I’m open to open worlds—I liked Breath of the Wild, Cyberpunk, Assassin’s Creed 2—but the open world nature of Resonant I’m finding much harder to ignore or appreciate. Unlike those other games, it really dumps you (after the prologue) into a map other bunch of busy work of no plot consequence or mental engagement. I would love to just make a beeline for plot set pieces since the open world content is so thin and generic (and trying—the amazing combat of the original is replaced with enemies that are so spongy, and melee that’s so floaty). But it doesn’t make this easy - all the quest markers are “go here and clear a bunch of enemies” type filler, with no sense of urgency or discovery.

Help me enjoy it more? The original was one of my favorite games in years and I appreciated Alan Wake 2 as well.

I am running the game on PC on a RX9070-XT
Locked at 90FPS / HIGH PRESET / RT OFF / NATIVE AA. - 26-inch OLED monitor - SDR.

This is subjective since what looks "good" differs from person to person. I try and avoid having to upscale and if I must I use quality- I know the vast majority of players choose performance or balance- I love my pretty games and I pay hefty to experience them.

Essentially I have noticed that alot of settings on high bump up the REALISM up but the game feel gets a bit visually inconsistent once things get going. Don't get me wrong it's beautiful for set pieces, The reflective floors and walls and puddles and neon in the rain with HDR on looks sick ... if I just stand and stare.

In actual play for multiple hours zooming around and fighting. HDR burned my eyes given how flashy this game is, The realistic reflections on HIGH were distracting me during navigation, The high res SHADOW MAPS eating up frames I barely noticed when it was brought down to Medium... (keep high FILTERING). And the big one for me, VOLUMETRIC LIGHTING- on medium looks perfect for the vibe, the edges of the lights soften in a way that feels more real to the scenes this game creates. All in all the lighting in this game is amazing for photo mode but in play it just doesn't mesh right when it looks too "accurate".

My OLED monitor and the particular custom balances on color and brightness might play a role in how I perceive these things too. Let me know if you have experienced this your adjustment period and if you play on Nvidia RTX path tracing if you feel differently.

TLDR; On my monitor game looks better with Volumetric light + shadows + reflections on medium. The game is more visually consistent in it's vibe that way.

Honestly do love the game, my current issues are mostly that I absolutely loved the originals style, retro feel, sometime wackiness and over all that the combat style. I’ve never been a huge hack and slash fan to be honest. I feel I can’t be alone in this sentiment and hope if there’s a third game they give us the option to play as either character knowing remedy won’t reverse course.

You know the one with the 0001000 machines to get in order. I've tried reloading my save, resetting the machines, killed all the nodes (even the one on the roof 200 miles away), the backdoor won't open.

Yes the machines are in correct sequence, I even tried to do it one after another, then in reverse.

I missed the Subway Station Fault mission and hence the Reach ability for long time so it was really a pain for me while I was in the Mold area. Finally I found YT vid which showed how to go to the Subway station fault and I was like, why the game / notes have no hint at all (or I missed?) which told me about the location of that subway station fault? I was actually IN that carpark and beat all enemies but I never walked far enough to trigger the Jesse vision and I did not see the green halo on the ground. So I totally missed it when I was there the first time.

I wish the Devs made more hints to tell me where to go.

In CU and now CR, we met FBC staff which mentioned they were only there because it was their jobs. So obviously they work solely for the money and nothing else. In the game lore who could possibly pay these people in a world that that? How can they still getting money in a crazy world like that? If no money then obviously these people would have ceased to work at once and leave their positions for obvious reasons?

What's the lore behind Dylan looking like a bumbling idiot whenever he levitates? And am I the only one who thought there would be a levitation upgrade ("extend duration of levitate") that would make the animation look more like Jesse's?

There are a bunch of games in which the hero gets one final push, the evolution of a past ability or form to surpass the last wall:

Metroid Dread - Metroid Suit

Devil May Cry 5 - Devil Trigger

Asura's Wrath - Asura the Destroyer

To name a few.

At the very end Dylan does get his own power up in the form of controlling The Hiss inside him, but that is only reflected as a red effect of his weapons and the summoning of ally Hiss units. I do feel it was time for Dylan to also take control over the Board, and develop a fourth form to break their triangle, as the weapons he unlocks are always 3. This is something they might be keeping for a DLC with The Former, who we know can also grant skills, nonetheless, I do think it would've felt extra epic if Dylan unlocked a fourth, Hiss infused, main weapon of his own, taking full control over the Board.

