Control Resonant’s Optional Enemy Logs Hide Combat Tips and a Romance, The Verge Finds

The Verge notes that Control Resonant and 2019’s Control center on the FBC, which deals with mysterious, otherworldly objects and entities that defy explanation. The amount of text in the sequel can be overwhelming, and the writer initially skipped documents that seemed optional. Those included enemy logs, which are compiled in a separate tab and unlocked automatically after a player fights each enemy type for the first time. The writer was busy learning how to navigate Resonant’s M.C. Escher-ified version of Manhattan, where gravity does not always matter, and fighting the game’s many Hiss and mold enemies.

Early combat trouble led the writer to read through unlocked enemy logs for help. The Verge reports that the logs, compiled by the FBC’s Threat Assessment Team, detail each enemy’s attack patterns and weaknesses, which can be hard to discern when enemies attack in large groups. An assist mode can tweak combat difficulty, but the writer was too stubborn to use it, according to the article. Remedy has since deployed a hotfix to address criticism of the combat balance.

The logs also contain a workplace romantic comedy. The Threat Assessment Team consists of Rick Patel, who documents the Hiss, and Lydia M.B. McPierce, who documents the mold and some later-game enemies. Rick is serious and straightforward; Lydia is more irreverent and disparages the mold in her notes. Across dozens of logs, The Verge writes, their personalities unfold and their love story begins.

One enemy, the Hiss Transporter, is a city bus corrupted by the Hiss that sends out drones to attack. In his log, Rick describes the relationship between the bus and its drones—seemingly once-human Hiss entities fused to bus seats—as “motherly.” Lydia calls him out in a separate document about a mold enemy called the Spore Mother. “(For the record, I was not the one who named this one ‘mother,’ that was Rick. I went to therapy and did the work precisely so I wouldn’t feel the urge to do that),” she writes. In another document, Lydia teases Rick, now “Ricky,” about beating him at chess and challenges him to a rematch.

The Verge describes Lydia as one of the best examples of Remedy’s funny writing, while Rick is drier. But Rick is also sweet and references Lydia often. In one log, he says that had he realized Lydia had emetophobia, he would have offered to trade responsibilities so she could avoid the vomit-like attacks of the mold. The writer, who has emetophobia, found this charming, according to the article.

In a document about a particularly dangerous Hiss variant he came too close to during observations, Rick writes: “I could have died. Another close call like that and it might just be the end for me. I don’t want to go without taking a chance on us, Lydia. Remember how we laughed at our ideal dates being the exact opposites of each other, how chaotic a pair we’d make? It doesn’t have to be just a joke. I think we could have something real together, you and I. What do you think? (Don’t worry, you can tell me over coffee what a coward I am for not doing this in person.)”

The Verge’s writer was not sure Lydia had seen the note because one enemy log was still missing. But the article states that Lydia likes him back. In a late-game document, as the world looks doomed, Lydia adds at the bottom: “(Hey Ricky, this is out of left field, but if we actually survive this, wanna grab a coffee sometime?)”

Remedy seeds small stories and details throughout Resonant, not only in written documents, according to The Verge. But reading was integral to the writer’s experience: it helped them fight enemies a little better and endeared them to two characters they never actually met.