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Control Resonant's vision of New York resembles that of the Backrooms

We played the opening of the sequel to Control and saw how strange the twisted city of Remedy is.

Remedy Entertainment is taking a very bold approach for the sequel to 2019's Control. Focusing on a new protagonist entering a strange and corrupted version of New York, Control Resonant shifts to a more open action-RPG that dives deep into hard-hitting melee combat. Even though Jesse Faden is no longer the protagonist, his brother's story is off to a gripping start.

Ahead of the final Summer Game Fest 2026 showcase, we visited the offices of Annapurna Pictures (its gaming division is co-financing the sequel with Remedy Entertainment) to play opening hours of Control Resonant. As the next installment in Remedy Connected Universe, Control Resonant is shaping up to be the developers' most expansive game yet, and it boasts an impressive opening act that really sets the tone and weirdness of this high-stakes sequel.

Seven years after the events of Control, we find that the Hiss have broken the containment of The Oldest House and invaded the outer city of Manhattan. With Jesse Faden missing and the remaining FBCs scattered, his brother and powerful supernatural entity, Dylan Faden, leaves The Oldest House for the first time, entering a hostile and twisted world torn apart by The Hiss. Teaming up with the remaining agents and the mysterious force known as The Board, Dylan decides to find his sister by pushing his supernatural powers to the limit to deal with Hiss's onslaught and prevent them from escaping into the outside world.

Control Resonant is a clear departure from the more enclosed spaces of the original Control and Jesse's story. There's this lingering feeling of disappointment that Jesse is no longer the protagonist, given that she was a compelling and sympathetic character to go on this strange journey with. Still, Dylan's perspective as someone thrust into a more hostile world and learning to regain his humanity provides an interesting narrative backbone for the sequel. Since my hands-on time, which really immersed me in the unfolding of Dylan's story about finding a path to the outside world, I found myself more drawn to the setup of the sequel.

Compared to the original, Control Resonant takes a more impactful, high-flying approach to combat and exploration. Since we're outside the realm of The Oldest House and on the wide-open streets of Manhattan, Dylan has a lot more room to jump and dash through the city in a fun way. When I spoke with art director Elmeri Raitanen, he said that Hiss's transformation of Manhattan into a corrupted landscape was about bringing a Remedy twist to a familiar setting.

Exploring Manhattan in my time was both strange and exciting. It feels like a mix of films like Inception and Everything Everywhere All at Once, with Manhattan loaded with enemies and other oddities to find. All this while seeing the familiar streets and iconography of New York distorted in bizarre ways. With Resonant's Manhattan fragmented into several explorable areas and its cityscape distorted almost beyond recognition, it feels like a living alien landscape that loosely mimics the look of New York. It's a very distinct departure from the brutalist architecture and mundane aesthetic of the original office, but one that really appealed to me.

Unlike the original action shooter, Resonant's melee combat takes place in more chaotic, large-scale engagements. The action style is more in the vein of Devil May Cry or Nier Automata, which is a significant departure from Control. Dylan's main weapon is the Aberrant - an object of power that resembles a construction tool - which transforms into weapons such as twin blades, gauntlets, a scythe and a large hammer.

It's a strange concept, but a really cool one, for a weapon system that fits well into Control's strange new tone. As you develop Dylan's skills, he can switch between weapon forms in combat with his primary, secondary, and combo-ending moves. What makes it really interesting is that you can fully customize which weapons you want in your attack flow, and I was able to pull off some really wild combos against the Hiss. When firing at full blast, Dylan is a very fast and agile fighter who can launch into the Hiss very quickly, and it was fun tearing through enemies with the bizarre all-in-one weapon.

Control Resonant also goes further into the realm of an RPG compared to its predecessor. In addition to increasing your movement, you can also apply status effects on enemies to really tear through crowds of enemies. I admit that it initially took me a while to understand the system, given the amount of skill trees and perks to go through to increase Dylan's abilities. However, it really clicked for me in the latter sections of this preview, once again Dylan's skills came into play.

Set in a section called The Sinkhole, I had to explore the corrupted underground of Manhattan, which led to an area filled with Hiss and elite monsters. This fight sequence is where the melee action really came together for me. I had some difficulty surviving during fights since the Hiss are much more aggressive and Dylan's health can drop quickly, but I was able to turn things around by taking advantage of finishing moves and additional combat abilities that ignite enemies to deal burn damage. When fully engaged, the combat is fierce and very intense, and I really enjoyed seeing how far I could push Dylan's abilities.

Despite the emphasis on combat in the preview, my favorite sections of the game were the more story-driven sequences with Dylan. As he tackles his place outside of The Oldest House, he slips into the very familiar Control-style surrealism that places you in bizarre settings – and they still continue to impress. The premiere ended with Dylan escaping a twisty underground apartment complex that quickly transformed into a very Backrooms mega-complex. It felt similar to Control's infamous Ashtry Maze, and I was very happy to see the game stay true to these visually stunning spectacle moments.

From the opening hours, it's clear that Control Resonant is going in a different direction from the original. I suspect many fans will find this a sticking point, since Jesse's story and the measured pace of the original created a more mysterious adventure. Still, Control Resonant is very much a control game, and developer Remedy's vision of an open-ended RPG is one that I find truly captivating with its Neon Genesis Evangelion-inspired style of storytelling that puts Dylan front and center. It's a bold change for the series, but one I'm very excited to see play out on a large scale.