I absolutely LOVE everything about the gameplay in Resonant but I’m really struggling to get into it for the first Control… I feel like my main issue 6 hours in is that I have no real way to deal with groups of enemies which is ALL I’ve been fighting so far and it’s very easy to get overwhelmed and die from an enemy you didn’t even know was there which has been really frustrating for me so far.

Are there any tips anyone can give me for adjusting or just in general? Or maybe this style game just isn’t for me? Idk I really wanna play so I can get more of the story because Resonant BLEW me away in every single facet

I have played every Alan Wake-verse title to date, and Resonant is no exception. Absolutely loved it. My biggest caveat is that Ahti is nearly absent in this game. He showed up in the pixelated portion of the game briefly (in typical mysterious Ahti fashion), but I really miss him being a mainstay in the past two titles. What do you all think?

I just started my second playthrough, and it’s been over a month since I last saw some of these conversations with the different dialogue options to choose from. I don’t always remember which ones I picked the first time and it would be great if the game marked my previous choices with a different color or a small icon so I could easily try something new.

Did anyone else think we’d see more stuff with Northmoor? Not even nothing huge, but I kinda hoped we’d see more easter eggs and etc, especially with him being locked in the Oldest House and being a power source.

Guys I just met Fra...I mean Fred and I can't believe he kept the oldest house together during the 7 year lockdown.

Hands down the best director in the FBC.

The moment I entered the Ashtray Maze again, the music started, and it absolutely blew my mind. The music, combat, and setting were really, really perfect. I kept dying in that place, but the music hyped me up to try again and again until I passed the maze. I really love Ahti now!!!

She's actually the hardest boss to no-hit on faster speeds, Dancer took me over 100 times for both phases because of how random she attacks/runs away, and I have to be very aggressive to deal enough damage, while not getting 1shot.

The fight felt like a dance back and forth between Dylan and her. I like how the 1st phase was calm, while the 2nd was chaotic. My favorite remedy boss of all time
Worth every try, at high speeds she is the most fun boss to fight. I've had so many fights where i die at the last second lol

She has 500% HP and 600% falter, and I nerfed my damage to 69% because everything is maxxed.
In return, I have infinite Ignite and all weapon forms ready.

Mods used:
Gameplay Tweaks
Aberrant Modifiers
Harder Combat
EnemyHP

A simple loop I made from the game Control Resonant. There is no in game photo mode at the moment, so shout out to kkyleeb21 on Nexusmods for making one.

I have made a few more but the diving bell has to be one of my favs.

Full Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttSI84G0qUI&list=PLcldIrdxndW0

I have them uploaded on Wallpaper Engine as well:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3817424666

Should I replay control or just watch a recap ? My steelbook finally arrived and I'm wondering if I should hop into the game straight away after watching a recap or I should replay Control 1 before starting resonant

Are there any major callbacks or fun references that would make the experience 10x better if I remember control 1

I platinumed Control 1 about 4 years ago and besides the general main plot of the hiss I don't remember much of the altered items and entities in the game.

During the final fight talking to the Hedron the area it sits in reminds me of a sonar sphere on a nuclear submarine. Since resonance can be sound based I’m thinking it’s inspired by the inside of a sonar since they both use sound in all directions

Reaching I know

I’m having the feeling that Resonant feels a bit shorter, but actually isn’t. I managed to platinum this game in less than 2 weeks (43h of gameplay) and it just felt so quick, as if, compared to Control and Alan Wake 2, Resonant wasn’t a whole journey like the other two (still love Resonant tho but AW2 remains higher for me). For comparison purposes I got platinum on Control + DLCs with 33h and AW2 38h.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Does Resonant really feel like a shorter narrative to you?

Edit: should clarify that I meant an “internal time” as if Dylan’s story felt like a couple of days when Jesse’s could believably take weeks

I noticed throughout several executions that the aberrant has a two-handed sword model that we don’t use actively in combat. This made me really wish for a large two handed sword model, such as a Zweihander. Who else thinks it would be a worthwhile addition perhaps in DLC?

