Ever walk into a building and suddenly feel like the walls are breathing? Or maybe you’ve stared at an old, bulky TV and felt a weird, inexplicable urge to touch it, even though every instinct told you it was dangerous. That’s the vibe Remedy Entertainment nailed when they introduced us to the Federal Bureau of Control. It’s not just some fictional government agency. It is a masterclass in "New Weird" storytelling that basically redefined how we look at environmental storytelling in games.
The Federal Bureau of Control—or the FBC, if you’re into the whole brevity thing—is the secretive heart of the 2019 game Control. It's tucked away inside a place called the Oldest House. You’ve probably walked past it a thousand times in Manhattan without seeing it. That’s because it’s a Place of Power that actively avoids being noticed by anyone who isn’t looking for it. It’s brutalist architecture at its most aggressive. Concrete. Sharp angles. Endless shifting hallways.
Honestly, the FBC is what happens when you take the SCP Foundation, mix it with a heavy dose of The X-Files, and then let a bunch of architects who hate windows design the office space.
The Oldest House: A Building That Thinks for Itself
The Federal Bureau of Control doesn't just rent space; it occupies a sentient skyscraper. This is the first thing you have to understand about the agency's lore. The Oldest House is a "shifting" entity. One minute you're in an office that looks like it's straight out of 1964, and the next, you’re looking at a vast, black quarry that seems to exist in a different dimension entirely.
Remedy Entertainment, led by Sam Lake, leaned heavily into the concept of Jungian archetypes here. The Bureau's job is to study "Altered World Events" (AWEs) and "Altered Items." These aren't just spooky objects. They are everyday things—a toaster, a fridge, a rubber duck—that have been "infected" by human collective subconsciousness. They’ve become parautilitarian.
Take the Floppy Disk. In the game, it’s an Object of Power. If you’re a regular person, it might just throw a desk at your head. If you’re Jesse Faden, the Bureau’s accidental Director, you can use it to launch concrete blocks at interdimensional monsters. It’s absurd. It’s brilliant.
The FBC is built on the idea that our reality is just one thin layer of a much larger, much weirder onion. Below the surface are things we can't explain, and the Bureau is the only thing standing between us and total ontological collapse. They use "Black Rock" to line the walls because it’s the only material that can contain the weirdness. It’s a literal and metaphorical barrier.
Why the Federal Bureau of Control Uses Old Tech
Have you noticed there are no smartphones in the Federal Bureau of Control? No laptops. No tablets. Everything is analog. We're talking reel-to-reel tapes, pneumatic tubes, and heavy-duty typewriters.
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This isn't just a stylistic choice for that sweet "Bureaucratic Chic" aesthetic. There is a factual, in-game reason for it. Modern technology is too volatile in the presence of the Oldest House. High-end microchips basically explode or "melt" because of the intense frequencies emitted by the building and the Objects of Power.
The Bureau is stuck in a permanent mid-century time warp because it’s the only way to stay safe. This creates this incredible tension. You have these brilliant scientists like Dr. Casper Darling—played by the legendary Matthew Porretta—studying the most advanced, mind-bending concepts in human history, but they’re recording their findings on grainy film strips.
It makes the FBC feel grounded. It feels like a real government department that is horribly underfunded and dealing with a plumbing crisis, except the pipes are leaking extra-dimensional sludge instead of water.
The Director and the Board: Who's Actually in Charge?
In most games, the boss is just the person who gives you missions. In the Federal Bureau of Control, the "Board" is an inverted black pyramid that exists in the Astral Plane and speaks in garbled, dual-meaning subtitles.
The relationship between the Director and the Board is... complicated. When Jesse Faden picks up the Service Weapon—a gun that is also Excalibur, also a hammer, also whatever the collective consciousness needs it to be—she becomes the Director. But she’s also basically an employee of a cosmic entity she doesn't understand.
The FBC operates on a hierarchy that is both strictly bureaucratic and terrifyingly supernatural. You have:
- The Director (Jesse Faden, formerly Zachariah Trench)
- The Board (The Pyramid guys)
- Operations (The people actually doing the work)
- Investigations (The folks tracking down the AWEs)
The game does this amazing thing where it shows you the human cost of this organization. You find memos about people getting stuck in "shifted" rooms for weeks. You see the "Panopticon," a massive prison for items that are too dangerous to be left alone. It’s a workplace nightmare, but with higher stakes than just a missed deadline.
