Gaming: Control Resonant Is Far More Of An Rpg Than I Expected, Complete...
Remedy's taking another ambitious creative swing with its new sequel.
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From its first announcement trailer at the tail end of last year, it's been clear that Control Resonant is not the safe Control sequel that many players may have been expecting. With a new protagonist, a new setting, and a shift from gunplay to melee combat, it's shaking up pretty much every element of the formula.
But even knowing all that, it still managed to surprise me again during an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the game. The thing I really didn't expect is how much of an RPG Control Resonant is.
Before heading out into Hiss-infested New York to battle its mutated denizens, the developers take me into The Gap, a surreal space inside protagonist Dylan's own mind. This warped grey wasteland—which you can jump into instantly at any time—is where you can tweak elements of your combat build.
Suddenly we're looking at full-on stats screens, multiple different talent trees, and customisable weapon forms. It's not quite Diablo, but it looks like a serious action-RPG—and success, Remedy says, lies in specialising your build rather than trying to be a generalist.
The core loop of combat is pretty simple. Weapon attacks on enemies charge up your abilities—big, flashy supernatural powers. Those deal lots of "falter" damage, which can leave enemies stunned. Then you can trigger an execution animation on them, taking them out and giving you a melee damage buff. Perfect for wailing on someone else with your weapon to get your abilities charged up again, and so on.
How you execute that loop is where things should get interesting. Every step is customisable. For your shape-shifting weapon Aberrant, for example, you choose its primary form (what its basic attacks are like), its secondary form (alternate and charged attacks), and its combo-ender (pretty much what it sounds like—a powerful final strike in your attack string).
So one player's Aberrant might be a sweeping scythe (good for crowd control) that turns into a slow-but-devastating hammer for charged attacks and then a flurry of gauntlet blows to finish enemies off. Another might prefer to mix an axe (better for high damage on single targets) with a quick-stabbing drill and end combos by leaving a spinning blade in the target that keeps ripping through their health even as you walk away.
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Source: PC Gamer