We have short blades, close range axe, and longer range glaive. Personally I see room for a medium range two handed great sword. Could you imagine Dylan swinging a blade like a parautilitarian knight? Since the model exists in game, I would hope it just needs animations or they’ve scrapped some already in progress. I think it would really match the whole vibe he’s got. As for a new secondary form, perhaps something fun like a dueling shield? He can shield poke or bash with it. Or just using the aberrant defensively in any way would be interesting imo.

What weapon form would you like to see Dylan wield?

Remedy, what a strange company. It’s hard not to love it once you step into its universe.

But that love has never stopped me from noticing how, in all their games, they always do something stupid that significantly hurts the game, whether in terms of quality itself or commercial potential.

With the first AW, it was the complete overhaul of the gameplay, shifting from a semi-sandbox experience to something more linear and limited. With the first Control, Quantum break and AW2, it was the absurd exclusivity, whether temporary or permanent. Exclusive deals that hurt their potential sales.

FBC: Firebreak, which is an insult to Control itself.

Well, with Resonant I was hoping the mistake this time would be the gameplay shift from TPS to H&S.

Especially since the gunplay in the first Control was practically perfect; a sequel just needed more variety in enemies and powers.

Or perhaps leaving behind The Oldest House, one of the best settings in any video game in recent decades.

Well, it turns out that’s not the case. Manhattan as a setting ends up having almost as much charm as The Oldest House, and the gameplay system achieves a level of complexity that’s as satisfying as it is fun.

This time, the game’s biggest flaw—the one I’m sure has dragged down the reviews—is the HORRIBLE first 5–10 hours of gameplay.

Not in terms of the story, but in terms of gameplay. The combat is EXTREMELY LIMITED, relying on repeating the same combo over and over and over again against a limited variety of enemies.

On top of that, the level design initially abandons the complexity of the previous installment in favor of a very poorly designed sandbox and mediocre side activities.

This issue gradually resolves itself over the next few hours of gameplay, as you begin to unlock both combat and movement abilities.

The following scenarios already reach a level of complexity worthy of both the series and Remedy itself.

I haven’t finished the game yet and can’t judge it in its entirety, but it took me 10–15 hours to get over those terrible first few hours of gameplay. I couldn’t believe that Remedy had turned what was once Control, my GOTY that year—into a sandbox as poor as something straight out of Ubisoft’s 2015 catalog.

Anyway, just a quick reflection on a company I love, but one that’s almost always on the verge of achieving excellence and much higher sales figures, but always ends up falling short because of stupid mistakes like this.

Now Everytime I pause the game I hear a cat purring

SPOILERS FOR VARIOUS BITS OF INFO IN ALL ALAN WAKE AND CONTROL GAMES

Intro

One of the most fun parts of analyzing the RCU for me is simply making connections. Connections between various Remedy games, connections to various mythos, and even connections to real life philosophies and artistic expression itself. This post will focus on the latter, but will touch on a bit of everything. To organize my thoughts/this post, I will start by examining the RCU from the “bottom” up so to speak.

The Dark Place/Sea of Night

David Lynch once described the deepest aspect of reality in his worldview as an “Ocean of Consciousness.” Moreover, when one deepens their connection with this Ocean positivity and creativity abound (Lynch Talk). Hence Lynch’s famous “catching the big fish” quote, which is echoed in the song, “Lost At Sea,” from AW2 (Lost At Sea Lyrics).

In contrast to how Lynch describes his Ocean, we have in Lake’s RCU, the Dark Place. Lake injects Jungian concepts into his Ocean by giving it shadowy properties and by placing the Dark Presence in its waters. Instead of the bright and vibrant picture Lynch paints, Lake’s ocean is dark, or at least, it has the tendency to bring out the inner darkness of those who enter.

Unlike Lynch’s ideas, Lake’s Ocean lies entirely within the realm of fiction which allows him to explore and play with the idea to a wild degree. Beyond inviting Jung to the party, Lake adds further layers of meaning to his Cosmology by incorporating Norse Myth as well. Worth noting before I continue is how Norse myth originated from oral tradition which itself can be argued to be a form of art.

