Launching seven years after the original, you’d think I could wait a few weeks more for Remedy’s Control Resonant. But a new interview with WCCFTech has reignited my interest, confirming what the developer previously indicated regarding the Resonants, the de facto bosses throughout Manhattan.
For those keeping score, many of these threats are optional, per director Mikael Kasurinen, and you can fight them out of order after the opening hours. Which wouldn’t make much sense if the world itself didn’t massively open up in the same time frame, but that is indeed the case, as confirmed by senior level designer Arhi Makkonen.
“After the first sections of the game, maybe one or two hours in, we open up the world, and we open it up in a big way with multiple zones. After that, players go and explore whatever feels most exciting to them. They can do a little bit in one zone and then jump to another one and find this and this and this.
“They can decide whether they want to do more of the main quest and go with the main story, or do more of the side quests, or find the other living world activities. There’s a lot of player freedom in where to go and when.” He also noted that the side quests are “quite crazy in themselves.”
“They’re narrative-heavy and surprising, and there’s a lot happening in them. That’s like the first game, where some of the side content was almost crazier than the main quests. So I think they’re all quite equally full of interesting stuff to find.” And while there may be some imbalances in main vs side content – with Makkonen noting that “Some zones might have more main quests than others, and some might have more side content to explore” – you can expect “roughly an equal amount” in all of them.
But this isn’t an open-world game, a fact that Remedy has stated several times. So if you’re expecting something like a day-night cycle, it’s not here. Don’t worry, though – they still have “different weather and even a different time of day.” “That’s part of the lore, that the zones actually have their own. They always stay the same, so they’re not passing during the game. It’s fixed,” says Makkonen.
Perhaps this has something to do with The Patterning, the other paranatural threat affecting the city alongside The Hiss and The Mold. We already know zones will level up as you slay Resonants, changing the threats, so your playthrough on one path could vastly differ from another player’s.
Control Resonant launches on September 24th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. The story is about 30 hours to complete, but those who want to complete everything should be prepared to invest about 50 hours or more.
