Some players of Control: Resonance seem to feel that moving the stage away from the brutalist, enclosed building of the original Control (2019) was not an ideal choice. But once you understand the bonds between the two protagonists and the building itself, the rationale behind this decision becomes clear. The different settings of the two games also help flesh out the characters of the two protagonists.
Note: This article contains spoilers for the latter half of Control: Resonance.
Both third-person action games revolve around the Faden siblings, Jesse and Dylan, detailing their entanglement with the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), a mysterious government agency tasked with handling supernatural incidents. After a catastrophic supernatural event in their childhood, the siblings encountered the FBC. Rather than treating them as innocent civilians, the Bureau viewed them as valuable research subjects, ultimately capturing Dylan while Jesse managed to escape.
For the next nearly twenty years, Dylan remained imprisoned, subjected to experiments and torture.
By the time of Control's storyline, Jesse, now in her twenties, finally locates the Federal Bureau of Control and finds Dylan. The Bureau's headquarters is located in a mysterious, windowless megastructure in Manhattan known as the "Oldest House." The building itself is an otherworldly entity, containing seemingly endless corridors and rooms that follow their own mysterious natural laws. It is an absurd and eerie space, and precisely because of this extreme absurdity, the Oldest House is perhaps my favorite video game setting and worldview.
Jesse did not become a prisoner of the Oldest House and the Bureau like her brother; instead, she ultimately became the Bureau's Director. Throughout Control, her supernatural abilities continue to grow as she battles evil entities within the Oldest House, proving her worth and earning the respect of Bureau employees. Therefore, she did not attain her high position through connections, but earned the title of Director through her own strength.
Meanwhile, Dylan had been imprisoned and experimented on in the Oldest House for 17 years. During this time, he encountered a hostile parasitic entity known as the "Hiss." To escape his confinement, Dylan willingly allowed the Hiss to possess his body. However, things did not go as planned; the Hiss merely used him and his abilities to spread itself, ultimately triggering the series of events in Control (2019), including the deaths of hundreds of Bureau employees.
Thus, in Control, although he appears as an antagonist, Jesse remains determined to save him—not only freeing him from the Bureau's captivity but also helping him break free from the Hiss's influence.
By the end of Control, Jesse had purged the parasitic entity from Dylan and most of the Oldest House, but Dylan fell into a seven-year coma, leading directly into the opening of Resonance.
Upon waking in 2026, Dylan discovers the Hiss has escaped. Following the trail of destruction, he eventually leaves the Oldest House. This marks the first time in 24 years that Dylan steps outside the building into the wider world. To be clear: he was imprisoned at age 10 and didn't leave until he was 34. His entire life was stolen, ravaged, and trampled by the Federal Bureau of Control and its researchers—especially Research Director Casper Darling.
Given this, isn't it only natural that the story must take place outdoors? Unlike her brother, Jesse's life has always remained outside the Bureau's control (we later learn that the Bureau actually knew her whereabouts but deliberately let her go free, using her as a control group to compare against Dylan). Meanwhile, Dylan spent most of his life in imprisonment.
When he finally regains his freedom, some high-ranking Bureau officials' first instinct is to lock him up again. Many blame Dylan for the incident in the first game that claimed over 500 colleagues' lives. Dylan admits to being possessed by the Hiss but also deeply regrets succumbing to temptation. Throughout Resonance, he is consistently apologetic and gentle, doing Everythinggj possible to appease the Bureau.
Dylan is not his sister. He is the Bureau's prisoner, not its master. It makes sense for Jesse's story to unfold within the bureaucratic building she now manages; but Dylan's story was already written on the stage of the Oldest House. As players, we witnessed all of this from the very first game.
Just as the interior of the Oldest House was new to Jesse, and we explored it alongside her, the outside world is equally unfamiliar to Dylan. Thus, we get to experience this world he has never set foot in—a world that kept turning without him. This also mirrors their different relationships with the vast bureaucratic institution. Dr. Darling is a prime example: when Jesse arrived at the Oldest House in 2019, he had already vanished into another dimension.
It is no secret that Dr. Darling was in charge of Dylan's supervision and experimental projects. In the first game, through the recordings Jesse found, we saw him as an easygoing, bright-eyed, and talented individual. It was Darling's many technological innovations that saved hundreds of lives. He even wrote a rock song for Jesse from an unknown dimension. But Jesse never met him in person.
But Dylan knows his true nature.
In Resonance, we once again encounter Dr. Darling's recordings—but this time, we see his true colors. He is a bully and a manipulator, indifferent to young Dylan's desires for freedom, play, and family. When guards beat Dylan, Darling turned a blind eye; he even abused Dylan himself to test the boy's latent abilities. In one recording, he harshly berates young Dylan, punishing him with 100 laps simply for failing to demonstrate abilities that satisfied him.
The likable, slightly goofy scientist from the first game is gone. From Dylan's perspective, we see the abuser who once tormented him.
Letting Dylan step out of the Oldest House's cage aligns perfectly with his relationship with the Bureau. To become a truly whole person, he can no longer remain the Bureau's prisoner. On the other hand, Jesse has fully integrated into the Bureau's system. In Control, she sincerely stated: "Everythinggj here is crazy and eerie, but it feels right. Like the way the world is supposed to be. I'm in an infinite building that leads to countless dimensions, and I never want to leave. Even though there's horror everywhere, I feel safe. It feels lucid, or rather, a perfect kind of madness."
But at the very beginning of the game, Dylan tells an agent that he never wants to go back there. And who could blame him?
The different settings of the two Control games witness the Faden siblings growing into independent individuals. As Darling himself knew all too well: inside the cage of the Oldest House, Dylan could never truly become himself.
I understand players' desire to revisit the wonderfully absurd bureaucratic corridors, but considering Dylan's experiences, the crimes committed against him by the Bureau, and his entanglement with both the Bureau and the Oldest House, I cannot imagine him returning to that place. In that prison, he could never become a whole person. I am glad to step beyond the walls of this infinite building to explore the strange world outside, watching Dylan break free from his terrible confinement and truly become himself.