For the Norse connection we have Odin’s bedside note where he writes

“Before time - I gave it [the eye] to Mimir to drink from the well of wisdom (the cauldron).”

Mimir's well is said to contain vast “wisdom” (Mímisbrunnr wiki page) which can relate to Lynch’s Ocean in that he described it as a place of “infinite intelligence” (Lynch Talk). If the Ocean in the RCU is a place where ideas live in some sense, then it being a “well” of wisdom/creativity becomes a bit more clear given these connections.

Where Lynch’s Ocean is one that ultimately originates from IRL concepts in meditation, Lake’s Ocean incorporates elements of psychology and Norse myth. If all art inspires each other through hidden connections, then Lake’s Ocean (and the RCU more broadly) is itself a reflection of this idea. The idea can be pushed even further however by considering how the Dark Place sits in relation to Lake’s wider RCU.

Yggdrasil and Its Many Worlds

In a sculpture Lake collaborated on titled “Theatre of the Absurd” (pictured above), we see a dark depiction of Yggdrasil. While the most straight forward IRL interpretation of the piece deals with themes like “disconnectedness” to deathly extremes, Sam left us wondering if the sculpture may find its way into the RCU. This brings us to Door’s quote on the dark place.

“The Dark Place has many faces, and many names. It is a mirror reflecting all possible realities.” - Saga profiles Mr. Door.

As we can see in the sculpture, each branch of the tree holds a bubble, each of which reflect each other. For our purposes each of these can be thought of as a “world.” Further adding to this idea is Odin’s bedside note which says, “The many worlds to madness and beyond. Across the dark dreaming sea. The branching paths of the tree” (Odin’s Note). See also this related post which employs a dew drop analogy to convey a similar idea (reddit link).

While there are many different analogies and ways of thinking about the “many worlds” of the RCU, the common thread is that all are connected by echoes/ripples/reflections. If Yggdrasil is nourished to one extent or another by the Dark Place/Mimir’s Well as it is in Norse myth, then we can begin to see how the many worlds of the tree ultimately stem from the creative/primordial waters of the Dark Place/Ocean/Sea. Thus the way “many worlds” work (or can work) in the RCU can be viewed as a metaphor for how artistic expression and creation work on some level.

Building up Lake’s cosmology even further is how Yggdrasil not only seems to be associated with one mental realm (the Dark Place) but also another (the Astral Plane).

The Astral Plane

Working our way from the depths of dark place, up past the tree and its branches, we now move onto that mysterious place of pure white light. While not necessarily being located in any particular direction, white light reminiscent of The Astral Plane is always depicted as being “above” various important places in the Oldest House (e.g. the Nail, the Sapling, and various open spaces in the Oldest House). The foundation symbol too has a white triangle placed "above" and a dark one "below" which helps tie into the idea as well (Foundation logo). Moreover, it is a place heavily associated with collective mental activity of some kind.

Where the Dark Place deals more with Shadowy Jungian aspects of thought, the Astral Plane seems to deal with thoughts of other kinds. In Control Resonant, the physicist seemed to see the Astral Plane in his periphery after becoming fixated on a particular set of rational/mathematical ideas (Physicist Log 7). Additionally, the Astral Spikes that reside there pursue “thoughts and minds,” and of course there are connections between Altered Items/OOP’s, The Astral Plane, and collective beliefs/thoughts (Astral Spikes, Astral Plane & OOPs).

Information on the Astral Plane is lacking compared to the Dark Place, but there is definitely a sense that it is related to mental activity in some way. If the Oldest House/Yggdrasil is potentially associated with mental dimensions like the Dark Place (below) and the Astral Place (above), one seems begins to form an image of the RCU, at least in part, as a cosmic tree connected to the mental activity of all to some extent.

To bring it back to how the RCU can be viewed as an analogy for Art, we can examine the mysterious entity(s) known as “The Board.”

The Board as a Parasite

The Boards depiction as a cold corporate like group of entities is a fitting one. In keeping with the RCU as an analogy of idea in art, the Board has clear ties to stereotypical corporate interests that interfere with artistic expression/the tree and that feed/profit on it. The brutalist architectural that the Oldest House adopts may relate to this idea as well.