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The Hiss: When the Bureau Fails
We can't talk about the Federal Bureau of Control without mentioning its biggest failure: the Hiss. The Hiss is a resonant frequency. It’s not an army of aliens; it’s a sound that corrupts your mind. It turns Bureau agents into floating, chanting husks.
"You are a worm through time. The thunder song distorts you."
If you’ve played the game, that line is burned into your brain. The Hiss takeover is the catalyst for everything Jesse does. It shows the vulnerability of the FBC. For all their containment procedures and Black Rock shielding, they were undone by a sound. It’s a reminder that the Bureau is playing with fire. They are trying to categorize and control things that are fundamentally uncontrollable.
The Alan Wake Connection
This is where things get really wild. For years, fans speculated that Control and Alan Wake were in the same universe. Then the AWE DLC dropped and confirmed it. The Federal Bureau of Control has been monitoring Bright Falls for years. They knew about the Dark Presence. They knew about Alan.
This turns the FBC from a standalone setting into the glue for the entire Remedy Connected Universe. They are the observers. When something weird happens in a Remedy game, you can bet there’s an FBC agent in a generic suit nearby taking notes.
The Bureau’s involvement in the Bright Falls investigation (the 2010 event) shows their methodology. They don't just swoop in and save the day. They study. They contain. Sometimes, they let things play out just to see what happens. It makes the agency feel morally grey. They aren't necessarily the "good guys." They are the "necessary guys."
How the FBC Ranks Against Other Gaming Factions
Compared to Aperture Science or Black Mesa, the Federal Bureau of Control feels much more bureaucratic and "real." Aperture is a comedy of errors. Black Mesa is a sci-fi disaster. The FBC is a government agency that feels like it has a budget, a HR department, and a very specific way of filing paperwork for when a co-worker gets turned into a chair.
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The level of detail Remedy put into the Bureau’s documentation is staggering. There are hundreds of collectible files. Each one is redacted, but if you read between the lines, you can piece together the horrifying reality of what these people deal with daily. It’s this "epistolary storytelling" that makes the FBC stick with you long after the credits roll.
Real-World Inspirations and E-E-A-T
Remedy didn't just pull the Federal Bureau of Control out of thin air. They looked at real-world urban legends and government projects.
- Project MKUltra: The CIA's real-life mind control program is a clear influence on how the FBC treats its "Prime Candidate" program.
- Brutalist Architecture: The Oldest House is heavily inspired by the Long Lines Building in New York (33 Thomas Street), a windowless skyscraper that actually exists and is rumored to be a massive surveillance hub.
- The SCP Foundation: While not a "real" source, the collaborative fiction of the SCP Foundation is the primary DNA of Control.
The complexity here is that the FBC represents our desire to explain the unexplainable. We want to believe there’s a department with a manual for everything, even if that "everything" is a haunted slide projector.
Actionable Takeaways for Fans and Theory Crafters
If you’re trying to dive deeper into the lore of the Federal Bureau of Control, you need to look at the edges of the frame.
- Read the Redactions: In the game's documents, the length of the blacked-out bars often matches the length of the words they are hiding. Community members have actually mapped these out to find hidden names and locations.
- Listen to the Background Music: The "Take Control" sequence by Old Gods of Asgard isn't just a cool fight song. It’s a literal map of the Ashtray Maze. The lyrics tell you exactly how to navigate the shifting walls.
- Watch the Thresholds: Every time you see a "Threshold" in the game—a place where another dimension is bleeding into ours—look at the colors. Red usually denotes the Hiss, but other colors (like the white of the Astral Plane or the dark greens of the Mold) signify different forces at play.
- Follow the Director’s Suit: Jesse’s outfits aren't just cosmetic. They reflect her level of synchronization with the Bureau. The "Director’s Suit" makes her look like part of the machine, while her civilian clothes represent her autonomy.
The Federal Bureau of Control is one of the most cohesive, atmospheric, and well-realized settings in modern gaming. It takes the mundane—office supplies, memo pads, water coolers—and makes them terrifying. It reminds us that maybe, just maybe, the world isn't quite as solid as we think it is.
Keep an eye on the posters next time you're in a government building. If you see one about "Internal Lockdown Procedures" or "Object of Power Safety," you might want to start looking for the nearest exit. Or the nearest Service Weapon. Honestly, in that building, you'll probably need both.