Control Resonant is a great game — it’s even better when you read everything

In Control Resonant, the entire world is at stake. But that didn’t stop the diligent employees of the Federal Bureau of Control from filing reams of paperwork, and it didn’t stop me from reading everything I could find, either. Reading is often optional in Resonant, but it’s where some of the game’s best details — and even love stories! — can be found.

In the world of Control Resonant and its predecessor, 2019’s Control, the FBC deals with mysterious, otherworldly objects and entities that defy explanation. But the FBC itself is still an old-school bureaucratic agency, and that means tons of (often heavily redacted) reports and memos and miscellaneous bits of paper to sort through. I like reading, and I especially like reading Remedy’s clever and often funny writing, but I was overwhelmed at first by the sheer amount of text.

Initially I skipped documents that seemed optional: the enemy logs, which are compiled in a separate tab and unlocked automatically after fighting each enemy type for the first time. I was kind of busy just learning how to get around — I’m not the best at spatial reasoning in general, and gravity doesn’t always matter in Resonant’s M.C. Escher-ified version of Manhattan. I was also too busy beating down the game’s many Hiss and mold enemies to read about them.

The game’s best documents contain valuable info about the world as well as the personalities of the people in it.

Image: Remedy Entertainment

But I was having enough trouble with combat early on that I eventually decided to read through the enemy logs I’d unlocked to see if they’d be any help. (There’s an assist mode so you can tweak the combat difficulty, but I was feeling too stubborn to use it. Remedy has since deployed a hotfix to address criticisms of the combat balance.) The logs, compiled by the FBC’s “Threat Assessment Team,” did actually help; they detail each enemy’s attack patterns and weaknesses, which aren’t always easy to figure out when they come at you in large groups. But I was delighted to find that the enemy logs also hide a workplace romantic comedy.

The Threat Assessment Team consists of Rick Patel, who documents the Hiss, and Lydia M.B. McPierce, who documents the mold and some later-game enemies. Rick is pretty serious and straightforward, whereas Lydia finds lots of time to talk shit about the mold in between her regular notes. Opposites attract, though. Across dozens of logs, I saw their individual personalities unfold — as well as the beginning of their love story.

One of the enemies, the Hiss Transporter, is a city bus that’s been corrupted by the Hiss and sends out drones to attack on its behalf. In his log about it, Rick describes the dynamic between the bus and its drones — which are seemingly once-human Hiss entities fused to bus seats — as “motherly.” Lydia calls him out on this in a separate document about a mold enemy called the Spore Mother. “(For the record, I was not the one who named this one ‘mother,’ that was Rick. I went to therapy and did the work precisely so I wouldn’t feel the urge to do that),” she writes in an aside at the bottom. In another document, Lydia teases Rick, who she’s calling “Ricky” at this point, about beating him at chess and challenges him to a rematch.

Lydia is sassing Rick a little, but she obviously likes how much he cares!

Image: Remedy Entertainment

Lydia is one of the best examples in Resonant of how funny Remedy’s writing can be, while Rick is much drier. But he’s also sweet and references Lydia often; in one log, he says that had he realized Lydia had emetophobia, he would’ve offered to trade some responsibilities with her so she could avoid the vomit-like attacks of the mold. (I have emetophobia myself, so I found this especially charming. Good on Ricky.) Then, in a document about a particularly dangerous Hiss variant that he came too close to during his observations, Rick finally lays it all bare:

I could have died. Another close call like that and it might just be the end for me. I don’t want to go without taking a chance on us, Lydia. Remember how we laughed at our ideal dates being the exact opposites of each other, how chaotic a pair we’d make? It doesn’t have to be just a joke. I think we could have something real together, you and I. What do you think? (Don’t worry, you can tell me over coffee what a coward I am for not doing this in person.)

I’m not sure if Lydia has actually seen this note, because I’m still missing one singular enemy log. But I know she likes him back. In a late-game document, as the world is really looking doomed, Lydia adds an aside at the bottom: “(Hey Ricky, this is out of left field, but if we actually survive this, wanna grab a coffee sometime?)”

Remedy seeds little stories and fun details like these throughout the world of Resonant, not just in written documents. But reading, it turns out, was integral to my experience. I learned how to fight the game’s enemies a little better, and in the process, I was endeared to two characters I never actually met. There’s also a lot more to discover than just office romance — everything from an influencer’s view of Manhattan’s “inception ahh streets” to the FBC’s serious ethics violations — and so much of it enriches Remedy’s fantastically weird world.

I’m now determined to track down and kill that last enemy type so I can read Lydia’s final log, and I’m sure I’ll stumble upon some other documents I missed along the way. I can’t wait to see what I find.

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• Kallie Plagge
• Entertainment
• Gaming