Control Resonant

Remedy Entertainment has finally revealed the sequel to Control, and despite calling it Control 2 in financial earnings reports, it’s called something else: Control Resonant. Though formally revealed during The Game Awards in December, I got an early look at the game behind virtual closed doors ahead of that premiere with creative director Mikael Kasurinen, who is also co-director of the studio and the director of 2019’s Control. The reveal trailer begins with a man sitting in a glass cage within The Oldest House, the setting of Control and the New York City-based headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control.

Soon after, we see Manhattan morph into a dizzying mix of skyscrapers and streets reminiscent of Inception or Spider-Man: No Way Home. After a quick look at bloody bodies adorning the Oldest House’s steps, teasing that something has gone very wrong in the Bureau’s HQ, we see Jesse Faden, the protagonist of Control, stab someone on a slab with a strange metal object.

That someone is Dylan Faden, Jesse’s brother, and that metal object might just be the Apparent, the shapeshifting melee weapon he’ll be using as the new player-controlled protagonist.

“Control is the story of two supernatural siblings separated as kids,” Kasurinen tells me in the virtual preview. “They live two very different lives. Dylan was taken at age 10 by a mysterious organization, and Jesse, who was 11 at the time, managed to escape.”

Control takes place 17 years after this event, and Jesse managed to find Dylan inside the Oldest House, but it was too late: the Hiss had already taken over. Jesse, however, resisted the Hiss and became the new FBC director. She then saves Dylan from certain death and cleanses him of the Hiss. It left him in a coma, and Control ends in a quiet stalemate: the hiss is stopped but contained only within the Oldest House.

Fast forward seven years after Control, and Jesse has mysteriously disappeared, the Hiss lockdown has fallen apart, and this corruptive supernatural force has spilled into Manhattan, turning the once vibrant city into a kaleidoscope of psychedelic nightmares.

Dylan awakens from his coma, though the reveal trailer teases this might be less of a medical miracle and more the work of otherworldly forces, and determines he must save Manhattan. To do so, he’ll use the Apparent, which, similar to Jesse’s Service Weapon, can shapeshift to match his needs, going from a dual-wielded melee weapon to a massive hammer (and presumably more).

Kasurinen describes this “open-ended” game as distinctly not open world, and one with “fast-paced traversal, warped environments, [and] mindbending powers and weapons.”

“I think our way of handling traversal is going to be something that will stand out [and] I also believe we have a unique take on how we blend melee with forward-facing momentum and supernatural abilities,” he tells me in a separate email Q&A.

In this open-ended Manhattan, you can expect secrets, side stories, and more. Kasurinen says none of it is filler and all of it is integrated into the larger world of Control and the golden path, stopping short of discussing any ties to the wider Remedyverse. He adds that Control is an action-adventure game, and that Resonant is an action-RPG with “more meaningful progression and real choices,” alongside “distinctive builds” that complement various gameplay styles. “It’s not a question of just entering a genre that is new to us, but discovering what the Remedy interpretation of it is,” Kasurinen says.

“Control was a great first stepping stone. Now, we’re ready to leap further.”