Control: Available Powers and How To Use Them

What’s Up With Control?

Control was first released on August 27, 2019. To this date, the game has received multiple accolades for the masterpiece they’ve given to us in the gaming community. Winner of over 80 awards apparently, as stated on their Steam page.

Control is a game that perfectly blends interesting game mechanics paired with a well-written storyline. And trust me when I say, the story isn’t anything that you typically see in most games. We’re talking about going deep into the rabbit hole. Imagine rewatching Lost for the first time, but with an actual backbone in the story that leads to an ending. Quite impressive that they managed to preserve a flow in the game’s plotline as it involves a lot of very abstract concepts in their story’s core element.

What are Jesse Faden powers in Control?

Now without spoiling anything, Control is about Jesse Faden, the main protagonist who’s brought into the Federal Bureau of Control. A clandestine government agency that is in charge of overseeing and studying paranatural and supernatural occurrences in the world. These events are known as Altered World Events or AWE and with the occurrence of these events comes the existence of objects of power.

You are brought in during the midst of a lockdown, where an entity known as The Hiss has breached into our plane and infects all humans in the bureau, with the expectations of a select bunch. Your main goal in the game is to get rid of The Hiss’s presence from the building before it becomes an extinction-level problem. You’re armed with a sidearm, with 6 different variations, and you get to use cool powers bestowed upon you by the mysterious Board.

So how do you actually use these powers effectively? There’s not much information given about the powers, which is in line with the whole vibe of the game. But that doesn’t really help if you’re a new gamer and aren’t really familiar grasping with gameplay mechanics. The list below is meant to help newbies and discovering how to use these powers effectively.

How Do You Get These Abilities?

These abilities come when you interact with Objects of Power in the game. Once you’re connected to one, you’ll be taken to an astral plane where The Board will conduct a test whether the Object of Power could be bound with you as the new user. Of course, these abilities are something that you’ll need in order to progress further in the game, but sometimes abilities like the Shield can be overlooked since it doesn’t appear in the skill tree. You’ll find below the list of Control Objects of Power aka the source of your abilities. Let’s go!

Launch

Evade

The powers will be available when you complete the mission, A Merry Chase. This mission is fairly easy to find but you’ll still have to explore the map in order for you to find it. Head to the Maintenance Sector and make your way to the Janitor’s Office. Near the forklift and the flashing red light, you’ll see a room. Enter the room.

What is the challenge?

You’ll be chasing the Object of Power and all you need to do is use your platforming skills to reach it and cleanse it. You’ll be able to Evade and dash your way back to the Oldest House.

Shield

The powers will be available when you complete the mission, A Good Defense. This mission will be available once you’ve completed the Directorial Override Mission. When you make your way to the Field Training door to access the mission, you’ll notice that The Hiss is blocking entry through the door. Simply shoot the red squarish blobs that are around the area in order to gain access.

What is the challenge?

You’ll have to complete the Field Training Test within a set amount of time. This is actually harder than it looks so it’ll take you a few tries. Remember to incorporate your powers to pass the test before the time run out. You’ll be transported to the Astral Plane and you’ll need to use your Shield to protect yourself from projectiles. Complete this and you’ve acquired Shield.

Seize

You’ll need to complete the mission, A Captive Audience to acquire the power. This can be easily missed if you’re not paying close attention to the available missions. Head to the Research Sector and look for Marshall. You’ll be heading to the Parapsychology area. Find the brain in segments sculpture and look for a whiteboard nearby. Pick up the document to start the mission. You’ll need to head to the Hypnosis Lab.

What is the challenge?

Before starting the challenge, you’ll need to open the door to get access to the Object of Power. Just follow the sequence that’s pasted on a paper right through the window. Use your seize powers in the Astral Plane to seize enemies and turn them into temporary allies and help you fight off the enemy forces.

