Jesse Faden and the shape-shifting Service Weapon. Image: Remedy Entertainment / 505 Games
Control is a third-person supernatural action game from Remedy Entertainment, released on 27 August 2019. You play Jesse Faden, who walks into a secret government building looking for her brother and leaves as its Director. Its telekinetic combat and Brutalist setting are outstanding — and if you plan to play Alan Wake 2, Control is effectively required reading.
Control at a glance
| Developer | Remedy Entertainment |
| Publisher | 505 Games |
| Released | 27 August 2019 · Ultimate Edition 2021 |
| Platforms | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch (cloud) |
| Expansions | The Foundation · AWE |
| Length | ~12 hours main story · 25–30 hours with side content and DLC |
Which edition should you buy? (Read this first)
This is the most common mistake people make with Control, so it goes near the top.
Buy Control Ultimate Edition. It includes the base game plus both expansions — The Foundation and AWE — and it is the version with native PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S support, including higher frame-rate and ray-tracing modes.
Two things worth knowing:
- The standard edition does not include the expansions. They are separate paid purchases.
- When the Ultimate Edition arrived, existing owners of the base game were not given a free upgrade to the next-generation version. That drew significant criticism at the time, and it is why so many listings for this game are confusing.
If you see Control and Control Ultimate Edition at similar prices in a sale, Ultimate is always the right choice.
What is Control about?
Jesse Faden arrives at the New York headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, an agency that investigates and contains objects and events that break the laws of physics. She is looking for her brother, taken years earlier.
She finds the building — the Oldest House — under invasion by a hostile resonance called the Hiss, which possesses staff and turns them violent. Almost by accident, Jesse becomes Director.
The story is told through documents, redacted case files, training videos and live-action footage rather than conventional cutscenes. It is deliberately oblique, and plenty of players finish with questions. That ambiguity is intentional, though it will not suit everyone.
What makes the combat so good?
Control's combat is the reason it is still recommended six years later.
You carry the Service Weapon, a gun that reshapes itself into different forms — pistol, shotgun, machine gun, magnum — and never reloads conventionally. It recharges on a cooldown, which is a deliberate design choice: when it is charging, you are meant to use your powers.
Those powers are the other half:
- Launch — rip a desk, forklift or chunk of wall out of the environment and hurl it. The signature move.
- Shield — pull debris into a rotating barrier that absorbs gunfire
- Evade — a fast directional dash
- Seize — turn an enemy into a temporary ally
- Levitate — hover and fight from above, which transforms the larger arenas
Because the Oldest House is fully destructible, every fight physically dismantles the room around you. Concrete cracks, glass shatters, office furniture disintegrates — and all of it becomes ammunition.
Launch turns the destructible environment into your primary weapon.
Is the Oldest House worth exploring?
The setting is the game's other great achievement. The Oldest House is a shifting Brutalist tower where corridors rearrange, and Remedy renders it with enormous bold typography, concrete geometry and some of the best sound design in the medium.
Structurally it is a light Metroidvania. Areas are gated behind security clearance levels and specific powers, so you return to earlier zones as you unlock more.
The honest criticism: the rewards for exploring are thin. Hidden rooms usually contain crafting materials or minor mods rather than anything memorable. You explore because the building is fascinating, not because the loot justifies it.
Side missions are better. They fill in what the Bureau did before the Hiss and what daily life inside the building was like, and several are among the strongest content in the game.
Do you need to play Control before Alan Wake 2?
Not strictly, but it helps enormously — and the original version of this article missed it entirely.
Control is part of the Remedy Connected Universe. The AWE expansion ties directly into Alan Wake, and events from Control carry into Alan Wake 2 (2023). Playing Control first, expansions included, makes a great deal of Alan Wake 2 land properly.
If you enjoyed Alan Wake 2 and skipped Control, this is the obvious gap to fill.
What are the two expansions?
The Foundation takes Jesse beneath the Oldest House into the caverns the building was constructed on, expanding the Bureau's origins. Roughly 4–5 hours.
AWE — Altered World Events — investigates a Bureau case connected to Bright Falls and Alan Wake, and adds a new enemy type and weapon form. Roughly 3–4 hours, and the more essential of the two if you care about the wider universe.
The Oldest House rearranges itself around you — Brutalism as a horror device.
PC performance and ray tracing
Control was one of the earliest and best showcases for ray tracing, and it still is. Reflections in the Oldest House's glass and polished concrete are the standout effect, and they meaningfully change how the building looks.
Tuning advice: ray-traced reflections are the most expensive setting by a wide margin. On an RTX card, enable DLSS before lowering RT — the two were designed together here and DLSS Quality typically buys enough headroom to keep reflections on. On non-RTX hardware, disable ray tracing entirely; the game still looks excellent and runs comfortably on mid-range GPUs. Volumetric lighting is the next-heaviest setting.
Is Control worth playing in 2026?
Yes. It is one of the most distinctive action games of its generation and it has aged very well — partly because its art direction never chased photorealism.
The combat still feels better than most releases since, the setting remains unmatched, and at around twelve hours it does not overstay. It is also cheap now and appears in subscription catalogues regularly.
Its weaknesses are real: unrewarding exploration, an occasionally opaque story, and a map that is genuinely hard to read. None outweigh what it does well.
Where can you buy Control?
- PC — Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store
- PlayStation — PlayStation Store (PS4 and PS5)
- Xbox — Microsoft Store, Xbox One and Series X|S
- Nintendo — Switch cloud version via the eShop
Getting it cheaply — and getting the right version
Control has appeared on Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus and as an Epic Games Store free giveaway in the past, so check whether you already own it before buying. When purchasing, choose Control Ultimate Edition — it bundles both expansions and the next-generation console versions, and in sales it frequently costs less than the base game plus DLC bought separately.
A note on cracked “ALL DLC” builds: they are illegal and a known malware vector, and they cannot receive Remedy's patches — which matters for a game whose ray-tracing and performance improvements arrived after launch. Control is also given away free through subscription services fairly often. IGGG Guides does not link to pirated software.
Control FAQ
How long is Control?
About 12 hours for the main story. With side missions and both expansions, expect 25–30 hours.
What is the difference between Control and Control Ultimate Edition?
Ultimate Edition includes the base game, The Foundation and AWE expansions, and native PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions. The standard edition includes none of the DLC.
Is Control connected to Alan Wake?
Yes. Both are part of the Remedy Connected Universe. The AWE expansion links the two directly, and Control's events matter in Alan Wake 2.
Is Control a horror game?
Not exactly. It is unsettling and atmospheric with strong body-horror elements, but it plays as a third-person action game rather than survival horror.
Is there a Control 2?
Remedy has confirmed a sequel is in development. No release date has been announced.
Does Control need an RTX card?
No. Ray tracing requires one, but the game runs well and looks strong without it.
The verdict
Control is Remedy at its most confident — a strange, stylish, sharply written action game with the best telekinetic combat in the medium and a setting nothing else has matched.
Exploration under-rewards and the story will not give everyone the closure they want, but the moment-to-moment experience of tearing a room apart while floating above it remains exceptional. Buy the Ultimate Edition, and play it before Alan Wake 2.
Best for: fans of Remedy's writing, telekinetic combat, and anyone heading into Alan Wake 2.
Skip if: you need clear narrative answers or heavily reward-driven exploration.
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Last updated: 6 September 2026