Control Resonant dev Remedy didn't use other triple-A games for inspiration, because "nobody is taking risks"

Control Resonant is stepping outside the Oldest House, and that’s a little scary. The brutalist architecture and shifting paranormal elements gave its predecessor an incredibly striking and distinctive look, but for the sequel we’re moving out into the streets of Manhattan. That meant embracing a level of mundanity, the developers at Remedy explain in a new dev diary, but in a manner that only enhances its weirder elements. The team also reveals that it stayed away from using triple-A games as a reference point, in order to avoid the modern tendency to trend towards an “aesthetic singularity” of design.

“The setting in the first Control game was unique,” Creative Director Mikael Kasurinen says. “It all took place in a single building, which was part of the point. It feels like a secluded, separate space from the rest of the world. You feel like you’re in this bubble, isolated from normal life.” It emphasized the isolated nature of the FBC headquarters, especially given the lockdown. But as this security falls apart and the supernatural seeps out across the world in Control Resonant, the team is looking to “burst that bubble.”

The Manhattan of Control Resonant isn’t as you might know it in our world, of course – it’s been “shaped and twisted into a labyrinth,” in the words of Lead Gameplay Designer Sergey Mohov. The warping of the land means new protagonist Dylan Faden will be bouncing between buildings at unusual floating angles, or running up walls and around corners seamlessly. Mohov promises a wide range of collectibles to discover as you explore the action game, giving you reasons to dig into every corner of the world.

The brutalism of the Oldest House gave the first game a very distinct aesthetic. Stepping outside means adopting a “mundane, grounded, believable, and lived-in baseline” for the world we know, but Art Director Elmeri Raitanen stresses that this works because it allows the paranatural to “really shine” in comparison. He says the team was insistent about not looking at references from other games while designing concept art (and Remedy has previously stated it has made no use of generative AI content for Control Resonant).

“There’s this tendency where triple-A games start to all gravitate towards this aesthetic singularity, and nobody is taking risks, and everything starts to resemble each other,” Raitanen explains. Instead, the team turned to “art exhibitions, or film and TV, or scientific visualizations and nature – if it helps us to bring some new, fresh takes into the singularity, I feel like it’s going to be worth it, and the player will appreciate it as well.”

The big question is: What’s warping Manhattan out of shape? Lead Level Designer Anne-Marie Grönroos teases that it “may or may not have been in the first game,” and adds that multiple factions are at play across the world of Control Resonant. “We had to start thinking about the world building a little bit differently,” Raitanen notes. “It’s not just the FBC holding on and trying to gain control, it’s more of a lived-in world that has a history of its own already.”

You can expect a far greater variety of enemy types in Control Resonant than its predecessor. “We definitely heard the feedback,” Lead Gameplay Animator Annika Lehtinen remarks, “so this time around, we have way more creatures than we did before.” One of these is a haunted bus with passengers grasping from the windows; “That obviously creates a little bit of challenge for the animation team,” Lehtinen smiles.

The Hiss, the malevolent force at the core of the original game’s narrative, is still present, and it’s affecting both humans and animals, twisting them into bizarre creatures. “We still used mo-cap actors for some of the enemies,” Lehtinen says, “and we have one mo-cap actor who is so freaking amazing, nailing the Hiss twitching and glitching. Tomas Nielsen – he’s our go-to guy when it comes to enemies that can be mo-capped.” The Mold also makes a return, but they’ll be joined by a range of new threats.

Dylan will carry a radio with him that can be used to check in with his handler, Zoe. He’ll also find plenty of audio logs that will expand on the lore and story, and I’m pleased to hear Mohov say that you can listen to these while continuing to explore freely if you wish. “It’s a fun layering of familiar things, but definitely facing new challenges,” Kasurinen concludes. Control Resonant is set to launch in 2026, and I will be there as soon as it does.