Control Resonant Fuses Devil May Cry With Remedy’s Brand of Weirdness, and It Already Looks Incredible
Madness in Manhattan.
Control developer Remedy Entertainment has made a name for itself crafting some of the weirdest, and most innovative, titles in blockbuster gaming, from Max Payne to Alan Wake. But the last five years especially has been an era of experimentation, Alan Wake 2 was the studio’s first survival horror game, FBC: Firebreak its first multiplayer shooter, and now the studio is tackling pure action games. A fusion of Devil May Cry and Inception isn’t quite what anyone expected for Control 2, but boy does it look cool.
Revealed during The Game Awards, Control Resonant takes place years after the first game — even further than when FBC took place (which we know was roughly three years later). Jesse Faden has disappeared and a cosmic entity has invaded the streets of Manhattan. In a last ditch effort to save e everything the Federal Bureau of Control deploys Jesse’s brother Dylan Faden, a powerful Parautilitarian with the powers to fight back the entity.
Resonant is being directed by Mikael Kasurinen, who also served that role on the first game. And what’s particularly interesting is that in an extended look at the game, Kasurinen is quick to clarify that this “cosmic entity” is not the same thing as the Hiss from the first Control. That raises some major question marks about what’s happening, and how things might connect to the overall Remedy Universe. Another interesting tidbit is that Control Resonant is being self-published by Remedy, but is being co-finance by Annapurna Pictures — the overarching company, not just the video game focused Annapurna Interactive division.
Despite the shift in gameplay style, narratively this very much seems like a sequel to Control, with a press release saying “On the path to unlocking the full potential of his supernatural abilities, Dylan will also seek out his sister, FBC Director Jesse Faden, as he struggles to comprehend and contain the dangers that have spilled beyond the confines of the Oldest House to tear the world apart.”
In the trailer, we see the streets of New York warp and twist like a kaleidoscope, as a pigeon essentially inverts itself as it transforms into some grotesque amalgamation. Dylan’s powers make him the perfect fit for this twisted world, and we get to see a bit of action in the trailer — complete with combos, air juggles, and everything you’d expect from an action game.
“The new genre come from our overall desire to move in this direction as a studio. Like, when you think about the Control franchise, this was the place we wanted to end up in anyway,” Kasurinen says in a group Q&A, “We started to bring in these RPG elements, Metroidvania, stuff like that. And we’re simply continuing on that path with Control Resonant. So it’s not a shift, per se, but more like going further towards the direction.”
Kasurinen says they don’t use the term “open world” for Resonant, because that suggests a connotation that doesn’t quite fit the game. Resonant, much like the first Control, will be an “open-ended” experience, but everything within that world is curated and intended to help build out the world. The formula of the first Control is still being used here, just extrapolated to a bigger setting.
“What was really important to us, like when you went through The Oldest House, it felt intentional and purposeful. Every space had a story behind it, design behind it,” Kasurinen says, “We have the same philosophy here. It’s a larger more open ended world, yes, but it’s still a Control experience. We want to have that sense of storytelling, and a a kind of considered feeling across this game as well.”
Resonant’s reveal does, of course, raise a load of questions on how the action systems will work, what parts of New York will be featured, and more. On the Remedy Universe front, it’s interesting that Alan Wake’s Dark Place is also a twisted version of New York — and it’s hard to believe that’s a coincidence. But for now, we’ll have to wait until Remedy is willing to say more.
