Control Resonance Review — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Hi everybody, Co-Cart is here with another thoughts video on games that we finished, because we finished games here, and sometimes, on Control Resonance. Control Resonance,

[00:12] which is technically Control 2, I mean from the URLs and the Revity website and everything, is basically a continuation of the original Control game. The original Control game, which I definitely recommend playing before Control Resonance, yes the devs say otherwise,

[00:30] and yes, there is a catch-up at the beginning of Control Resonant, but I will tell you this now. If you want the full Control Resonant experience, you're going to want to play Control 1 first. That's just how it is. I'm sorry. But I strongly recommend that.

[00:43] Now that that's being said, Control 1 was a third-person shooter, used all sorts of crazy powers, a very weird, wild game where you explored a unique, interesting world full of all sorts of kind of SCP-like items that do all sorts of crazy things.

[00:56] It's multidimensional, very deep story, all sorts of fun. Control was a great third-person shooter. It starred Jesse Faden, and there have been other games that kind of connect to the universe, like Alan Wake and Quantum Break,

[01:10] also fun games in their own right, but a very cool experience in its own kind of category. Enter Control Resonant. Control Resonant is not a third-person shooter. It is an action-adventure

[01:23] game in a far more open world. Control Resonance stars Dylan Faden, and I'm not going to tell you why, go play Control, and it is a game that I feel carries the torch

[01:35] of everything that we come to expect from the Remedy universe I enjoyed my time in this game pretty much beginning to end I had multiple jaw moments There are multiple times in this game when I stood in front of an area or event and I thought to myself

[01:52] if I wasn't playing a Remedy game, this would not be something that I'd see in a game. Remedy has this really cool way of kind of fingerprinting their weird, and they've really

[02:05] gotten good at it. And I feel like Control Resonant is a great example of them just pulling all that interesting, weird stuff that makes what we call the Remedyverse into an entirely new gameplay style, which is this action-adventure, kind of

[02:21] very action, almost no defense, super offensive, no real aiming of any kind. It is an entirely new way to interface with this medium, this Remedyverse medium that we've come to know and love. but in terms of that

[02:35] it is everything I wanted from this game it was all the weird characters it was all the weird events some very cool reveals some great side stories some very interesting things happening to characters

[02:47] that you would not always expect which I love in games considering I play so many of them they did a phenomenal job with the world story characters just loved it absolutely loved my time now the gameplay itself

[03:01] the gameplay itself is 100% fine. It gets the job done. There's lots of variety in terms of your powers. There's a little bit less variety, but definitely variety in your build.

[03:14] You can also kind of spec out the progression of your weapons and combo finishers, including secondary weapons. It got the job done, and it was pretty much just fine for me beginning to end.

[03:27] That being said It is definitely a more basic combat system It is one that you can very easily relegate to just a few buttons There are reasons that you can use both like the primary and secondary weapons

[03:41] but I found myself almost never using the secondary weapons because the game didn't really give me enough reason to, I felt. There were some cool combos, and there were absolutely some cool synergies. There's even, like, a three-trinket system that can give you some passives.

[03:53] You can juggle some, like, cool bonuses if you do this into this into this kind of thing. But I will feel like on a fundamental mechanical level, there wasn't really enough to make me want to explore all that.

[04:06] It was super easy to just kind of get done what I needed to. I could kind of just spam X the whole time. And I didn't really feel like the game wanted me to do anything else. Now, that's fine. That's a design decision by Remedy. Like, maybe that's exactly how they wanted it, to make the game more approachable, more accessible for more people,

[04:23] make the game a little easier really but I will say there were there were times when I wish that I had to think a bit more in combat than just kind of spam x make sure I had the right ability on if my power was up that kind of thing again it was my decision to play that way but I didn't really

[04:39] feel like there was a lot of reason not to play that way a lot of games kind of give you some real powerful reasons to explore different areas or using your secondary weapon with your main weapon things like that I just don't really feel like this game had that I felt like this game was

[04:52] pretty basic. It kind of put everything on the table and said, here's all your tools, pick your couple tools, and use them. So I would have liked a little bit more synergy in that regard. But I will say, I think it was intentional to keep it pretty simple,

[05:04] because this is a large game. It has one of the more interesting world traversal systems that I've seen particularly when it comes to fighting on multiple surfaces And I think there definitely an argument in saying that because of those systems you probably don want to be dealing with that and also having to deal with a more advanced combat system at the same time

[05:27] And that's arguably a good approach to take. So all that being said, it totally works. I didn't really have any issues with it. It's very tight, which I liked. And also the last thing I'll mention about it, there's no real defense.

[05:39] So your only kind of defense is to dodge, and generally that sets you up for more attacks. There's no defend. There's no parrying of any kind. I know a lot of people were, when I originally talked to you about this,

[05:52] were kind of like, oh, no parrying. But by the end, they kind of felt it was a little bit more kind of speedy. And they do, to be clear, give you a shield ability that you can take advantage of if you want to. And they actually get some cool bonuses with that. But it doesn't really feel like a core mechanic.

[06:05] So it's not quite the same as what we're talking about either. Regardless, it worked. and I absolutely enjoy it. Was it my favorite action-adventure combat system? No, but it absolutely carried the torch

[06:18] all the way to the end of the game. That's pretty much where we are. I had a really good time in Control Resonance. I knew I was going to like the Remedyverse part of it.

[06:30] I was a little concerned that because I originally thought this was more like a side project that maybe wouldn't have all that stuff that really feels Remedy in it. But now that I've finished it, I can absolutely safely say that it met every expectation I had for that weirdness.

[06:47] And considering that's one of the main things I love about these games, that checked the box for me. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you do end up playing it, and again, I do want to remind you, even though there is a thing at the beginning of Control Resident,

[06:59] play Control 1. It's definitely worth it. See you guys later. Have a great one. Bye-bye.