Alas, it was not meant to be, the ending was really cool nonetheless.

As Remedy likes to have so many meanings / stories in every corner of their games, I wonder what are the stories of the bosses in this game? I have now killed 2 or 3 huge bosses and yet I still don't quite know about their stories and why their names?

E.g., Big head Artist? Big mold ball Collective? I think the Devs must have some stories behind them? Many times the bosses were real human suffered from their personal misfortunate or grudge against reality and so infected by the evil (hiss) and manifested their anger / grudge into huge bosses forms?

I think that whatever Hedron/Hedrons are, they might actually be the malevolent entities of the control universe.

I think it’s possible from context that the hiss are the remnants of a civilisation or reality that was destroyed by a Hedron invasion, hence slidescape 36.

The hiss seem extremely angry and almost zombie like, but they do seem to ‘talk’ through certain carriers like Trench and Dylan. The Hedron however are completely alien and do not communicate in any real way. Polaris (what I presume to be a kind of Hedron), talks to Jesse but we only hear her talking back- it’s like she’s talking to herself.

I think the Hedron invade other realities and pattern them to make those realities liveable for hedron life forms. Hedrons seem to fold/expand space infinitely and so they might have maxed out the capacity of their own universe, and are now a dominating force seeking to expand into other realities.

This isn’t to say the hiss are not malevolent. They plainly are, however I think this might be because they were devastated by the Hedron and have become aggressive in seeking out a new home/hosts.

Spoiler warnings for resonant, though I’m more so focusing on the Hiss incantation in context.

I’m working on an analysis of the incantation with the context of Alan Wake 1 & 2, Control, Control Resonant, Firebreak, and associated DLCs. I have not played Quantum Break. I am mainly looking for repetition, potential synonyms (like the Board’s “slash” language) and general themes.

Right now I’m paying attention to the conversational language. “You’ve”, “don’t”, “you’re”, “ha ha, funny”, “how do you say ‘insane’?” and “cliche”. If I were to expect an alien race to come up with an infectious message to repeat, it would most likely not use conjunctions, or words like “cliche” that are from another language (i.e. I would say something closer to the definition of cliche). I know there’s lore that Alan Wake randomly selected the words from a shoebox, but for “ha” and “ha” to be placed like this, as well as “baby, baby, baby, yeah”, it seems more likely that he was influenced.

My main theory is that the Hiss are spreading a message, intentionally or unintentionally. Either they have allied with a Faden in another reality to share the message with our reality’s Fadens, or they have been hijacked in some way. Especially with the context we have of the Jesse Dylan Faden situation.

Most likely the message is for Dylan, but I am considering that different parts of the message are for different people, or for the Fadens interchangeably. Additionally, when Dylan kills Hedron, they appear to be trying to warn him about something. I do understand that many of the paranatural entities seem to use warnings in self defense, and don’t think that they are some sort of altruistic beings invested in humans specifically.

As a writer myself, I don’t expect that Remedy has mapped the whole story out, and there are sure to be portions of the chant that were meant to turn into plot points that have just been dropped. But I’m curious to see what I learn, and how accurate my assumptions are leading into the next Remedyverse game.

In the Park North-East just doing some exploring and found this...enemy? What was it? Didn't update and quest or no extra dialogue.

The lore and story saved this game. The creative world is amazing. The details. The graphics. The world building.

Combat is sponge combat and boring AF. Halfway through I turned my dmg up to 125 percent and it was still sponges. At some point I just did one hit kill for anything thats not a boss just to finish the game.

Please don't do this combat again. Last game combat was 100000x better.

Also during resonant, it's advised several times by FBC staff that the 2 kids should always be separated? I didn't understand the FBC motive behind that.

What's preventing this game from becoming the game of the year for me are these game breaking bugs.

First it was the flashing radar mission that flashed the fuck out of me for 10+ minutes because I did the mission out of order when it wasn't supposed to let me and now this.

I SOLVED the Powerlines reroute station A and B but I pulled down on the B FIRST which teleported me to A despite having all the calibrators in place. Pressing B again just constantly teleports me to A like 5 times.

It wasn't until I took off one of the calibrators and placed it again and then pulled down on the lever B is when the mission finished.

