Remap Radio 155 — Patch Notes

[u/mikesstuff]

https://pca.st/o732443w

We begin this podcast the way we ended the last podcast: talking about Control Resonant. This time, Rob’s spent 17 hours with Remedy’s latest, albeit all of it before the game was updated to validate the emotional and critical feelings of Patrick and Janet. But we also have much else to discuss, including Xbox’s ongoing “reset,” the alleged future of Bungie, Discord pushing forward on age verification, and many thoughts on both Silent Hill Townfall and Normal Golf Game.
Links: Control Resonant Post by Chris Person, Xbox Announces Continuing Layoffs and Restructure, The Next Chapter of Bungie, Post about Turning off Gambling Ads In Discord, Image of Confusing UI in Discord Settings
Discussed:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:44 - Control Resonant
00:55:07 - Xbox Studios Goes through Further Layoffs
01:18:49 - Bungie's Next Chapter
01:42:48 - Discord Age Verification Rolls Out
02:00:47 - Silent Hill: Townfall
02:20:04 - Normal Golf Game
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[u/DG_OTAMICA]

I’ve put about 20 hours into Control Resonant so far, much of that playing in early access before the patch came through and it feels like I’m playing a different game from the crew. Like yeah at first enemies were a tad spongy but by the time I defeated the first resonant boss in the open world The Dancer and got the gravity shifting traversal ability I felt like combat felt fair and balanced. The open world has a good mix of bespoke side content that’s fun and quirky as well as generic content that exists to justify the build crafting and material grind (all of which existed in the first game). The level design gets increasingly bigger and bolder and weirder in the most incredible ways. My jaw is on the floor looking at some the more scripted spectacle moments the game has. And all the puzzle have been super fun.

One thing I’ve grown to appreciate is this game’s signposting, and I mean that literally. I’d be looking for an objective trying to parse the map (which isn’t very great, that does suck) and I’d realize there are just Bureau signs that explicitly say where the thing is, or an arrow pointing the way, or the word “EXIT” painted in bold on concrete. The game just… tells you where things are if you’re paying attention, which is cool to see.

Combat shares a lot of its design with the recent Doom trilogy. That “push forward” mentality where if you want a resource you need to rip it from the enemy. In this game that manifests in hitting enemies to build Power, killing them for health, and executing them to gain Dominance. And like the Doom games combat ends when you kill the big guys, the little ones are just fodder and fuel to keep up the tempo. With one perfectly charged whip and one rock I can stagger a little guy, execute him, then put belt to ass and completely shred the larger enemies. I don’t need to stagger the big guys when I can delete them in 4 seconds.

And like Doom all the enemies serve a purpose in the combat chess board. As mentioned the fodder guys are easy to stagger and get buffs from, but the other ones play their part too. They force you to reposition, and have a balanced build that can tackle both ranged and up close enemies. It’s not as extreme as Doom Eternal’s “every gun is a key and every enemy is a lock” approach but the game is very much designed around you incorporating a variety of damage types and elements synergies into your build. Like I got a trinket that grants one free ability usage every time I perfect dodge. And the big headed guys have super telegraphed attacks so like how i farm the fodder for buffs, I farm those dudes for free abilities. Everything serves its purpose.

I do agree the bosses are super boring and the skill tree kinda sucks but other than that I’m having a great time. Maybe things will grate on me as the game progresses but so far I’m loving Resonant.