Control Resonant has been a long time coming. The sequel to 2019’s Control revisits a world where the supernatural force of nature known as the Hiss threatens the entire world. While the last game was a third-person shooter that gave players certain abilities as Jesse, the highly anticipated sequel shifts its focus to her brother, Dylan.
Let loose in a New York City crumbling under the weight of Hiss corruption, Dylan throws himself into a mission to restore the world and find out what happened to his sister. The game plays completely differently from the original, with an action-packed combat approach that delivers some riveting (and grisly) fight scenes.
During an interview with Control Resonant Creative Director Mikael Kasurinen and star Sean Durrie, Screen Rant got the chance to discuss how the sequel has evolved from the previous game, what it means to move Dylan into the spotlight, and why they’re excited that gamers are finally getting the chance to play the game.
Dylan Is In Control Now
Control Resonant is a significant departure from the previous game in both gameplay and tone. For that reason, I asked what the biggest lessons of Control that impacted the sequel were. Kasurinen responds:
“I think we looked at the overall journey through the Oldest house, and it can be, let’s say, a brutalist and oppressive space. We wanted [Control Resonance] to be something that feels bigger than it would look from the outside. It feels like this rich, colorful world, but there’s a limit to how far you can go within that actual space. How much sense of space can you have in that kind of location? That’s something that we wanted to take a next step with.”
“When you look at Control Resonance, going into the outside world and having a better sense of the structure of the place around you, knowing how you navigate through it, setting up the different opportunities in front of you, and so on, that’s something that we put more energy into.”
“We were trying to find a way to make it come across intuitively and organically. There are tons of little things that define that. From how it plays to the traversal system, making sure your weapons really work well, making sure all of that feels right. There are a million little things that we wanted to improve compared to the first game.”
Durrie also gave us some valuable insight: “On the acting side of things, all of the things that I discovered and knew of the backstory within the first game, [it was important for me to] bring that to the second game. It colored the character. Getting to play him fully fleshed out and as a three-dimensional character… he is very different now, because the Hiss got purged from him in the first game. So, taking all the things that I learned about Dylan and applying them in the second game, while also discovering new things over the course of his journey, was amazing.”
Durrie also gets a lot more to work with this one, given how the focus shifts over to Dylan, taking us out of the Oldest House: “Well, you kind of hit the nail on the head. The fact that we can play the full arc of the character was important. Throughout the game, marking for both myself within the way that I want to portray the character early on to the mid-point to the ending, while also making sure that there is what he learns changes him… I don’t want to give away anything, obviously, but changing the way that he sees not only the world but himself in particular was all fascinating.”
The Biggest Surprise Of Control Resonance
Kasurinen was willing to share some of their design philosophy, including how they made combat rewarding, but not impossible:
“Yeah, it definitely was a big balancing act. We didn’t want Dylan to feel overpowered, so that he can steamroll over anything. You have to be active, you have to keep thinking about your next move, and how to deal with different situations. Having that feeling of staying in motion was crucial. Dylan is a powerful character, but if he stays still or gets too defensive or hesitates too much, enemies will overwhelm him. I think that was the magic moment when we realized he had to keep moving. It’s not about deflecting attacks. We don’t have a party system. It’s not like that. We didn’t want it to be this feeling of staying put and dealing with one enemy at a time. It’s all part of a different system that’s built in a way to make you feel powerful but also keep you inspired to keep moving.”
So what surprised the team? Well, it depends on the person. Durrie chimed in first: “For me, it’s a mix of surprises. I have been involved with Control Resonance since the ground floor. What was awesome and fun to discover was how we were going to portray Dylan in this game, because he was so infected in the first game. His mind was so poisoned that the writers came to me early on, and were like, ‘Do you have some ideas on how you’d like this to go? How would you feel portraying this?”
Kasurinen was next: “It was a nice back and forth. It was really awesome to collaborate so much to make this character. He’s quite different in this game. It wasn’t starting from scratch, but it was interesting rediscovering who he was as a human being. The Dylan of Control was almost an entirely different character, the face of this strange force possessing him. In this game, we get to meet Dylan and learn who he actually is. It was great to kind of shape that character and help figure out who he was. He’s not this super-confident stoic hero archetype.”
“Dylan is uncertain about his own trauma; he’s carrying all these things with him. It was a wonderful thing to discover. It’s been a long journey to reach this point. Going through the first game and the ones that came before it… It’s been seven years since I last talked about a game that I worked on, which was the first Control. It feels like a lifetime ago. It can feel daunting and kind of nerve-wracking to be working on something for so long, pouring so much of yourself into it. But we have this amazing team that worked on it. It’s a big moment for Remedy.”
Durrie leaves us with some parting words: “I’ve gotten to do quite a bit of work out of Helsinki at the studios there, so I’ve met the team. I’ve met the people building this all from the ground up. Everyone is making something amazing and working so hard for so long. I’m excited for everyone to see the work. The fans and the players are the most important part of this, so sharing it with them is amazing. I’ve gotten to play three different characters for Remedy over four games. It’s a fantastic thing to watch how I’ve bounced through projects, and they’ve kept trusting me with their roles. They’re so rich and really give us actors an opportunity to really sink our teeth into it. I hope people love. We didn’t phone it in [Laughter] A lot of love has gone into this game, and it shows.”
Control Resonant is due out on September 24, 2026, on Mac, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Control Resonant
- Released
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September 24, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Remedy Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
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Remedy Entertainment
- Number of Players
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Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
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Unknown