Control Resonant's art design and gravity-warped environments shaped its bosses and paranaturally-twisted Manhattan

Control Resonant, released last week, is establishing itself as one of 2026's major PlayStation 5 releases. The sequel combines gravity-defying set pieces, memorable boss fights, and a reimagined take on Manhattan that expands significantly from the original Control's confined spaces.

Remedy's design philosophy centered on grounding the protagonist Dylan despite his superhuman abilities. Lead Gameplay Designer Sergey Mohov explained the approach: "Dylan's animations demonstrate that everything he does is difficult. It takes effort to use the Elevate ability, and shifting gravity is disorienting to him." Art Director Elmeri Raitanen added, "There is a deliberate groundedness in how Dylan moves and fights. We wanted to show that everything has a cost." This deliberate clumsiness creates empathy with players, connecting superhuman power fantasy to recognisable human vulnerability.

The environmental design extends this philosophy across the game world. When Dylan uses abilities like Reach or creates shockwaves, the world reacts viscerally. Leaves kick up from streets, fire hydrants spray water, and trashcans spill litter. Lead Level Designer Anne-Marie Grönroos explained how Remedy balanced Control's confined Brutalist aesthetic with the openness of Manhattan: "The more mundane areas can also act as a palate cleanser. They keep the more paranatural areas surprising."

Remedy created what the team calls "Strange York" rather than a one-to-one recreation of real New York. The city includes details like phone booths, which were removed from actual New York around 2022, creating an iconic, movie-like retro aesthetic. Grönroos described the design process: "Most concepts for objects around the environment started with an intended gameplay purpose and an idea of what that object is used for diegetically. Or it could also be used to draw the player's attention, like the FBC satellite dishes around many of the Fast Travel doors."

The Central serves as the game world's baseline of normalcy, positioned in the middle of the map to create maximum contrast with the paranaturally-transformed zones surrounding it. "A new paranatural threat in the Patterning gave us the opportunity for unexpected and crazy visuals," Elmeri said. "The Federal Bureau of Control, at face value, looks like a believable office space. Then when something otherworldly happens, it feels impactful because we had first established a baseline for the story."

The Gap represents Dylan's psyche as a stark, grey, otherworldly space. Sergey explained the visual metaphor: "Dylan has spent all this time in a concrete building, locked up and experimented on, and that's what is most familiar to him. Which is why the Gap visually represents that." Elmeri added, "The Gap is the raw, honest concrete Dylan has felt under his bare feet during captivity."

One of Control Resonant's most striking missions is the Sinkhole, where Dylan fights enemies across floors, walls, and ceilings in a gravity-warped apartment building. Grönroos described its origins: "It started as a prototype to test how it would feel underneath the city through increasingly strange, twisted environments. Deep sea exploration and cave diving were some of the inspirations, along with different underground themes, like subway tunnels." The team established a core rule that every walkable-looking surface should be walkable, fundamentally changing how gravity-shifting areas played. "It was quite disorienting to work on," Sergey revealed, "but it allowed us to focus the player on what was in front of them and create some really cool combat encounters and traversal challenges."

Boss design emerged from collaborative development. Sergey explained the process: "We asked the full team to send their ideas for bosses to us. We then picked what would best fit the specific kind of player experience that we wanted from a specific boss, and developed it further." Remedy prototyped each boss, assessed the space needed, and created technical specifications. Concept artists then worked with writers to develop visuals that fit environmental themes. "Each Resonant boss was built on a theme, like controlling people inspired by mycelium or a hive mind," Elmeri said. "We wanted to evoke awe in the player and create a sense of the majestic or divine. So we referenced a lot of medieval iconography and church architecture." The Deserter boss inhabits a transformed factory environment specifically designed to house it.

PlayStation 5's capabilities enabled Control Resonant's expansion. Sergey noted, "From the very beginning of development we wanted to evolve the game to be more player-driven in terms of exploration, progression, and narrative. It definitely helps to have a powerful system because even though people loved the relatively confined spaces of Control, we wanted to open it up. We wanted bigger draw distances, more physics objects, and more enemies on screen. It's definitely Remedy's biggest game. I think one zone in Resonance is larger than any of the other zones in our previous games."

The DualSense Controller's features integrated throughout the experience. Players listen to radio calls via the controller's built-in speaker and receive haptic feedback through Adaptive Triggers tied to specific abilities. "Getting that feeling of resistance and an extra click contributes a great deal to making the abilities feel more powerful," Sergey explained.