There’s no doubt that the headline for CONTROL Resonant belongs to the fact that it’s a true-blue melee-action game now. Where the original CONTROL centred on paranatural gunplay, a direct line of evolution from Remedy’s history with Max Payne and Quantum Break, its sequel brings us up-close and personal with the freakish threats this time around.
But once you become accustomed to its combat, there’s so much more to CONTROL Resonant that we’ve simply not seen from this series – or this developer – before. Remedy’s big swing is, in fact, an entire combo of big swings.
Here are just a few of the ways it’s breaking free from convention.
It’s Got an RPG’s Heart
Sure, we’ve seen skill trees in CONTROL, but we’ve never seen this many. Resonant brings you not only a sprawling Talent tree for the newly playable Dylan Faden, but individual upgrade paths for the multiple forms his weapons can take, as well as multiple choices of Secondary Weapons and Combat Abilities, and even an entire menu worth of bespoke combo finishers (each of which can fundamentally alter how you approach a fight).
Hell, even the world itself can level up – the more fights you dominate, secrets you find, and quests you complete in a given area of Resonant’s warped Manhattan, the higher level that area becomes, offering you bonuses as it goes. But defeat one of the area bosses – known as Resonant Entities – and the world will actively become more dangerous, as if it’s daring you to get better.
It adds to up a game that constantly grows with you, a stealth-RPG hidden under the classic action game you’re engaging with.
It’s Got an Open World Game’s Breadth
The new approach to action might be tight and gratifyingly punishing, but the world around is anything but linear. Resonant’s Manhattan isn’t a traditional open world – instead it’s separated into densely packed, highly designed zones. Each one offers its own challenges, and sometimes vastly different looks, but they’re also peppered with ideas that will feel very familiar to an open world connoisseur.
From the familiar (hidden collectibles, rewarding activities) to the less-than-familiar (I unlocked a sidequest by hearing something singing out of a subway tunnel), this is a truly rich map to make your way around, offering constant distraction. It offers the best of both worlds – levels clearly designed with points of interest and choreographed brawls, with all the scope for exploration you’d expect from an entire game world.
It’s Got a Superhero Game’s Movement
CONTROL’s heroine, Jesse, slowly but surely became a truly powerful individual over the course of the game. But with a much wider world in this game, Dylan needs to get around more efficiently than Jesse did. Thankfully, he’s a very confident parautilitarian from the beginning.
As Dylan, you can jump, glide, dash, and run so fast that physics objects get pleasingly caught up in your orbit. A little later, you can literally subvert gravity and travel up vertical surfaces, or fully upside-down. Pretty soon, you can scale entire buildings in a few quick moves, and it quickly becomes second-nature – so much so that you might fail to realise that you’re effectively travelling through this world like a superhero.
It’s (Sometimes) a Comedy
Sure, this is a world where hostile, extra-dimensional forces are twisting the very laws of physics, and filling the world with freakishly distorted buses (that’s an actual enemy type, and I love them). But it’s also a truly bizarre workplace comedy. As you find the people who make up the Federal Bureau of Control – and the many redacted files they leave behind – you’ll piece together a backstory that is frequently hilarious.
Seeing how layers of governmental bureaucracy interact with impossible objects, possessed people, and unbelievable events is a genuine joy – and a very real way of helping the player feel a little less lonely in a world that purposely makes no sense anymore. My personal favorite bit of comedy lies in a corner of a Field Office you find early on, where – if you just stop and listen to the chatter – two FBC guards are slowly but surely trying to convince their boss that he is, in fact, a ghost.
There’s so much more to discover when CONTROL Resonant arrives on September 24, for XBOX Series X|S and XBOX On PC. And play it on both console and PC at no additional cost with XBOX Play Anywhere.
CONTROL Resonant
Remedy Entertainment
$59.99
Pre-order CONTROL Resonant now to unlock:
-Hiss Corruption Outfit
-Pickpocket’s Tool Artifact
After years in confinement at the hands of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), Dylan Faden emerges into a warped Manhattan at the peak of a paranatural crisis.
Charged with combating a mysterious cosmic entity as it alters fundamental aspects of our reality, Dylan must harness his new-found powers to take the fight to the myriad threats overwhelming Manhattan.
Join Dylan in this sequel to the multi-award-winning CONTROL to explore the expansive zones of a city overrun by the corrupting influences of the chaotic Hiss, invasive micro-organism, the Mold, and other twisted paranatural threats.
On the path to unlocking the full potential of his paranatural abilities Dylan will also seek out his sister, FBC Director Jesse Faden, as he bids to comprehend and contain the dangers that have spilled beyond the confines of the Oldest House to tear our world apart.
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