After liking CONTROL a lot I've started to play the catalogue of Remedy that I've missed out on so far and what's interesting to me is CONTROL now feels like it was in the making for 18 years, starting from Max Payne 1, and also probably the reason there isn't a lot like it.

You get the time slowing powers at Max Payne 1 set against a backdrop of slightly pointing at the supernatural. Alan Wake modifies the time slowing powers slightly to be reactive instead of proactive and also picks up all the real otherworldly and other dimension stuff as well as great big honking set pieces and the enviroment throwing huge objects at you. American Nightmare then uses that to put it into a more action focused setting. Quantum Break carries that over more scientififically and gives you superpowers that are strikingly similar to what you have in CONTROL where they go full hog and unite the otherworldly paranatural powers with a more scientific approach á la SCP and it just really fucking clicks.

I've noticed this with a lot. Graphics are the obvious one, but the sound design gets better, too. It's not like Max Payne was bad but they really nailed it in American Nightmare and just carry over from there, the Service Weapon as a pistol in CONTROL is just the sound of the 9mm Pistol from there. The superpowers in Quantum Break feel kind of clunky if you come back at it from CONTROL, this is really obvious in the dodge mechanic which is a 1:1 copy but for some reason it feels like 30% worse in Quantum Break, couldn't even tell you why, probably reactiveness, sound and level design?

CONTROL is really polished to a mirror sheen. The Max Paynes had some gameplay clunkyness and some bullshit hard, Alan Wake 1 is really a fucking slog to play for the first two chapters before it picks up, American Nightmare definitely includes too much pointless walking despite their efforts to streamline it. Quantum Break tends to be too heavy on the story, lacking interactions and the guns feel about 20% too weak. They're all good games, despite Quantum Break being the obvious stinker. And then in CONTROL they just nailed it 100%, start to finish