Levitate

This is part of the main story mission, which is Mission Six called My Brother’s Keeper. You’ll need to complete it by heading to the 4th floor of the Panopticon in the Containment Sector. There’s a large part of the narrative that’s tied with this mission, so guess you’ll find out yourself! If you need help with getting it, you can check out the guide here.

What is the challenge?

Once you get the Levitate powers, you’ll need to levitate across a series of platforms and once you make it across, you’ll be awarded Levitate.

Powers in Combat

The best thing about combat in Control is that almost everything is breakable in the game. Since your primary powers involve grabbing and launching telekinetically, it’s great that the developers made the game to render a target reach environment. You can use your powers creatively together with your chosen side weapon. Use your favourite playstyle and build a loadout that really reflects you. You could go full-on the offence or play more defensively. Here are some ideas on how each of the power works and how to apply them in combat.

Launch

1. Use Launch every time you get the chance.
2. Use Launch in between waitihg for your ammo to be replenished.
3. Break an enemy’s shield by launching objects before finishing them off with your gun.
4. Break a large crowd of enemies that are rushing towards you.
5. If you time it right, you can use grab an object behind the enemy hitting them on the way, effectively applying a double hit when you launch the projectile to the same enemy.
6. Remember to be aware of your surroundings. A projectile may hit a barrier instead of the enemy. This usually happens if you’re either lower or upper ground.
7. Be aware of your projectiles. Don’t prematurely launch them, causing it to hit into a debris instead of the enemy. Try to consciously pick up the right debries to shorten the time for it to reach you.
8. Be mindful of your projectiles. Some are explosive in nature. Be careful when handling those.
9. Even if you can’t find any objects to use as projectile, debris from the ground will be produced for you, so don’t worry about running out of things to launch at enemies.

Evade

1. Dash into cover when you’re charging your ability meter or ammo.
2. For enemies hurling projectiles, always have enough charge for a quick dash to avoid incoming projectiles.
3. If you’re on PC, use Mouse Button 4 or 5 to quickly use dash. This will be much easier for you to dash to a certain direction.
4. You can still dash while using Launch.
5. Go in close to your enemy for a quick melee and then dash away. Melee does not take up any charge.
6. You can also use Evade as you levitate.

Shield

1. Use Shield when you’re recharging your ammo. Retreat back to solid cover.
2. Once upgraded, the debris used for your Shield can be used to be launched at enemies. Remember to add ability points to it in the skill tree.
3. You can also use Shieled when levitating.
4. Your ability meter does not recharge when Shield is active. Use it primarily to recover ammo for your guns or last minute attacks from the enemies.
5. Your shield has a limited amount of damage it can take everytime. Remember to add more ability points.

Seize

1. You can move around when you’re using Seize. Avoid getting shot at while you’re seizing an enemy.
2. Try to seize a stronger enemy so they deal more damage to the enemy forces.
3. My personal favorite is to seize enemies that are floating and launches projectiles.
4. Try luring a seize target to a corner so that you don’t get jumped by a bunch of enemies at the same time.
5. Use Personal Mods to improve your seize speed.
6. When faced with the enemy that heals the rest, seizing an enemy can be annoying as it constantly heals the enemy. Either deal with it first or get ready to immediately seize the enemy.

Levitate

1. Perhaps the coolest power available in Control.
2. Levitate to reposition yourself and avoid getting cornered.
3. You can use other powers together with Levitate such as Launch, Shield and Evade.
4. Use Levitate to deal with airborne enemies more effectively.
5. Remember to keep the limit of the Levitate’s timer. Use ability points to increase its duration.

You’re The Boss

And that’s about it, folks. Cool powers available in Control. If those powers couldn’t get you interested in playing the game, I can guarantee you that the story will. So, remember to check it out when you can. I recommend you not to watch any gameplay videos as the game primarily relies on its story’s rich and intricate layers to convey the overall tone and feel of the game.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of playing a game with a really interesting and sci-fi game that really goes in deep and doesn’t hold back on the sci-fi. Check out Control today! Check whether Control is on sale in your region here.