Control Resonant Reimagines New York With Paranormal Twist, Says Designer

Remedy Entertainment’s Control Resonant moves the Control universe out of the Oldest House and into New York, and designer Arhi Makkonen says the goal was a city that feels twisted by paranormal forces while still being recognisably Manhattan. The game was set to launch digitally on September 24, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with physical console editions following on October 15 and a macOS version planned for later in 2026.

A haunted Manhattan

Control Resonant takes place in downtown Manhattan after hostile extradimensional entities break into the city. Makkonen described a version of New York that is “moulding and hissing”: familiar streets, buildings and landmarks overtaken by the same kind of corruption that the Hiss spread through the Federal Bureau of Control’s headquarters in the original game.

The challenge, as Makkonen framed it, is keeping the player’s sense of place. Rather than turning New York into pure fantasy, the team layered the paranormal onto the real city so that players can still feel its streets and energy underneath the distortion. That approach matches what Remedy did with the Oldest House, where a dull government office became unsettling precisely because it looked so ordinary.

What is new compared to Control

The biggest change is the lead. Players control Dylan Faden, the brother of Control’s protagonist Jesse Faden, who is searching for his estranged sister. Dylan’s story picks up threads left open in the first game, where he was held by the Bureau.

Combat also shifts direction. Where Control was a third-person shooter built around the shapeshifting Service Weapon and telekinetic powers, Control Resonant is more melee-focused and centres on a shapeshifting weapon called the Aberrant. Remedy has also added more role-playing systems, including character statistics, talent trees and customisable weapons, along with large explorable zones that contain side quests and optional objectives.

The game runs on Remedy’s in-house Northlight engine, which also powered Control and Alan Wake 2, and supports advanced PC rendering features including path tracing. Remedy is publishing the game itself, continuing the self-publishing approach it has taken with recent projects.

Why it matters

Control became one of Remedy’s most successful games by making a strange setting feel grounded, and Control Resonant is a test of whether that formula can scale up to an open, urban map. If the haunted New York works, it gives Remedy a much bigger stage for its connected universe of games, which already links Control and Alan Wake.

For players, the move to melee and deeper RPG systems means this is not simply more of the same. Fans of the original should expect a different rhythm of combat, while newcomers get a fresh entry point with a new protagonist. With physical console copies arriving in mid-October, players who prefer boxed games have a slightly later option than those buying digitally.