Look, let's be honest, meeting the game known as Control happened quite recently for this reporter. During a holiday last year, a decision was made to try out games normally ignored, and Control sitting quietly in the library caught the eye. Afterwards, the game was played, and while the universe felt charming, the combat and visual effects that fatigued both eyes and mind left a somewhat disappointing aftertaste.

Naturally, news about the release of its sequel, Control Resonant, sparked a lot of interest. In particular, the genre shifted to an open world, expanding the universe that was already a major strength. Ahead of launch, a preview code was provided by Remedy Entertainment, so the middle of New York's Manhattan, completely swallowed by various paranormal phenomena, was immediately jumped into for some playtime.

The protagonist of Control Resonant is Dylan Faden, the very sibling that the protagonist of the previous game, Jesse Faden, so desperately searched for. Dylan has lived quite a turbulent life, getting swept up in a bizarre incident while living alongside Jesse, and after possessing supernatural powers, effectively getting kidnapped by the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC). Unlike the vague descriptions found in documents from the previous game, this title puts Dylan in the leading role, detailing the experiments performed on him much more thoroughly while letting players hear Dylan's felt emotions through dialogue.

Starting the game, Dylan wakes up with a weapon called Aberrant embedded directly into the body. For some reason, Jesse left the Oldest House and Manhattan, and the Hiss, who were the main antagonists of the previous game, alongside the Mold that made appearances in side quests, are now spreading all over Manhattan. To make matters worse, an Altered World Event (paranormal phenomenon) known as 'Patterning' is taking place, warping the city into bizarre geometric shapes.

Aside from the vanished Jesse, Dylan holds the most powerful supernatural abilities and carries a heavy sense of guilt regarding a tragic accident that occurred during past experiments. Consequently, Dylan hits the streets directly to eliminate the Hiss, the Mold, and a brand-new, powerful supernatural entity called 'Resonant'. Naturally, to keep the somewhat unstable Dylan in check, Joy de Vera—encountered early in the game—hands over a kill switch capable of execution within a minute, effectively taking on the role of a handler.

The overall narrative is considerably easier to grasp compared to the previous entry. In particular, the overall plot is structured so that players can easily immerse themselves in Dylan. Even though Dylan was clearly the victim of harsh experiments and acts out of guilt and good intentions, FBC members other than Joy and Pope treat Dylan like a monster. Of course, this is because Dylan actually caused numerous casualties and served as a primary catalyst for unleashing the Hiss into the world. Still, the realistically portrayed discomfort and disgust from those characters stir up a bit of righteous indignation in the player, pulling them even deeper into the universe.

The supporting ally Joy also greatly assists with immersion. Joy is a tough and lively agent who consistently shows interest and tosses questions to Dylan via walkie-talkie throughout gameplay. When spotting specific locations, Dylan can report back or speak to Joy. This marks a massive narrative and sensory departure from the previous game; unlike Jesse, who practically had to endure all bizarre phenomena alone, the presence of someone constantly talking to Dylan provides a steady sense of stability and a connection to the world throughout the journey.

Unlike its predecessor, Control Resonant implements a world closer to an open-world design. Manhattan is divided into several districts, each showcasing distinct themes and concepts, yet the world itself is seamlessly connected. This adds to the fun of traveling through Control's uniquely charming universe via Dylan. The bizarreness and pressure conveyed through main quests, side quests, and puzzles come as a delightful bonus.

Main quests primarily deal with overarching narrative beats like defeating powerful Resonant enemies or halting the Hiss. First, the goal is to wipe out the Resonants and gather byproducts from the process to craft a powerful weapon that can eradicate the Hiss in one fell swoop. Later on, players tackle incidents arising from using that weapon or face off against newly emerged colossal alien entities. Side quests are mostly tied to paranormal phenomena. Examples include investigating weird occurrences at an excavation site, tracking down locations captured by a time-stopping camera, or boarding a taxi to travel to alternate spaces and solve puzzles.

Additionally, 'Rifts' and the various movement skills acquired within them make exploration far more vibrant and brilliant. Rifts serve as spaces where Jesse and Dylan meet mentally, acting as locations to probe past history and uncover truths about the universe in the process. Entering the first three rifts grants movement abilities, such as brief flights, navigating areas with shifting gravity directions, or dashing to movement points, making them practically essential exploration tools. Even without a vehicle, these supernatural abilities prevent the overall gameplay from ever feeling sluggish.

