Control Vs Control: Resonant

What if a gun wasn’t your only weapon? That you had supernatural abilities, too. And despite how superhuman they make you feel, you still feel challenged to survive a constantly shifting, brutalist world. 

Control launched with high praise for its paranormal worldbuilding and design. It’s spooky take on an alternate reality, merged with strange storytelling and navigation, ultimately brought us to the point of a sequel: Control: Resonant.

But what will the sequel do differently? Let’s explore these and more in our Control Vs Control: Resonant article below.

What is Control?

Control is an award-winning third-person action-adventure RPG game launched in 2019 by Remedy Entertainment. It’s playable on last-gen platforms, but is also recently available on current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. 

What is Control: Resonant?

Meanwhile, Control: Resonant is an upcoming sequel to Control that retains the original action-adventure RPG playthrough. It’ll launch sometime in 2026 on current-gen platforms by the same Remedy Entertainment developers and publishers. 

Story

Jumping straight into the story, it’s relatively similar across the two games. Firstly, we followed Jesse Faden, the new Director of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC). Years back, a paranormal event separated Jesse and her brother, and she’s since been looking for him. Her search led her to the FBC, where she quickly began unraveling mysteries and events that turned her entire world upside down.  

Because of all the questions built up throughout the story, you find yourself genuinely invested in finding out the truth. Yet, toward the end, you still remain with lingering questions that oddly don’t feel as annoying as you might think. Control has a way of luring you in right from the start, and keeping you invested, but ultimately loses its plot and impact toward the end.

Control: Resonant, on the other hand, will follow Jesse’s brother, Dylan Faden. Instantly, you’re intrigued about finding out what Dylan must have been up to while his sister was searching for him. Two perspectives, occurring along the same timeline. Funny that Dylan will also be searching for his sister, Jesse. 

Anyway, until the game launches, we can’t really know whether Remedy is able to fix the issues in the first game. Precisely, reconciling all of the questions and mysteries the story builds up into a satisfying conclusion. 

Gameplay

The gameplay is where things get interesting. You not only have a shapeshifting gun in Control, but you can wield superhuman abilities. These help you fight cosmic enemies, but also traverse a constantly shifting “paranatural” environment. Control: Resonant seems to focus more on melee combat as opposed to third-person shooting mechanics. You still retain superhuman abilities, though, including telekinesis, summoning entities, and aggressive melee combos.

Rather than a shapeshifting gun, you’ll now have the Aberrant, which can transform into a blunt force two-handed hammer, blades, a scythe, and even fists. It’ll definitely add more variation to combat, alongside manipulating the environment through kinetic powers. It’s pretty cool actually, where you can lift the debris off the ground and haul it at enemies. But your powers go beyond that, including defying gravity to walk on walls and ceilings, summoning allies, turning enemies into allies like some form of mind control, and even slowing down time momentarily during defense.

What’s Different?

While Control focuses on third-person shooting mechanics, Control: Resonant leans more toward melee action-RPG. Thus, you’ll execute faster–paced melee combos and engage with an aggressive hack-and-slash combat style. The setting also changes from the Oldest House of the FBC Headquarters to the larger, warped city of Manhattan. This means that you’ll likely explore more open spaces and fight in larger battle zones. As for the RPG mechanics, you’ll dive deeper into character progression, unlocking new abilities, upgrading their efficiency, and mastering a go-to play style. 

What’s Similar?

Otherwise, you should still expect non-linear exploration, stumbling across side quests, and discovering hidden areas. There was a lot of back and forth in Control, where you unlocked new abilities and returned to previously inaccessible areas to discover new paths. It did take a minute to kick in, with players easily getting lost in the relatively monotone brutalist architecture. 

With Control: Resonant, the art design will remain relatively the same. Reality is still on the brink of collapse. And you have scenes of floating debris, shifting gravity, and a generally spooky, warped city. Yet, the monotone gray color palette of the first game seems to create room for more color variety in the sequel, especially the zones infected by the Hiss.

Moving from the indoors to the stranger outdoors should create a sense of a bigger scale and experience. Word on the street is that Control: Resonant will elevate the first game’s “action, atmosphere, and mystery into its most ambitious scale yet.” That’s straight from the horse’s mouth.

Verdict: Control Vs Control: Resonant

Control: Resonant is a sequel to Control that promises to be bigger and better. And until it launches, we can’t really know for sure whether Remedy Entertainment delivers. And yet, I have a strong feeling they will (and more). The foundation in the first game is so strong for a genuinely intriguing premise. A warped world that makes you arch your eyebrow up with curiosity and suspicion. 

Even though some gameplay and technical issues rear their ugly heads during your playthrough. For instance, muddy visuals and textures, and too much backtracking. It’s also been said that the art design, though certainly striking and unique, does get boring after a while. Control: Resonant seems to go big, expanding the world with more story, following a new protagonist, and fighting a new supernatural threat. 

From the FBC brutalist skyscraper to the larger Manhattan city, literally tearing apart before you, Control: Resonant definitely sparks an exciting interest in finding out more. Its focus on faster-paced melee combos and more aggressive hack-and-slash gameplay also ignites a burning flame in gamers who love action games. We might only have an announcement trailer on our hands, but come the 2026 launch day, I’m almost certain Control: Resonant will set a new bar for the series.