Taking Control

OXM HEADS TO REMEDY’S HELSKINI HQ TO GET HANDS-ON WITH ITS LATEST ACTION-ADVENTURE GAME, CONTROL, AND CHAT ABOUT THE COMPANY’S UNIQUE APPROACH TO MAKING GAMES WITH NO LIMITS AND LEADING THE WAY WHEN IT COMES TO SINGLE-PLAYER GAME EXPERIENCES

- Chris Burke

Jesse Faden’s workplace is undergoing a bit of restructuring. Not the kind of management restructuring which may result in a few redundancies for middle-management who no one knew what they did anyway. No, the entire fabric of reality inside the office of the Bureau Of Control, where Jesse’s just arrived for a job interview, is literally restructuring itself all around her – the very fabric of reality is shifting and phasing in and out of whack, and things are generally getting weirder by the second.

On the upside, not only did Jesse get the job, but she’s also immediately been promoted to director. Apparently, it comes with dental, a parking space and a unique shapeshifting superpowered gun – and she’s going to need all of that, especially the dental plan, to deal with an invasion of a group of transdimensional beings hellbent on eating our reality. As far as bad first days in a new job go, it’s up there with Leon Kennedy’s.

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Control, the latest action-adventure game from Remedy Entertainment, and OXM has been invited to Remedy’s headquarters in Finland to get hands-on with Jesse’s story and talk to the lead creatives about a game that promises to be weirdly unique, and uniquely weird. Remedy’s Espoo, Finland, office, located just up the road from Helsinki (turn right past the fifth frozen lake), is thankfully a little more normal than that of the Bureau Of Control, remarkable only for the banks of state-of-the-art PCs and game creation tech within, and a mo-cap studio and VO recording facility in the basement – an investment that’s paid dividends for Remedy when it comes to keeping it all in-house. No, the only things that are unsettling here are the shorter daylight hours, due to the northern latitude, and the shocking price of a beer in Helsinki’s bars.