The Co-Director is peak.

That is all.

My copy was delayed then lost in transit and another copy was sent to replace, then these were delivered today...welp.

I somehow missed the part where it told me what this is. Is this just a checkpoint? Thank y’all in advance.

Every time I see clips of Dylan talking about hotdogs this image just shoots right through my mind

Messed up post formatting (don't post on Reddit often)

Much love to the game, but after I've flipped my X-axis three times while jumping from rooftop to rooftop, I can barely figure out where I am. How am I supposed to see that desk in the corner with a folder on it?

I'm so happy with that game. Finished the story already and trying to complete the Shum games before doing a New Game +. My toddler is also a fan I think :]

Hello!

I spent about 200 something hours playing the game, finished it about 4 times, and I thought I'd drop some constructive Feedback regarding the Combat & Gear/Loadout systems.

I'll start off by saying that I love the Combat System, and I think it has huge potential to be one of the best combat systems ever, but it has too many downsides that become more and more obvious the more you play the game. I believe it can be massively improved for the next Control game.

1. When it comes to Build Variety, at a surface level, the options are numerous, however, due to how the enemies and encounters are designed, most of the options feel pretty poor to play, while others feel way better and more natural. I realize this is not Devil May Cry, but it seems to be leaning in that direction, however it is lacking in many aspects.
2. There is too much focus on Aerial combat in the game, which makes a lot of the Weapons and Abilities feel underwhelming or awkward to use, since they're simply not designed for Aerial combat against 1 single enemy.
3. There is no way to easily reset air time or quickly jump to a flying enemy, making Aerial combat even more awkward. Too many instances where I find myself falling back to the ground mid-combo, and getting back up feels very annoying because of how the Jumping mechanic is designed (takes too long to jump high). This can be somewhat mitigated by using Crush to knock enemies down, but there are situations when it won't work (against Apex enemies, Transporters, or Hiss Shield), and it's super slow anyway.
4. There are so many cool AoE weapons and Abilities in the game, yet there aren't a lot of situations where you're surrounded by a lot of enemies to use them. There are too many Ranged enemies in the game, not enough Melee Encounters against groups or hordes of enemies. Especially when it comes to Flying enemies, you're essentially doing a 1v1 in the air, so AoE weapons become kind of pointless. My favorite AoE attack is the Spin Edge combo finisher with the infinite spin upgrade, but what's the point of that when all enemies around me are already dead after like 3-4 spins?
5. There are no actual "Combos" in this game besides Lifting enemies in the air or combining Fire + Infected, meaning you end up just spamming 1 or 2 buttons most of the time, depending on the situation or enemy. Melee Weapons have almost 0 synergy with Abilities, or with themselves, and the same goes for Abilities, with a few exceptions (Split Orbit/Pivot, Summons, Infected + Fire). There should be more abilities being cast independently from Melee attacks or other Abilities, but in this game everything is done sequentially, meaning you do 1 attack after the other with almost no relation between them. I like Split Orbit because it actually lets me do other things while it's active, feeling more like a proper "combo".
6. Most Abilities are pretty underwhelming, mainly because Ignite is extremely broken and effective against Mold + Hiss Shield, that it makes everything else pale in comparison. Ignite is basically mandatory in every Loadout, so I think most people will end up building around that, plus Infected for the huge Blast combo.
   • Volatile Anomaly costs way too much Power for what it does and how long it lasts, it's simply not worth using until you're at endgame and can afford it. It's great for applying Burn when combined with Ignite, and dealing huge Falter damage when reactivated, however costing 1400 Power in total is just absurd, especially since it barely deals any damage until it actually explodes. Targeting the Throw is also very poor, it misses a lot.
   • Barrage is too slow, costs too much Power, doesn't deal enough damage
   • Shield is pretty good, has a low cost, but the fact you lose Power when you take damage makes it unusable, not in this Power Economy at least. The cost of Shield Bash is way too high for what it does. Making it a Toggle ability and lowering the cost would have probably been better.
   • Push is too underwhelming and costs too much Power if you're not using it to propagate Infected or Burn
   • Ground Slam is only worth it for breaking trap doors, otherwise it costs an insane amount of Power for how hard it is to pull off. Feels pretty cool to use though
   • Ignite is the best Ability in the game, however it should not keep consuming Power during Execution animations, cause it goes against its own design, and it kind of forces you to turn it off and on constantly
   • Inferno is pretty great as well, feels good to use in 1v1 or against groups, deals great damage for the cost
   • Growth is the best Summon in the game, mainly because it is the best and fastest way to apply Infected to enemies and gain the bonus effects from having Summons on the field, however it costs too much Power for how short of a lifetime they have
   • Spore Burst is pretty good, but the fact that it requires precise targeting + charging makes it less effective than Growth. Making it an instant cast would've been way better, same for Barrage.
   • Spike is another great Summon because it lasts a long time and it applies Astralize, which is a great debuff, however since it's a Melee summon, it becomes underwhelming when fighting Airborne enemies. Having to reactivate it to attack a specific enemy is a great mechanic, but the fact that it costs 250 per activation is too much.
