Control Resonant Is Everything The First Game Wasn’t, And That’s Why It Works

With the recently released Control Resonant, Remedy Entertainment returns to its weird Control universe of teleporting toy ducks, nightmarish creatures, and explosive action, all of which is grounded by a deeply personal central story. But when considering its predecessor, Control, I was struck by just how much this sequel not only differs from the first game, but deliberately inverts or twists what players previously experienced--much as the central Big Bad does to the entire borough of Manhattan. Control Resonant begins with our protagonist Dylan, barefoot and in dire need of a shave, awakening from a seven-year coma. With his sister--the series' former main character, Jesse Faden--missing and Control's Oldest House now a crime scene of corpses, Dylan finally leaves the building he’s been imprisoned in for over two decades. He finds a mostly empty Manhattan, cut off from the world, along with the remnants of the FBC, which Dylan deduced was trying to fight the Hiss and a strange, new apocalyptic entity: the Patterning. Dylan, trained in melee combat, must use his powers and abilities to find his sister and put an end to this world-ending catastrophe. Yet perhaps the most signifi…

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