A Sequel That Doesn't Ask You to Do Homework
Control Resonant, the upcoming follow-up to Remedy Entertainment's acclaimed 2019 supernatural thriller, is being designed so players can jump in without ever having touched the original game — and after a recent hands-on preview, it's clear Remedy has pulled off something genuinely clever.
Chronologically, Resonant takes place after the events of Control. But according to creative director Mikael Kasurinen, the games are less a direct continuation and more "two sides of the same coin" — sharing a universe, a tone, and a set of strange rules about how reality works, while telling largely independent stories.
What Makes This Work
When Resonant was first announced, the promise that you could play it in any order raised obvious questions. Control's narrative is deeply weird and layered — full of cryptic documents, dimensional anomalies, and bureaucratic horror. How do you make a sequel accessible to someone who has never heard of the Federal Bureau of Control?
After spending over two hours with the opening act and a later story mission, the answer becomes clear: Resonant isn't built around what happened in the first game. It's built around the feeling of that game — the sense of discovery, the paranoia, the way ordinary spaces twist into something menacing.
The new protagonist enters Remedy's world cold, the same way a first-time player would. The environmental storytelling does heavy lifting. The game trusts you to piece things together rather than dumping a recap on you.
The Remedy Formula, Refined
Remedy has been quietly building one of the more ambitious connected universes in gaming — one that spans Control, Alan Wake 2, and now Resonant. What's notable is how deliberately they've avoided making that connectivity a barrier to entry.
Easter eggs and crossover references reward returning players without gating comprehension behind them. Resonant seems to follow this same philosophy, layering in connective tissue for fans while keeping the core story self-contained enough to feel complete on its own terms.
The combat loop carries over familiar elements — telekinesis-forward action, environmental hazards, the satisfying crunch of flinging debris at interdimensional threats — but with enough refinement that it feels fresh rather than like a retread.
Worth Watching
For players who bounced off Control due to its occasionally obtuse storytelling or who simply never got around to it, Resonant looks like a genuinely low-friction entry point into one of gaming's more interesting creative worlds.
And for those who loved the original? The care Remedy is taking to make the sequel welcoming to newcomers doesn't appear to come at the expense of depth. The studio seems to have threaded a difficult needle.
No release date has been confirmed yet, but based on what's been shown so far, Control Resonant is shaping up to be one of the more interesting narrative games of the coming cycle.
Source: The Verge