The first few moments of Control are so understated, they're almost hard to remember. The adventure begins with a near-featureless lobby, just steps away from the rest of sprawling New York City. It feels like any other of the thousands of buildings within the city’s 469 square mile limits.

That couldn't be further from the truth, though.

Once the moment passes, you find yourself strapped into a ride unlike any other—one that ties together countless mysteries, spanning real-world fantasy and internet lore and the wider Remedy Entertainment universe. The Old House, a brutalist skyscraper lost within the madness that is New York City, is home to one of the most fascinating mystery games ever made.

Control intertwines the narrative of protagonist Jesse Faden with the narrative of the titular Federal Bureau of Control, a government agency responsible for containing and studying phenomena that violate the laws of reality. It's natural that an organization with such a task would be equally as enigmatic as the creatures, objects, and ideas that it grapples to contain.

Control is about—you guessed it—control. You'll barely have enough time to dive into the equally-as-fascinating mysteries that would feel at home in the Secure, Contain, Protect (SCP) Protocol site. The powers you gain, the strewn-about pages you read, and the voices in your head all feel like separate problems, but all fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Control.

It's natural that a case from Bright Falls, Washington—the lake where Alan Wake's wife first disappeared—shows up in the filing cabinets of the Bureau. It's perhaps natural, but far from understandable, that a Finnish janitor would manifest himself in the halls to help prevent a dangerous situation going from bad to worse.

Everything you read about the Federal Bureau of Control and the lore surrounding it simply brings up more questions. Playing Control will turn those initial questions—for instance, how does the Federal Bureau of Control operate?—into dozens of other questions that only have hypothetical half-answers, at best.

Fighting through this compromised federal agency, finding tidbits of deeper mysteries after each and every set piece, and uncovering a massive network of secrets that permeates Remedy’s other games was one of the greatest pleasures of gaming in 2019. If you haven't had the chance to explore the expansive corridors of the Old House, then please give the Federal Bureau of Control a chance. They could use your service.

You can pick up Control on the Epic Games Store.