As Geoff Keighley fades into the shadows of the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, a familiar voice echoes through the packed space with a chilling declaration. “The Oldest House has fallen.” A warped, twisted Manhattan flashes with tinges of red light, illuminating floating bodies spread amidst its deserted streets.

“It's all quite terrifying. And fascinating.” During the opening beats of Manalan Mailla, you can already sense the chills running down the backs and arms of each person in the theater. Every flash of gameplay raises another goosebump and puts another hair on edge. Despite the trailer's final frame announcing a September 24 release date, our time with Control Resonant has already begun.

I sat down for an hour of mind-bending gameplay during Summer Game Fest to dive into Act 1, fight a boss, catch up with Jesse and Dylan, and receive an in-depth look at the new emphasis on player choice.

Taking Control Of Dylan’s Journey

As I jump into the game’s opening sequence as Dylan, I’m ushered out of The Oldest House and into the mangled Manhattan streets from the trailer. The Hiss have escaped, but more importantly, something is incredibly wrong with the world in front of me. It’s broken, infected, and even worse, it’s changing. Streets are contorting at 90-degree angles, and the skyline in the distance seems to fade in and out of existence.

The spotlight is squarely on Dylan Faden here, as his confusion, pain, and desperation drive him forward in search of his sister (and star of the previous Control), Jesse. Thus far, it’s clear that Jesse had to leave in search of a solution for the Altered World Event unfolding, but there’s no indication of where she may be.

Before long, a familiar face appears in the form of a home video: Dr. Darling. The video sheds light on Darling’s excitement about Dylan’s potential, and reminds me that I’m playing as the most enigmatic character from the first game. Dylan wields a power similar to Jesse’s, but with an entirely new arsenal of options at his disposal.

While dashing through the twisted landscape and defeating new forms of Hiss-like enemies, I pick up a handful of new movement abilities before meeting a new character, Zoe, who grills Dylan about his intentions. This opens up a set of dialogue options – not simply topics to ask about, like the first game, but unique responses that drive the conversation forward as you wish. After carefully considering my dialogue choices, I’m faced with a new layer of in-depth customization: forms.

Diving Into Dozens Of New Abilities

Forms are essentially weapon types that you can choose between to alter how Dylan attacks. In practice, it’s a chance to choose your favorite weapon, but it’s also a way of manifesting Dylan’s power into a specific style.

There are three Primary Forms:

  1. Slice: High damage against a single target that does extra damage from the back and has robust combo options.
  2. Slash: Wide Sweeping attacks that can hit multiple enemies at once and knock them away.
  3. Flurry: fast attack speed and high critical.

Each form comes with a unique dodge to begin the tree, then they diverge into a unique array of selections. As an example, Slice’s final upgrade is called ‘Lift Shock’: hitting an enemy with a dodge attack lifts all nearby fodder enemies into the air and applies ‘launched’ to them.

There are also three Secondary Forms:

  1. Crush: Has slow attack speed, but high damage. Charged attacks increase weapon size and damage.
  2. Extend: Very long reach, can hit multiple targets. Attacks can be charged. Perfect charge yields the highest damage.
  3. Drill: Used for quick stabs or drilling into enemies, dealing damage over time.

On top of these customizable forms, you can also select Combat Abilities, Combo Enders, Talents, and Artifacts to further distinguish your gameplay style as unique to you. If you want to focus on rapid-fire damage, you can do that with a Combat Ability called Heat Wave, while those who just want to watch the world burn can select Heat Aura to deal increased fire damage and apply burn. Other Combat abilities include Push, Ground Slam, Shield, Barrage, and Seekers.

If you’re overwhelmed by the thought of all these choices, there’s no need to worry, since you can Respec in an area called the Gap, which is where you upgrade Abilities, Talents, and more. Dozens of options with a laundry list of unique properties flash through the lens of my glasses as I flip through the options, engrossed by the variety.

Just as I’m about to jump into another (potentially restricted) section of the game, a tap on my shoulder lets me know the demo is over, and it’s time to return to the real world. But just like Dylan, I can’t shake the whispers of possibility dancing through my head. Release day might feel like ages away, but I’m left with one resonating thought from my experience: on September 24, Control is back in my hands.

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Posts By  Joshua Robertson