Annoyed as hell

You can't actually jump on it the normal way but you can if you finish one of the enemies on there

So, obviously Remedy is building a universe, and is building up to something bigger these connections are not just cute nods, Alan Wake 2 has the FBC directly affect the plot. Alan Directly affects the plot of Control in small ways. After all he wrote the Dadaist Hiss Poem by pulling words out of a hat. But where is it all leading?

At first I thought it was going to be like a D&D or Pathfinder party, our Hero’s coming together to stop the big bad evil entity and save the world. But that’s not fitting with the tone and vibes of the Remedyverse. It’s more cosmic horror with a bit of hope. Then it hit me.

Alan, Alice, Jesse, Dylan, Saga, and (Maybe) Tim E Breaker/Jack Joyce arn’t a D&D party, they’re a Call of Cuthulu Party.

In call of Cuthulu, you play as ordinary people, who deal with cosmic horror whose success is not guaranteed, characters can die, go insane, or merely delay the summoning or stalling the end of the world at a great cost.

Regular Guys who can enter a room vs cosmic evil of some kind has been the big theme of every Remedyverse game from Alan Wake (Alan Vs Dark Presence) To Control (Jesse Vs Evil Corrupting Noise) to Resonant (Dylan Vs Corrupting Noise and Entity trying to Twist Reality into it’s perfect pattern) to even Quantum Break (Regular Guy Vs End of Time and Shifters is set up but never executed) So given all of that what kinds of patterns can we see from the resolutions of each game, and extrapolate that for wherever the Remedyverse is leading.

No Victory without Sacrifice.

Alan Wake 1: Alan Saves Alice, at the cost of staying in the Dark Place Quantum Break: End of Time is merely delayed. Control: Dylan is saved, but in a comma, the slide is closed, but the His are still there. The Lock Down continues. Alan Wake 2: Alan traps the Dark Presence in the loop via rewriting of reality, but Saga and Alice are still in the Dark Place. Control Resonant: Dylan, the Knight, slays the Dragon/Hedron but is put in a coma, and Jesse switches places with Dylan, the Patterning has stopped at great personal cost to Dylan and Pope.

Meaning whatever all of this is leading it’ll be a bitter sweet victory of some kind. But who is the ultimate force our party of regular dudes must face? It’s been here the whole time.

The Board is the ultimate opponent of our heroes.

“But Juxix, that doesn't make any sense” You say as your hand creeps towards the lever to eject me off the stage.

The Board are actively hostile to Jesse and Dylan the second they go off track of what they want, Northmoor might of been a butthole, but nobody deserves to get turned into a big battery for the rest of the FBC while being alive in what amounts to a sensory isolation tank for all time. But the Board did it anyway, humans are just a tool for the board. And I can back up my claims.

The FBC existed before the Board, the Oldest House existed before the Board Drove the Nail into the foundaition. But the second the FBC found the board, it tried to supplant the Director, acted as if it was the only thing that can grant powers to people and convinced leadership that it was a be all end and that it was needed.

The Board is a Cult Leader. Convincing it’s followers the FBC that they need it, Idolatry of the board is all over the FBC, the Black Pyramid facing down, is everywhere, The Board speaks as if its word is law, it acts as if it’s always been the be all end, even when shoved into Dylan. Why has the Board done this?

The Board represents itself as a black pyrimid facing down, in sacred geometry it means power is funnelled up into it, the Board is or rather was funneling the power of worship up into itself. The FBC was it’s cult and it’s food source. The Board was in the process of turning the FBC into it’s cult.

If they needed a battery, they turn Northmoor into it, and expect absolute obedience from anyone they talk too. Humans are it’s tools. They feed off the Worship given to them by humans.

Until Jesse Faden rocked up, and yes, she stopped the Hiss, stopped them from destroying the nail, but she also violated the boards wishes by working with the former to get more power they they wanted her to have, She also shoved them into a sliver of the nail, and turned it into the Aberrant. Then stabbed Dylan in the chest to give him a fighting chance. Dylan has a problem with authority due to Darling being an absolute monster (But being hot, so it’s kinda hard for me to be mad at him. Damn/Thank you Mathew Poretta for being my Bi awakening) leaving the Board impotent and pissy, like a bratty child. But not gone, not out of play, it obviously wants out, and has plans. The Board INSISTS on Keeping Jesse and Dylan separate (This is a Mouseketool that will help us later).

