I’ve just attended this year’s edition of Gamecom Latam, the South American equivalent (albeit in a smaller scale) to the European gaming juggernaut that will happen later this year, and had the opportunity of a lifetime to talk about Control Resonant, sequel to the magnificent Remedy Entertainment game released in 2019, with its director, Mikael Kasurinen.

In this brief chat, we talked about Control Resonant‘s development process, how it properly ties to its predecessor, the challenges Mr. Kasurinen and the folks at Remedy had when creating their first melee-based action game (yep, that’s a first for the company as a whole), and more. We still don’t have a proper release date for it (Remedy has limited to saying it is a 2026 release, which is reassuring, at least), but this little chat was enough to make us look forward to it even more than before. Let’s get to it.
EXPECT SPOILERS FOR 2019’S CONTROL. IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED IT YET (YOU SHOULD)

WTMG: For starters, we’d like to know the main premise behind Control Resonant. What can be said about the game’s setting and starting point? Now that we play as Jesse’s brother, Dylan, how much time has passed after the events of the first game?

Mikael Kasurinen: So it’s been seven years since the events of the previous game, and it all is set in motion when Jesse suddenly leaves. And nobody knows why and they set up in the previous game, that Jesse is the one who is powering the lockdown keeping the Hiss inside the Old House. If she’s not there, the lockdown falls apart, so when she leaves, all the things inside do as well, and everything else gets released into the outside world. So that’s what happens, right in the beginning of the game, and at the same time, Dylan wakes up and starts to understand what the hell is going on. He senses that Jesse is nearby, and he goes outside, trying to look for Her. That’s basically the setup.

With Control Resonant, the franchise now reaches the third completely different gameplay structure in the same shared world. Is that an intentional decision by Remedy, to tell connected stories through different gameplay styles and points of view?

MK: I think it goes in the way that we want to make interesting experiences. We want to do bold distinctive games that people are excited to play, and so everything is intentional in that sense. Did we think that, ten years ago, we’d be doing exactly what we’re doing now? Of course not, it’s all based on what I’m being excited about at the moment, what we think is the right direction, as we know there is an audience for this type of game, and so on. But we also put our own excitement into the mix, as in, “what do we really want to do” as well.

A much larger world in terms of scope, but not a sandbox per se. A smart idea, if you ask me.

Control Resonant is the first game by Remedy focused on melee combat, and not the traditional third-person shooting mechanics we saw in games like Max Payne, Alan Wake, Control and Quantum Break. How much of a challenge was making your first action game, and were there any games you drew inspiration from in the design process?

MK: Yes, this is our first time doing melee. I mean, we’ve had simple things in the past, like Jesse being able to punch people, but that was about it. This was a big challenge for us, obviously, but it’s also kind of the whole point of having an interesting sibling character who has their own identity and voice. We wanted a clear distinction between how Jesse handles situations and how Dylan approaches them. So this was a clear step in a direction we were excited about. We made that decision early on, once we felt confident we could actually pull it off. A lot of thought always goes into decisions like that.

I think it also ties back to something we discovered early on while working on Control. From the beginning, we wanted the experience to be less about hiding behind cover. Even with Jesse, it was challenging to encourage players not to fall into that pattern. Our goal was to push players to be aggressive, to take the fight to the enemy, use your powers, and stay active. The issue is, once you give someone a gun, their instinct is often to hide behind cover and play it safe.

So early on in development, we saw that behavior emerge. We spent a lot of time designing mechanics that encourage movement; constant traversal through space. We wanted players to feel active; not staying in one place, but moving, using their gun, using their abilities, and taking advantage of mechanics such as levitation.

That’s when the game is at its most fun. When designing enemies, we focused less on one-on-one encounters and more on groups, different types of enemies working together in a space. The challenge is figuring out how to use your abilities and positioning to deal with that group effectively. Enemies can be brutal – they move a lot, and the environment itself becomes a kind of an unpredictable sandbox. That chaos is part of the fun. It’s not about methodically defeating one enemy at a time. While you’re focused on one target, another might be attacking you from the side, and you need to react quickly.

That philosophy was already present in Control, and now we’re pushing it even further. For example, we’ve introduced elements like gravity shifting, where enemies can stand on walls and use altered gravity themselves. The environments are highly vertical, and Dylan can take advantage of that, too. Dylan also has a range of abilities that work at both distance and close range, including melee combat. It creates a very dynamic – and honestly quite complex – sandbox.

To me, there really isn’t another game doing exactly what we’re doing. Melee-focused games, for example, often revolve around one-on-one encounters, with systems like parrying. That’s not our approach. Our design is all about motion, movement, and handling multiple threats at once. Every combat encounter is almost like its own puzzle. Of course, we still have boss fights, but they follow the same overall philosophy.

With its predecessor being claustrophobic, inside of a single building, was the decision of making Resonant be set in larger areas an intentional decision to do the complete opposite of what the first game had to offer?

MK: Well, in a way, yes, honestly. When I look at these two games, I see them as siblings. They’re two sides of the same coin. There’s a kind of yin-yang dynamic between them: each has its own style and attitude, but they also move in opposite directions.

What I mean by that is this: the first game begins with Jesse. She’s been out in the world trying to figure out what happened to her brother. She eventually discovers the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, where Dylan was taken to when he was ten. By the time the game starts, she’s already walked through the front doors and entered this strange world, leaving New York behind. From there, the experience is all about being inside the Oldest House: this oppressive, unfamiliar environment that looks like a bureaucratic office, but is actually something far stranger, almost like another dimension. Jesse gradually learns about this world, the Bureau, and everything connected to it. Eventually, she finds her brother, but he’s been taken over. By the end, Dylan is incapacitated and ends up in a coma.

