Towards the end of last year there popped out a little game from a much storied studio that garnered quite a bit of praise and even a few awards, although that didn't quite translate to sales. The Studio in question, Remedy, have always held a trajectory that I find myself at odds with in the strangest ways and whilst I celebrate their commercial victories I must admit that I cannot enjoy their games no matter how much I attempt to. Such would have been inconsequential if it hadn't been for their prominent presence at the VGA's alongside their announcement of DLC, meaning that I have to speak about this particular title at least once. (It's only fair.) Before I do, however, bear in mind that I trusted my gut and avoided this game, so all of my opinions are educated but inexperienced.
Control is a title that takes a very fringe pop culture topic and drags it into the forefront with a heavily funded AAA game. The topic in question would be the concept of Internet camp-fire stories, or as they are titled 'Creepypastas', and the specific pasta in general is the long running tale of the SCP foundation. (Secure Contain Protect.) To be clear, this isn't an a game that takes place within the canon of The Scarlett King (as far as I am aware, at least.), rather a title that mimics the setup of that story and makes something unique with it; but the similarities are too distinct for us to discount it as coincidence. Not that I condemn such an act, afterall it is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the SCP community has had too much of a marked effect on horror culture throughout the years for us to start splitting hairs now. But I digress, let's get into what 'SCP' ostensibly is.
In it's most widely known form, SCP is a website that details the research documents of a fictional secret government agency known as the SCP foundation. It is the task of this foundation to capture and catalogue all extra-normal 'entites' in our everyday world with the ultimate goal of keeping their existence secret and protecting humanity. (For a couple SCP's in particular, the very act of keeping them secret is the thing that keeps humanity from becoming extinct.) From this amalgamation of weird and creepy horror monsters spawned a few well-received horror games that are still worthy of a playthrough today. (Although only if you have a strong constitution when it comes to horror games.)
SCP-087-B was one such game that followed the exploration of an SCP that was realized in the form of an endless downwards staircase. The deeper down you went, the more likely it became that you would never come back up again, dead or alive. (In hindsight I've having trouble figuring out how SCP both found out about and managed to contain that one. Did they relocate the entire building or just seize it and convert it into a government facility?) 'SCP Containment Breach' is probably the most famous game, however, as it takes a more traditional Horror game approach of forcing players to survive an incredibly hostile environment as they desperately attempt to escape. The entire SCP facility ended up losing it's 'secure' status and this meant that the creators had free reign to stick as many game-able SCP's into thier title as humanly possible. (Pretty sure they invented a few specifically for the game too.) But this 'Creepypasta' has had a profound effect outside of the world of gaming too.
Perhaps one of the most iconic SCP's of all time would be SCP-173, a seemingly immobile (and indistinguishable) statue that moves whenever it's not in direct line of site, ultimately resulting in death for whoever is unfortunate enough to be caught by it. Does any of that ring a bell? Mayhaps you think this whole concept is but a shameless rip off of the Weeping Angels from the 'Blink' episode of Doctor Who. A sound conclusion if it wasn't for the fact that the original SPC story predated that episode by a few months. Now, I'm not saying that Russel.T.David read that story and adapted it for his series, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone anecdotally relayed it to him in a manner that lit inspiration. Whatever the truth, Weeping Angels or 173, are some of the scariest monsters in horror and I like to think that we owe their existence to the SCP world.
But why am I talking about SCP in a blog entitled 'Control'? Well... because they are kinda one-and-the-same. The story in question revolves around a young woman who inadvertently finds herself becoming the director of the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret government branch dedicated to capturing and categorizing otherworldly threats. Unfortunately, this promotion comes at the exact same time that a large scale containment breech has swept the facility leaving the player with the unenvious task of having to "Clean house". The premise fuels the wild array of surreal imagery that the title then thrives on. (Which won it the VGA for visual design, incidentally.)
Of course, being Remedy, SCP isn't the only inspiration that this title leans on. Just like Alan Wake before it, Control borrows a lot of themes and ideas from classic shows like 'Twin Peaks' to set it's mood. Those who loved the heavy aura of mystery and uncomfortable weird shades from a show like that will find much to love about Control. (As a fellow who never watched Twin Peaks and barely even remembers X-Files, it doesn't really do much for me.) At this point Remedy have turned the act of mimicking these shows into an identity and that seems to have worked out well for them looking at the review scores for this title alone.
At the VGA's in particular, The Control team teased their brand new DLC which seemed to lean away from the 'Metroid-Vania' gameplay of the main game and into a more 'episodic' approach. (I wonder what the inspiration was there?) The 'Expiditions' DLC seems to pit the player in a variety of challenge situations that, I'd imagine, would be largely puzzle solving/ monster fighting affairs; Remedy do seem rather allergic to wrapping up thier dangling plot threads, afterall. There would certainly be an audience for that kind of content but I can imagine the bulk of consumers finding themselves disappointed with it, afterall they praised Control for being 'different', recycling models and environments to make new challenges does strain that a little bit. But if Capcom could pull it off well with Resident Evil 3 back in 1999, who's to say that Remedy couldn't do the same to a satisfying degree?
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