However, the notoriously convoluted pathfinding criticized in the previous game remains. While indicators point the way during rifts and gravity-shifting platforming puzzles, distinguishing the path already taken from the path ahead can cause players to get lost. With flight incorporated, vertical exploration zones have expanded, and the scope—once limited to the Oldest House—is now much wider, requiring players to comb the entire map thoroughly just to figure out where and how to tackle specific side quests. As a result, the subway rift was only discovered quite late into the playthrough.

The most regrettable element in the previous Control was undoubtedly its combat. Jesse could solve everything using launch mechanics alone—and practically had to. Service weapons saw limited utility late in the game, whereas telekinesis was equally overpowered against every enemy. Control Resonant has firmly fixed this combat balancing. Aberrants remain effective against everyone except specialized foes, while supernatural powers serve a much more supplementary role.

Still, while it is an improvement over its predecessor, overall combat polish is far from flawless. Standard skirmishes only conclude once medium-sized enemies are cleared out; if those medium monsters are left alive, small enemies continuously respawn, and because they possess ranged attacks, the combat drags on and turns tedious. Meanwhile, health recovery is restrictive, requiring players to eliminate foes or acquire related talents. Mid-sized ranged enemies dish out area-of-effect bombardments or possess terrifyingly accurate tracking capabilities, occasionally making combat feel unfair. Furthermore, Aberrant attack styles lack variety, and enemy types are scarce, giving off a somewhat repetitive vibe.

Power scaling progression isn't entirely intuitive either. The melee weapon Aberrant relies on configuring combos by choosing primary, secondary, and finisher forms. Since upgrade trees split for each form, investing heavily in a single weapon seems more efficient, but a system is also tacked on where upgrading any weapon universally boosts base combat power, making things a bit messy. This combines with a system where completing quests raises the level of the 'region' rather than the player, granting buffs along the way and compounding the complexity.

Even amidst all that, the bright spots of combat lie in the control responsiveness, satisfying impact, and boss fights. Dylan Faden is the textbook definition of a character who 'moves precisely as intended.' Rapidly tapping left and right yields responsiveness so sharp that animations break to execute commands smoothly, and the impact feedback and sound effects easily make up for any shortcomings in standard combat fun. Resonant boss battles also deliver entertainment through dodging enemy attacks while flying and jumping around, figuring out patterns that, while not overly complex, pack a punch. The bizarre and uncanny appearances of each Resonant fitting snugly into the universe come as a bonus. Difficulty is well-adjusted; winning on a first blind attempt is tough, but runs rarely required more than six tries.

The core of Control Resonant ultimately lies in its atmospheric depiction of the universe. If the previous Control deeply portrayed a specific brand of bizarreness through the fictional confines of the Oldest House, Control Resonant trades some of that depth for a massive horizontal expansion of the world. Where the predecessor felt like an incident unfolding in an eerie, sequestered space, Control Resonant highlights the sensation of a paranormal phenomenon threateningly merging with everyday life.

This is evident across numerous side and main quests. For instance, the previous game crafted dedicated environments specifically to introduce 'Object of Power' (OOP) puzzles, most notably earning immense praise for the 'Ashtray Maze.' By contrast, Control Resonant lets various paranormal anomalies lie in wait directly out in the city. A baby carriage teleporting and vanishing, or living entities inhabiting the bodies of FBC personnel, pop up inside mundane Manhattan buildings to pile on the weirdness.

In particular, the main storyline where Joy defies superiors to utilize an OOP that plays music, allowing Dylan to escape a sinkhole while listening, delivers staggering quality across its direction, narrative, and sound. Later on, re-entering the sinkhole to explore underground passages and investigate time-related incidents showcases storytelling only possible in Control—evoking a sense of apocalyptic foreshadowing and bizarre yet rule-bound paranormal weirdness without needing excessive exposition.

In short, compared to its predecessor, depth may have dipped slightly, but relative to its overall scale, it still presents an intensely immersive and dense universe. Naturally, with the world being considerably vast, tracking down all these hidden elements is significantly harder than before. Side quest locations are left just as opaque as in the previous title, encouraging players to scour every building and road exhaustively. Of course, for true lovers of the universe, that might just be a blessing in disguise.

Control Resonant stands as a stellar sequel. By tweaking combat and movement, it carves out a clear differentiator from its predecessor while decisively expanding the universe. The open world lets its uniquely bizarre lore stretch out with greater confidence. While combat still leaves room for improvement, the title comes highly recommended for any fan devoted to the universe.