First Look: Control Resonant is a big departure from the first game, but should Remedy fans panic?

Jesse is out. So is her service weapon. Control Resonant is taking the franchise in a whole new direction.

The announcement of a new game from Remedy is one of the most exciting prospects in the games industry. While always a cult-favourite studio, the Game of the Year winner Alan Wake 2 shot the studio into the public consciousness in a way that it hadn’t been since the Max Payne games.

While the studio’s next effort, FBC: Firebreak, was met with mixed reviews and a low player count, uniquely, there were few Remedy fans all that worried about what that game meant for the future of their main franchises.

Currently, Remedy Entertainment is working on Control Resonant, a remake of the first two Max Payne games alongside Rockstar (though it’s been missing in action, presumably while Rockstar has other stuff to get on with) and a mystery game, believed to be from studio creative force Sam Lake.

Control Resonant is its next game, and it’s out next year. It’s not Control 2. As explained to the press as part of a presentation before the game’s announcement, players don’t have to play Control in order to play Control Resonant. The game takes place alongside the first entry, and stars a completely different character from the first game.

Jesse Faden, the director of the FBC, and the star of Control, is gone; instead, you’re playing as Dylan, her brother, who is a central figure in Control.  Gone, too, is Jesse’s service weapon. Control Resonant isn’t a third-person shooter. It’s an action-adventure RPG, according to Remedy.

Dylan explores a fantastical Manhattan equipped with a shapeshifting melee weapon, the Aberrant, and what appears to be a raft of paranormal powers. Where the first game centred around Jesse using her paranormal abilities in conjunction with her standard third-person shooting, Control Resonant seems to be about fast-paced melee combat, infused with supernatural flair.

While the trailer did show some of Manhattan, this isn’t an open-world game, though director Mikael Kasurinen emphasised that Control Resonant will push the studio beyond what it is has previously produced when it comes to action titles.

“We’re pushing the scale beyond anything we’ve done before, elevating combat, exploration, and storytelling into a bigger, more memorable experience,” he told us. “It’s ambitious, a little wild, and we can’t wait for players to get lost in it.”

Dylan has been deployed by a mysterious force at the FBC in order to deal with a supernatural crisis that has escaped from The Oldest House, and is taking over the city. He’s also searching for Jesse, whose voice can be heard in the trailer.

The game’s initial gameplay is dripping with Remedy style, and anyone who is a fan of the first game’s supernatural, imposing architecture will be blown away with the second game. The design language of The Oldest House has essentially been translated to Manhattan, giving the team at Remedy much more room to be creative and outlandish with how it moulds the city.

“We understand the desire to do something new with a sequel, but The Oldest House was such a well-realised and deep location to explore in the first game, we hope the sections of Manhattan that are found in Control Resonant offer the same rewarding exploration,” Kasurinen said.

“There was also great joy in  Control in finding random notes in offices, and walking around what was a fairly pedestrian office block, tinged with the supernatural. We hope the second game maintains that juxtaposition.”

Control Resonant hangs on whether or not players will take to Dylan as a protagonist in the same way they did to Jesse in the first game. Remedy has a huge amount of credit in the bank for crediting memorable, engaging and unique single-player experiences, so we’re excited to see more of the game.

It’s a bold choice throwing away so much of what fans loved about the first game, but if there’s a studio we’d trust to make that call, it’s Remedy.

Control Resonant is scheduled to be released in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, and Mac via Steam and the App Store.