The story of Remedy’s Control is one of the aspects that fans and critics alike are enjoying the most. For good reason, The Oldest House AKA the Federal Bureau of Control building is an interesting setting and Jesse’s story is certainly bizarre. If you’re here you’re probably looking for a story summary of Control to help make sense of what’s going on.
Super Spoiler Warning: In this story summary we’re going to run through the plot of Control. This guide is designed for people who are playing through the game and are looking for something to help fill in the blanks. We highly recommend turning away if you plan on playing Control at some point so you can experience it yourself.
The Story of Control & Jesse Faden
Welcome to the Oldest House
Jesse Faden is a woman from a small town called Ordinary. Long ago when she and her brother Dylan were children, Dylan was abducted by a fictional U.S. agency known as the Federal Bureau of Control which is responsible for finding, containing, and researching mysterious and otherworldly objects around the country.
Long story short (which we’ll pad out as a go through this story summary), some crazy unexplained phenomena went down at Ordinary which led to the government swooping in, abducting Dylan, and basically shutting down the entire town.
Ever since then, Jesse has had this guiding force, which she calls Polaris, in her head that has kept her connected in a way with Dylan whom she has been trying to find ever since his disappearance.
After years of searching, Jesse finally believes that Polaris has led her to Dylan and she locates the Federal Bureau of Control’s headquarters in New York.
The FBC building is not a normal building, though. In fact, it itself is one of these strange otherworldly things. It’s known as the Oldest House, and it is where the FBC sets up shop since it conveniently is concealed to anyone that doesn’t know how to find it.
Anyway, under the guidance of Polaris Jesse arrives at the FBC and realizes that the place is on lockdown as some kind of emergency is going.
An extremely strange janitor by the name of Ahti, helps Jesse get around the building and leads her to the director’s office to get the answers she’s looking for.
Zachariah Trench (Trench) was the director of the FBC… but when Jesse arrives she finds him shot dead by what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot.
After touching his strange-looking pistol, she is transported to a different plane of existence, known as the Astral Plane, where a strange interdimensional presence known as “The Board” reside.
They bind the pistol to Jesse, which is actually an Object of Power: a special item that while they appear mundane, are actually otherworldly objects that the FBC is obsessed with studying.
As a result Jesse, somewhat against her desires, is selected as the new director of the FBC. The title means nothing to her and she’s solely focused on getting answers about Dylan and what happened at Ordinary.
The new job does, however, give her an inherent level of respect and authority over the remaining employees at the FBC who are willing to help Jesse, provided she can help stop the chaos that is going on within the FBC building.
Jesse finds a woman by the name of Emily Pope, an FBC researcher, who explains to Jesse that the building is under attack from an evil unexplainable force that from that point on is known as the Hiss.
The Hiss burrow into the mind of unprotected people and turn them into thralls, some of which are aggressive.
Some people around the building received a device called a Hedron Resonance Amplifier (HRA) just in time from the head researcher known as Dr. Darling. Darling appears to have had a heads up that something was going down and was able to produce a limited quantity of HRAs to save some critical members of the FBC staff just in time.
Jesse agrees to help figure out how to stop the Hiss as it could lead to answers about Dylan.
Control Story Summary
Unknown Caller
Emily suggested that Jesse first locates an important Object of Power known as the Hotline. This is a special phone that directors use to contact the mysterious Board which aided Jesse before.
Upon his death, Trench somehow ascended to the Board and is trying to help Jesse. His knowledge will be helpful in figuring out how to stop the Hiss.
Along the way, though, Jesse encounters heavy resistance from the Hiss, including the former head of communications Alberto Tommasi. Regardless of how high up in the FBC food chain they were, if they weren’t wearing an HRA device, they are now corrupted by the Hiss.
Jesse discovers another Object of Power, a Floppy Disc, which allows her to Launch debris around. Throughout the story of Control, Jesse will encounter more Objects of Power which will allow her to do things such as levitate and control minds once she has Board approval by proving herself in the Astral Plane.
Jesse tries to use her new powers to help save the Hiss corrupted people, but the process is too much for the human mind to stand. Jesse can push back the Hiss, but humans without an HRA are lost once corrupted.
Jesse is able to fight her way to the Hotline and re-establish the connection the Board and Trench.
Control Story Summary
Directorial Override
In order to even get around the building, Jesse is going to need to shutdown the lockdown. This will also allow her to visit the remaining FBC management members that will be able to assist Jesse in stopping the Hiss.
Jesse goes to the Maintenance Sector where Directorial Override exists. Ahti lets Jesse know that the Maintenance Sector is under Hiss attack and without Jesse’s intervention the Power Plant is going to blow.
Jesse assists the remaining maintenance team, including chief of security Arish, to control the escalating problem in the sector, restore stability to the power plant so she can safely reach the Directorial Override, and regain access to the service elevator so she can get around the building.
Reconvening with Emily, Jesse confides in her the reason that she’s here at the FBC, and Emily agrees to help her in any way she can as long as Jesse can continue to assist with fighting the Hiss and restoring control.
Control Story Summary
Old Boys Club
Emily instructs Jesse to next head to the Research Sector to find Marshall, head of security, who likely has more information and is a valuable asset in combating the Hiss.
Jesse is able to fight her way through the Hiss to reach and rescue Marshall and her security team.
Marshall tells Jesse that they were trying to reach Dr. Darling’s HRA lab to produce more of the life-saving device. The lab is secured but requires an otherworldly power source known as Black Rock to work.
Threshold
Jesse goes to the Black Rock Processing area of the Maintenance sector to help the security team secure a safe line of access to more Black Rock.
In return for her help, Marshall promises to tell Jesse the location of Dylan.
