It's been a little while since our latest blog post. Unfortunately, our wonderful cat, Scratch, passed away suddenly soon after publishing our last piece of news. She was a chaotic ball of mischief who was always close by whenever I wrote for the site. Often planting her butt directly on the keyboard at the worst possible moments. She was with us for thirteen years, and I couldn't have asked for a better best friend. As you can imagine, getting back into the hobby, even one I feel passionately about, has been hard in her absence. But, let's try...
One of the news stories we missed earlier in the month was the PC Gaming Show. CONTROL Resonant would be a recurring star at this year's Summer Games Fest Week with trailers across PlayStation's State of Play and Summer Games Fest, each with a unique focus, but the PC Gaming Show had something a little extra.
During their two-hour livestream on June 7th, they kicked off their CONTROL Resonant feature with a trailer exploring the hectic combat and shifting landscape, and paired it with a mini-documentary.
Throughout the exclusive five-minute sneak peek, we heard from several devs, including Mikael Karuinen (Creative Director), Elmeri Raitanen (Art Director), and Anne-Marie Grönroos (Lead Level Designer) who shared some new details about what will be awaiting Dylan.
Viewers were treated to glimpses at new locations from the upcoming adventure and introduced to a new threat called "The Patterning". Speaking to the camera, Raitanen describes this threat as a "strange otherworldly algorithm" which restructures and reorganises the world around them, creating unusual patterns. In the centre, there's the Resonants.
The Patterning has had devastating impacts across Manhattan, creating vast labyrinthine mazes of the familiar streets. The slight disorientation you may feel as a player learning to navigate the new environment is intentional, "you can lose yourself," Kasurinen says. As Dylan, players are reacting to the immediacy of the situation and, through it, gradually build familiarity and comfort as they traverse the new world.
If the streets were putting up a fight, you can imagine how the enemies are. If you've been keeping up with the CONTROL Resonant news, you'll likely know that the game will have more variety of enemy types compared to its predecessor, but how do they fare in a fight against a new (somewhat angrier) protagonist? Raitanen describes the Dylan as "fighting dirty", he doesn't have the same restraint that his sister has, and with The Abberant it puts him closer to the action. While he also has some serious powers, fights and abilities take a toll on the character.
You can check out the PC Gaming Show trailer and mini documentary below!
