One of Control and Control Resonant’s most memorable stylistic choices is how The Board – an alien entity whose true nature is a mystery, and whose morals and motivations are never made clear – communicates with the player.
Clearly, developer Remedy knew exactly how The Board should sound coming out of your speakers. While there’s no consensus, many have theories about what The Board is truly saying – and that’s in part because of the way it sounds.
Except, it turns out what you hear shouldn’t be taken very seriously.
“An important part of the design is that The Board is basically gibberish, not affiliated to any language,” Control Resonant audio lead Lucas Pierrot told Gamespot. “So, when you hear a word, you tend to hear what you want to hear… and that’s pretty neat in terms of audio design, as players can fulfill their fantasies.”
The Board speaks an oblique language and in a very bassy voice, making it hard to make out what’s being said from voice alone. The games’ subtitles offer what could only be considered an interpretation of some of what’s being said, but they alternate between different words for similar concepts to make it even harder for The Board’s speech to have a definitive meaning.
Pierrot added, “You want to hear The Board praising you for performing an Execution? You can! Maybe you hear them saying ‘Absolute cinema, Combo!’ etc., but if you prefer to think they’re arrogant and only feel disdain for slaying a weak enemy… you can hear that too!”
The Board’s distinct way of communicating with the player was designed to run a gamut of emotions; Remedy wanted it to feel “scary, unsettling, or even funny sometimes”. Pierrot also revealed a trick the audio team used to emphasise certain words, by adding a “pulse” sound and “low, soft kick” to them.
“I used this to give weight when necessary to have a nice flow. You can see it as some sort of trick to articulate sentences. It gives rhythm and punctuation,” he explained.
Control Resonant has seemingly done well for Remedy, reaching 1m sales faster than any other game in studio history despite releasing in a very busy period. If you’re looking to play it soon, Eurogamer’s Control Resonant walkthrough is worth bookmarking to help you make good upgrade decisions and pick which activities to prioritise.
