Control narrative designer, Brooke Maggs, has revealed that Remedy Entertainment was “very keen” to have a female protagonist in the game and it’s one of the reasons why she joined the studio.
Speaking to OnlySP at PAX West 2019, Maggs revealed that Remedy felt it was “about time” to have a female lead, considering the studio’s history largely revolves around “white male protagonists.” However, she added that Control doesn’t simply check off a box with Jesse, and that there are other female characters in the game that also play an important role.
She explained:
I love that Jesse is the active female protagonist but she’s also not the only woman in the world. I think sometimes we play games and we’re like ‘this is great, there’s a main female character’ and then the world around her is still largely male; whereas Jesse has Emily Pope to talk to and Helen Marshall, we even meet another character, [Dr.] Underhill in the research sector who is very much doing her own thing quite confidently. It’s cool to see there’s more than one woman in the Bureau. Also, the Oldest House and the Bureau of Control, we’ve made quite clear, have largely been operated by men for a very long time.
The point of Jesse being a woman, being from the outside – right from her costume, to how she approaches the unexplained – is contradictory to the Bureau. Everyone is in business wear, and Jesse is in a leather jacket and jeans, and coming in and shaking things up.
Elsewhere in the interview, Maggs was asked about Remedy’s plans for DLC, to which she said that while she’s not able to say much, the content will aim to tie loose ends.
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[Source: OnlySP]
