Control Resonant – Orientation Walkthrough

Join us at Into Indie Games as we start our journey with Control Resonant.

The highly anticipated sequel, Control Resonant, is finally here, and we’re excited to take you through this new adventure. This time, you play as Dylan, while Jesse is missing and the Hiss has made its way outside the Oldest House.

Given that this is a direct sequel, we highly recommend that you either play Control if you have the time or watch the Control recap before diving in. This is a heavily story-driven game, so having some understanding of what happened before will help you keep up with where the story is going.

With that being said, let’s start with our first Control Resonant walkthrough.

Note

This is part of our Control Resonant – Walkthrough Hub, so if you want more content about the game, be sure to check it out.

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Jessie Leaving

The game starts by showing Dylan is still in his coma inside his cell, and Jessie, his sister, is sitting on the sofa next to him. She seems to be ready to leave somewhere.

She snatches a strange metal shard from the table, walks over to her brother, and says she’s sorry before driving it straight into his chest.

Instantly, the perspective shifts inside Dylan’s mind, or at least that’s what we assume. There, in a vast, empty realm of his own consciousness, he finds himself being addressed by The Board.

The Board, with its usual odd way of speaking, informs Dylan that his sister has gone missing, and then you take control of Dylan.

Walk toward the objective in front of you while the Board is trying to help Dylan wake up from his coma and get his body back to work.

Wake Up Dylan

After you reach the strange building, touch it. This will cause Dylan to wake up in the real world in a shocked state, right after he sees the strange metal object thrust into his chest.

Pick Your Starting Primary Form

Just as you try to pull it out, you will get a prompt to choose your Aberrant form, your primary weapon. You have three options here: Strike, Glaive, or Cleave.

Glaive

Glaive is a scythe-type weapon that allows Dylan to perform wide attacks that can hit multiple enemies at once and push them away.

This is a great weapon when dealing with larger numbers of enemies, which is basically what you will be doing the whole time. However, it doesn’t come with any critical chance at all.

Cleave

Cleave is a hammer-type weapon that allows Dylan to perform strike attacks on enemies ahead and does a little extra damage if you hit them from behind.

Just like the Glaive, it comes with zero critical chance, but it’s considered to be balanced overall.

Strike

Strike is a dual-sword weapon that allows Dylan to perform fast thrust attacks on enemies. It has a high critical chance, making it effective for dealing quick bursts of damage.

Unlike Glaive, which is better suited for dealing with groups of enemies, Strike focuses on quickly taking down a single target.

You may be wondering which starting weapon to choose from, and we’ll tell you this: we picked Strike because we like dual swords, I mean, who doesn’t, but it felt underwhelming.

Later on, we switched to Glaive, and that’s been our go-to weapon. So we highly recommend you pick it first since you will be fighting numerous enemies constantly, and this helps.

Don’t worry about it, as not too far into the game, you will be able to change your primary Aberrant form easily, so you can experiment with them.

Leave The Oldest House

After you pick your weapon, pull the Aberrant from your chest and it will infuse with you, and you will be able to use it to defend yourself.

Dylan needs to find his way to leave the Oldest House. The Board will notify Dylan that the lockdown has failed and he can escape.

Exit this room and go through the Central Executive door. Here, you will find the gate closed. Head left to the control room and hit the button to unlock it.

Continue forward until you reach the elevator, go inside, and press the button. After you reach the Central Executive floor, you will find the Hiss here, and you need to fight.

Defeat the enemies here and get used to how combat feels. This is very different from Control, as it’s more melee-focused in Resonant.

Once you clear all the enemies, take the stairs up and follow the signs that say Thomas Street Exit. You will have more enemies to defeat along the way.

To the right side before you reach the elevator, you can go inside the Director’s office and check it out just for the funsies and memories. When you’re ready, take the elevator and approach the hole in the wall.

Manhattan

After seven years and the time he was infected by the Hiss, Dylan can finally feel the freedom. You will get a short cutscene here of a leaf floating around in the air, showing the current situation of the city.

The Hiss got out, people have died, and it’s all a mess all over again, but Dylan is immune to the Hiss now thanks to Jesse.

Just when Dylan is being overwhelmed by all the scenery, he hears a radio help call from a person called Zoe. He slowly approaches the corpse that has the radio and answers her.

They report to each other what they see. Everyone is dead, and Dylan offers to help her. Zoe asks him to meet her at the hotel, which you can spot as the tall white building north of you.

Meet Zoe At The Hotel Building

Don’t worry about exploring now or checking the map since you don’t have one yet. Just focus on reaching the hotel. There is one item that you can grab this early.

