Synopsis

After years held in confinement by the Federal Bureau of Control, Dylan Faden is released by his former captors at the height of a supernatural crisis. A mysterious cosmic entity is rewriting fundamental aspects of reality, and Dylan is deployed to push back against it.

Charged with facing the forces overwhelming Manhattan, Dylan wields newly awakened paranatural powers and a shape-shifting supernatural weapon, the Aberrant, which takes on a variety of melee forms. As he unlocks the full potential of his abilities, he also searches for his sister — FBC Director Jesse Faden — while trying to understand and contain dangers that have escaped the Oldest House and begun tearing the world apart.

The game takes place in a paranaturally altered Manhattan, New York City, sometime after the events of Control. Threats once sealed inside the Oldest House have spilled outward and are reshaping reality on a city-wide scale. Dylan's journey into the outside world mirrors, in reverse, Jesse's journey into the world inside the Oldest House in the first game — CONTROL Resonant is designed as a stand-alone experience built around Dylan's own story.

Gameplay

CONTROL Resonant is an open-ended action-adventure RPG built around player choice: you decide how to play and can tailor combat to your preferred style. It targets fans of narrative-rich action RPGs with mind-bending worlds, atmospheric storytelling and high-intensity supernatural combat. It is not an open-world game, but it is the most expansive game Remedy has produced, with a large open-ended world containing multiple distinct locations.

You play as Dylan Faden, fighting primarily in melee with the Aberrant — described as a crude, shape-shifting weapon with many forms — supported by his paranatural abilities. According to game director Mikael Kasurinen, combat features fast-paced traversal through warped environments, wild and unpredictable enemies, and mind-bending powers and weapons. Enemies are designed with agency to match the player: they move through the same environments, jump or fly between platforms, wield many paranatural attacks, and come in many shapes and sizes.

The game also features human civilians and FBC personnel, plus non-FBC factions attempting to seize control of Manhattan. Equippable apparel is part of the game — players who signed up for Remedy's Control newsletters received two exclusive items at launch, the Communications Department Headset and the Optical Filtering Goggles.

Development

  • June 2021 — Remedy announced an agreement with 505 Games covering FBC: Firebreak (then codenamed Condor) and a bigger-budget Control game to be detailed later.
  • May 2022 — The project surfaced under the codename Heron, described as being in an early concept stage.
  • November 11, 2022 — Heron was revealed as Control 2, to be co-developed and co-published by Remedy and 505 Games, with Mikael Kasurinen returning as director and the Northlight engine carrying over. A piece of concept art, seemingly showing a street outside the Oldest House, was released with the announcement.
  • February 2023 — Then-CEO Tero Virtala confirmed the game had entered proof-of-concept, with detailed concepts for the game vision across gameplay, narrative and art; the sequel would expand the story and world of the original Control.
  • October 31, 2023 — The project remained in proof-of-concept.
  • February 2024 — Remedy acquired full rights to the Control franchise from 505 Games and moved to self-publishing, covering both FBC: Firebreak and Control 2.
  • August 2024 — Remedy partnered with Annapurna Pictures, which funded 50% of Control 2's cost in exchange for rights to expand Remedy's franchises into film and TV.
  • February 2025 — Control 2 entered full production.
  • August 2025 — Development focused on gameplay, environments and missions.
  • December 11, 2025 — Control 2 was publicly revealed as CONTROL Resonant at The Game Awards 2025, alongside its announcement trailer.

Connections and teasers

Remedy seeded hints of the sequel in earlier games:

  • One of the Oceanview Motel door symbols — two broken concentric circles with a line extending from the bottom — is internally named motel_door_symbol_control2_a.tex, suggesting a link to Control 2.
  • In Control (Ultimate Edition, or with both DLCs installed), touching the side of Dylan Faden's cell in Central Executive triggers a secret cutscene: a vision of Dylan intercut with rapidly flashing images, including the New York skyline bathed in the Hiss's red shade. It unlocks only after fully clearing the game — all missions, all collectibles and all outfits across the base game and both DLCs, including the secret cat ears in The Foundation.
  • In The Lake House, the second expansion of Alan Wake 2, another hidden scene with Dylan shows further glimpses of paranaturally altered New York City alongside the Control 2 door symbol.

Logos, the 2022 announcement concept art and the Oceanview Motel "control2" symbol are collected in the gallery below.

CONTROL Resonant logo, white CONTROL Resonant logo, black Concept art from the 2022 announcement The "control2" Oceanview Motel door symbol