Control Resonant’s director has explained how the team chose to handle exploration in a way that doesn’t feel like it is holding the player’s hand with things like yellow paint.
For a number of years now, some gamers have begun to feel like games provide players with more guidance than is necessary. One example of this is yellow paint, which basically highlights exactly where the player needs to go during exploration. Critics say that when this sort of navigation aid is heavy handed, it can be distracting and remove a sense of agency. Marvel’s Wolverine, for example, was heavily criticized for its “fart gas,” a blue mist that Wolverine can sniff out to find his objective. Soon after launch, developer Insomniac added the ability to toggle it off.
Control Resonant developer Remedy doesn’t beat players over the head. It is an open-world game with zones that the player can freely explore, though sometimes it isn’t always crystal clear where to go. Control Resonant director Mikael Kasurinen explained on the Dropping Frames podcast (via Kotaku) that it was important for the player to feel like they were figuring out this convoluted world themselves, rather than following flashing arrows. He noted that for players to get the most out of the world, they had to be active participants.
“It’s so important that the players feel like they’re the ones figuring it out,” said Kasurinen. “It’s the job of us as creators to… I mean, it is a crafted experience at the end of the day, right? You have to find the right balance between ‘here’s the world’ and ‘here are the different themes and elements that you have to pay attention to.’ But it has to feel like it’s on you to make a decision on what to do with those elements that you see within the world. If it feels like it’s like ‘go here,’ it’s not anymore a decision for the player. Somebody already decided for you.”
The director went on to note that Remedy recognized that it risked alienating players looking for a more guided and simple experience, but for those that really engage with it, it will be more rewarding and interesting.
“People will be coming back to this game, exploring, trying to kind of find out things and so on,” he added. “It’s not something that you kind of go through, you did what you were told, and you’re done. It feels like, no, I made some choices in this game and you have that little little question: Did I make the right choices? And I want that f***ing question. I want people to think like that. I want them to kind of, you know, doubt, go back, check again, see what they could do differently, because that’s life. That’s what makes it sticky and interesting.”
Another developer with a similar philosophy to Remedy’s is Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons studio Invoke. Dominic Guay, General Manager at Invoke Studios, told IGN at gamescom 2026 that the developers avoided putting waypoints into the game because they want players to actually explore.
The open-world single-player action-adventure goes easy on the hand-holding by ditching traditional quest markers that guide players directly from one story section to the next. While it does have a compass on the top of the screen — which you can turn off — the player is left to work out where to go by exploring, talking to NPCs, and thinking about what to do next.
“We wanted them to engage with the world, to figure things out and feel that when they found things, it was based on their actions and not just blindly trusting a waypoint,” Guay said.
IGN’s Control Resonant review returned an 8/10. We said: “Even when combat’s sharp edge eventually dulls, Control Resonant is a great addition to the Remedyverse,” reads an excerpt from the review. “While its story follows a more standard framework, its gravitational pull is in the inventive world built around it and the humanization that grounds the paranatural intrigue.”
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
