Control (video game)

Control is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment. It follows Jesse Faden, the new Director of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), a secret U.S. government agency that investigates and contains phenomena that violate the normal laws of reality. As Jesse, the player explores the Oldest House–the FBC's headquarters–and uses paranormal abilities and a shapeshifting gun known as the "Service Weapon" to combat the Hiss, a hostile, otherworldly entity that has invaded and corrupted the FBC. Players unlock new powers by locating Objects of Power, mundane objects imbued with energies from another dimension. The Oldest House has four sectors that can be explored at a nonlinear pace, and players are free to complete side quests and explore hidden areas. Control was completed within three years with a €30 million budget. Its gameplay is significantly more open than Remedy's past games; the developers drew inspiration from role-playing and Metroidvania games. The game was written by Sam Lake and was inspired by paranormal stories about the fictional SCP Foundation, based on the new weird genre. To demonstrate the game's destructible environmental systems, the Oldest House is designed in the brutalist style common in Cold-War-era government buildings. The game's voice cast includes Courtney Hope as Faden, and James McCaffrey, Matthew Porretta, and Martti Suosalo. The music was composed by Petri Alanko and Martin Stig Andersen. Control uses Remedy's in-house Northlight Engine and was among the first games to use real-time ray tracing built into the hardware of modern video cards. 505 Games published Control for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in August 2019 and for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in February 2021. Remedy Entertainment began self-publishing the game in 2025. Control received generally positive reviews; critics praised its setting, art direction, gameplay, and characters, although its main...