- Remedy says it wanted to make sure Resonant controlThe hand-to-hand combat was “fun on a very visceral level.”
- Dylan’s changing weapon idea was originally planned for Control
- Because Dylan is a melee fighter, he needed to double down, “because this is the first melee game Remedy has done so far.”
Resonant control is the first melee-focused game Remedy has created, and according to art director Elmeri Raitanen, it was vital to ensure it was satisfying to play “on a very visceral level.”
In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at an event just before this year’s Summer Game Fest, Raitanen, along with lead level designer Anne-Marie Grönroos, discussed how Dylan’s fast-paced, melee combat was designed in Resonant.
Compared to Jesse’s fighting style in ControlBeing more fluid and tactical with her service weapon, Remedy knew she needed to make Dylan’s combat fast and fierce as she traversed the warped world of Manhattan.
“This game specifically has always been about movement,” Raitanen said, “and we wanted to make sure that Dylan is a little bit, well, not a little bit, a lot faster than Jesse actually is, jumps higher, and has more ability to move around in the environment.
“So movement has definitely been one of the most important things we looked at, and partly also because of close combat – you need to be able to close the distance quickly and [keep the] Fun in hand-to-hand combat.”
Grönroos added that the team wanted the scale of the game to be larger, to have an “epic scale”, to accommodate Dylan’s hand-to-hand combat.
“Having a lot of verticality in the levels,” the developer explained, was important, “so Dylan needs to be able to stay in the air, fight enemies in the air, and he needs to be able to get back up if he falls.”
Instead of a utility weapon like Jesse’s, Dylan will wield a shape-shifting melee weapon called Aberrant, giving players more variety in fights to experience.
According to Raitanen, this idea was conceptualized during the development of Control, when the team considered letting Jesse’s service weapon transform into a sword.
“The seed [for] Hand-to-hand combat was already sown during Control” he said. “I think we were doing a little research: ‘Could Jesse’s service weapon already turn into a sword there?’ and they were [the combat design team at Remedy] like, ‘Hey, that’s a cool idea, but we can’t make it work here with these metrics because we don’t have any parameters in play.'”
“But it was always in the back of Mixer’s [Creative Director, Mikael Kasurinen] head,” he continued, “Maybe next time, maybe Dylan will fight dirty and [he’s a] It’s really a melee fighting game, so this is something we needed to duplicate, because this is the first melee game that Remedy has made so far.
“So we really needed to make sure that this was something that worked and was fun on a very visceral level, when you do it, and [it can be] how to pop bubble wrap.”
Resonant control launches on September 24 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.
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