Control - Xbox One

Control is a deep, weird dive into a world of reality-bending supernatural forces and shadowy organisations. The game is developed by Remedy, the team behind Alan Wake and Quantum Break. It's been a while since we've seen old Alan now, but the game is a classic and these are developers with serious chops.

As you'd expect from the guys at Remedy, this is a game that's big on third-person action, but it also has a moody, emotional and very human story at its core. You play as Jesse Faden, the new director of the secretive agency control, wrestling to fight back an otherworldly threat known as 'the Hiss' that has invaded its bigger-on-the-inside HQ, known as Oldest House. Jesse is also, however, looking for her younger brother, who was kidnapped by Control when they were children...

Armed with the supernatural Service Weapon and a growing raft of supernatural powers, Jesse must journey to the heart of Control to fight back against the Hiss and peel back the shadows at the heart of Oldest House.

Remedy has taken a much less linear approach to Control than it has to previous story-driven shooters such as Alan Wake and Max Payne. The structure is much more like that of a Metroidvania game, rewarding exploration and a somewhat free approach to events. It ditches the more realistic settings of past games to delve into the sort of fringey science fiction concepts seen in the new weird arm of the genre typical of writers like China Mieville and Nick Harkaway.

It's big, weird and intriguing, but rest assured it still has high octane action at its heart. more