and Emily asks "Define odd..." and Jesse asks "Anything unusual about the Nail?" and Emily teases her and asks "Define unusual..." and Jesse annoyed says "Emily...!".
FLAWS
As for flaws...yes the Foundation has one or two.
For starters, the DLC doesn't really add a great deal new content to make it really stand out in terms of its gameplay, which on paper does limit its appeal somewhat, however it still doesn't detract from the experience personally. However some more new abilities and even a new weapon form, wouldn't have gone a miss here. The same can also said for the enemies here as they are petty much the same hiss infected types we've seen in the base game, so it makes things feel a bit reptitive in that regard.
You could also say some of the side missions can be a bit annoying, especially the swift platform mission, which took me quite a few goes to get through and I think the game even glitched out during this mission, which was pretty annoying, so I had to restart it again.
The DLC is also quite short as it lasts probably no longer than about 4 hours to do the main bulk of the DLC storyline, which is not great value wise but there are some side missions that does extend the length of the DLC content somewhat to around 7 hours. However at the same time, the DLC is well paced and doesn't lag in its run time.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, the Foundation DLC is an excellent DLC overall that offers an expansion, which is very enjoyable and features some solid action and some fun platforming as well as puzzle solving. The visuals of the DLC are also great once again as the cavernous environments of the Foundation are impressive. The performances are also very good once again from Courtney Hope and Antonia Bernath as Jesse and Emily as they share some nice dialogue with one another.
So, overall despite some minor misgivings such as the short length, lack of new features, The Foundaton is still an excellent and solid DLC, which is well worth checking out and I will rate it:
9 out of 10
Right, that's it for this one guys and I will be back soon with the second DLC, AWE.
Till the next one, its bye for now!
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