Control Resonant Finds Its Strangest Strength in The Underpass

Control Resonant Finds Its Strangest Strength in The Underpass

Light spoilers for the second half of Control Resonant follow.

Control Resonant has no shortage of spectacular ideas. Its version of Manhattan twists familiar streets into something unsettling, while a candy-floss-like mould zone and a battle against a floating head provide some of the game’s biggest visual and dramatic moments. Yet the most memorable section is far less showy.

After roughly a dozen or more hours exploring the city, Dylan Faden travels beneath its subway stations and sinkholes to a place called The Underpass. Instead of slowing the game down, this isolated area reveals what Remedy Entertainment may do best: build a compelling 3D platforming space.

A city reduced to its impossible foundations

The Underpass is startling because it strips away almost everything that defines the game’s open world. Manhattan’s busy streets, advertising signs, distant architecture and roaming enemies give way to a black void. In their place are disconnected stone platforms and exposed pipes suspended in empty space.

It feels less like a hidden district and more like a discarded version of the city. The space has no clear relationship to time or location, creating a powerful sense of liminality. Remedy experiments with unsettling in-between spaces throughout Resonant, but The Underpass is where that idea becomes most effective.

The FBC’s experiments reach further than expected

The area also carries some of the game’s strongest story material. Finding a floating platform containing an FBC testing site provides a rare sense of human scale in an otherwise alien maze. From there, Dylan investigates the uncontrolled experiments taking place beneath the city.

The Oldest House has already shown the consequences of the bureau’s carelessness. The Underpass makes the damage feel even more severe: FBC scientists are not simply creating dangerous phenomena, but causing lasting harm to reality itself.

Where movement takes centre stage

Combat is less important here, and that change gives the section room to breathe. Rather than cutting through constant groups of enemies, Dylan must combine his abilities to cross gaps and link together distant platforms.

The movement system proves to be a genuine highlight. Air dashes, grapples and hovering let Dylan travel with remarkable freedom, sometimes giving the impression that he might break beyond the intended route. The Underpass turns those abilities into a surreal playground, allowing traversal to settle into the kind of smooth flow associated with games such as Super Mario Odyssey.

For players interested in the hardware and design behind interactive spaces, the RETROCADE Arcade Blog explores more gaming and arcade-industry ideas. Those planning a dedicated setup can also browse the Arcade Machine Buying Guide or see the available arcade machines.

The turning point for Control Resonant

The Underpass feels like a major shift for Resonant and potentially for the wider Control series. The game’s earlier open-world exploration gives way to something more inventive and unpredictable. Manhattan’s apparent stability finally begins to collapse, and the unreality found beneath the city starts influencing everything that follows.

That change helps prepare the game’s final stretch, including a spectacular sequence that suggests almost anything could now happen within the damaged Control universe. The Underpass is not merely a detour beneath Manhattan; it is the point where Remedy demonstrates that its greatest strength may lie in movement, space and platforming rather than straightforward action.