The curse of freedom
Creating a game to a sequel that many consider a studios greatest achievement to date, must be a daunting task.
The assignment: Take perfection and push it to the next level.
What we got is more. More content, more story, more combat, more everything. Break free from the shakles of the oldest house, send the Hiss out in the world and take the protagonist with them. And herein lies the problem. We won freedom, but we lost focus.
Control Resonant lets us experience Controls mysteries in an open world Manhattan. This also means, as is expected, that this open world needs to be filled with something, or traversing it would feel empty.
Remedys answer: Side activitiest. Find a toy for a dog here, create as setpiece for your drawing there and of course meet npcs for some side quests that usually involve finding something or somone at the other end of the map. and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.... Control Resonant unfortunatley features the dullest and most repetitious open world side activities I have seen in a long time.
Almost each zone has the same dejavu-inducing tasks to complete and the formula rarley changes. Even Dylans voice lines repat depending on the task. So even Remedy fell into the trap of creating an open world filled with dull busy work, which even include the dreaded "activate tower to reveal map" activities.
Alright, no side questing then. What about the combat ? Combat...has...changed. For the better ? Well that depends on you prefrences. There is one thing that can undoubtedly be said about Control Resonants combat. It's fun.
The new focuse lies in melee combat. Gone are the guns, bring in the scythes, hammers and knifes. Dylan is fast, the combat is brutal, feels weighty and oh so satisfying. All this topped off with absolutley insane finishers that never get old.
So what's the trade off. Well a few things actually. First: Overview. Control Resonant constantly throws, sometimes massive, groups of enemies at you. Tank-like enemies, paired with squishy cannonfodder, flying healers, hitscan enemies on land and air and so on. While this keeps the combat engaging, it also makes it impossible to have everything in view. Remember, this is close quarter combat. So Dylan might be throwing some massive combos at a tank, only to get shot at from significant distance by an enemy sitting on a random roof. Remedy tried to mitigate that by giving you markers when something off screen hit's you. In the heat of battle easy to overlook. Also, some attack animations are impossible to read. Especially when you fight red hiss enemies against a similarly red background.
While Control 1s combat was more about positioning, C:Resonant seems to focus on one tactic only: Do as much damage as you can, as fast as possible to not get overwhelmed. This keeps the dopamine flowing, but gets rid of most of the strategic thinking. Combat, for me atleast, can be summed up as follows: That's your level, these are the stats/skills that (some passivley) affect your combat abilities, there is the enemy. Now go at it, turn your brain off and watch your build in action. Fun, but not deep.
Alright, let's slow down and soak in the atmosphere of the world atleast. Manhattan looks stunning and truly is one of the more beautiful open world playgrounds in recent memory. But While the city itself could have benefitted from a more handcrafted approach (Buildings, interiors, subways and rooftops look to much the same), areas of the main questline more than make up for this.
Here is where Remedies true genius shines trough. Words can not describe the amount of care that went into some of the main-questline"levels". A subway where trains shoot through the air, a giant drill that drills through a building (With you on it !!!), a MC Esher like maze of appartments you have to find your way out of, a creepy theater and so on. Those are the definite highlight of the game and alone worth the purchase.
And, once again, Remedy excels at organincally incorporating a wonderful soundtrack into the games many highlights. Those that remember the Maze in C1 or the stage fight in Alan Wake will know exactly what I'm talking about. You get many great moments like these here.
So, bottom line. Control Resonant is a very good game held back by the unnecessary need to be forced into an open world. Traversing it might be fun, but interacting with it is not. Its sole purpose is to stretch game time and create artificial grind.
Control 1 was a game tightly crafted to perfection, while Control Resonant chose to hide it's true meat behind a curtain of interchangable fluff.
I rather would have had one perfectly cooked meal served on a silver platter, than to be forced to eat my way through a buffet of mediocrity just to find the main dish.
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