Control - Master The Supernatural In Remedy's Uncanny Shooter

Remedy gets weird again in Control, a mind-bending supernatural shooter where anything is possible.

- Andy Kelly

Something has invaded the oldest house. An evil force known only as the hiss. And it’s up to you, jesse faden, director of the federal bureau of control, to defeat it. But that’s not the only strange thing happening in this top secret government facility...

A scientist sits in a glass cell, staring at a fridge. He’s been there for hours, maybe days. But he can’t look away from the fridge. If he does, he says it’ll ‘diverge’, and from the sheer terror in his voice, I can only assume that’s a bad thing. This is one of the many peculiar artifacts stored in the Oldest House, a monolithic, windowless skyscraper in downtown Manhattan that serves as the secret headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control.

The FBC investigates paranormal phenomena and objects that exhibit odd, reality-bending behavior— including that mysterious fridge. As Jesse Faden, our protagonist and the new director of the bureau, wanders the stark, brutalist halls of the Oldest House, she sees rows of identical cells containing other mundane objects—a wrecked car, an old television set— that, for whatever reason, have to be kept away from the general public.

In some ways, Control is a classic Remedy game: a slick, cinematic third-person shooter with a strong narrative focus, a dark atmosphere, and a hint of the surreal. But structurally it’s something completely new for the studio. The Oldest House is a hub of sorts, with missions branching off from it. It’s a place you’ll return to regularly, using newly acquired powers to reach areas that were previously inaccessible.

“I want to retain the way Remedy tells stories and creates worlds, but present that in a way that gives the player more agency,” says Mikael Kasurinen, Control’s game director and a Remedy veteran who’s been with the studio since