There’s a kind of poetic shift in their positions. In the second game, we start with Dylan. He’s lived his entire life inside the Oldest House. Since being taken at age ten, he’s never experienced the outside world – no parents, no friends, no normal life. He’s never really had any control over his own existence. So for him, the outside world is what feels strange. The Oldest House is home, that’s what’s normal. As the journey begins, we essentially do the opposite of the first game. We start from Dylan’s perspective.

We begin inside the Oldest House, and one of the first things we do is walk through those same doors, but in the opposite direction, out into the outside world that we left behind in the first game. It’s about creating a sense that the two experiences complete each other. Together, they form a larger picture. Dylan, much like Jesse, is an outsider, but in a different way. Jesse didn’t understand the Bureau or these strange forces. For Dylan, all of that is normal. What’s unfamiliar to him is the real world. So again, it’s about flipping everything, turning the perspective upside down, almost literally.

That’s the core idea. These two games belong together. They complement each other, but they also stand on their own, and that balance is important.

Remedy wants you to be more aggressive in Control Resonant.

How open-ended are the maps in Resonant?

MK: This is probably the most open game we’ve ever made, but I wouldn’t call it an open-world game. That’s not what we set out to do. For us, it’s about creating a world that tells a story. Every location should feel meaningful, it should have a reason to exist and serve the narrative.

Open-world games often focus on massive environments where things simply exist for the sake of scale. But those environments don’t always communicate how everything is connected. We wanted something different: a world where the environment itself reflects the story. We approached it similarly to Control. In that game, every sector inside the Oldest House had its own identity. You had the Research Sector, driven by Dr. Casper Darling and his experiments, alongside areas like Containment, Maintenance, and Executive, for instance.

Now, when you step into Manhattan in this new game, it’s not like something such as Marvel’s Spider-Man. It’s not a tourist-style open world where you just explore landmarks like the Statue of Liberty. Instead, it’s a world that has been warped by supernatural forces. The city is being distorted, almost patterned or reshaped, sometimes even turned upside down. That transformation directly affects how the world looks and behaves. On top of that, different forces have invaded it, like a mold. There’s also this idea that everything is contained within a kind of “bubble” over Manhattan, preventing anything from escaping.

Then you have the Federal Bureau of Control entering the scene. Their goal is to control the situation, so they begin dividing the world into contained zones. They build barriers, restrict access, and essentially segment the environment into different areas. Players can move between these zones, but not just in a straightforward way. A big part of the concept is that reality itself has fractured, not only in terms of space, but also time. For example: one zone might always be set during nighttime. Weather conditions can differ drastically. Time itself can behave unpredictably. Gravity can be altered.

So it’s a much more fundamental breakdown of reality. The world is split into these distinct “bubbles,” each with its own rules, and each offering unique experiences. Within those zones, there’s a lot of player choice and agency. You can take on different types of missions and activities, while the main campaign guides you through these various areas over time.

Just like how the original Control also had some mini quests, besides the main campaign, right?

MK: I’d say yes, even though it may feel like there are a lot of new elements in Resonant, the core structure – the “bones” – are still very much the same as in the previous game. We’ve simply changed the terminology: instead of “sectors,” we now call them “zones.” The setting is different, yes, but fundamentally, it’s still a Control-style experience. That’s been the intent from day one.

Expect improvements on Remedy’s signature Northlight Engine.

Control Resonant was somewhat initially teased in a cutscene in Alan Wake 2. Considering the shared universe between the two franchises, will players need to play, not only the original Control (as to be expected), but also its expansions and Alan Wake in order to properly jump into Resonant?

MK: No, you can jump in and just have fun. You’ll be able to understand the character’s motivations, and I think that’s been the goal with every Control-style game we’ve made. Jesse enters the Oldest House as an outsider, and the player experiences that alongside her. Everything that’s new to her is also new to the player.

Dylan, on the other hand, has been in a coma for seven years. He doesn’t know what’s happened, he doesn’t know what’s going on with Jesse, or about recent events. He’s never experienced the outside world in a meaningful way, so when he steps out into New York, it’s entirely new to him. As a player, you get to experience that discovery together with him.

Of course, if you’re curious, you’ll learn more about what happened in the past—but you don’t need to have played the previous game to follow this one. That said, if you are interested in Jesse’s origin story, how she became Director of the Federal Bureau of Control, you can always go back and play Control. It adds more depth to the overall picture. For players who are already familiar with the previous games and love the story, this one will reward that investment.

The payoff comes from exploring questions you may have had before, like wondering about the story behind something you encountered in an earlier game. We often try to provide context through documents, dialogue, or environmental storytelling, but sometimes you only get part of the picture. In another game, you might actually get to experience those events directly. And that, in itself, is really valuable.

With Resonant being set in more open spaces, and with Remedy using a proprietary engine (Northlight), were tweaks to your own tech necessary in order to properly render these larger environments? Any other visual enhancements you may want to share?

MK: Yes, we actually had to do a lot of work on the Northlight Engine to support everything we wanted to achieve with Resonant. Handling all the trees, the complexity of the buildings, and the scale of the environments meant we had to rethink how we approached our tools and pipelines. Building the Oldest House was one thing, but this was on a completely different level in terms of what we needed to accomplish.

But because we planned for this early on, thinking about the visual identity of the world and how everything would come together, we were able to develop the right tools to support it. So yes, it was a significant amount of work. And something that’s very important to me personally is performance. Having our own technology allows us to optimize everything more effectively, so we can achieve a stable 60 frames per second. That consistency really matters, it makes the game feel smooth and responsive, and ultimately much more enjoyable to play.

Especially when it’s an action-focused game with a lot of enemies on screen at once…

MK: Yes, there’s a lot of things happening at every single second, and so on. And you need to be able to feel like you’re in… control.