Control Review

In House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, a seemingly normal mansion on the outside reveals itself to be much, much bigger on the inside. Its impossible space is the source of much of the dread of the book, and also the main inspiration for the 2019 video game Control. Remedy Entertainment has never been shy of wearing its influences on its sleeve, and this sci-fi actioner is as much a homage to Danielewski’s masterwork as it is to Christopher Nolan’s Inception and the entire canon of SCPs (“Secure, Contain and Protect” in relation to hundreds of objects and entities related to the supernatural).

In Control, gamers play as Jesse Faden, a woman who just became the new director of the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret American government agency specialised in containing and studying paranatural phenomena. Its opening moments are refreshingly opaque, as players are thrust into this world with very little context, slowly revealing more secrets about the FBC, Jesse, and Oldest House (the headquarters of the Bureau and main gameplay location).

The real star of Control is its setting, which comes as a surprise when all of Remedy’s previous games lived and died on the strength of their narratives. Faden is occasionally charming thanks to Courtney Hope’s empathetic performance, and she is good company as she talks to herself throughout the game’s events, but she lacks the witty dialogue of Max Payne or the deteriorating psyche of Alan Wake. The fact that her name is not the title of the game further illustrates that her story comes second to that of the world, which is also illustrated in the gameplay.

The gameplay loop of Control is as intoxicating and addictive as wanting to explore every nook and cranny of the Oldest House. Starting off as a standard third-person shooter, Jesse soon starts to learn multiple abilities such as telekinesis and levitation, and her service weapon can gradually morph into different guns, including a grenade launcher and a high-precision rifle. As Jesse explores various levels of the House, she has to fight through hordes of Hiss-corrupted people, previous workers of the Bureau whose mind has been clouded by an intangible force. The first few hours of the game are the strongest, as Jesse is weaker and the random reappearance of enemies through previously visited areas makes for a constant feeling of threat that very few action games ever reach.

Once Jesse is so powerful that she dispatches enemies with just one well-placed throw, Control still manages to be fun because of its environment. Every bullet fired and every object thrown leaves craters in the offices, quarries, and laboratories that the players fight their way through, with particle effects flying in the sky right out of a John Woo film. The abilities that she learns all feel organic to the world, as they mirror enemy behaviour and random occurrences found throughout the Oldest House, and the side missions that are cleverly hidden away are much more fun and memorable than the repetitive quests found in the main campaign. Randomly falling down a deep hole that leads to an entirely optional area with its own strand of side quests was a definite highlight, and the main reward was more gameplay and dozens of files to read in a darkly beautiful environment (in this case, a cave system populated by zombie-esque mould hosts).

Variety is the key to Control’s success. Its main story, exploring themes of duality and chaos against control that have often been at the centre of Remedy’s writing, is instantly forgettable despite an impressive late-game set-piece inside a shapeshifting maze. The game truly comes into its own when players are left to their own devices, with no quest markers or guiding lines on the map to tell them where to find more adventures. It forces them to explore by themselves, using all of their abilities and curiosity, to discover new SCPs, be they astral fridges or vanishing rubber ducks. There is a lot of busy work for the director of the FBC, but when the lore is this deep and the gameplay so gorgeous and intoxicating, it makes for a truly enjoyable time.