Control Resonant is slated for launch on September 24, arriving roughly seven years after the original 2019 title, Control. The sequel brings a number of notable shifts: the protagonist changes from Jesse Faden to her brother Dylan Faden, the combat system pivots toward melee encounters—a first for Remedy—and the claustrophobic corridors of the Oldest House give way to the sprawling streets of Manhattan. These transformations forced the studio to rethink its design philosophy from the ground up, a process senior level designer Arhi Makkonen explains in detail to GamesIndustry.biz.
Makkonen joined Remedy in 2018, during the final stretch of the first Control’s development. He describes his role as a level designer as "the beginning of the block‑out," where he determines the overall structure of a level, outlines the player experience, decides what content will appear, and maps out the flow from start to finish. While that approach worked well for the original’s interior‑focused world, Control Resonant required a dramatically different methodology because its setting is largely outdoors. "In the first game everything was an interior," Makkonen notes.
"We had the levitation power, which was fun and felt great, but you were always confined by a ceiling." By contrast, the Manhattan of Control Resonant offers "a lot of height distance" and encourages vertical movement. Dylan inherits many of Jesse’s abilities, but he moves even faster, making the sense of speed and freedom a core design goal. Describing Manhattan as "the biggest world we have ever done," Makkonen emphasizes that the sheer scale introduces new challenges. Open environments give players the temptation to wander anywhere, which makes it difficult to craft a guided narrative experience.
For instance, a scripted segment might require Dylan to follow a specific route through city streets before leaping onto rooftops. Because the character can climb sheer walls and sprint across open spaces, keeping him on the intended path becomes a complex puzzle.
Despite these obstacles, the team deliberately avoided heavy restrictions on player movement. "If there is a possibility to give the freedom for the player to just go wherever they want, let's go with that," Makkonen says.
The design principle was to maximize freedom while still nudging players toward points of interest. To achieve this subtle guidance, the team relies on visual cues such as distinctive landmarks, bold colour palettes, and environmental storytelling.
When a player enters a new district, the most compelling location or objective is placed prominently in view, surrounded by a variety of side opportunities. The intention is to let players formulate their own exploration plan: they see an appealing destination, feel free to investigate it, yet remain aware of other possibilities. Achieving that balance required extensive testing and iteration to ensure the geography feels intuitive. "In a perfect world a player wouldn't even need a map," Makkonen admits, "but in reality the map is a huge help." After the initial couple of hours, the entire city opens up for free roaming.
Each zone is painted with a unique colour scheme to aid orientation. "If you see a screenshot of a zone you should instantly recognise whether it's a park, an evacuation area, or the downtown core," he explains.
These palettes also convey the mood and narrative tone of each district, giving players a sense of story even before they engage with any characters. Makkonen is eager to see how players prioritize the zones. In internal tests, some players rush straight into the main storyline, while others spend upwards of fifteen hours exploring side content, uncovering hidden stories, and becoming engrossed in the world before tackling the primary quest.
This emergent behaviour validates the studio's decision to grant unrestricted zone order. One of the most distinctive mechanics in Control Resonant is Dylan's ability to manipulate gravity, allowing him to walk on walls and ceilings.
While this mechanic adds a thrilling layer of freedom, it also complicated level design. The team wanted gravity‑shifting to be available in many locations, not just isolated set‑pieces, which required a heavy cycle of prototyping and iteration.
Determining which surfaces were traversable became a visual problem: "If it looks walkable, it is walkable," the designers decided. This approach introduced its own set of challenges.
Players could discover a spot that lets them launch out of the intended play area, so artists and designers collaborated closely to fine‑tune the height of objects, relocate walkable surfaces, and place subtle visual hints that indicate where gravity can be altered. After many rounds of adjustment, Makkonen feels the system now feels "very natural" and seamlessly integrated into the world. Beyond the open‑world design, Control Resonant marks a major shift toward melee combat, a domain Remedy has never explored before. Dylan wields the Aberrant, a shape‑shifting weapon that can transform between a hammer, blades, and other forms.
These new abilities aim to feel faster and more aggressive than Jesse's powers, delivering a fresh combat rhythm that still feels true to the Control franchise. Makkonen recalls that the melee system "felt good" early in development and generated excitement across the whole team.
The sequel has been a long‑awaited project. In the interim Remedy released Alan Wake 2 and the ill‑fated multiplayer title FBC: Firebreak, which saw its final content update earlier this year. Nevertheless, Control remains the studio's most successful recent title, with roughly 7.6 million units sold worldwide—far surpassing Alan Wake 2's three‑million lifetime sales.
Now, with Control Resonant nearing release, Makkonen expresses pride in the world they have built: "I'm really proud of how the world came out."