055Remedy calls these enemies ‘Hosts’ but
we find it more appropriate to refer to
them as “OH MY GOD, WHAT-? ARE
THOSE PLANT ZOMBIES?”
The Annihilation-esque appearance
of these enemies is one thing Control
has borrowed from the new weird
literary genre. Narrative designer
Brooke Maggs broadly defines new
weird as a meeting of sci-fi and horror
elements that poses questions it
answers with further mysteries.
Creative director Mikael Kasurinen
echoes the sentiment. “We want this
world to feel mysterious and there is a
pursuit of truth, of course, you want
to understand what is happening and
what is going on. But will you ever
really get to the core of something? Or
is it this endless kind of journey
towards it, painting a picture that is
never kind of fully done?”
Brooke Maggs elaborates: “The
challenge of that is making that feel
really good and making that mystery
feel like there were some answers
provided – but now I have more
questions. And from a narrative
perspective, even in new weird fiction,
you always want that to feel good and
not feel cheap. Not like ‘I think you’re
just being weird to be weird, now.’”
Maggs says the team drew from not
only the aforementioned Jeff
VanderMeer book but also China
Miéville’s novel Kraken, plus showscontrol
looks like Jesse’s the
only one working – the
rest of the staff are just
hanging around the place.W
hilethe
encounter
systemkeeps
Jesse’shandsfullof
hiss,there’smorein
storeforherafter
you’vecompletedthe
mainsingle-player
story.Alongside
heapingsofhiss
remaining after theend,youcangoback
andcompleteany
side-missionsyou’ve
missed(though
hopefullyyouwon’t
haveleftfridge-
watchingPhilipallon
hislonesomeuntilafter
theendofthegame).
there are also the
time-sensitive Bureaualerts:if youcomplete
those withinthetime
limit, you’llnetyourself
somebetterloot.
In additiontothis,
remedyintendsfor
control tobean
experiencewithsome
staying powerthanks
to two post-release
expansions.these willbecalled‘the
foundation’and‘AWe.’
remedy has these
planned out but has yet
to release further
details on them or start
work on them proper
as the dev team
focuses on fine-tuning
the base experience
ready for release.the DIrector’S JoB IS never Done
even when you’ve completed the story, you’ll not have fullcontrollike Legion and Mr Robot as well as
the dream-logic-fuelled realities of the
film Inception. Twin Peaks was
mentioned more than once by other
membersoftheteam.BricKs and slaughter
In terms of mechanical inspirations,
lead designer Paul Ehreth says, “We’re
kind of all over the place a little bit.”
Ehreth tells us that the Oldest
House presents an interconnected
world much like Dark Souls while
Control’s progression systems and
weapon crafting feel a bit more
Monster Hunter. However, he clarifies,
“Our intent was not really even to, you
know, be similar to these games but to
speak to kind of the overall vision and
that’s why I think we have so many
varying elements that point to thevisionratherthangoingoffdowna
particular channel.”
Of new weird’s influence on the
mechanics, he adds, “Dream logic,
when it comes to game mechanics, can
be really, really difficult to do. It is
surprisingly difficult to make dream
logic in a way that makes sense. [...]
[There are] these sort of ritual
moments. And one of the big
challenges for us on the design team
was how do we create dream-like
rituals [...] which isn’t so nonsensical
that players dismiss it and isn’t so
grounded and literal that it is boring,
or too easy to figure out. And so
finding that balance was actually one
of the biggest challenges we had on
the project. We hope we got it.”
We’ll complete our investigation of
the Oldest House later this year.“dream logic, when
it comes to game
mechanics, can be
difficult to do.”