‘Control Resonant' is ‘the Biggest Game We've Ever Made,' says Remedy
“Control Resonant” ranks amongst the most surreal games I’ve ever played.
Less than 20 minutes into my hands-on demo with developer Remedy in London, I’m battling a giant disembodied head whose main attack consists of hurling yellow taxi cabs at me.
According to lead gameplay designer Sergey Mohov, it only gets weirder from here.
“I think the bus is my favorite,” Mohov says of the possessed public transportation I encounter soon after. “We did several iterations of that…and then there are seats, and the passengers are merged with the seats and they are being thrown at the player, and the player has to deal with that.”
In “Control Resonant,” you play as Dylan Faden. He’s the brother of the first game’s lead character, Jesse, and what’s known as a parautilitarian. That means he can sprint at superhuman speeds, summon stray shards of metal to use as melee weapons, triple jump, and even walk on walls.
His gravity-defying powers are put to creative use during another section called ‘The Sinkhole’, in which I battle supernatural entities called the Hiss across a maze of apartment buildings that stretch out in all directions. Using L1, you can stick to walls and ceilings as the camera reorientates itself. Despite the initial dizziness, movement is impressively slick and responsive.
Combat is equally freeform, and Remedy has dialed up your powers for the sequel.
As Mohov says, “I don’t think there are a lot of games out there that are melee-focused, but also push-forward at the same time. That very rarely is the case that you kind of need to go after the enemy. Usually, they come to you, and it was the biggest challenge on a design side for us to make it so that you’re motivated to go after the enemies and you’re feeling powered.”
“The main thing that changes after like ten to fifteen hours is that you get a lot more synergies between different parts of your build. We have this pretty big talent tree, and every node in the tree you will feel in your second-to-second game. And then once you combine those options from the talents, with the weapon upgrades and the charms and the other kinds of parts of your build, you will start seeing patterns.”
The most memorable moment of the demo, though, doesn’t come from combat. Trapped in an endlessly repeating cycle of the same apartment, I follow the haunting trail of a song emanating from hundreds of TVs replicating across a rapidly crumbling reality.
Suddenly, a lone corridor leads to a precipice, beyond which the same layout now expands on all sides of me like the inside of a massive cube. It’s a monumental sight, one that recalls the iconic ending of director Chris Nolan’s “Interstellar.”
If just one demo contains all this, it’s exciting to think what awaits us across the next 50-60 hours of gameplay.
‘Control Resonant’ Release Date
“Control Resonant” releases Sep. 24 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 3:34 PM.