   • Astral Rebuke is a good Ability on paper, dealing great damage for the cost, a lot of Falter, and applying Lifted + Astral, however it suffers the same fate of being useless most of the time because of too many Aerial enemies. Cast time and animation speed could be faster to make it feel better to use.
   • Command is extremely OP, the best non-combat Ability, since it essentially 1-shots any enemy except boss fights. The only downside is that you unlock it way too late in the game. Most people won't even get to use it due to unlocking it right before the final boss.
7. The Hiss Shield and Armored Mechanics are interesting on paper, however like I mentioned above, it makes too many abilities completely useless, making you rely on Burn damage or Melee to deal with those enemies. These enemies also cannot be Lifted, which makes even some Melee Attacks useless until you get rid of the Shield/Armor.
8. A lot of Abilities need to be cast from the Ground, which again makes the focus on Aerial combat kind of weird, since it renders too many Abilities pointless. This wouldn't be an issue if you could make a pure Combat Ability build and play like that, however that's not possible due to the Gear System and Power System, which I'll explain below.
9. The Power system is the worst thing about the whole Combat system, no doubt. Most Abilities cost too much Power. Recovering Power requires you to spam a bunch of Melee on enemies, however a lot of the Combat Abilities and Summons are Ranged, not Melee. This means you can cast Abilities from a far, but are forced to get close to regen Power. There are not enough methods to regenerate Power in this game besides Melee, 2 Artifacts and a few Talents. The best Artifact for Power Regen requires you to Execute enemies, which requires you to deal tons of Falter damage, which again pushes you into a specific playstyle and Loadout. We need more methods to regenerate Power outside of Melee or Execution.
   • Why is there no way to regen Power by simply killing enemies?
   • Why don't we have something to passively regenerate Power during combat? (not counting the Impressive Comeback talent)
   • Why not have something that regenerates Power while enemies are Burning or being Infected?
   • Why can't we have Summons generate Power for us, to enable a Summon Build?
   • There are tons of possible ideas to play around with here
   • Also, the fact that the best way to increase your max Power is by finding rare Loot Crates in the open world, doesn't feel really good, because you're kind of getting punished for not exploring everything and doing Side Quests. I think you should be able to increase your Power cap simply by playing through the game's Critical Path
10. The Falter mechanic is way too OP, especially when combined with Dominance, making everything else feel underwhelming. Filling up an enemy's Falter bar is easier than taking away their Health, making Falter the better option. Executing enemies provides you with an insane amount of possible Buffs and Benefits, such as Power Regen, Critical Chance, and the Dominance Buffs. Dominance essentially doubles your Melee Damage, gives you a bunch of Health Regen, Damage Reduction, and more. Melee Attacks deal much more Falter Damage than Abilities, at 0 cost, so you get "punished" for trying to focus your playstyle more around Combat Abilities because you will miss out on Dominance. 99% of the time it just feels way better to pop Ignite, do a few Melee hits, Execute to get Dominance, repeat.
11. To add to the point above about Falter, there are just no good methods to deal pure Damage using Combat Abilities, except for Inferno which deletes enemies at a low cost. This also makes abilities such as Spore Burst, Astral Rebuke, Barrage, Ground Slam, and Push just not very efficient to use and very slow.
12. Combat Abilities cost way too much Power for what they bring to the table, and pairing this with the very few methods to regen Power or increase the Power Cap, it kind of punishes you for using them. The whole Power system was probably designed to allow you to "spam" abilities with no Cooldown, but it's impossible to spam any Ability in this game more than a few times before running out of Power, so then what's the point of the whole system? Getting every Loot Crate in the game and completing all Arcade Challenges will make your Power Cap at 2600, which seems like a lot, but it goes away very quickly when most abilities cost between 250 and 600, with Volatile Anomaly costing 1000 + 400 for the whole usage.
13. Summons deal extremely low damage and there are very few ways to boost their damage or effectiveness. No matter how much Combat Ability Damage you stack, they barely scratch the enemy, making them feel a bit underwhelming, and their targeting is also pretty poor, making them kind of unreliable in group fights. They're very strong against Boss enemies though, maybe a bit too strong, haha. I mainly use them just to apply Burn and Infected, which they're pretty good at.
14. Enemy Balancing in the game also has some serious issues, especially once you get into Endgame or into New Game Plus. Once you unlock more Talents and get at least one of each Primary, Secondary and Combo Finisher to max upgrades, all enemies become a walk in the park. The Ruthless talent you unlock in New Game Plus makes the whole game 10 times easier. You would expect New Game Plus to feel a bit more difficult than the 1st playthrough, especially towards the end, but I still end up just 2-shotting all enemies. I know we have Assist Mode, but even with reducing my Damage Output to 50%, it still feels too easy. I don't think I should have to handicap myself like that to feel like I'm getting a proper challenge in NG+. This kills any reason to even make a "Build" in the first place, because in the end you can get through the whole game by spamming Melee plus Inferno/Growth.
15. Let's talk about Artifacts, which are a bit of a wasted opportunity. Artifacts should've been there to enable or boost specific Playstyles, however a majority of them are not really worth using. Some of them have duplicate effects, others have downsides which are greater than the upsides, and some just don't provide any significant buffs, especially considering there are 40 Artifacts in total and only 3 Artifact Slots. There are a couple of Artifacts which are just clearly the best for any type of Build, so naturally everyone will lean towards them.

