It has actually been a while since I played the demo for Control Ultimate Edition - Cloud Version on the Nintendo Switch, but the experience left enough of an impression with me that I wanted to talk about it nearly four-and-a-half months later. The two main things with Control is that it is being played on the Nintendo Switch, and that it is being streamed on the Switch as opposed to being run completely off of the Switch's hardware, which from what I understand (which is not a whole lot) would otherwise be impossible; unless Panic Button were to have something to do with it.
First, some brief context on Control because that might end up being important. Control was developed by Remedy Entertainment and was published by 505 Games, releasing on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in August of 2019. It was then ported to Amazon's Luna and the Nintendo Switch in October 2020 as a streaming game. Essentially means that the game and its settings are being streamed to the platform instead of running off of the hardware, like how you could watch a movie on the YouTube app on the Switch, but could probably never have a game run that looks as well as whatever movie was just released that looks really good; because the last movie I saw in theatres was Pretty Strong back on February 24th, 2020. There is probably just too much going on in a game that is supposed to be this good looking for the hardware on the Switch to be able to handle it well without either seriously downgrading the graphics or severe lag/stuttering.
When you start Control on the Nintendo Switch and like a lot of games ported to console, you are limited in your customization options such as setting resolution, graphics quality, and other similar settings you would typically find under Video > Advanced settings. Here, you are given the option to play the game with a focus on either Enhanced Graphics or Enhanced Performance, implying that with Enhanced Graphics, the game will require more bandwidth and a more stable internet connection than the Enhanced Performance setting with reduced graphics which focuses on the game having a smoother experience. Because I wanted to start out as grand as possible, I chose to run the game on the Graphics setting, although I was playing in handheld mode, which maxes out at 720p so it was going to be downgraded graphics from the start. I could have played in docked mode, but intermittently also taking care of a 5 month-old at seven in the morning, this was the easiest way of doing things.
Before I started, I was unaware of the length of time you would be allowed to play. Would it be relegated to a specific part in the game, would it be a 30-minute time limit? There was no indication that I noticed that mentioned this. I bring this up because when I started my first run-through I watched the opening intro cinematic which took up a whole 2m50s or 27.3% of your allotted time. I also spent a fair amount of time tinkering with the in-game settings such as inverting the y-axis, looking at what the buttons did, and then there was a lot of looking around at objects, reading every document I came across, all things that you would do in a game that you are starting that you have never played before, which probably left maybe five minutes left to play, although I did not know this at the time.
In the Enhanced Graphics setting, the game played very well (for my own tastes), probably maxing out at 30 fps with a few stutters here and there, especially in areas where there were isolated pockets of light compounded by trying to run all the time and making quick stops and sudden turns. I felt that this setting was 100% playable, at least as far as running and reading was concerned.
Well, it was a little bit of surprise when the game stopped suddenly and told me that the trial had ended and that I could pick up where I left off if I purchased the game from Nintendo's eShop. Kind of taken aback at how quickly this demo/trial had been, I realized that I spent too much time messing around than actually experiencing the game.
My second play-through was using the Enhanced Performance setting and knowing that I was severely limited in time, I decided to skip the intro and ran through as much of the building as I could but still trying to so similar actions as the first play-through so that I could compare. There was a noticeable difference in the quality of the graphics, but the game still ran very smooth and I might have already been in the mindset that playing on the Switch will have lesser quality graphics especially with games like DOOM, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, so I was already used to this type of experience.
The highlight of the second playthrough was the combat tutorial, both because I felt that it highlighted how well the game could play and how well it looked even with downgraded graphics, but also how satisfying firing the whatever-the-hell-the-morphing-block-gun-thing was but also the hand-to-hand combat as well. There were slight stuttering issues but it never felt like it was a hindrance or anything more than what I have experienced while playing any other intensive game on PC, and never feeling that it was so severe that it was hampering my ability to kill whatever the shadow figures were.
This trial ended right as the next cinematic had started and while I was able to parse less of what the hell was going on besides being a third-person shooter, I feel like I was better able to see how well the game operated on the Switch apart from running through hallways and reading documents. When I played Control Ultimate Edition - Cloud Version on Amazon's Luna client, I had the Switch experience semi-fresh in my mind and I actually thought that the Switch ran the game better than Luna. The Switch version also had the option of settings which Luna did not, so that could have been part of it too, but by the end of my 20 minutes, I felt that this was a very pleasant and promising experience, actually leaving me to consider this version of Control.
What I went into the demo wanting to take away was really two things. The first and primary question was whether or not our house could handle a game streaming service and how well this particular option worked on the Nintendo Switch. I know that there are streaming options in Japan and has been an option there for nearly two years so it was nice that such a well-received game was getting similar treatment (along with Hitman 3, which I'm thinking I might give a go around now that I am writing this article). The second was what I thought about this critically acclaimed game of which all I knew was some bits about the influence of brutalis architecture on the games setting and atmosphere from a TED Talk. I normally would not expect a game, especially a modern AAA game to have me hooked with its story within a 10 minute window where you are expected to get enough story but still have time to play, but I was not entirely brought in, at least from what I played. There was the hint of a story that I felt like I was dropped into in the middle of things and the idea of a game in an empty office building felt like corners were being cut so as to not have random NPCs walking around doing office building stuff. Obviously I am not basing my entire decision to buy (or not) from what story I was able to parse from a total of 20 minutes of overlapping gameplay, but it has influenced my decision somewhat along with how the game played in both Graphics and Performance settings.
And really, that is a lot of what a good demo should do.
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