adminControl Resonant takes the series beyond the enclosed corridors of The Oldest House and into an expansive version of Manhattan. With Dylan Faden able to move quickly, fight at close range and walk on walls by changing gravity, the game’s designers faced a central challenge: how to guide players without limiting their freedom.
Senior level designer Arhi Makkonen, who joined Remedy in 2018 during the final year of the first Control’s development, describes the sequel’s setting as the studio’s biggest world to date. Its open layout called for a different approach to building spaces, directing movement and helping players understand where they can go.
Image credit: Remedy Entertainment
How Control Resonant balances freedom and direction
The first Control takes place largely indoors. Its levitation ability gives players a new way to move, but ceilings and enclosed rooms naturally shape the space. Control Resonant shifts that design problem outdoors, where the team can create much greater vertical distances and encourage Dylan to move across streets, rooftops and walls.
That freedom makes it harder to lead players through a planned sequence. A route might be designed to take Dylan along a street before bringing him back across the rooftops, but his movement abilities can let him bypass that path. Rather than block every alternative, the design principle is to preserve as much player choice as possible.
For players, that means exploration is not limited to a single intended route. When entering a new area, take note of prominent locations and nearby points of interest; they can suggest a direction while leaving room to explore elsewhere.
“As much as possible, we want to have freedom.”
Using landmarks and colour to navigate
Control Resonant’s Manhattan is divided into zones, each with its own atmosphere and visual identity. Landmarks and strong colour palettes help distinguish places such as the park, the evacuation zone and central areas. The goal is for players to recognise where they are from the surrounding environment, rather than relying on a map at every turn.
The world opens up for exploration after the first couple of hours. Players can then approach the city’s zones in different orders, choosing between the main campaign and optional activities. In playtests, some players have focused on the main story, while others have spent many hours exploring side content before starting the main quest.
Distinctive colours can be a useful orientation cue when moving between open areas. If the scenery changes noticeably, it may signal that you have entered a different zone with its own locations and activities.
Image credit: Remedy Entertainment
Gravity-defying level design
Dylan can alter gravity in some locations and walk up walls, making it important for the game to communicate which surfaces are accessible. Makkonen says the team adopted a straightforward guiding idea: if a surface looks walkable, players should generally be able to walk on it.
Making that expectation work took repeated prototyping and adjustments. A surface that appears accessible can also give players a way to leave the intended boundaries of a level. Designers and artists worked together to refine elements such as their height and the placement of walkable surfaces, aiming to make movement feel natural while keeping the world legible.
When exploring, look for surfaces that appear continuous and reachable, but remember that gravity-shifting movement is available only in certain places. Visual clarity matters: the design aims to make accessible routes easier to read without removing the possibility of discovery.
A new combat style for Dylan
Control Resonant also introduces a stronger emphasis on melee combat, a first for Remedy. Dylan is intended to feel distinct from Jesse Faden while still belonging in the Control universe. His Aberrant weapon can change form, including into a hammer or blades, and his abilities are designed to support a faster, more aggressive style.
The original Control has sold around 7.6 million units, while Alan Wake 2 has reached three million lifetime sales. After the release of Alan Wake 2 and FBC: Firebreak, Makkonen says he is proud of how the sequel’s world has come together.
What Control Resonant’s world design means for players
Control Resonant combines open-ended exploration with visual guidance: landmarks, distinct zone colours and readable surfaces help players orient themselves, while Dylan’s movement abilities offer room to experiment. For players, the practical approach is to use those environmental cues as suggestions, not restrictions. The result is a world designed to support both focused story progress and a more exploratory journey through Manhattan.
Arhi Makkonen | Image credit: Arhi Makkonen