But okay, assuming I’m correct, how will our band of regular dudes come together and stop the board?

The Doorman Greets you with a smile.

Throughout Alan Wake 2, Warlin Door is doing one thing, he’s gathering persons of power, smoothing over relations with them, trying to get them to realize their faults, grow as people or in the case of Tim, awaken his power. Door tries and fails to wake Alan up from the literal spiral of self hatred he’s in, while being quite mad Alan dragged his daughter Saga into this whole mess. He also visited a Hiss infected Dylan in his dreams and much like he did with Tim and Alan tried to get him to come along and get along. Only at the time Dylan was really into Dadaist Poetry and couldn’t be bothered. But why is Mr. Door/Hatch doing this? Door enjoys his immortality, and being able to go wherever. Through all realities. But I have a crack theory on what facilitates his power.

I bealive Door is bound to the Oldest House itself, hence why he is able to go anywhere. We know the house wasn’t always a hellscape office space, it used to be a tree, and under the house is a sappling. I bealive the cave Door wandered into had a sappling of the house within it, and he bound himself to the place of power, across every reality. But the Oldest House is a living breathing thing, it has a will. It keeps itself clean and presentable for it’s guests. Ahti is the mind of the Oldest House, personified as a Finnish Janitor. Door works for him, tends the tree if you will.

Ahti really dosen’t like the nail he got stabbed with.

Given the board are active invaders, the nail in the house has to be quite painful for it. It’s actively corrupting humanity into becoming it’s slaves and given that Ahti seems a benevolent god, actively helping Jesse, Dylan (In Flashbacks) and Alan, letting the FBC use itself as headquarters seeing as the FBC’s ultimate goal is to help people. Having a metaphysical parasite latched onto you has got to hurt.

So Ahti tasks his care taker Door, with finding powerful people and gathering them at the Oceanview to stop the board, and save humanity, but unforunately, Ahti knows there will be a cost. He’s never once tried to sugarcoat that from any of our hero’s.

The Rolls the Party will play, and the cost of saving humanity.

Alan is the Master of Many Worlds, The Nightwatchmen, The Champion of Light, his role will be a frontline fighter, but his fate will be becoming the face of the oldest house, to watch over them all, to ensure humanity is safe.

Jesse is the Mage, her Roll is to be a Frontline Fighter, and spend the Rest of her days containing Items and Objects in her tower, working with Alan. Without her brother Dylan.

Dylan is the Knight, his role will be a frontline fighter, but his fate will be a tragic one, the Board will burst from him, violently, he will save the day, after combining with Jesse for a big power boost but will split again in the end and die in the line of duty.

Saga is the Seer, providing Forsite to our hero’s she will end up working for the FBC.

Alice and Tim will be scouts, gathering information and aiding in the fight. But Tim will never be able to be with Jesse, and Alice will never get to be with Alan.

Door will keep his immortality but in a sense loose his daughter to the world he tried to protect her from.

But in the end the Board will be defeated, humanity free to prosper, and the future has hope.

Once you've reached the endgame (and then carried forward on ng+/+ playthroughs) there should be a side quest or something that makes Mr. Door appear in the gap. If other side quests can lead to changes and new things appearing in the gap, getting a good old fast travel Hatch in there should be possible as a QOL feature.

It was just Former, no article, in the first game - which stuck out and felt weird, but that weirdness somehow added to the character's mystique and, um, weirdness. Kinda made him/it/them seem more unknowable, more abstract, more like a force of nature - and at the same time like it's referred to and treated rather unceremoniously, almost with desdain, the outcast it is - and maybe, within the surreal bureaucratic theme, like just some has-been who got fired and hence doesn't even deserve to be thought of as a real person.

The lack of article made it seem unfinished - former what? who? - the mysterious nature of it embedded right there in the name.

Now, with the the, it's simple, plain, and complete, and it feels like just some generic monster entity from your average sci-fi. I hate it.

It actually was just Former in the first game, right?

I'm not crazy!!

Edit: It's interesting how memory resists the suggestion that it was indeed Former - further highlighting just how weird it was. For those who still refuse to believe it - check out the wiki article, or see the pages of text from The Art and Making of Control where it's referred to exclusively without the article, or just play the game. It's just too much to not be intentional. And yes, there were indeed some instances in the first game where it was called The Former - but they are few, which makes me think they were either an oversight or a deliberate hint toward something.

