CONTROL Resonant review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

CONTROL Resonant is another game from the mind of Sam Lake; mythical game industry equivalent to the Riddler from Batman. If you’re unfamiliar, this probably won’t be a good entry point (it’s the second in a series, come on, you can’t expect to just drop in here, can you?). But what you should know is that games from Remedy Entertainment have, over time, come to have formed a certain expectation of weirdness, esoteric artsyness, and mind-bending storylines. Remedy has only gotten better and better at showcasing this style over time, and CONTROL Resonant remains another clear illustration in that pattern.

This time around, CONTROL Resonant has you taking the shoes of Dylan, who you might remember from the first game for such character activity as… being lost most of the game and then being in a coma once he’s found. A few bits of insight and interaction in ways that shouldn’t be feasible, but for the most part his role was akin to that of Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man, albeit not quite so gaseous. With CONTROL Resonant, however, Dylan is awake again and back in… uh, control… of his own body. But now, in a flip-flop of the script of the original Control, it is instead Dylan who is looking for Jesse. Now she’s missing, and things have gotten far more out of… control than things were in the original release in the series.

Dylan awakes at the beginning of CONTROL Resonant, inside of the holding chamber that you’d be familiar with if you recall the events of the previous game. A short cutscene showcases Jesse waking him up by, well, stabbing him in the chest with a giant metal rod. I’m not sure that’s likely a method we’ll see for coma patients in the real world, but that’s no matter because this isn’t the real world, it’s a Remedy game. Upon his awakening, Dylan finds that the FBC has been compromised heavily. What was simply an internal leak in Control is now a full-scale catastrophe as of the introduction to his return to consciousness. Stumbling out of his stupor, Dylan finds that the front doors of the FBC building are blown open and the stairs are littered in corpses. It’s made immediately clear that New York has been compromised. Floating people murmuring to themselves litter the roadways, cars are scattered every which way, and giant metal blockades with man doors cover 30 foot high clearances.

This is where the meat and potatoes begin with CONTROL Resonant. You’re given… control (yes, I am self-conscious every time I use the word in this review) of Dylan in an outdoors arena, and run through the gamut of his VERY extensive arsenal of movement abilities shortly thereafter. Admittedly, when I first took over gameplay and started to move around, I was a bit worried because it did not feel quite right to me. Almost oddly… hooky? I don’t know the right word. It was like Dylan really wanted to grab everything. It was a concern unfounded though, as the only problem was simply that I hadn’t been given all of the abilities that CONTROL Resonant has to throw at you. Dodges, dashes, double-jumps, glide; all of the usual suspects that you might expect to see in a more arcadey platformer game, but given life and breadth suited to the big budget games. In CONTROL Resonant, Dylan’s powers are prevalent. Something supernatural that isn’t fully explained quite yet emanates out of him and allows him to do more than the average person. That is to say that the assortment of aforementioned movement tech is not natural in the world. Dylan is wholly unique in this regard.

Which is given plenty of flourish through the general design philosophy around the gameplay within CONTROL Resonant. Everything is extremely detailed and fancy. Powers in use make themselves obvious and showcased. Even dodging and the extra-fast sprinting are given life in visible ways, as the motion creates a vacuum that sucks in every loose item in the environment around you to collide in the air like you’re a speedboat moving through a lake. CONTROL Resonant, like any Remedy game, knows that the visual flourishing touches are what really makes things memorable and feel weighty. There’s no shortage in this regard throughout the entire game. Every ability is half and half between “effective function” and “beautiful showcase”. As well they should be, too. It keeps things constantly feeling and looking great. Light flashing from the whip in dark rooms making a visual clash, ripples through the air that emanate from your body and wrap around everything when you hover, or the burst of a thousand bits of concrete pebbles exploding through the air as you hurl debris at your enemies. All of it is constantly in your face in the most spectacular of ways.

I haven’t even mentioned up to this point: CONTROL Resonant has changed genres entirely from the first game. What was a third-person shooter with character ability flourishes is now a hack and slash title. Complete with perfect dodge timers and a heavy and light attack. There is a wide assortment of weaponry available, and all of them feel very different, but they do all have one thing in common: they are melee exclusively. No magic gun like in Control; now you are the weapon, and you will deliver yourself to the enemy. Everything is morphed from Dylan’s magical… metal rod… thing that Jesse stabbed him with at the beginning. But you can only have one heavy and one light equipped at any given moment. You can freely switch them out, even mid-combat, through the menu, but there is no quick swap that I was made aware of at least. A lot of the weapon options run through the typical archetypes you’re used to from any game that uses melee weapons, so expect: hammer, big sword, small dual swords, whip, lance… that sort of stuff. All very stylized to fit the atmosphere, but all very familiar. Personally, I’m a big fan of the whip-like ability for my secondary attacks. Be like me.

The storytelling is likewise noteworthy, if not quite for everyone. But that is, as I mentioned in my opening paragraph, something you should be expecting when you’re buying a Remedy game. Sam Lake will bend your brain and you will be playing something that makes you go “huh??” at least 3 times per hour. That’s what you’re signing up for and it’s why those of us who follow the company’s releases keep coming back. It might be an acquired taste for some, but it’s just what you want more of once you understand it. I won’t dig into the story too far, so as to avoid spoilers in most any way, but suffice it to say that the storyline is definitely a Remedy Entertainment product.

The final thing to note is the world. If you played the first Control, you will likely be familiar with the intricate web that is laid out in that game’s map. Worry (not?), this is something that is definitely here to stay with CONTROL Resonant. A lot of it is easier to navigate than the original game, being that it’s mostly all outdoors. However, that isn’t to say it’s necessarily any simpler to navigate. Locked doors are everywhere as you venture about, and each area has secrets galore. The map is large, but not unmanageable at the same time. Open-world? Not quite, but also yeah basically. It’s a setup that invites you to explore and is genuinely large, but it’s all intricately woven and designed in a way that never makes you really feel like you’re actually having to manage the expansive emptiness that you’d expect from most open-world type titles. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there is something to do on just about every street corner, rooftop, and building.

All together, CONTROL Resonant was an excellent game in my opinion. There wasn’t really anything I can complain about, but I don’t feel like it’s perfect, so I would hesitate to give it a 10/10, but know that I did contemplate the idea. If you are a fan of Remedy games, you won’t be disappointed by what you find in CONTROL Resonant. If you haven’t played the first release yet, then… please go actually play that first. It’s probably necessary to do so for a lot of the most important parts of this one. But you can try and brave it anyway; I mean… they have a “last time on” video you can watch to catch yourself up (but in my opinion, it’s not really very ideal for anyone who didn’t actually play the original.). At the standard price of $60, I can at least say that Control: Resonant is worth it for its general quality and depth of content. If you’re considering it in any way, just get it. It’s a great game.

Note: Remedy Entertainment provided us with a CONTROL Resonant code for review purposes.

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