Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment is known for its ability to craft compelling worlds, even in games that are rough around the edges. This talent was evident in titles like 2023's Alan Wake 2 and, most notably, 2019's Control. The latter game, set within the supernatural labyrinth of The Oldest House, offered exceptional environmental design and storytelling that drew players in, despite serviceable combat and a somewhat weak protagonist motivation.
This legacy sets a high bar for Control Resonant, Remedy's first open-world game and its latest effort to focus on melee combat. While Resonant may be more technically polished than its predecessor, featuring sharper combat, deeper narrative, and a meticulously designed world, it ultimately lacks the unique magic that made Control so compelling. Without it, the game struggles to hold together.
On the Town
Seven years after the events of Control, the Federal Bureau of Control's mission to contain the supernatural entity known as The Hiss has failed. Director Jesse Faden is missing, and her brother Dylan awakens from a coma to take her place as the protagonist. Despite initial mistrust, Dylan is tasked with stopping the Hiss threat and is released into a fractured version of New York City, divided into distinct, distorted zones. Remedy's foray into open-world design is largely disappointing. While the aesthetic is striking, with areas transformed by the Resonants into surreal landscapes reminiscent of Inception, the world is largely devoid of meaningful engagement. The numerous icons on the map indicate points of interest and side activities, but these offer little depth, resembling the shallow busywork found in many 2010s open-world RPGs. Players are encouraged to grind these activities for world score upgrades, a repetitive loop that detracts from the experience.
The New York setting, combined with this empty-calorie content, evokes comparisons to Ubisoft's The Division. While individual zones may offer brief moments of engagement, they are fleeting. Resonant's New York lacks the distinct personality of Control's Oldest House, a brutalist office building that burst with potential. Despite its grander scale and greater quantity of activities, the city fails to inspire a sense of mystery or discovery.
Traversal through the city, while featuring new movement abilities like double jumping, floating, and a grappling hook, lacks the fluidity of comparable titles like the Infamous series. Even compared to its predecessor, the sensation of movement in Resonant does not match the satisfying freedom of navigating The Oldest House.
Missing the Hits
Dylan's journey is not without its challenges, as hordes of Hiss and other enemies populate the city streets. Wielding The Aberrant, a shape-shifting melee weapon, Dylan's combat aims for the aspirations of a character action game in the vein of Devil May Cry. Players can choose from three initial weapon forms, eventually unlocking more and gaining telekinetic abilities to diversify combat. Each weapon form offers an extensive skill tree for customization.
On paper, this combat system is Remedy's most ambitious. However, it lacks the crucial weight and impact expected from a character action game. Enemies often feel like damage sponges, and combos or skills fail to create a tangible sense of progress, leading to repetitive encounters regardless of the foe. Despite extensive accessibility options, which are commendable, many fights feel like a monotonous slog.
Combat reaches its potential during the game's climactic Resonant boss fights. Remedy's design prowess is on full display with these monstrous creatures, each featuring complex attack patterns and phases. These encounters, demanding a mix of dodging and offense akin to bullet hell games, stand in stark contrast to the uninspired regular combat, highlighting a missed opportunity to infuse more creativity into standard enemy encounters.
The Favorite Child
While the open world and combat systems represent Remedy stepping outside its comfort zone, the narrative is where Resonant falters most significantly. The game's effectiveness hinges on Dylan as a protagonist, but he fails to elicit a strong emotional connection. His performance, aiming to portray awkwardness and a journey of redemption, is hampered by a weak script and a flat delivery.
Dylan's story relies heavily on predictable tropes about trauma, reducing the complex, inventive world of Control to a familiar narrative about a troubled individual. This culminates in a prolonged narrative twist that feels more tedious than revelatory.
Jesse Faden, a charismatic lead, was overshadowed by the environmental storytelling of Control. In Resonant, Dylan's personal journey pushes the FBC's fascinating lore to the periphery, relegated to optional missions that offer brief moments of life. Despite this focus, Dylan remains an unengaging character, and the game's narrative feels like a betrayal of Jesse's potential, who is reduced to an afterthought in traversal puzzles called Faults.
There is a section midway through Control Resonant that offers a glimpse of what the game could have been. A twisting landscape seamlessly integrates Dylan's movement abilities, creating fluid and exciting exploration. Combat takes a backseat to a narrative about FBC agents confronting a paranatural force, a segment that proves to be the game's most memorable.
Ultimately, Control Resonant is a serviceable game, but that is precisely its downfall. In an era where titles like Final Fantasy 16 and Marvel's Wolverine are pushing boundaries, simply rehashing existing game templates is no longer sufficient. The game echoes a sentiment from Control itself: "We were in a game, and it was a fucking boring game." With Control Resonant, Remedy has inadvertently made that dream a reality.
Control Resonant will be released on September 24 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PS5 using a prerelease download code provided by Remedy Entertainment.