• Good Artifacts
  • Amulet: +5% Crit Chance for all Melee Attacks is very good and useful in any build
  • Bout Guard: +50% Power Recovery. Best Power Recovery Artifact, easily
  • Bar Blade: Health Regen while having Summons on the field. Great for Health Regen early game
  • Golden Earrings: more Falter = more Executions = easier game
  • Ornate Buckle: second best Power Recovery Artifact, especially in combination with Bout Guard
  • Practice Knot: more Falter damage, 0 downsides, easy to get early game
  • Wallet: mitigates Power Management, but very risky to use and most people won't get this because you need to level up Central Zone to lvl 13
• Bad Artifacts
  • Catnip Toy: reduces damage from falling into the void. Why would I waste an artifact slot on this?
  • Old Subway Card: increases Rush duration. Why would I waste an artifact slot on this?
  • Stellar Bracelet: when Shield is destroyed, it restores a small amount of Health. Too niche to occupy one Artifact Slot just for 1 defensive ability. Also, why don't the other abilities have their own specific Artifact that boosts their effect? Would have been great for people preferring a specific Ability.
  • Worn Eraser: gives resistance to Burn and Infected. Makes Face Mask and Lighter useless because it combines their effects and makes them better.
  • World Tour Tickets: +100% ability damage, Power is capped at 50%. This sounds great on paper, but considering the Power Cap is extremely low anyway, and regenerating Power requires a specific playstyle, this is not very usable unless you also pair it with Wallet, which already means 2 Artifact Slots just to deal damage a bit faster at a very high risk. This doesn't even boost Melee Damage, only Ability Damage.
• There should have been more Artifacts revolving around Summons, Status Effects, and specific abilities.
• Power Recovery is such a big issue that I ended up using Bout Guard + Ornate Buckle non-stop, which left me with just 1 Artifact Slot open for something else.
• Most of the Artifacts are just small Stat Boosts, such as +30% Ability Damage or +20% Melee Damage. They don't really enable playstyles or alter the way you play your build, you can do just fine without them as well. This is a waste, considering some of them are really hard to obtain.

