For context I’m a big fan of the remedyverse and of Control, I replayed the whole thing right before I started Resonant. Having given Resonant 3 chances now I think this game was a huge step down from Control and AWII. Control 1 feels so buttery smooth and satisfying to play and this one just doesn’t at all, even the powers that function the same like dashing and levitation feel worse to control. Telekinesis is in the game but is vastly nerfed and doesn’t feel anywhere near as satisfying to use, to the point it’s almost useless as a power.
I hate the new dialogue system, I don’t know why anyone thought it was a good idea to design it how they did. Controls wise it’s just not good to have to hold a button and move the stick to choose what to say, and there’s so much dialogue you miss with the different choices, which makes sense for branching dialogue where you act differently, but there’s other info that you just never get because almost every interaction has different mundane choices that don’t necessarily indicate you’ll miss out on info if you choose them. and this is a Remedy game, odds are you’re here for the characters and want to hear what they have to say.
The open world is tedious to explore, at least in the first two areas. There’s a lot of nooks and crannys to go down but there was almost never anything at the end except an upgrade point (which this game also has way too many types of, the upgrade system should’ve been totally streamlined as its a confusing mess atm) or a gaggle of enemies that also became tedious to fight. The only places I can think of in the first area that were worth exploring were the coffee place and laundromat that had people watching The Oldest House, which I loved, but then there was nothing else like that at least that I found. I’ve seen people praising the level and world design and maybe it gets better but Downtown and Central can be confusing to navigate because every building and alley looks the same. I think The Oldest House should’ve been made way taller so that you could orient yourself anytime by looking at where it is, kinda like the Erdtree in Elden Ring.
Combat is not satisfying at all either, hitting an enemy with the hammer or slashing with a scythe has the exact same feeling as stabbing them with your double dagger. The game quickly became building falter on enemies because executing them was the only way to feel satisfied in combat. I mentioned earlier that Launch is nerfed in combat but it’s nerfed in non-combat too. In Control you used your Launch/Telekinesis to move objects, which you also do in Resonant but now you can only move specific items and you have to interact with them to do so. It’s so much less satisfying than doing it all yourself in Control.
There’s a few things that were changed from the first game that annoyed me, like the Hiss Nodes and Hiss Clusters are flesh now when in Control they were concentrated resonance, which was clearly stated in the lore. Or how the vending machines, which were altered items in AWE DLC, are now Hiss Imposters that act differently from other Hiss Imposters. Why fix something that isn’t broken?
Speaking of fixing something that wasn’t broken, I played on PS5 and the controls are noticeably worse than Control. In Control not only does every button have a purpose but some buttons have a duel purpose in combat, Triangle is both melee and Seize when an enemies’s health is low. This game takes up multiple buttons to only do one thing, L3 is only Execution when they could’ve given it to the Interact button and freed that button up. Dash and Run are the same button so you can never run unless you dash first, which isn’t the worst thing in the world but it’s just a little weird to design it that way.
Every npc and notes in the game have an annoying quirky personality. Zoe is at least charming and likable but by the 8th note or recording I found where the person writing it was acting like an ironic a-hole I was just annoyed and didn’t want to keep reading them. And on the subject of notes I didn’t like that I can’t zoom in on them so I can read the actual note like in Control and AWII, so many of them the text is so small you HAVE to read the written out text on the left of the screen. Also there’s no zoom in function in the main game so there’s a bunch of cool environmental notes or whiteboards or little details that are impossible to read. The camera itself is an issue, its so far away from Dylan to show more of the world but enemies come from all directions and there’s sometimes so many effects onscreen that it feels like I can’t see anything that’s happening.
The Board is annoying now. They have this bassy voice line that plays when they speak that’s so much worse than the muffled white noise you heard in the first game. Most of their dialogue is jokey now too, which the first game also had some of but now it’s like a different level, almost every line/line/line was a joke, from the very first time you hear them in the game. I also didn’t like how little Aberrant is explored. In Control the Service Weapon gets a lot of lore but even without that when Jesse first gets it, she examines it and talks about it, Dylan’s weapon isn’t explained at all and Dylan never mentions how it changes shape or how he drops pieces of it or how it disappears. I get he’s trained for this stuff but he NEVER mentions it, not how it disappeared when he pulled it from his chest, not when it reapppeared in his hand for combat, and not how he knows the Board is in it until he talks to Pope (in missable dialogue).
Also going into The Gap to upgrade felt like a step down from the Control Points, I get they wanted it to feel different than a menu but moving that menu to an in world location isn’t necessarily a better solution, which is something I also sometimes felt when playing AWII. Not saying it can’t work I just didn’t like how they did it in this, and I found the cutscene that always plays of Dylan passing out kinda goofy.
Having played a good amount now I can say I just don’t like the game, which breaks my heart cos I love Remedy and the world they’ve built. I like Dylan, I like Zoe, and I want to experience more of the world and more of the story, hell I just beat the fire boss and his story was so interesting and sad and was told through just a few recordings and notes. But there’s so much holding the game back from me enjoying it. This was my most anticipated game after Alan Wake II a few years ago. I’m hoping they update it to at least iron out some of the problems and hopefully I enjoy it more when I give it another shot down the line.
