Control Resonant puts Dylan Faden at the center of a major shift for the series, moving control resonant away from Control’s metroidvania-esque shooter structure and into open-world stylish-action. Dylan is searching for Jesse Faden as the Hiss outbreak spills across a New York City folded into interdimensional isolation.
Dylan Faden in the Oldest House
Dylan Faden is Jesse Faden’s brother, and his story carries the weight here. He was the subject of abusive Federal Bureau of Control experiments gone awry, then volunteered to serve the bureau with a shock collar bolted onto the back of his head. That choice gives Control Resonant a harsher starting point than the first game, which released in 2019 and built its appeal on SCP-adjacent mysteries inside the Oldest House.
Seven years have passed since Jesse Faden disappeared, and Dylan is now trying to salvage whatever life he has left while looking for her. The game’s focus on that search gives the sequel a cleaner spine than Control, with the character drama doing the work instead of piling on more mystery for its own sake.
The Hiss and AWEs
The Hiss outbreak is the force that pushes the story outward. The Oldest House could not contain it, so the threat spills into a New York City folded in on itself in interdimensional isolation. That change widens the setting without changing the series’ core idea: paranormal pressure, institutional failure, and characters trapped inside both.
Control Resonant stays conceptually close to Control, but the combat shift is larger than the premise suggests. Dylan uses a melee weapon called the Aberrant, and it automatically changes form depending on the attack string: light combos trigger one form, heavy attacks another, and combo finishers another. The weapon can become a sword, scythe, hammer, or drill, which pushes the game toward a more readable action rhythm than the first game’s shooter structure.
Aberrant Forms and Friction
That action is meant to feel slick and responsive, closer to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, while the platforming and momentum draw comparison to Gravity Rush and NieR: Automata. On paper, that combination fits Dylan’s role better than a conventional shooter would; it turns movement and melee into the main language of the sequel instead of an add-on.
At the same time, the design comes with friction. The game is praised for keeping Control’s conceptual consistency, but the combat is also said to dull over time and to become frustrating in some stretches. For a sequel built on a broader world and a clearer lead, that is the pressure point that matters most: the premise is sharper, but the full-game pacing still has to hold.
That is the real read on Control Resonant now. Dylan Faden gives the series a more direct emotional center, the Aberrant gives it a stronger action identity, and the expanded Hiss outbreak gives it scale. Whether those pieces stay balanced across the full game is the open question hanging over the new direction.