Behind you, you will see a supermarket called Urban Fresh. Go inside and you will spot Third Ice machine. Interact with it and you will grab your first Health Upgrade item.

You will need three of these to upgrade your maximum health. The same goes for your Power, only it requires a different item.

Now, to reach the hotel, you can do so by following the street to the end, taking the right path, and then the alley to your left.

There will be enemies along the way, so get comfortable using your weapon and get familiar with combat.

Pick Your Starting Secondary Form

At the end of the alley combat encounter, you will get a prompt to pick a secondary weapon to use in combat. You will have the choice between Extend, Crush, and Drill.

Crush

Crush is a heavy hammer weapon that you can use to perform a high-damage slam on the ground that can knock enemies down. If you charge it, you will deal more damage and build up the Falter meter on the enemies.

Drill

Drill is, well, a drill weapon that you can thrust into quick attacks and charge it to deal continuous damage. It also benefits from the increased Falter damage toward the target.

Extend

Extend is a whip weapon that you can attack multiple enemies with. Just like the others, you can charge it for increased damage.

This one, however, is unique. You can perform a perfect charge, and the timing is the flashlight. If you do it, it deals increased damage and Falter damage.

We started by picking Crush because the damage was pretty high, but if we had to do it again, we would go with Extend, which is what we are using currently.

Just like the primary form, you will be able to obtain other forms or change them early in the game.

Find Zoe

After you make your choice, you will have to fight another wave of enemies. This is the perfect time to try out your secondary form.

Once you deal with all the enemies here, jump the fence and climb up, then follow the way until you reach the main street. At the end of this street, you will be able to spot Zoe standing.

He approaches and speaks to her. It seems the Hiss has taken hold of the entire city, a horror Zoe is all too familiar with.

This is the very Altered World Event she and her team have been tracking, though none of them anticipated it would strike so fast or hit this hard.

During your conversation with her, you will notice that now you can have some dialogue options, but this does not affect the main story, so you can pick whatever you feel like.

The conversation will get interrupted by another agent radio call requesting backup. Zoe will rush to help, and you need to follow her.

Investigate The Alley

Follow Zoe as she makes her way through the alley, only to find the way is not exactly straight. It requires some platforming, and Zoe is just a regular human.

She makes a comment about Dylan being Parautilitarian, and she will take her own way and meet you at the other side. You just need to platform your way straight ahead.

Along the way, you will get a vision, the same as Jesse used to have. This time, it’s Jesse, and she is warning Dylan about a threat coming.

The Board sounds a bit angry that the Director is operating outside the local jurisdiction spacetime. Dylan thinks she’s nearby, so he sets aside everything and tries to find her. She is his sister after all!

Search For Jesse

At the platform below, you will see a door where birds are directed, showing that you can go through. Follow the way here and you will see another Jesse vision.

At the end of this path, you will find a TV. Interact with it, and it will take you to a strange realm.

Along the way, you will see what looks like Jesse, and it seems like she will feel your presence. After a second, the body will be gone. However, it seems that she sensed your presence; somehow.

Complete The Ritual

In this section, all you need to do is progress forward and platform, and you will get the basic traversal abilities here.

Double Jump, which is self-explanatory, Elevate, which allows Dylan to float in the air for a short while, and Rush, which you can use to sprint for a duration.

It’s crucial to learn how to combine these powers together and use them to platform your way around because you will need them.

At the end of this section, you will find another TV similar to the previous ones you encountered. As you approach it, you will see Jesse trying to cleanse it, and then so is Dylan.

After they both, and we assume, failed, Jesse quickly tells Dylan that they are too late and the leak is worse than she thought before she disappeared.

Find A Vantage Point

Back to the real world, Zoe will notice you being late and urge you to get to her. Exit this building and you will notice a strange building assembled in an odd way in the sky. That’s where you need to go.

Reach The Source Of The Patterning

Progress forward and defeat the waves of enemies here to unblock the path. Continue ahead and climb up to the top to be able to reach the gallery on the other side.

Go inside and, at the end of the path, interact with the mirror there and be ready to fight your very first boss of the game, and it won’t be as easy as you would think.

Defeat The Artist

The Artist is a floating head boss that moves around the arena a lot, bombarding you with relentless long-range attacks. Because of her constant mobility, half the battle is just spent chasing her down to land a hit.

Not only that, but the boss is tanky and spongey, which means the fight might take more than you would want from a game like this, so patience is key.

If you check the boss health bar, you will notice two blue orbs. Given that Dylan does not have the ability to heal, when you reach the threshold, the boss will drop health elements that you can use to heal.

If Dylan is already at full health, they will stay on the ground, and you will be able to use them later. This also means that you need to be careful with the little health that you have.

