One of the best (and oddest) blockbuster shooters of 2019 is $4 on Steam at the moment

Jesse in the Oldest House — (Image credit: Remedy)

Control was one of the best games of 2019, which is high praise: that was the year Disco Elysium, Untitled Goose Game, and Sekiro released. We gave it our "Best Setting" award, because even though Control is pretty much a third-person shooter at heart, its presentation elevates it into something much more interesting. This is a Remedy game, after all.

I don't remember a huge amount about its combat except that there's a lot of dashing, a lot of offensive levitating, and somehow office furniture is always involved. What I do remember well is the setting: Control is an action game, but it's also a very arch horror game set in the austere pebblecrete hallways of a brutalist tower called The Oldest House. Control's story and setting is often compared to the fictional SCP Foundation, which is basically hyper-conspiratorial crowdsourced weird fiction that has also inspired stuff like Lethal Company.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.

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