‘Control Resonant’ is a fun experiment, but not entirely successful

When you play as many video games as I do, only a select few really stick in your mind for years after you finish them. Control, a 2019 action-adventure game, was one of those.

Mashable gave Control its Game of the Year award that year, and for good reason: It’s a mind-bending and totally sick shooter that can be cleanly summarized as “you play as a Jedi with a gun in a haunted office building.” It was, at the time, the best synthesis of developer Remedy’s signature style with actually competent gunplay, something the studio had struggled with at points in the past. I’d argue it was only surpassed by 2023’s Alan Wake II in that regard, but that’s like choosing a favorite child.

I wish I was as enthusiastic about Control Resonant, the new follow-up to the 2019 original that I am still working my way through. But, while Resonant maintains the creepy vibes, non-Euclidean geometry, and action combat that make you feel extremely cool on a regular basis of the original, its new setting of a supernaturally warped Manhattan significantly reduces the charm in both an aesthetic and mechanical sense.

I love New York City, but I loved The Oldest House more

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Control Resonant is that the concepts Remedy chose to play around with are sound, but are kind of bland in practice.

Control was a third-person shooter with psychic powers set inside The Oldest House, an imposing government building in Manhattan with a mind of its own and the ability to shift its innards around at will. It made for an incredible setting, as protagonist Jesse Faden would frequently find herself fighting horrible monstrosities among office cubicles, which in turn would be mere feet away from terrors that defied conventional description. The best part is that it was all a relatively mundane part of the job for employees of the Federal Bureau of Control, a fictional government agency dedicated to investigating the supernatural.

Resonant turns all of that on its head by shifting the perspective to Dylan, Jesse’s brother, who had been imprisoned as an experimental test subject in The Oldest House. What was previously contained within the building’s walls has spilled out into Manhattan, profoundly transforming the architecture of the city and its inhabitants, and it’s up to Dylan to do something about it.

I have not seen much of Jesse so far.
Credit: Remedy/Steam

Whereas Jesse was an ordinary civilian fighting her way through a mysterious government compound, Dylan is the opposite; he’s only ever known The Oldest House as an adult, and Manhattan is new to him. That’s a great idea that, unfortunately, doesn’t work all that well in my time with the game, which I have not finished just yet. Dylan is sort of a wet blanket who doesn’t have a lot of interesting things to say most of the time, and this version of Manhattan often feels like it could’ve been any sufficiently dense urban environment instead.

There are glimpses of greatness here, with city streets that have been turned entirely vertical, requiring the use of gravity-shifting powers to navigate them. But for the most part, you’re just running around what feels like a generic video game city with the same three coffee shops, laundromats, and bodegas copied and pasted in each explorable zone. There are optional activities in each neighborhood, which mostly amount to “go to an icon on the map, fight some monsters, and get a reward.” It’s shockingly uninspired at times for a Remedy game.

None of it so far has matched what made The Oldest House so special in Control. All of the stylistic flair from the original, like big sans serif title cards and redacted government documents, is here, but they don’t hit the same the second time around. I’m open to the possibility that Resonant finds its footing later on, but from what I’ve played, the quasi-open-world aspect of it has been my least favorite part of the game.

The fighting is fun, but it can occasionally be a drag

This part of the game is usually pretty alright.
Credit: Remedy/Steam

That’s not to say Control Resonant is all bad, of course. I actually quite like the combat, which trades Jesse’s shape-shifting gun for Dylan’s shape-shifting melee weapon, turning it into a sort of Devil May Cry-like action game with RPG-esque upgrade elements. There are several different weapon types, customizable combo finishers, and status effects to inflict upon enemies with occasionally explosive results. All of that combines with Dylan’s exceptionally agile movement abilities to create combat encounters that are speedy and intense at their best.

But even then, there are problems to contend with. Some combat encounters simply involve too many enemies to be fun, and will often devolve into the player smashing the attack button over and over again just to clear some space on the screen. Bigger enemies tend to just be large damage sponges that don’t require a lot of thought to kill, and there was even one entire area I played through that was just not enjoyable in the slightest due to some of the enemy behavior there.

From where I’m sitting, the telekinetic gunplay of Control was generally more exciting than this, even if I do like a lot of what’s going on in Resonant. Boss fights, at least, have been generally spectacular in my time with the game, and knowing Remedy, there are bound to be unexpected tricks before the credits roll.

Control Resonant is, generally, an OK time, but it has the unfortunate distinction of being the sequel to one of the coolest games of the past decade. I appreciate Remedy’s willingness to throw aside what it did before and try new things, but in this case, what was there before worked better.

Control Resonant is available for pre-order now for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S; it will be released on Oct. 15.