Control Resonant was met with a lot of skepticism when it was first revealed during last year’s Game Awards. Some of it had to do with Remedy’s decision to move away from Control’s third-person shooter format. Other comments focused on the studio ditching the confines of the Oldest House.

I didn’t really get it at the time because I never played Control, so I took it as a case of fandom reacting badly to a studio taking some creative freedom.

That changed recently after I volunteered to review Control Resonant for Life Is a Game Magazine. I loved Alan Wake 2, so I decided: “Why not experience more of the Remedy-verse?”

Having now finished Control, I finally understand some of the concerns around Resonant. Control and AW2 share distinct characteristics that define them as Remedy games. Meanwhile, too much of Resonant’s early footage focused on its ARPG-style combat, and not enough on other important features, like exploration and puzzle solving.

Lately, I’ve been watching plenty of preview footage from bigger creators who’ve already played it, and I don’t think Resonant is going to fall as far from the tree as people think. Some things won’t be the same, but spiritually, it will still belong in the Remedy-verse.

Here’s what I expect from the game based on what I’ve seen so far.

You Will Be Lost If You Don’t Play the First Control

I read a lot of Steam reviews to get a sense for Control before I picked it up, and a good number of players said they felt lost following the story. Admittedly, I played through it, read a bunch of the collectibles, and I still have questions.

I’m sure Resonant will give newcomers enough context to understand what’s happening. And if you’re mostly interested in beating things over the head with Dylan’s giant transforming weapon, a 10-minute recap on YouTube is probably enough to get you started.

But if players who spent 15+ hours with Control don’t quite get what’s going on, I don’t see how someone can expect to follow everything by starting with the sequel.

Control has an incredibly dense story that you have to actively piece together from case files, recordings, and videos. There’s a lot to understand about the Federal Bureau of Control, Objects of Power, the Candidate Program, the Director, Altered World Events, Thresholds, the Astral Plane and the Hiss.

It goes beyond just Control too, because the game’s lore references events from Alan Wake, and Alan Wake 2 has a bunch of connections back to Control. Remedy has clearly spent a lot of time weaving its universe together, and I can’t imagine them suddenly walking away from that legacy for the sake of making a noob-friendly game.

Players who neglect the original will also be depriving themselves of a great experience because Control is an amazing game. You can play it on Amazon’s standard Luna streaming service or GamePass. I picked it up on sale from the PS Store for $5 CDN and it’s going for the same price on Steam as I’m writing this. If you want to play Resonant, do yourself the favor of playing Control.

The Atmosphere Won’t Be the Same

This is the one area where I’m expecting Resonant to take a step backwards.

Control and Alan Wake 2 both excel at creating a constant sense of tension.

In Alan Wake 2, you’re an FBI agent wandering through a creepy forest at night with only a flashlight and a gun to defend against demonic cultists who spring out of thin air.

In Control, you explore a largely empty office building with obvious signs of a disaster. People are floating lifelessly in the air. You hear disjointed voices as you make your way through the halls knowing that you could be ambushed at any moment.

In both cases, you’re alone, you’re vulnerable, and you’re clearly somewhere you shouldn’t be. Those are the building blocks of a good thriller or horror game.

Now, swap Jesse out for Dante from Devil May Cry, and all of a sudden you’re not feeling so vulnerable anymore. In fact, you’re probably seeking out your next fight so you can unload a 20-hit combo while air-juggling enemies.

That’s closer to the Dylan we’ve seen in Resonant footage.

The Oldest House’s dark rooms and close quarters also contributed a lot to Control’s mood, but those seem to be partially replaced with wider streets and outdoor areas in broad daylight. Not exactly the stuff of nightmares.

I still expect Remedy to roll out a lot of “weird” in this next instalment, but I don’t think it will be nearly as intimidating, and that could give Resonant a very different feel.

Resonant’s Combat Will Be Better Than Control’s

Ironically, the biggest change seems like the one I’m most excited about.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the combat in Control. I really liked the parts that had to do with Jesse’s psychokinetic abilities, like ripping out chunks from the walls and hurling them at enemies.

The shooter portion I could’ve done without. It was fun at first getting to know the Service Weapon’s different forms, but eventually, I just learned to use Pierce from a distance. Nothing else even came close to it in terms of damage and accuracy.

That worked well enough to get me through the whole game, but it got a little boring by the end.

The opportunity to get right in the enemy’s face with some Hiss-crunching combos looks much more enticing. Dylan’s transforming weapon can chain three different forms into combos and deliver powerful finishers. He can zigzag from target to target, launch them in the air, and follow that up with even more punishment. And best of all, he still gets to wield powers similar to the ones Jesse had in the previous game.

People who call Resonant Remedy’s version of Devil May Cry aren’t kidding. That’s exactly what it looks like. Hopefully, it feels more like the “best of both worlds” rather than a tribute to Capcom’s IP.

The one casualty seems to be the environmental destruction I loved so much in the original game.

One of my favourite details in Control was looking around after a big fight and taking in the absolute chaos I left behind. Everything was breakable, so each scene actually looked like it should after a supernatural gunfight.

I understand why they can’t do it to the same extent in Resonant. Debris becomes an obstacle in a melee game, and nothing kills fast-paced combat quicker than getting stuck on a chair while you’re trying to reach an enemy. But I will miss the wanton destruction nonetheless.

If sacrificing some of that gives Resonant better combat, though, I’ll take the trade.

Despite the Changes, It Will Still Feel Like Control

Ultimately, combat isn’t what makes Control feel like Control.

Think about navigating the Ashtray Maze, visiting the Oceanview Motel, viewing all those altered items in the Penopticon, or binding with those Objects of Power scattered throughout the Oldest House. Those out-of-this-world creations are what define the game.

Everything I’ve seen online over the past week suggests Resonant is keeping that.

I watched a YouTube video on Jesse Cox’s channel in which Dylan gets trapped inside a Threshold that looks like an apartment, and he has to walk from room to room to activate glowing TVs in the right sequence to communicate with someone outside.

That’s Control.

It also looks like Remedy is ready to push its platforming and puzzle-solving even further by giving Dylan the ability to bend reality. Footage shows him moving entire sections of the city in different directions, Inception-style, to reach the next part of a level.

That’s definitely a step above Jesse’s levitation and telekinetic manipulation, which makes sense given Dylan’s connection to the Hiss on top of his existing supernatural abilities.

Resonant might play very differently, but if Remedy keeps leaning into its brand of paranormal craziness, I think we’ll all come out of it wondering why we ever doubted them in the first place.

Now I Need to See If I’m Right

Clearly, we’re getting a very different game. But compared to last year, I’m a lot more confident that Resonant will keep the right elements intact and still be an improvement over Control.

We should still see a heavy amount of lore with connections to the rest of the Remedy-verse, and the same kind of “weirdness” we experienced in the previous Remedy titles.

Casting a Super Saiyan Dylan waging all-out war against the Hiss is a bold move that should pay off — even if it tones down the paranoid tension I experienced in Control and Alan Wake 2.

Or maybe I’m full of it! We won’t find out until Control Resonant drops on September 24th and I get to come back to this article to see how it aged.