WHAT GAMES DO YOU LOVE? SEND YOUR LUSTY THOUGHTS TO [email protected]
When first
stepping into the
foyer in Control’s
government
building, it looks
just like a boring
office. As Jesse
continues through the hall and up
to the offices on the next floor,
everything appears to be neat and tidy
but without a soul in sight. Apart from
the lack of people, nothing seems out
of the ordinary. But I just can’t shake
the feeling that something is wrong,
and that something much bigger and
much stranger awaits further in.
The space of an unassuming and
drab office wouldn’t be the first
setting that comes to mind when
wanting to create a supernatural sci-fi
narrative. But when dealing with the
themes of power and bureaucracy
in videogames, environments like
administrative buildings, mundane
office cubicles and government
facilities can hold a silent but
intrusive sense of imposing authority.
Remedy has captured that
eerie atmosphere in Control and
it’s communicated within the first
minute as you explore the Federal
Bureau Of Control (FBC) headquarters.
Nothing has actually happened yet,
but Control’s corridors, offices and
meeting rooms all have this silent
authority. There are secrets seeping
through its case files, reports, floppy
disks and paperwork, and reading
them is vital to understanding the
story. This building is nowhere near as
ordinary as it appears.
Within these documents is where
Remedy joins the eerie space
of the office environment
to its supernatural story.
The terrible secrets
that you read about
in the records, you
will have to face.
The FBC investigates
‘paranatural’ activity
that warps reality. The
headquarters is connected
to another place called the Oldest
House and both now exist within the
same space. The Oldest House has
been invaded by an enemy called the
Hiss, a force that has possessed the
Bureau’s agents. Details of the Hiss,
the Oldest House and the paranatural
LEFT Inside’s
creepy, empty
environments
make us feel all
kinds of uneasy...
FAR LEFT What?
Doesn’t every
company director
have telekinetic
powers?“Control’s corridors,
offices and meeting
rooms all have this
silent authority”
are hidden within the documents, and
they are a vital narrative thread.Paper trail
There’s a build-up of tension as you
read the details of these supernatural
occurrences. There are reports of
disappearing agents, humans being
used as hosts, violent protocols for
suspicious individuals – these ghastly
details are all clinically outlined. Those
creepy stories create a deep sense of
dread that is amplified in these cold
and clinical environments. The empty
bureaucratic offices have a uniquely
creepy feel, even before you
meet the Hiss, because of
this jarring juxtaposition.
This feeling is also
used in other game
environments. Science
labs are a major
setting because of the
experiments that can take
within them. The facility at
the end of Playdead’s Inside
awakens a deep sense of unease.
The cheap, foldable chairs set up in
rows facing glass observation rooms
is a stark visual that communicates
the game’s atmosphere perfectly.
Hospitals and asylums are also
spaces that capture this same feelingWHAT IS IT?
Reading through case
files, official documents
and reports can
change an unassuming
administrative office
into a sinister space
of banal dread.of control. In horror games, many
clinical spaces can quickly turn from
a place of help and trust into panic
and dread because they take away
individual agency. Hospitals are a
recurring theme in the Silent Hill
series because of this exact power
imbalance, seeing overturned beds
and blood-stained sheets in a usually
clean and clinical environment implies
the aftermath of a horrible event. It’s
what is unspoken that communicates
the most terror.
The spaces in Control, Inside, and
Silent Hill feel creepy because they
hint at the activities that go on behind
closed doors. These places are highly
secretive and this enforces the idea
that not everyone can enter these
spaces. They are highly forbidden, and
although mundane in appearance,
hold this uncanny, banal horror. We
are witnesses to something that is
meant to be hidden, like a peek behind
the curtain.
After my first encounter with the
Hiss in Control, I look back at the
scene of the battle. Desks have
been overturned, filing cabinets
have been thrown across the room,
there is rubble all over the ground
and documents are scattered across
the floor. A once neat office is now
a combat zone. The destructive
telekinetic powers that Jesse posses
makes me question the power balance
within this building. Control asks you
to investigate every filing cabinet,
upturn every desk and disrupt the
order of bureaucracy until every one
of those mysterious and unsettling
details become strikingly clear. QMore Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 105