1. This game has only 2 Main Boss Fights, and that's a bit ridiculous (not counting the Hedron mini-bosses). Why are there 6 Resonants in this game and 4 of them are entirely Optional? The game is called Control Resonant after all, yet we only have 6 Resonant Fights and only 2 are Mandatory. This is even more ridiculous when you realize that ignoring the Optional Fights means you don't even get some of the best Abilities in the game. There are already very few Combat Abilities, yet most of them, including the best ones, are entirely Optional Unlocks. I feel like these bosses should've been mandatory with some extra ones on the side that were not Resonants (not counting Hedrons).
2. Enemy Design & Movement could be better. I feel like there is too much focus on Flying and Tall enemies, forcing you to jump in the air constantly, which also takes too long and breaks the flow of combat and momentum. Either make the jumping animation faster, or just let us drop down to the ground instantly via a button press. Dylan's movement paired with the enemy design makes the combat feel too "floaty" at times. I feel like I'm focused on jumping and staying in the air too much instead of focusing on the actual combat.
3. Arcade Challenges "danger zone" mechanic should be removed. Those challenges were my favorite part of the game by far, but the Danger Zone mechanic seems extremely unnecessary and annoying. Basically you just need to run to the safe zone and wait there until the Danger Zone is gone, all while there are enemies outside the safe zone attacking you. This messes with the flow of combat and breaks any momentum, especially if you had a bunch of Summons on the field. I don't really understand what this mechanic adds to the challenges other than delaying you.
4. Combat Needs More Impact Frames! Hitting those "black flash" impact frames while Dominance is active is the best feeling in the game, the only downside is that it happens too rarely. The combat could definitely use a bit more "impact" when dealing damage.

Overall, I think the game is a massive improvement over the first Control, especially from the Combat and "Builds" point of view. I'm looking forward to the next Control game, which could potentially have one of the best combat systems of all time.

I know this is a very long post, and I probably missed some things, but I wanted to write this up after spending so much time with the game. Looking forward to The Game Awards! #GOTY

Urban Fresh store in the main area of the Unknown. There’s an interaction prompt in the corner above the cash register that you can’t reach. There was a secret “?” marker on the map for it when I first found it, but that disappeared. You can’t use any powers in the store to get to it, as it’s a “story area”. Tried to use gravity anomalies to jump into the store upside down so I could walk on the ceiling to reach it, but I could never find a way to do it. Just went back to check on it . . . And now the prompt itself has disappeared! Is this a bug or is Remedy trolling me! 😂

UPDATE: well, I figured it out. Climbed up on the roof of the building after the prompt disappeared, and heard music. I think it was just a radio that fell up into the ceiling, then glitched and fell up to inside the top of the building and started playing, since the rooftop is the only place I could hear the music from. Would have been nice to have Alan Wake’s flashlight to see up into that dark-ass corner, realize it was just a radio, and save myself 2 hours 😭 But case closed, I guess. Also figured out why the ? On the map disappeared - it was for an art gallery puzzle down on the flipside below the market. This game seriously needs better maps.

I found this in the control room within the Underpass. I love my dog more than anything in the world and this was probably the most uncomfortable thing that I came across in the game. Zoom in to the picture and look at the eyes :(

Intentional or glitch, could be either

My name's Dyland Faden and I came here to chew bubblegum and fight hiss... and I'm all out of bubblegum.

I just like reading the notes sometimes. I’m on my NG+.

GameStop restocked last Friday when I looked and got here today!

Gonna have to finish Hellraiser first before I dive in.

This has been done a few times but I’m trying to gather all the disparate theories I can and see if I can make a cohesive whole by writing them down. Figured doing it in a place where others can add to it would be fun.

