Control Resonant Will Be an 'Aciton RPG' Taking Advantage of Remedy's Northlight Engine
Control Resonant takes the mind-bending adventures into a larger world while maintaining a "solid 60 FPS" thanks to Remedy's Northlight Engine.
During a hands-off digital preview event, Remedy Entertainment recently revealed new gameplay details for Control Resonant, the upcoming sequel that expands the studio’s paranormal action universe in both scope and systems. Developed and published by Remedy and co-financed with Annapurna Pictures, the game is scheduled to launch in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Mac.
Unlike the original Control, Jesse Faden will not be a playable protagonistm but she will still serve a crucial role in the overall story. Instead, the story follows Dylan Faden, Jesse’s brother, seven years after the events of the first game, as Manhattan falls under a new wave of paranormal threats.
The setting shifts beyond the confines of the interiors of The Oldest House into a warped version of Manhattan where gravity anomalies and reality distortions reshape the environment. Rather than a fully open world, the game uses a zone-based structure packed with main missions, optional quests, and environmental encounters.
From what I've seen, it looks incredibly dense and full of environmental variety.
Thanks to advancements in the Northlight Engine, Remedy has pushed its physics-driven gameplay further with larger outdoor spaces, longer draw distances, and significantly more enemies active on screen. Combat sequences can involve debris flying through the environment while destructible objects scatter across the battlefield.
"As we move literally outside of the building and into the street, there's more consideration for things like draw distance, the amount of enemies we want to have for the combat, so there is more of a focus to make sure that we hit a solid 60 FPS constantly. That makes the combat and everything flow better. There is destruction, there is debris flying around, and when you go inside some of the buildings and rooms, you have so much stuff there that you can wreck. But we definitely have been a bit more careful about it because it's a very different challenge when you go outside."
- Thomas Puha, Communications Director at Remedy Entertainment
Despite the increased complexity, the developers aim to maintain a stable 60 FPS, even during large encounters filled with destruction and particle effects. Indoor spaces still feature physics-enabled objects that players can destroy or manipulate, though the team noted that presentation has become more deliberate to keep combat readable amid the chaos.
Behind the scenes, Control Resonant continues Remedy’s work, advancing its proprietary Northlight Engine. The engine has long-been known for its physics-driven environments, but the sequel pushes the technology further with larger areas, more dynamic destruction, and more enemies interacting with the world simultaneously.
Lighting has evolved as well. While the first Control focused heavily on stark interior environments, Control Resonant introduces a wider range of lighting conditions across outdoor and indoor spaces, blending darker atmospheres with brighter exterior environments.
According to Remedy, Northlight’s internal tools and pipelines continue to evolve with each project, allowing the studio to expand the scale and complexity of its systems without sacrificing performance.
"We will talk tech more later, but Northlight keeps getting better and better."
- Thomas Puha, Communications Director at Remedy Entertainment
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