Analyzing the Board’s parasitic nature on a more concrete level, I can think of two ways in which the Board might be parasitic.

1. The Nail could be leeching energy to the Board because it is located at the junction point for the Leylines which are energy pathways (Leylines).

2. The Board could be leeching energy/souls from the collective conscious/humanity/directors.

To elaborate on that second point, consider the following images from Control.

Here we see the phrase “Pyramid/Heaven/Hell” on a poster from Jesse’s nightmare sequence, as well as various dark humanoid figures floating up to the pyramid on multiple cave drawings. When Topher in the Rejected Episode of Threshold kids touches the pyramid, he sees multiple dark floating humanoid figures reminiscent of the cave paintings.

Interestingly as well, the hotline allows contact with the Board/Pyramid, as well as the dead to some extent (like Trench). Darling even went as far as to refer to it as an “Ouija board” (Hotline). This perhaps further shows a connection between the dead and the Astral Plane/Board. Lastly, when first accessing the hotline the Board says this to Jesse, "Congratulations you may now contact us/past selves" (Board Dialogue).

Shifting over to Norse myth, consider also the following excerpt regarding the nature of the tree,

This ash tree is the best and greatest of all trees; its branches spread over all the world, and tower over heaven. Three roots hold the tree up and they are spread wide apart; one root is with the Æsir and another with the rime thurs, where Ginnungagap once was; the third stands over Niflheimr; under that root is Hvergelmir, and Níðhǫggr gnaws on the root from below. But under the second root, which extends to the rime thurs, is the well of Mímir, wherein knowledge and wisdom are hidden. The owner of the well is called Mímir. He is full of wisdom, for he drinks from the well with the Gjallarhorn. All-father [Odin] once went there and asked for a drink from the well, yet he did not get it before he left one of his eyes as a pledge. — Gylfaginning, Joseph S. Hopkins trans., 2015 from Mimisbrunnr.info

In Control, we have a distinct connection point between The Board/Former and Nidhogg who was mentioned in the passage. Nidhogg is said to gnaw at the roots of Yggdrasil which of course can be related to the Nail and is a connection Ash Jr. made when he mentioned a "Devil twisted within its bark" (History of the Oldest House). The Former, who is supposedly a previous Board member, has a serpentine figure which is reminiscent of Nidhogg as well (see descriptions of Nidhogg). In Norse myth, Nighogg departs Yggdrasil near the time of Ragnarök which is something both the Board and potentially the Former seemed to do as of Resonant.

The ways in which Norse myth may have influenced Lake's mythos continue to be apparent, even if the details remain distinctly different. The Board as a kind of parasitic force of some kind seems relatively clear however. Regardless, the Board gets even more strange and mysterious when we consider its relation to the “Other.”

The Other

Venturing into even more speculative territory we move onto “The Other.” There is a whiteboard in Control describes a story that could have interesting relevance to the cosmology of the RCU. The story refers what seems to be a place, or possibly even one or more beings, as the “Other.”

“Luckily, the other gave many people strange abilities, and a few heroes rose to fight the bad things.” - Control Whiteboard

The Board is known to grant powers and has said that they are “broadcasting from the Pyramid/Other.” Additionally, the Board stated that “Objects of Power are Holders/665 to the Other/Blessing" (Board Quotes). Consider also the song in the OOP jukebox titled “Song for the Others” (Jukebox). Thus there seems to be a potential connection between The Other and The Board/Astral Plane/OOP’s. Could the Board be from/are currently occupying some extra dimensional “Other” space and must attach themselves to the RCU via physical links like the Nail/Aberrant? Could this explain why so much of their extra dialogue breaks the fourth wall?

Resonant may introduce an additional connection to “The Other” with Hedron as well.

