Into the Depths of Control's Foundation

 I have now played through Control's first DLC (I think first,) Foundation. Taking place after the events of the main game (while I do think it's the first one they released, I also believe that the second, AWE, can be started while still in the middle of the main plot,) this sees you descend into cavernous depths of the Oldest House and resolve a crisis in which the house and the Astral Plane are bleeding into one another.

DLC, or its previous iteration, the Expansion Pack, is always kind of funny. It's not quite a sequel, but you hope that it sort of becomes a big, memorable part of the game you've already enjoyed.

But, inevitably, it's going to be a tighter, smaller experience. And if, like I've just done, you play it pretty much immediately after the completion of the main game, sometimes that smallness can feel disappointing.

Not counting World of Warcraft expansions (which, despite technically being expansion packs, truly are essentially sequels) the DLC content I've played the most of in recent years has been that of FromSoft games. Bloodborne had its excellent Old Hunters expansion, while Dark Souls III had its so-so-except for an insane final boss Ashes of Ariendele and its somehow-even-harder-than-the-main-game The Ringed City.

I got both of these games as whole pieces, and played through (what I could beat of, in the case of DSIII) the DLC before finishing up the main game, making them feel like thematically connected side-quests. In a way, you could almost liken DLC to a post-finale movie based on a TV show - the show has hopefully resolved its main plot by the time of its finale, but that also means that at best the movie is going to be an extra-long episode.

Foundation is a challenge, and is absolutely a change of scenery - we spend most of the DLC in the natural (though with otherworldy bright red sand that is reminiscent of that salt planet from the end of The Last Jedi) caverns that lie beneath the Oldest House, or out in the white void of the Astral Plane.

But I think the DLC loses some of the stuff that really appealed to me about Control in the first place. It's mostly concerned with environmental puzzles, and while we get some lore about the discovery of the Oldest House and the FBC's move-in there, along with the birth of the Service Weapon-derived authority of a Board-appointed Director (interestingly it looks like Jesse is only the third such Director after Trench, and before him, Northmoor - interesting how that name feels connected to Polaris, the north star). Still, tragically missing are the wonderful Doctor Darling videos, and given that only a short segment of the DLC actually takes place in FBC offices (a department that was for some reason sucked down into the Foundation) there aren't nearly as many fun notes and memos to read and collect.

I do wonder if I'd have liked it more if I had played the game when it first came out in 2019, and had to wait for more Control content. I'm almost tempted to try to hold off on playing AWE for a little bit and see if that whets my appetite a little more.

It is funny, though - given that Control takes place in a shared universe with other games by the same studio, I wonder if it would actually make sense to never make a direct sequel to it, but instead explore some other corner of the world they're building. I could imagine playing some future game in which Director Faden of the FBC is a friendly NPC who helps us out.

I'm also tempted to go back and play Alan Wake, if it's playable on the PS5.