How Control Resonant can be a perfect sibling to Remedy’s best game

Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake 2 was a resoundingly successful return from the Dark Place, but it unfortunately led to the Control franchise partially going on the back burner. While some diehards found joy in FBC Firebreak‘s genre-shifted return to The Oldest House, the overall muted response spoke to fans’ impatience for a true Control sequel.

Thankfully, the Control Resonant trailer has finally arrived, and its mind-bending vistas and evolving action-RPG combat seem well worth the extended wait. With both Control and its new protagonist, Dylan Faden, finally leaving dormancy, there are several ways that Resonant can prove itself as a perfect companion piece to its beloved predecessor.

The Escapist recaps

• Remedy needs to close the 7-year in-world gap between the first game and Control 2.
• New Control main character, Dylan, should develop iconic paranormal powers all his own.
• Jesse and Dylan Faden can work as complementary co-protagonists.
• Control Resonant needs to follow up on the Remedy Connected Universe threads built up in Alan Wake 2.

Bridge the gap

Following Control‘s guns-blazing final act, players may have expected the extra-dimensional Hiss incursion to be more or less wrapped up, allowing FBC Director Jesse Faden to move on to outward Paranatural threats facing the bureau. 

However, the anticipated neat and tidy ending never came, and Remedy’s universe advancing in real time between releases has meant that The Oldest House has remained in lockdown for seven whole in-game years.

This substantial gap, coupled with a total protagonist switch, could prove disorienting for players expecting a more direct and conventional sequel from Remedy. Thankfully, it also affords Control Resonant significantly more interesting material to dig into than if this intriguing world had remained in stasis all this time.

Even without covering the possibility of all new Altered Items and case files, Control Resonant can mine plenty of mystery and character drama out of its timeskip, from exploring how the bureau’s members have adapted to years on the inside to bizarre threats escaping the FBC’s imperfect containment.

Powers perfected

Control’s surreal, paranoid worldbuilding may be the real draw of the franchise for many, but it is often matched by the game’s incredibly satisfying power system and combat. The shape-shifting, modifiable Service Weapon wielded by the FBC director became an instant entry in the pantheon of iconic videogame weaponry.

Moreso even than that famed firearm, however, it was Jesse’s telekinetic Launch ability that proved to be the real star of the show, thanks to its Hiss-dispatching power, excellent tactile feedback, and Remedy’s impressively flexible physics engine. Launch was both an ace up every player’s sleeve and a method of constant interaction with – and disruption of – the meticulously-constructed game world.

As Launch was iconic to Jesse, the younger Faden sibling, Dyla,n deserves his own signature power to wield with abandon. Alternatively, as Control Resonant is moving in more of an Action-RPG direction than the first game, Remedy could choose to set Dylan apart from his sister by offering a buffet of possible powers and skill-tree options.

Following the game’s announcement, Remedy is promising optional builds and more freedom in upgrade choices. Letting players gravitate to which paranormal powers they prefer would grant Control Resonant a sense of mechanical identity separate from its sibling.

Don’t Faden away

Digging into Dylan Faden’s troubled psyche offers Remedy the chance to spotlight its most layered, complex protagonist to date. The younger Faden spent his whole life trapped within The Oldest House, and the entirety of the first Control game as a host of the Hiss threat.

Dylan’s role in the Control narrative is complicated and at times disturbing, and would provide an excellent mirror to Jesse’s determination and surprised enthusiasm towards the secret world she has found herself in. Developing the two as complements to each other would be a natural path to take and further shore up Control as the home of Remedy’s arguably most interesting character writing.

While it’s admittedly early to start thinking about a third Control game before the Control Resonant release, Alan Wake 2 has proven that Remedy can absolutely pull off switching between multiple protagonists. If Jesse and Dylan can both stand on their own feet as game leads, a true Faden family team-up in Control 3 would be a perfect capstone for the series.

An Altered World

The Remedy Connected Universe has so far succeeded in enriching fans’ experience of both the Control and Alan Wake games. For this storytelling experiment to bear fruit, Control Resonant should follow up on the events of Alan Wake 2. It should continue to play out the growing influence each franchise has on the other’s story, without either title subsuming the other or alienating fans who prefer to only engage in one particular series.

Those willing to dig into the first Control’s AWE DLC will have discovered that the titular writer has been nudging events in Control’s narrative into a certain shape for some time, and a reckoning between these two supernatural stories is most definitely due.

While it remains to be seen just how much influence the embattled Champion of Light can have over the ever-growing Hiss threat, players should expect a significant level of overlap between these two titles and yet more progress in Remedy’s shared-world storytelling.

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