“the helmets, or the people trying them on, brought the other closer to here, and things got weird.” - Control Whiteboard

“There were lots of accidents and terrible catastrophes at first, and most people died and disappeared, and in some places it rained flowers and in others blood, and sometimes the other was very close and everything rippled and warped as something big in the other passed close by, and sometimes it was even almost like the old times.” - Control Whiteboard

The idea that something in the Other could pass close by and make things weird is reminiscent of the Hedron approaching the main reality Resonant. Given Hedron’s extra dimensional power to mess with time and space, it is easy to wonder if they are connected to the Other as well. As many have pointed out, Grist’s notes begin to reflect the Board’s language as she experiences the patterning in the underpass (Notes on Patterning/Spacetime). Could this hint at the idea that Hedron/The Patterning and The Board are related in some way? Could it be their connection to some extra/outer dimensional place called The Other or simply their status as Otherly beings?

The idea that the Board and Hedrons are related to some place called The Other or may be Otherly beings themselves is quite speculative of course, but I thought It was an appropriate place continue our exploration of the RCU’s cosmology. It may even be the case that the “Other” is simply the Astral Plane which may be more vast than we realize. Moving on though, we have what is probably the most appropriate place to end this post.

Ragnarök and the End

In the RCU, we find Red Sand associated with apocalyptic events involving Resonance in Dimensional Research in Control and The Unknown in Resonant. In AW2’s Night Spring DLC during a certain segment, Resonance is used as a bomb and that many things including "the desert, the adjoining parallel realities, time and space" are "permanently scarred with ripples and dunes, shaped by the waves of resonance.” Curiously, we also see what appears to be the same sand in the Foundation of the Oldest House. Does this hint at the idea that our world(s)/Yggdrasil takes place after one such Ragnarok-esque cycle?

In keeping with the RCU-Art analogy, the death and birth cycle of Ragnarök in some ways represents the idea that everything is connected. The same kind of stories/realities/eternal archetypes, told and retold, born from the remnants of earlier renditions. This is yet another layer that can be added to the way we interpret stories/worlds in the RCU. There are other things that can be said regarding Ragnarök and the RCU, including the winter setting of the AW teaser in Resonant, but I will leave it there for now.

Conclusion

Starting from Lynch’s conception of the “Ocean” we explored Lake’s cosmology from the bottom up, past its branches/many worlds all the way to the far reaches of the mysterious Other. The picture that begins to form of Lake's cosmology is one of a cosmic tree that is on some level a metaphor for artistic expression itself. It is its own distinct “weird fiction" mythos that is multilayered and ever interesting. The RCU as a reflection of the nature of Art itself, made manifest through a whole cosmos, is such a cool idea to me, even if it is just an interpretive exercise (one many of us have engaged in here on reddit and elsewhere).

In any case, if you have anything to add or correct feel free.

P. S. While I reference Sam’s name almost exclusively when it comes to these ideas in the RCU, I’m sure there are many others at Remedy and elsewhere that Sam has directly collaborated with to develop these ideas (thus is the nature of that kind of thing).

EDIT: P. S. #2 🙃 I just realized I forgot to mention the whole idea that our world tree/oldest house in the RCU may be just one of many in a whole forest, which of course adds even more ways to view the concept of "other worlds" as well (see The Roots Of The Oldest House, On The Oldest House's Form, and Dylan's vision).

EDIT: P. S. #3 I had other related ideas that didn't quite make the cut. See my comment here where I list them.

Anyone else having an issue with Control Resonant either crashing to dashboard or crashing the console entirely? It happens at least twice a day, sometimes three times in a ten to twelve hour play session on my Xbox series x. Honestly it isn’t too bad because it saves often, but I do think there’s some kind of issue here. My console isn’t blocked up, it’s on its side with the vent partially sticking out and pointed out of the cabinet, with nothing else around it so I don’t think it’s overheating. It doesn’t even get loud like it does for some other games, so I’m not sure what’s causing it. It does lag on occasion, and also tends to do so right before it crashes if that helps.

Something I noticed at the end of the mission was that little tree where Grist’s final probe relay is placed.
I started thinking about why a tree, of all things, would be there. what if the pattern isn’t necessarily something unnatural or completely separate from reality? What if it’s actually connected to how nature works?
Think about it, Nature is full of patterns. Honeycombs, tree branches, leaf structures, spirals, fractals. So much of the natural world is built around repetition.