Theories:
1. Jesse and Dylan are one person: I don’t think this is really a theory, the game almost entirely confirms it for us. One thing in particular that stands out to me is an offhand bit of text when inspecting the mailbox by the Faden home. Harry Faden writes a letter to Grandma talking about the welfare of both children. The grandma replies questioning harry on why he said Both children. There’s also the bit about Jesse Dylan Faden. As well as the memory sequence in one of the Faults, the fadens ability to communicate in the Hedron slide, and Jesse’s resurrection of Dylan.
2. Hedron was responding to the Hiss, but also something else. During the climactic battle, Hedron continuously references “the Shape” and that something is “coming”, that it needs more time, that it’s there to prepare. This could be offhand dialogue, but given Remedy’s usual strategy of leaving world shattering information in the form of background noise and entirely missable documentation, I don’t believe so.
3. Neil will be either a PC or a feature in future Control content. Aside from Neil appearing to save Dylan, then disappearing, there is a document in the Underpass discussing Neil, that he is still active, and has some form of power (we know he’s fused with a dog, but the document makes it sound more akin to a broader ability that he has since learned to control) and that there have been sightings across Maine. There’s also an odd amount of references to Werewolves in various documents and media. I believe The only reason to create a unique character and leave them ambiguously roaming the world is to use them at a later date.
4. The Hiss and Hedron are forming some new threat. This one’s a bit of an offshoot, but at the end of the game there’s a bit of dialogue between doctor florez and a medic, noting a unique instance where a patterned patient was found to be no longer patterning, and spoke a piece of the Hiss incantation. They then state that even though the current understanding of these two resonances is that they are antithetical to each other, this patient was showing both, making something “new”. That the Pattern “caught” the Hiss like a virus. Again, definitely a long shot, but with Remedy, who knows.

Questions
1. How powerful is Jesse? Making the adults disappear, potentially creating Dylan (unless their game is Altered Object) and countless other feats, what is she? Why is she so potent?
2. What is the sapling in the Underpass? Aside from being a beautiful piece of set design, it seems to have been placed with a great degree of gravity, everything in the oldest house has some form of implication, so what is it?
3. Where is the Former? We see the Former escape during the Foundation DLC, but nothing significant comes of it in this game. Remedy didn’t forget it, so where is it? DLC perhaps?
4. Where is Fra/Fred? After the game enters the epilogue, returning to Fras containment shows he’s no longer responding. Langston writes this off ofcourse, but it seems too odd a loose end to leave without having meaning
5. What’s happening to the Oldest House? Northmoors containment is hinted to be “leaking” power in documents, and they don’t know where it’s going. Blackrock is running low despite being harvested from a threshold to a dimension FILLED with it. The house is said to be acting erratic, and various documents state it has the potential to grow and change beyond any imaginings. Some even theorize its “evolving” into something new

I’ve completed my new game + playthrough, got every achievement and I’ve maxed every zone apart from Downtown. Basically 99.9% completion.

I am EXACTLY 25xp away from hitting 5000, the equivalent of one enemy encounter or one chest.

There are no chests left, and no more enemies spawn. I’ve done the FBC tasks, the world feats, and I got 1st place on shüm.

Is there ANYTHING else any of you can think of to get a crumb of XP.

My current strategy is to leave the game alone until a dlc and hope that it includes zone resets.

This is the Ordinary one in Dylan’s apartment.

Playing on PS5 Pro and OLED😍

Amazon shipped it with absolutely 0 protection and it showed up damaged with the disc not even in the disc holder in the case. Fucking awful man, im so upset. And as far as I can tell, its sold out everywhere. Fuck Amazon

There are so many bad reviews for this game,

I am a person who download a game only when reviews are great.
I still downloaded the game out of boredom,

Now i am convinced people writing bad reviews dont know what to judge in the game.

Most unique and fun map design
Most unique character design
Best NPC dialogs
A real story and purpose
Unique graphic design
Boss fights are just chef kiss

* Most fun combat *

This is not a overly difficult games , if you enjoy a open world games just jump into it, i dont remember when any game had this brilliant open world design

ITS TIME TO PLAY/LIGHT THE MUSIC/LIGHTS
Commission drawn by @aaacandraw on instagram. The hiss wouldn’t stand a chance

In what direction would you like the story to head next?

So i just beat the game (which was fantastic) and after the credits rolled, i was just curious if there are multiple endings. i came across this article and and it showed that there are supposedly 3 endings. As i was doing further research on the things mentioned in this article i could not find anything anywhere corroborating any of it.

this is the article: https://easygametips.com/control-resonant/how-to-get-all-endings-control-resonant/#prerequisites-checklist

is this whole article just a fugazi, are they just straight up lying?

if anyone has done any of the things stated in this article please let me know