CONTROL Resonant, Remedy Entertainment’s sequel to Control, mixes melee action with RPG systems, open world zones, superhero movement, and workplace comedy. It arrives September 24 for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox On PC, and Xbox Play Anywhere lets owners play on both console and PC at no additional cost. The original Control centered on paranatural gunplay, a line of evolution from Remedy’s history with Max Payne and Quantum Break.
A Deeper RPG Core
CONTROL Resonant includes a sprawling Talent tree for the newly playable Dylan Faden. Individual upgrade paths exist for the multiple forms his weapons can take. Players can also choose Secondary Weapons and Combat Abilities, plus combo finishers that change how they approach a fight.
Manhattan Levels Up Around You
The world itself can level up. The more fights you dominate, secrets you find, and quests you complete in a given area of the warped Manhattan, the higher level that area becomes, offering bonuses. Defeating one of the area bosses, known as Resonant Entities, makes the world actively more dangerous. Manhattan is split into densely packed, highly designed zones with varied looks rather than one continuous open world. These zones hold hidden collectibles and rewarding activities, plus sidequests. Each zone pairs clear points of interest and choreographed brawls with room to explore. One sidequest is unlocked by hearing something singing out of a subway tunnel.
Superhero Movement Meets Workplace Comedy
Dylan needs to get around more efficiently than Jesse did and is a very confident parautilitarian from the beginning. He can jump, glide, dash, and run so fast that physics objects get caught up in his orbit. Later he can subvert gravity, travel up vertical surfaces or fully upside-down, and scale entire buildings in a few moves. Alongside hostile extra-dimensional forces and freakishly distorted buses, an actual enemy type, the game is also a workplace comedy. Finding the people of the Federal Bureau of Control and the redacted files they leave behind pieces together a frequently hilarious backstory. The comedy helps the player feel less alone in a world that no longer makes sense. In a corner of an early Field Office, two FBC guards are slowly trying to convince their boss that he is, in fact, a ghost.
