This week, 505Games' Community Manager, Lucas Liaskos, put together a new post for the Official Control website, featuring an interview with Remedy's Senior Concept Artist, Oliver Ödmark, to delve deeper into Control's mysterious enemy, The Hiss.
For the art team, the main challenge was bringing to life an entity which Oliver described as a "bodiless force beyond human comprehension". The Hiss are like a disease which corrupts everything, but because of the lack of a true physical form, creating visual signs of this corruption was an area of focus for the art department. For the team, they wanted to balance subtle weirdness with an iconic and recognisable indication of the corruption. For this challenge, visual inspiration was taken from the original Suspiria and Neon Demon.
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| Demonstration of The Hiss' movement in a possessed being. |
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In the game, corruption is indicated through the game's use of red light and "visual sonic distortion". When the Hiss possess individuals, the corruption takes on the form of a red glow emanating from inside, showing up the individual's skeleton. From Oliver's description, it sounds similar to when you put a bright torch under your hand, making it slightly translucent.
Oliver also delves deeper into the mysterious thought process for The Hiss; as they're a bodiless force, they're drawn to possess individuals who are best suited for protection, for instance, security guards. They also often seek out a group referred to as "the Rangers" whose role it is to investigate dimensional thresholds in the FBC.
It's a really fascinating interview, which explores the enemy in a more in-depth way, particularly from a development perspective. Check out the full article on the Control website, HERE!
Source: Official Control Website & ControlRemedy Twitter Channel
