Control Resonant’s Unsettling Board Dialogue Is Carefully Crafted Gibberish

Just what is The Board in Control Resonant? While we still have plenty of questions about the otherworldly entity that accompanies players on their trip across Manhattan, one thing we do know is that it's loud, incomprehensible, and you can't understand what it's saying without subtitles. Some players are convinced The Board is saying something specific if you listen closely, but according to developer Remedy Entertainment, it's a little audio trick that makes you hear what you want to hear.

In an upcoming interview with GameSpot, audio lead Lucas Pierrot explained that The Board speaks "gibberish," making the character open to interpretation.

"An important part of the design is that The Board is basically gibberish, not affiliated to any language," Pierrot said. "So, when you hear a word, you tend to hear what you want to hear … and that’s pretty neat in terms of audio design, as players can fulfill their fantasies. You want to hear The Board praising you for performing an Execution? You can! Maybe you hear them saying 'Absolute cinema, Combo!' et cetera, but if you prefer to think they’re arrogant and only feel disdain for slaying a weak enemy … you can hear that too!"

Pierrot explained that The Board has a partial language in place, so players can perceive a sense of intelligence from it. That structure allows The Board to feel "scary, unsettling, or even funny sometimes," and the one rule governing its audio design is "the pulse," a "low, soft kick" to emphasize certain words. "I used this to give weight when necessary to have a nice flow. You can see it as some sort of trick to articulate sentences. It gives rhythm and punctuation," Pierrot added.

Following its launch in September, Remedy has continued to fine-tune Control Resonant with updates. For more on the game, you can read up on how its scary buses are one of its best features, all the cool little details hidden in the background, and why it's better than its predecessor.