•Filip Premuš• 15 min read
Games
Control Resonant Story Flips the Script with Dylan Faden
The Control Resonant story hands the lead to Dylan Faden, the younger brother Jesse walked into the Oldest House to find. Control Resonant launched on September 24, 2026, and Remedy built its plot as a mirror image of the original: this time Dylan is the one searching, and Jesse Faden is the one who's gone.
We covered how well that works in our Control Resonant review, where Dylan earned a full section as the right lead. Below, you'll find who Dylan is and why Remedy handed him the sequel.
Control Resonant Story Summary
The Control Resonant plot follows Dylan Faden as the FBC releases him to fight a paranatural crisis in Manhattan.
Jesse Faden is missing from the start, so Dylan's search reverses the first game's structure.
Franchise creative director Mikael Kasurinen calls this a reverse symmetry: each sibling finds themselves by looking for the other.
Remedy says a new form of resonance is warping the city alongside the Hiss and the Mold.
Zoe de Vera, Dylan's FBC handler, carries a lot of the story over the radio and asks the questions newcomers would ask.
The story lands best as a sibling drama, and a few late reveals lean on Alan Wake lore.
Who Is Dylan Faden in Control?
Dylan Faden is Jesse's younger brother, a gifted parautilitarian the FBC took from their hometown of Ordinary, Maine, and kept inside the Oldest House from the age of 10. Under Casper Darling, the Bureau groomed him as Prime Candidate 6, a possible future Director.
The program collapsed after he accidentally killed an agent named Roberts. He later killed several more in anger and ended up alone in a Panopticon cell. When the Hiss invaded the Oldest House, it took him too, though he kept far more of his mind than its other victims. Jesse purged the Hiss from him on the Astral Plane, and he slipped into a coma.
So was the coma a dead end? Sean Durrie, who voices Dylan in both games, told Variety that Remedy's original pitch to him closed on Dylan alive and comatose. For the sequel, Durrie built the performance on Dylan's guilt, his need to atone and his wish to get his humanity back.
How Remedy Reversed the Original Setup
Kasurinen explained the structure to Variety as a reverse symmetry. In the first game, Jesse walks into the Oldest House looking for Dylan, and her arc becomes about herself. Control Resonant turns that around: Dylan searches for Jesse and figures out who he is along the way.
This time the crisis spills out of the Oldest House. Remedy says a new form of resonance, alongside the Hiss and the Mold, is warping Manhattan. In our review, the city splits into large zones branching from the Bureau's Manhattan hub, each breaking physics its own way.
Detail | Control | Control Resonant |
|---|---|---|
Protagonist | Jesse Faden | Dylan Faden |
Missing sibling | Dylan | Jesse |
Setting | The Oldest House | Paranaturally warped Manhattan |
Main threat | The Hiss | The Hiss, the Mold and a new form of resonance |
Main weapon | Service Weapon | The Aberrant, a shapeshifting melee weapon |
Details about what happened to her, and the choices she made as Director, surface gradually as Dylan pushes deeper. Remedy says the sequel welcomes newcomers and returning fans alike, so you can follow the plot without replaying the original Control first.
Zoe de Vera Carries the Story Over the Radio
Zoe de Vera is the FBC agent who handles Dylan over comms, and she's the biggest new piece of the Control Resonant story. Kasurinen told Variety she is the player's perspective on the situation. Durrie added that she asks the questions a first-time Control player would be asking.
Most of the exposition happens during the walks between fights. Dialogue choices let you play Dylan as prickly or warmer. Our reviewer leaned friendly, and Zoe's replies shifted enough to make the relationship feel earned. The radio format also trims the long NPC exposition scenes that slowed down the first game.
Players are split on her. In a Steam Community thread, critics call Zoe abrasive, sarcastic and unhelpful as a handler. Defenders reply that her team was just wiped out and Dylan is a dangerous man with a violent past, so her early hostility makes sense.
FAQs About Control Resonant Story
Final Words
Dylan works as a lead since he starts where Jesse never had to. She arrived driven and confident, and became Director almost on arrival. He arrives guilty and distrusted, leaning on a handler who doesn't like him yet. That gap gives the sequel a relationship you can steer through your dialogue choices.
The weak spot is scope. Remedy spends the last stretch tying Dylan into its wider universe, and newcomers will feel the lore gap there more than anywhere else.
Jesse remains the biggest open question. The Director's absence is the engine of the whole plot, and what Remedy does with her next will say a lot about where the series is heading.
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