Control (Remedy Entertainment)

[Zurvanight he/him]

I love Control. It is one of my favorite games of all time. And Alan Wake, the previous game set in the same universe is really good too. Sam Lake, the writer for these games, is a genius. It's also heavily inspired by the SCP Foundation. 

In Control you play as Jesse Faden, a woman looking for her lost brother who was supposedly kidnapped by government agents after a paranatural event caused everyone in her town to dissappear. She finally tracks them down to a place known as the FBC (Federal Bureau of Control). The building itself is a massive place called The Oldest House where Objects of Power and Altered Items, mundane everyday objects that house paranatural power (such as a teleporting rubber duck, a baby carriage that emits smoke, a fridge that harms you if you look away from it, or a plastic Christmas tree that imitates your voice) are contained and safeguarded. The Oldest House itself is a Place of Power. The buildings many rooms can shift randomly and people can become trapped for days. Besides keeping weird objects safe the FBC studies psychic phenomenon, the Astral Plane, and AWEs (Altered World Events, which are when Altered Items cause weird things to happen to cities or towns). In Alan Wake, the events that took place in Bright Falls and Cauldron Lake were considered an AWE. I'm hoping in Alan Wake 2 that the FBC plays an important role. 

In Control the Oldest House has been taken over by a hostile paranatural entity that Jesse calls The Hiss, because it sounds like poison gas leaking in. It infects a person turning them into monsters. Jesse is immune, and thanks in part to a peaceful entity that inhabits her, is able to wield psychic powers that aid her in fighting the Hiss. That and a transforming gun made of strange black interconnecting stones.

One of my favorite things about the game is the lore. In many areas you explore you can find correspondence and papers that deepen the lore and talk about all the weird things happening. One of my favorites is the Book Club memos where everyone in the book club reads the same book titled Unless You, but each person describes a different plot. Meaning the book itself was an Altered Item. Another funny one is a complaint about an entire bathroom shifting locations and nobody can seem to find where it went. 

My favorite location in the game is easily The Oceanview Motel and Casino. You use a lightswitch that you pull three times you transport you to this mysterious empty motel where you solve a small puzzle to progress further. It's not clear whether the motel exists in reality, the Astral Plane or is some kind of collective conscious idea given form. I think the Oceanview is supposed to be an unsettling place, but I find it very relaxing and cozy for some reason. 

Highly recommend this game for anyone who loves deep lore and really, REALLY weird things. Combat is actually pretty fun, and there's plenty of fun sidequests too. 

As a bonus here's the creepy Alan Wake 2 trailer: 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Zurvanite

[jamesbondsmith He/him]

I picked it up because I saw it on a list of games similar to Bioshock (I'd just finished the 2017 Prey which was also on the list).

I wasn't quite as invested in the lore and location as I was with Bioshock, Prey and Dishonored but it was so much fun just telekinetically hurling desks at the bad guys.

That said I did find myself wanting to work in the FBC after seeing the 

Spoiler

'ordinary work day' Jesse is stuck in near the end.

Still an awesome game and I gush over it if I see someone who's just bought it.