The Artist Attacks

The Artist has several attacks that can be easier to avoid depending on your position.

When she throws objects from a distance, move toward her rather than staying back to avoid giving her room to keep using her ranged attacks.

The Artist can pick up a taxi and throw it toward you. Use Rush to bait the throw, then quickly move away from its path. You can also Dodge just before the taxi hits if you don’t have enough time to reposition.

At close range, the Artist grabs two clumps of traffic lights and swings them like batons. There are two different variations to this attack.

When she holds them vertically, she follows with a downward swing, so wait for the swing to begin before using Dodge.

When she holds them horizontally, jump and attack her face to stay airborne while the batons swing around you.

Another attack has the Artist pull a line of rocks toward herself before firing two volleys. Jump over the first volley, then Dodge the second while moving toward her.

The Artist can also fire streams of rocks and traffic signs when you’re further away. Dash toward her at an angle to avoid the incoming objects while closing the distance.

Do Your Best To Interrupt This Attack

After taking the first third of her health, the Artist will float at the center of the arena with the bottom of her head glowing yellow as she summons chunks of platforms to float in the air.

Now you need to be quick here and climb up on these platforms to hit the yellow glowing part, as this is a weak point and will interrupt this attack.

If you do it successfully, you will stun her and leave her vulnerable for a lot of damage.

If by any chance you manage to fail to interrupt this attack, these platforms will form a circle around her head, and she will fire chunks at you. Rush alone won’t do the trick, so you need to time your evade.

Second Phase

Halfway through her health, the Artist will become more aggressive toward you and even gain a few more ability upgrades and new attacks.

Whenever the Artist changes locations, she leaves behind a line of falling rocks along her path. So now you need to be careful not to chase her directly and take a detour.

The other noticeable change is that now she throws two taxis instead of one and uses her abilities more often. That’s basically the whole fight.

Once again, patience is key, especially since you will barely notice the damage you are dealing. The boss’s health bar will not move as quickly as you might normally expect.

After you drop her health to zero, perform the Execution finisher and you will find yourself in a strange realm called the Gap.

Pick Your Starting Combat Ability

Successfully defeating the Resonant will reward Dylan with an ability point, in which you can choose to pick one of the three available options: Barrage, Shield, or Volatile Anomaly.

Two of these abilities you should be familiar with if you played the first Control game.

Barrage

Barrage allows you to send three projectiles and hurl them toward a target. Unlike the previous game, in which you can pick if it hits more than one enemy or not, this time it’s only for one target.

It does 60 to 180 damage and costs 400 Power.

Shield

Shield allows you to, well, put a shield on you and absorb damage at the cost of your Power meter. The higher the meter, the more damage you can absorb.

Alternatively, if you dodge with your Shield up, you will perform a shield bash to throw the elements of the shield at the enemy and damage them.

Volatile Anomaly

This is the new ability, and it allows you to have a friendly summon that deals damage to nearby enemies and can even explode. If Dylan’s health is low, the summon deals more damage.

However, this one is costly, as it requires 1,000 Power to activate and 400 more to throw it.

We picked Barrage since we loved the triple projectiles, and it’s the only ranged attack that we have. If you want a more defensive approach, go for Shield, and the new one, Volatile Anomaly, we haven’t tested it yet to know.

The Gap

Dylan wakes up at the Gap, a strange realm in which only he can access, or so it seems. Here, you will be able to do all your upgrades, from weapons to abilities and talents.

You can even reset and change your build entirely at the cost of a Reset Item.

There are five main features here, from left to right these are:

• Artifact Formation: This is where Dylan can craft artifacts that give you bonuses and advantages based on their attributes.
• Combat Ability Selection: This is where you can obtain a new combat ability or reset and change it to another one.
• Aberrant Form: This is where you can unlock and upgrade all of your forms, from primary to secondary to finisher.
• Talents: This is where you upgrade Dylan’s abilities.
• Arena: This is a training ground in which you can test out the weapons and abilities to obtain before heading out there.

Take the time to explore here; make sure you check every menu and do the necessary upgrades that you need before leaving.

Back To The Oldest House

When you’re done, exit the Gap to be back at the Gallery where you defeated the Artist. Here, it seems that they know who you are, and Arish is informing everyone who you are and that you are dangerous.

Zoe approaches you with her gun pointed at you. Dylan is not even trying to fight and convinces her that he’s just trying to help, and they can use a man of his talent. She takes him back to the Oldest House.

Just as he catches his first taste of freedom, Dylan finds himself dragged right back to the one place where he was trapped as a test subject, held in a coma for many years.

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And with that, we wrap up our very first walkthrough for Control Resonant. Thanks for checking it out!