21 Games, Movies, And More Like Control To Keep Yourself In A World Of Weird
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Control is an incredibly unique game--there really isn't anything else like it. Sure, its blend of superhero-like action and Metroidvania-style exploration reminds us of the Infamous series and Batman: Arkham Asylum (both of which you should play), but it's the supernatural surrealism that makes Control so unique and alluring.
That combination of "What am I seeing?" and "Can I trust what I'm seeing?" is so rarely done with the confidence and mastery that we see in Control. And if you're anything like me, you've already scoured the internet for new experiences that scratch that same itch. That's why we put together this list of games, movies, shows, books, and more that you should check out after playing Control.
We're always on the hunt for surreal experiences like Control, so we'll come back to update this article if anything else catches our eyes. For now, we hope you enjoy our suggestions--feel free to drop your own recommendations in the comments below!
The best games like Control
Alan Wake (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC)
With its connections to Control--not to mention, the DLC teaser image Remedy recently released--Alan Wake is a no-brainer. It's an incredible journey about a man searching for his missing wife while battling supernatural forces and small-town folk questioning his sanity. | Mat Paget
Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC)
The follow-up to Alan Wake, American Nightmare explores what's going on with the protagonist after the first game. While not the satisfying conclusion some hoped for, it's still worth playing for anyone who wants to spend more time in this universe. | Mat Paget
Quantum Break (Xbox One, PC)
This Remedy game released between Alan Wake and Control and isn't as linked into the larger fiction, but Quantum Break feels like a proving ground for a lot of the gameplay ideas that make Control feel great. It's also a weird, science-heavy time travel story with lots of similar elements and plenty of cool story stuff to uncover. | Phil Hornshaw
Prey (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Supernatural powers, a huge space station inhabited by monstrous aliens, and a sinister, secretive organization make Prey a compelling adventure that had me hooked from beginning to end. | Mat Paget
The Evil Within 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Trapped in a shifting mindscape full of unnatural terrors, The Evil Within 2 opens up the ideas of the first game in a more open setting. It's much more of a horror game, but it still captures the same strange, shifting aesthetic and the weird collision of worlds seen in Control. | Phil Hornshaw
The best movies like Control
Annihilation
A film adaptation of the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, Annihilation finds its characters losing themselves in a frightening locale that could have been the setting of an Altered World Event in Control's universe. It's built around the same frightening uncanny feeling that makes the game so compelling. | Phil Hornshaw
Stalker
Following a writer, a professor, and a guide into a mysterious "zone," Stalker transforms the familiar and mundane into something altogether foreign and inexplicable. As Control's Oldest House bends reality, Stalker toys with our expectations of nature. | Mike Mahardy
The Resolution
What starts as a simple story of a man trying to forcibly detox his drug-addicted friend takes on a sinister bent as unexplained phenomena start to show the two protagonists their future. Like in Control, there are forces at work beyond human understanding. | Phil Hornshaw
The Endless
Another film by directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead, The Endless is something of a follow-up to Resolution (in much the same way Control is a follow-up to Alan Wake). It further explores the weird stuff that goes on in Resolution, playing on ideas of unknowable forces intersecting with unsuspecting people, finding themselves suddenly mired in supernatural phenomena. | Phil Hornshaw
The best shows like Control
Twin Peaks
David Lynch's masterpiece has influenced Remedy's work in the past, and it's certainly got "weird" covered in spades if that's what you find yourself craving post-Control. Season 3 is most like the game with its focus on governmental investigations, but make sure to start at the very beginning for a strange, wild ride. If finishing Control has kept your mind busy with devising theories, just wait until you watch Twin Peaks. | Chris Pereira
The Twilight Zone
Remedy has clearly drawn a lot of inspiration from The Twilight Zone over the years (Alan Wake's Night Springs is essentially a short-form riff on it). The show is full of stories of people getting wrapped up in the unexplained, as it uses all kinds of supernatural, paranormal, and just plain strange phenomena to explore the human condition. | Phil Hornshaw
Dark
Dark follows the characters of a small town as they struggle to unravel a murderous conspiracy that spans decades. The twisting story goes to some--ahem--dark places, and is mired in the same frightening dread Control trades in as its characters try to wrap their heads around the things happening to them. | Phil Hornshaw
The X-Files
If the investigation of paranormal phenomena and government cover-ups in Control appeal to you, The X-Files--with its mixture of horror and comedy--should be right up your alley. | Chris Pereira
Fringe
A slightly lighter follow-up to The X-Files, Fringe leans hard into the idea of other dimensions crossing over into our own, bringing all kinds of weird and spooky stuff with them. Fringe is kind of like what one imagines the Investigation wing of the Federal Bureau of Control gets up to out in the world. | Phil Hornshaw
The best writing and books like Control
SCP Foundation
This internet repository of Creepypasta writing is obviously a big inspiration for Control--it's basically a crowd-sourced, online version of the Bureau. Standing for Secure, Contain, Protect, the SCP's reports are all about supernatural phenomena and objects, ranging from the horrifying to the hilarious. Reading SCP entries is a great rabbit hole to fall down if you're itching for more Control. | Phil Hornshaw
The Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance) by Jeff VanderMeer
Jeff VanderMeer's trilogy focuses on the investigation of an AWE-like event. Starting with Annihilation, the books deal with the incredibly strange things its characters encounter, and more importantly, how the characters are changed by those things--in more ways than one. | Phil Hornshaw
(Note: Area X (pictured above) compiles all three books.)
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Intertwining two stories, House of Leaves deals with a character who finds a document called the Navidson Report, which details people investigating a house that's larger inside than outside. The building's shifting walls and interior labyrinth sound a lot like Control's Oldest House, while the story also deals with the increasingly unnerving effects the report has on its reader. | Phil Hornshaw
The Secret History of Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost
The Twin Peaks books by series co-creator Mark Frost are incredibly interesting reads for any fan of the show. It's a lot like reading Control's in-game documents; the two books reveal details about characters, places, and events that fill in the blanks of the wonderfully weird world of Twin Peaks. | Mat Paget
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell again uses multiple protagonists and time periods to tell a larger story, but this one is decidedly more paranormal. The Bone Clocks concerns immortal creatures, psychic phenomena, and more things you'd expect to read about somewhere in redacted Bureau memos. | Phil Hornshaw
The best podcasts like Control
Welcome to Night Vale
Presented as a community radio broadcast in a strange desert town where the supernatural or odd are treated as normal, Welcome to Night Vale seamlessly blends together humor, drama, and the bizarre. The very beginning of the podcast is the best place to start, but the standalone novels are a fine place to dive in as well. | Chris Pereira
Alice Isn't Dead
Alice Isn't Dead is a disturbing but endearing road trip adventure that stars a young woman looking for the wife she thought she had lost. Much like Control, it supposes a version of the world we know where much more is going on than the average person realizes. | Chris Pereira