Although she faces heavy resistance not only from Hiss but other not of these world enemies known as Brain Clouds, Jesse is able to locate the Block Rock quarry and secure a safe(ish) passage.
Before parting ways, Marshall reveals that Dylan is alive and being held in quarantine in the Containment sector.
Dylan apparently is not well, and when’s not doing well he’s not a particularly nice guy. For everyone’s safety, he has been locked away in containment for quite some time.
Control Story Summary
My Brother’s Keeper
Jesse rushes to the Containment Sector’s Panopticon to find Dylan. This a particularly dangerous area as it houses pretty much everything the FBC finds to be deadly such as a murderous refrigerator.
Yeah, make sure you do that side mission when you can.
As usual, the Hiss slow her down and she needs to make a few detours through a medical area which is overrun by nasty mold monsters, but our hero is of course eventually able to reach Dylan’s cell but he’s gone. He has escaped and it looks like he’s hurt people along the way.
Not long after going through all of this trouble, Emily calls Jesse and lets Jesse know that Dylan is in the Executive Sector with her, and has turned himself in.
The Face of the Enemy
Jesse’s reunion with Dylan… isn’t what Jesse was hoping for. Dylan has been partially corrupted by the Hiss. He’s not a totally fried floating chanting mess like everyone else that has been infected to this point. Dylan still has some level of control over his body and mind, but thoughts and words are clearly heavily influenced by the Hiss.
Dylan wants Jesse to join him in accepting the Hiss and tells her to go to an area of the Containment Sector known as the Prime Candidate Program to learn the truth about the Hiss.
She agrees, but it’s obviously not to pick up a Hiss flyer, but rather to continue her investigation into the Object of Power that started this whole mess: the Slide Projector that her and Dylan found when they were kids.
Jesse finds some pretty disturbing information about the FBC, most notably that they have been stalking Jesse pretty much since the moment the incident at Ordinary took place, and never bothered to reach out to her to tell her what happened to Dylan.
The FBC for a while considered Dylan to be a candidate to take over as director, but eventually moved on from him and focused their attention on Jesse as the prime candidate.
Jesse finds the Ordinary research area and discovers that Dr. Darling took the Slide Projector from this site to a new area known as Dimensional Research. Jesse heads off to it.
Control Story Summary
Finnish Tango
Jesse can’t just waltz into the Dimensional Research area though. It’s blocked by a security measure known as the Ashtray Maze, which basically prevents anyone who isn’t a total badass director from getting in.
Ahti, since he’s just cool like that, has the key for getting through the maze: a portable cassette player which is probably some kind of Object of Power. Jesse bothers Ahti while he’s on his “summer vacation” in some creepy deep part of the Oldest House, but nonetheless he helps her out and hands it over.
Jesse uses the cassette player to help her navigate the maze and reach Dimensional Research.
Polaris
Jesse reaches Dimensional Research and learns the truth about the projector, Polaris and lots more.
Essentially, the Slide Projector is what let the Hiss in to begin with and needs to be shut off in order to close the portal. However, the entity that Jesse refers to as Polaris also came in through the slide projector and is physically here in Dimensional Research.
Like, Jesse can run up and say hello to Polaris, which the FBC calls Hedron. Yes, the same Hedron that powers the HRA devices. Both the Hiss and Polaris appear to be resonance-based entities from another dimension, and the resonance of Polaris protects people from Hiss burrowing into their minds.
Jesse is one with Polaris which explains why she hasn’t needed an HRA like everyone else this whole time.
Anyway, the Slide Projector isn’t here but the now emotional Jesse breaks her way into the area where Polaris is being contained to meet her guardian angel in person. Unfortunately, she fails to realize the problem with that: the Hiss are also able to now break into where Polaris is.
Jesse fights her hardest, but the Hiss are able to attack and kill Polaris. With Polaris gone, the Hiss are able to burrow into Jesse’s mind finally.
Control Story Summary
Take Control
Under the spell of the Hiss, Jesse is living out her worst nightmare. She is a bullied office assistant at the FBC who spends her days doing never-ending menial tasks such as making copies and delivering letters to rude employees.
This would be her fate, but fortunately, a part of Polaris still exists within Jesse. She is able to regain control of her mind somewhat and within this nightmare, she is able to learn that Trench was the patient zero so to speak of the Hiss corruption, and she learns through his paranoid ramblings where the Slide Projector is: the Nostalgia Department.
She bursts out from Hiss control and fights her way to the Nostalgia Department where she finds Dylan and the Slide Projector in an Astral Plane that is now flooded with Hiss.
After fighting through wave after wave of Hiss, Jesse is able to reach Dylan and the Slide Projector. She shuts off the projector and attempts to cleanse Dylan of the Hiss. Jesse partially succeeds.
End Game
Dylan does not die, like most other Hiss corrupted people, but falls into a coma and his fate is left unknown.
Jesse’s connection to Polaris powers up the HRAs again and everyone who previously had the HRAs on, are safe and sound again.
The Slide Projector is shut off and the portal to wherever this Hiss are from is closed. However, the Hiss that are already here are still here and Jesse decides to embrace her title as director to clean out the rest of the Hiss while she figures out a way to help her brother.
Dr. Darling’s whereabouts are technically unknown but it is believed he got himself mixed up in some other dimension.
This is where the story of Control leaves off. It’s mostly tied up with a few loose threads dangling to be addressed in DLC or a sequel of Remedy chooses to pursue it.
That’s all for our story summary of Control for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For more Control guides, be sure to check out our wiki guide filled with tips and tricks. And, if you want to know our full thoughts on the game, check out our fully scored review.
Published: Aug 29, 2019 11:11 am