You could know the what of something forever and never discover the why.” For everything we’ve said about Control, Alan Wake, and the Remedy-verse as a whole, I can’t think of a more fitting Jeff VanderMeer quote because the what and why feel virtually joined at the hip. Seven years after the release of Remedy’s stunning action-adventure; three years after its captivating survival horror; and now, just days before the launch of Control Resonant, its most ambitious game to date, we still don’t know exactly what’s going on or why. Of course, that is one of the biggest appeals – the excitement preceding the mystery.
Let’s start with what we know before the game’s launch. Dylan Faden, former Prime Candidate turned mass murderer/Hiss host, awakens from a seven-year coma. He sees a Manhattan that’s suffering from a paranatural catastrophe. The Hiss, contained within the Oldest House for so long, has been set free. The Mold is doing Mold things, which means propagating uncontrollably. And then there are the Resonants – paranatural entities which formed somehow. Why and to what end?
That’s probably one of the questions that Dylan and the Federal Bureau of Control have to solve. Given everything that’s happened between the two, you wouldn’t think this to be an easy alliance at all. Remedy recently put up an image on Twitter of Dylan with the words “Murderer,” “Freak”, and “Labrat” written on it. In case that last line of “You killed my friends,” wasn’t obvious enough, the developer spells it out: “Not everyone in the FBC is a fan of Dylan Faden.” That includes Security Chief Simon Arish. Despite his “coolness under pressure,” he’s also been deeply affected by the Hiss Invasion and doesn’t trust Dylan.
What about those on his side (or appear to be)? We know about Emily, who’s now the acting co-director, and Zoe de Vera, an agent who doesn’t know about what happened in the Oldest House and must now deal with the consequences. We know that she stays in touch with Dylan during his forays across Manhattan, and their relationship seems cordial. At least for now.
But then even more questions. Why is Emily the “acting co-director”? Well, it’s because the director and Dylan’s sister, Jesse, has gone missing. Based on footage so far, especially for the Metro Fault, she apparently had an inkling something was coming, even if she couldn’t exactly decipher what. It’s clear she left the FBC to try and deal with it, but aside from these sequences where she and Dylan seemingly come close to interacting, we don’t know what that something is. One thing is for sure: When Jesse woke her brother, it wasn’t so that he could help, but instead, to run. From the FBC? From what’s coming? She didn’t exactly say.
That’s not even getting into the Fault itself, which seems to exist in a different plane. We see Dylan interacting with a game console and TV set to access further areas of the first Fault – it’s set up among a bed, gift-wrapped presents, and snacks. And no, we can’t explain the golden leaves, or the odd, eyeball-looking object in the distance. Which bears a pretty strong resemblance to the vision from The Lake House.
So what is it? Perhaps The Patterning. Art director Elmeri Raitanen told IGN that it’s a new paranatural threat, transforming the cityscape into this “weird algorithmic pattern.” Unsurprisingly, it’s also connected to the Resonants, who he notes to be “former persons of power at some sort of a focal point or an anchor point of this localized patterning. So this poor person somehow becomes amalgamated into their surroundings as well. So it’s not just the person, but becomes part of the environment.”
That would certainly explain the Deserter, who’s fought inside of a factory going haywire. The magma and pipes have seemingly fused with its entire being, expanding into one giant monstrous form. But the implication seems to be that this wasn’t done on purpose – instead, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ended up patterned.
However, we’ve also seen a Resonant, including the first that Dylan fights – the Medusa head-like entity that hurls rocks and cars at him – killing the Hiss. “The FBC doesn’t officially endorse the saying, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Zoe says over the radio. When they met face to face earlier, she also commented on how whatever this Altered World Event is, it’s stopping the Hiss. It’s also causing pockets of the city to disappear. Roads leading to voids with seemingly no end. Regardless, that would explain why the Hiss can’t spread any further and remain confined to Manhattan, inadvertently preventing an even bigger catastrophe.
That said, we don’t know if the Patterning – if that is indeed the same AWE that Zoe was referring to – is what’s responsible. It could just be another entity that’s doing its thing, creating Resonants and trying to spread its influence.
Which makes predicting what could happen much more challenging. One would think that Remedy is focusing on Dylan because it wants to present more of his story. After all, we don’t know much about how the FBC took him away or even what his childhood was like (which is much the same for Jesse). Part of me believes that this is being done to prepare for the future, and that maybe Jesse might meet her end, leaving Dylan to pick up the pieces. Perhaps that’s one of the more difficult decisions he has to make: Save Manhattan and thus the world, or his sister.
However, part of me is willing to believe that it isn’t quite that simple, even if Remedy outright said that Dylan would “Forge new connections, confront the deeds of his past and make impossible choices that will decide the fate of humanity.” At the very least, and based on that more recent image, we’ll see him dealing with the fallout from his Hiss-possessed days. Which should be even more interesting because he’s battling the entity head-on. How would it answer that, if it could at all?
Once again, too many questions, the what and why not neatly resolving themselves as one would like (and that doesn’t even come close to asking what Aberrant, Dylan’s weapon, even is). Even if Control Resonant is Remedy’s biggest game yet, you have to wonder how many narrative threads it’s really willing to tie up, and how many it wants to leave open for future titles. Nothing says the Hiss, the Patterning, or even the Mold need to be completely resolved, and everyone must have a happy ending (though it wouldn’t hurt for some). Because for the most part, that’s not what the franchise is about.
Instead, it’s about control, the lack thereof, the lengths its characters go to maintain it, and the deadly fallout from when they fail. With this new open-ended world, freedom is introduced as another core element, one inherently unique to Dylan, who’s remained locked away for the majority of his life. Will he embrace it and leave the FBC behind? Will he remain a slave to the past or overcome it? He’s already lived long enough to become the villain – is his next step to die as a hero? We’ll find out when Control Resonant launches on September 24th.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
