Remedy is famous for creating spooky, linear games like Alan Wake and Quantum Break, and Control mirrors this approach with a story about supernatural forces overtaking a secretive government building called the Federal Bureau of Control. Jesse Faden is the newly appointed director, even though she never asked for the job; she just happened to be in the FBC when a paranormal force called The Hiss invaded and killed the previous director. Jesse picked up his firearm, an alien handgun that transforms into various weapons on the fly, and she became the director. Welcome to the job, kid -- now kill all of the spooky monsters that are trying to blow up the building and maybe the entire planet.

The FBC building is alive, in a sense. It shifts at will and on Jesse's command, walls pressing inward and falling back in checkerboard chunks. Jesse herself is special, too; she has superhuman abilities, including telekinesis that allows her to pick up large objects and hurl them at enemies. She can also use these abilities to fly, though Remedy isn't showing off that specific ability in its E3 offering.

The demo kicks off at the start of chapter three. Jesse is new on the job and has to prevent the building from melting down, due to the cancerous, globular tentacles that have subsumed the power cores and cooling pipes. She meets an aloof janitor who sets her on the right path, and then she gets to work mowing down glowing-red monsters and the FBC employees they've possessed.

Combat in Control flows smoothly between third-person shooting and superhuman powers. Enter a room with bodies floating in the air, silent and still, and they'll soon drop to the ground and start attacking. The Hiss show up when they want to, soaring around in a black-and-red mist and dealing explosion damage when they die. The director's firearm transforms from a shotgun-like weapon into a longer-range pistol as needed, and it doesn't use ammo. However, it requires a few-seconds recharge after Jesse empties the nonexistent clip.