When it comes to games, we’re pretty familiar with the trappings of fantasy, sci-fi or war narratives, but you might be a little less up to date with New Weird. Coined by author M. John Harrison to describe the work of (among others) China Miéville, it’s a form of speculative fiction that revels in inexplicability – it’s often a bit horror, a bit sci-fi, a bit fantasy, but if you put it up against any of the canon texts in those genres, it wouldn’t look like any of them. It’s telling that many authors who get told they’re part of the New Weird immediately reject it, because they think being defined at all is too limiting.
Control might well be the first mainstream New Weird game. New Weird fiction is often about a place, not people, and The Oldest House – Remedy Entertainment’s unknowable new setting – very much fits the bill. New Weird also reflects the underlying weirdness of the modern world, and Control’s fiction regularly weaves in real-life events, recontextualising them for a world in which there’s a government bureau to combat paranatural occurrences. Most of all, New Weird is really f**king odd. And yes, Control is that too.
Source: IGN.com Control: The Books, TV Shows and Movies to Check Out Before You Play – IGN First