Control takes place within the confines of the Oldest House, a vast government building being invaded by a paranatural entity known as the Hiss. This malevolent force isn’t the only thing to resonate within the concrete walls of the House. The environments of Control are founded on real-world architectural history. Like the Hiss, this history quietly seethes in the background ensuring a threatening noise and texture to the happenings that occur there.
Everyone has an opinion on brutalism. It’s fair to say the architectural style elicits strong emotional reactions – a fact that’s handy for games where designers often want their environments to cleverly echo and intensify the actions and events on-screen. With Control, Remedy has designed an entire virtual space around brutalism, with its varied forms and contexts.
Brutalist structures are made of raw concrete (or Béton brut in French). Built between the 1950s and 1970s, the style is often linked to large public works, social housing and government buildings. While the origins of the style are quite utopian, and there are plenty of progressive examples, these aspects tend to be overpowered by the negative – colossal concrete buildings are simply seen as oppressive, even dystopian.