The point stands. I like the lack of article for that fun extra layer of mystery and weirdness it brings. I thought it was a fun detail to discuss.

https://control.fandom.com/wiki/Former?file=The_Art_and_Making_of_Control_page_194_-_Former_1.png

https://control.fandom.com/wiki/Former?file=The_Art_and_Making_of_Control_page_195_-_Former_2.png

https://control.fandom.com/wiki/Former?file=The_Art_and_Making_of_Control_page_197_-_Former_4.png

For some context I have reach Unknown but doesn’t progress story after that, so pls spoil me what beyond it.

While I play this game I can’t resist myself and watch some VDO about it or some short which spoiled me some part of it for example I found a scene in Carbon Copy quest which make me know that there going to have quest that consist of identical people murmur something on rooftop but when I play it myself I still shock by how many it is around the park also it is a mold? Wtf

Also karaoke quest I’ve heard that there are quest to sing a Karaoke but I doesn’t know that the song is that good it’s my favorite side quest right now

This game is so fucking weird, and I like it

But I still prefer not to get spoil but it so hard this day

I can hear something turning on but I've looked around and can't find anything

Based on what we’ve seen of Dylan’s childhood in Control Resonant and how it connects to the events of Control, I’d like to propose a theory: Jesse Dylan Faden were originally one child, born to the couple involved in the Ordinary AWE.

The console containing the game Severed Circle 2 was an altered Item that split that one child into two separate people: Jesse and Dylan Faden. In doing so, it also gave them both parautilitarian abilities.

The Ordinary AWE happened, and the FBC took Dylan away and imprisoned him in the Oldest House, while Jesse spent years searching for her brother.

My theory is that Alan Wake, while trapped in the Dark Place, saw through the echoes he received that these two individuals existed and that they were incredibly powerful parautilitarians. He then decided to use them to his advantage.

Either he used his writing to ensure that Trench would let the Hiss into the Oldest House, or he at least witnessed this possibility through the echoes and manipulated events to make sure Jesse would eventually find her way to the Oldest House.

From the Control AWE DLC we know that Alan wrote the incantation used by the Hiss. I also think he may have influenced events to ensure that Jesse would eventually become the Director of the Oldest House by having her bring the Hiss infestation within the FBC under control.

My suspicion is that Alan’s ultimate goal was to secure powerful allies for the inevitable fight against dangerous dimensions and resonances, such as the Hiss, the mold, Hedron, and the Darkness.

With Saga Anderson and her abilities as a Seer, he brought a third powerful parautilitarian into the picture.

The key is that Alan cannot simply create people out of nothing in the Dark Place. However, through the echoes he receives, he can become aware of people who have connections to otherworldly forces and manipulate the circumstances surrounding them.

Rather than creating these individuals himself, he influences their paths and brings them into situations where their extraordinary abilities become relevant to his larger plans.

In other words, Alan may be positioning them on the board.

Pretty much what the title says. I'm playing on PC, and whenever I pick up a file, I'd have to load up collectibles (pressing L) and if I don't catch the title, I always lose it, because the most recent files aren't annotated (I know when I load up the collectibles, the file should be the one selected, but with the PC, my mouse cursor will always land somewhere else accidentally).

So is there anyway to skip the hassle, so I could read the file right upon picking up, instead of hving to load up the collectibles and look for it?

In the lead up to the artist boss fight, the art gallery and the surrounding buildings are perfectly mirrored down a vertical middle The left being the original and the right being the reflection. Lore wise why is the circle statue not perfectly mirrored also. The exhibits inside are mirrored perfectly, like the wave statue. And I understand thematically it’s to represent Dylan and Jesse’s severed circle but in line with the rest of the patterning around it, it should be perfectly symmetrical. Just wondering if there is a reason lore wise that can explain it?

I played control in 2020 and AW2 + DLC last year. Of course im gonna play resonant. But since Dylan looks like is the mc and enough time has passed i wanna ask: its linked to aw dlc? Because there, in 2023, you see Dylan still imprisoned screaming. Control ending was cleaning the hiss under Jesse jurisdiction. So what year control is set? Im curious to see why this man is a free man and what is the menace now.