Remedy Entertainment's Control locks players in a mysterious, paranormal location known as the Oldest House, a building chock full of strange objects and bizarre locations. Players who tend to stick to main quest content in video games should make sure they give the side quests a peek, especially if they want to pick up some key abilities.
In Control, players are Jesse Faden, a woman who has been hunting the secretive government organization, the Federal Bureau of Control. Jesse soon finds herself in charge of defending the FBC from a paranormal attack, using only a shape-shifting pistol and telekinetic abilities. Since the game's initial release, two DLC expansions have been released, The Foundation and AWE, with the latter containing a crossover between Control and cult-favorite Remedy game, Alan Wake. Remedy Entertainment recently announced they are partnering with Epic Games to develop even more games set in the Alan Wake.
The central premise of Control is that Jesse Faden is the sole person with the power to bring stability to the Oldest House, a government building where reality is literally crumbling. While the main quest focuses on locating key personnel lost somewhere in the Oldest House, Jesse stumbles across all manner of side quests as she traverses the building. These missions provide a deeper look at the strange happenings in the Oldest House, from sentient Mold attacks to an Object of Power that manifests as a rubber duck to a refrigerator that kills people if certain protocol isn't handled. These side quests are great for players looking to know more about the lore of Control, especially as players discover collectible memos and audio logs along the way. Players can read about incidents agents have encountered in the field and learn about the experiments conducted at this secretive facility. But certain completed side quests can also offer key rewards.
Control: Which Abilities are Side Quest Rewards?
An early side quest, for instance, is "A Merry Chase," which tasks players with cleansing a corrupted Object of Power. Completing this objective grants players Evade, an incredibly useful ability for surviving the world of Control. (It should be noted that side quests are grouped in the same part of the quest log as main quests, under Mission Briefings, but only the top objective is critical path material.) While players can certainly choose to skip over this content, side quest powers like Evade, Shield, and Seize are incredibly useful as combat in Control gets tougher. Some side quests also reward players with Ability Points, to make powers stronger, or crafting materials necessary to upgrade Jesse's gun.
The side quests of Control are rewarding in multiple ways. New lore and stories are tucked into every corner of the game, and players looking to absorb as much of Control's weirdness as possible would do well to tackle every side quest presented. With only a dozen or so side quests, doing so over the course of the game won't make beating Control take overly long. But even if players aren't interested in learning more about the world of Control, checking out the game's side quests can be helpful for completing the main story, giving ample reason to see why there's a strange light blinking down that side hallway.
Control is currently available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Amazon’s Luna.
