The idea that the Oldest House is an incredibly bland skyscraper on the outside, yet a reality-defying labyrinth inside, is brilliant. In Control, we saw how the Federal Bureau of Control operated, and we have since been part of a few investigations across the US.
The first game follows Jesse Faden as she searches for her brother, Dylan, who is missing inside the Federal Bureau of Control’s headquarters, the Oldest House. In her search for her sibling, Jesse encounters Objects of Power and an assortment of supernatural threats all concealed within the FBC building. It all leads to the bureau’s power and control over her brother’s situation.
Resonant is Dylan’s story, giving us the other side. After years of confinement, the FBC deploys Dylan to battle a supernatural crisis. The Federal Bureau of Control can’t contain a world-ending threat in Manhattan, now a battleground warped by cosmic forces. It’s the complete opposite of its predecessor, and it’s a bit chaotic in execution, but when the elements and mechanics come together, you get a unique and often memorable experience.
Contain Manhattan
After Dylan breaks out of the Oldest House, he meets up with Zoe De Vera, an FBC Field Agent. Zoe is Dylan’s handler and provides guidance and context on ongoing events in the city. They work well together, but it begins with Zoe knowing Dylan has been a prisoner in the Oldest House for years. However, they begin their relationship on edge and rightfully so, a lot of people within the FBC don’t like Dylan because of the things he’s been involved in.
But without Dylan, Manhattan stands no chance of coming back from the brink of destruction, and thanks to the Hiss and the Mould, the FBC needs all hands on deck if New York City has any chance of survival.
As Manhattan becomes more twisted, traversing zones becomes harder for Dylan. His abilities, such as Reach, allow him to navigate spaces that no longer follow the laws of physics. Areas where gravity and orientation shift entirely are called Gravity Anomalies, and Shift allows Dylan to fly.
Dylan wields the Aberrant, a shapeshifting melee weapon, key to your arsenal. We see it transform into a hammer, blade, scythe, and fists, allowing for a versatile toolkit. Progression focuses on unlocking new Aberrant forms, abilities, and combos, with deeper customization systems to specialize powers and moves.
In the opening hours, you’re explicitly asked to make decisions which will influence your mission, including the form the Aberrant will take and how you use it. Whether you want to strike enemies with a sword or a scythe as your main, or as a nunchaku as a secondary mode, you have the choice to use the tool how you prefer, and it matters that Remedy allows you to choose.
Dylan isn’t fighting to save the world; he’s also fighting to find redemption for himself and his sister, Jesse. Players can explore expansive zones across the city, each hiding branching missions, encounters, and events to tackle in any order.
My major gripe with Control Resonant is that its opening hours are some of the most frustrating. I’ve spoken to a few other friends who also reviewed the game, and we all agreed: the first five hours are incredibly challenging, and I get the idea of being a field agent tasked with stopping an entity from swallowing up a city, but you’re constantly struggling against difficult enemies. I had a few early encounters that really took the wind out of my sails, to the point that I considered dropping the difficulty to get past my frustration.
Thankfully, I didn’t, but I can see how someone might bail out on Resonant’s opening hours: it’s far too challenging from the outset. Plenty of accessibility options make exploring the city much more feasible, like one-hit kills, invincibility, and so on. These choices don’t affect your trophy progression, either, so if you feel like saving Manhattan is too burdensome, you can scale to your preference.
Combat is a massive departure from any other game Remedy has made, but it is fast and unwieldy, with Dylan able to hack and slash and juggle enemies in mid-air. If you’ve played Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, or Nier, battles will feel familiar as you battle through the streets into laundromats and bodegas, and yes, you’ll even face mutated bus-like enemies where the Hiss throw waves of exploding bombs at you. Dylan’s main priority in battle is building Falter damage (the stagger meter) and defeating enemies with wicked combos that let you cancel animations when you feel boxed in, then pick it up again once you’re in a better position.
Dylan’s also got a skill tree and tons of weapon upgrades that’ll let you take the piss out of the Hiss. You can add elemental damage to your weapons, and it makes quick work later on if you go that route. There’s a surprising amount of freedom in combat that I wasn’t sure would be there, but Remedy clearly thought out every aspect of Resonant.
Progressing through Control Resonant unlocks new talent nodes, expanding how abilities and Aberrant attacks work in combat. You can also equip multiple combat abilities from the same boss to open new combinations that change how you play.
Artifacts are equippable items with passive modifiers that let you fine-tune your build. They affect survivability, combat performance, exploration, or resources, but at a cost.
Control Resonant Takes The Remedy Formula And Runs With It
Exploring Manhattan and some FBC field offices yields tons of collectibles for Dylan, whether that’s official documents detailing the Hiss and other events; these pages provide context and insight into the world that’s grown since Control. It’s worth stopping to read the documents as well so Dylan can understand what he’s missed in the seven years of his captivity.
At one point, Zoe plays new music for Dylan, only to realize his personnel file mentions he used to be a musician. It’s pretty clear that the man working for his former captors has missed out on a ton since his incarceration. There are many of these sprinkled throughout the story that help flesh out who Dylan was and may hope to be in the future, and I genuinely loved these moments sprinkled throughout.
Exploration is one of the best things about Control Resonant. I absolutely love Remedy as a developer and their games, so I was concerned about how the studio could translate their linear games into an open world. With Dylan’s abilities and a transforming Manhattan landscape, exploration is a blast.
For one, not levelling up as Dylan isn’t unique or new; instead, the world levels up, which makes for great gameplay. Instead of earning experience points to grow stronger by defeating enemies and bosses, Resonant levels up New York instead by creating more opportunities for better loot, more health, and excursions. Dylan also gains talent points, so you’re incentivized to grow each zone to unlock an ability point for him to use.
Control Resonant takes the Remedy formula of bizarre narratives with bizarre gameplay elements and elevates the two into one of the most unique versions of Manhattan I’ve played. The focus on twisting realities, shared storytelling between games, and a flawed or broken protagonist barely scratches the surface of what Remedy truly does.
If you want to experiment with builds, Dylan’s got his own Mind Palace called The Gap, an otherworldly place where you can spend time upgrading your character. You can also cycle through the weapons you’ve unlocked and abilities to make a loadout catered to your needs. I suggest you visit often, since one zone may need a more direct approach to battle while another is best tackled with some space between you and the enemy.
Verdict
Control Resonant is one heck of a follow-up to Control, with a setting twisted by a paranatural force that’s perverted Manhattan into a supernatural playground. Remedy somehow took what makes them so unique in the industry and applied it to an open world that becomes what I can only describe as an ethereal rollercoaster through New York. What unfolds is unlike anything else you’ll play this year. Without a doubt, Resonant delivers a memorable return to the world of Control.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
