Revision 17

The Oldest House is the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, a featureless Brutalist skyscraper rising out of lower Manhattan that hides one of the strangest structures in the Control universe. From the outside it reads as a plain concrete tower; from the inside it is something else entirely. For broader context, see the Overview.

Quick Profile

Paranatural Architecture

The House's single most important property is that it resists outside notice: the public eye slides off it, and passersby tend not to register that it is there. Inside, the building is much larger than its exterior could possibly contain, with corridors, vaults, and entire wings that should not fit within the footprint of the tower. Its geometry is also unstable: rooms reorganize between visits, and a sealed wall on one approach can be an open hallway on the next. The FBC treats the building itself as part of its containment problem, mapping it continuously rather than once.

Connection to the Astral Plane

In the first game, the Oldest House was established as a junction point between ordinary reality and the Astral Plane, an alternate dimension that houses the entity (or entities) referred to as the Board. That linkage is part of why the building is the FBC's headquarters. Historically, the House has also served as the agency's primary vault for paranatural artifacts: it was the long-term home of all major Objects of Power and a working archive of Altered Items.

Dylan's Pre-Resonant Home

For Dylan Faden, the Oldest House was his entire life. Following the childhood Altered World Event in Ordinary, Maine, the FBC took him into custody and never released him. Designated Prime Candidate 6, he spent his pre-Resonant years inside the building as a long-term containment subject, classified, observed, and held under medical and paranatural supervision. Players of the original Control will recognize him from glimpses of that period: a supporting figure shown in tanks and medical bays.

Lockdown Failure

Control (2019) ended with the Oldest House under a paranatural lockdown imposed to seal an active threat inside. Control Resonant picks up seven years later, and the headline change is that the lockdown has failed. Paranatural forces from inside the House have been released into the streets of Manhattan, which is now enclosed by an otherworldly barrier. The crisis the FBC is now trying to contain is, in effect, the leak of its own warehouse.

Role in Resonant

In the original Control the Oldest House was the entire game world, a single building explored across four major sectors nonlinearly. In Resonant, Manhattan is the main playable space, but the House is still part of it. The game opens inside the building: Dylan leaves his cell and fights past Hiss-infected Bureau staff before breaking out into Downtown, the zone that surrounds the tower. Beyond that, the Oldest House is the backdrop and origin of the story: the place Dylan came from, the source of the artifacts and creatures now loose in the city, and the historical anchor for the FBC's role.

Remedy has also confirmed that the campaign returns to the House: as part of the wider Manhattan story, the player visits new, previously unseen sections of the building, framed as a deliberate callback to where the first game took place. Guides to the released game add that once the Bureau has retaken the building it holds a wardrobe and one of the FBC's task boards, and that the Underpass, a subterranean zone the story opens later, connects to it.

Unconfirmed Details

The following were not covered by first-party material before release and have not yet been checked against the released game:

• The building's condition later in the campaign, beyond the opening escape and the Bureau's return. Pre-release material did not reveal it, and this page does not yet cover the story beyond the opening.

• Direct ties between the interior and the current Hiss and Mold spread across Manhattan have not been mapped.

This page will be updated as more is revealed.