A weekend spent with Control Resonant and Total War: Warhammer 3's new DLC

Hi there! I spent the weekend diving into a couple of very different games, and while I'm nowhere near done with either title, I wanted to share some early thoughts before too long has passed.

I've played several hours of Control Resonant, Remedy Entertainment's action-RPG sequel to the 2019 game Control. Despite a litany of changes with a new protagonist and setting, it's been a fun ride, if a bit of a slow start.

Outside of that, I also have some early impressions of Lords of the End Times, the new expansion for Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer 3. It's something of a redo for a reviled bit of Warhammer Fantasy lore, and so far, it's some of Creative Assembly's best work ever in the franchise.

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Ever-shifting patterns

Control Resonant is, in many ways, the inverse of its predecessor. That's by explicit design, with control switching from Jesse Faden to her brother Dylan. She broke into the Oldest House, he breaks out. She wields the Service Weapon with ranged firepower, meanwhile, he has Aberrant, a shifting melee tool. She directs the FBC (Federal Bureau of Control) while he is barely trusted by it.

Control Resonant is almost open world, with massive zones of warped Manhattan as the Hiss continue to spread, while an AWE (Altered World Event) threatens to slowly consume the entire city. Navigating these zones takes a bit of getting used to, especially early on before I'd unlocked a number of fast travel points.

Combat feels good, and I love chaining together different powers and attacks to obliterate waves of Hiss. Right now, I have Aberrant kitted out as a sickle, switching into a hammer and greatsword for special moves. Speaking of the Hiss, the designs feel more expansive and less repetitive than in Control, with the otherwordly entities possessing chunks of the city, including forklifts and buses.

The side quests have so far been a highlight, relishing in the same eclectic weirdness that made the first Control so refreshing. It feels right to stumble upon a testing zone and discover something is making the heads of researchers pop apart, or taking a mysterious cab and suddenly finding myself in an alternate dimension.

That tone extends to the collectibles. Remedy is fond of having numerous notes scattered across its games, ranging from the nightmarish to the humorous. One particularly funny bit I found has FBC staff wondering about the nature of a reality-warping phenomenon's effect on someone if they happened to be watching Seinfeld when it occured.

All of this is tied together by Dylan Faden. Burned out by some truly horrific experiences, Dylan is nonetheless eager to help the FBC and prove himself. Many of the people he encounters hold him in contempt at best and outright hate him at worst, but there's no grudge or pushback. He just sadly accepts the pain and keeps trudging forward.

It's an interesting and compelling tone, especially for a masculine lead, and I've already grown extremely fond of him and his handler, Zoe, whose status as mission control could've easily been obnoxious but instead works well in tandem with Dylan. He frequently has the option to respond and interject during a conversation, or he can just stay silent. I'm extremely curious to see how he and Zoe develop over the rest of the game.

If I have a major complaint, I'd say the main story itself has been fairly slow so far, but even here I'd note most of my time has been spent gathering upgrades and doing side stories, so I'm expecting and hoping things pick up in the near future.

Once more into the End Times

The End Times, for the unaware, is perhaps the most hated story arc in all of Warhammer history. It ended the Warhammer Fantasy realm, making way for the transition to the Age of Sigmar. It did so in a way that is generously described as clunky, killing off entire factions off-page, with fan-favorites disposed of in ways that seemed ridiculous, even for this franchise.

The premise, however — that the fate of the world stands in balance as numerous groups strike out to destroy everything or band together against the dark — was never the problem, and so it's getting something of a redemption in Lords of the End Times, a new expansion for Total War: Warhammer 3 that allows players to rewrite history.

A number of new Legendary Lords and units are introduced with this expansion and its accompanying free patch, but none stand so large as Nagash, ruler of all undead. In his quest for unlife, Nagash seeks to unite all undead factions, acquiring his Mortarchs and spreading his contamination to every corner of of the world.

Playing as Nagash, more than any other character, feels like it has taken a page from role-playing games, complete with a jumpscare of a skill tree that takes forever to fill out, but can result in some obscenely strong armies.

The other major Lord I've been using is Neferata, a free addition to the Vampire Counts, leading the Lahmian sub-faction. Neferata's all-women Lahmian vampires specialize in subterfuge, spreading covens across the world under the guise of innocent maidens at court.

It took some time to adjust to, but I love the way this faction feels. Whereas most other Total War lords fall under some flavor of trying to paint the map, here, Nefarata is content to lurk in the shadows, pulling strings and manipulating others. Having more covens means being able to steal wealth, assassinate army leaders, as well as forcing factions to break treaties or even declare war against other.

Neferata is accompanied by a general Vampire rework, which introduces the concept of Vampire Lairs. No longer can a new Vampire be instantly summoned to lead an army. Instead, they have to be found resting in their crypts, with the blood and souls fed to them during their slumber determining their strength as they awaken.

Upon finding a new Vampire Lair for the first time, I could easily rouse Nosferatu-lite from his slumber...or I could be patient, spending vast amounts of resources to make them more powerful. It takes time, and it's expensive, but the results can be devastatingly powerful.

Despite having put in several hours on both Nagash and Neferata each, I'm nowhere near close to finishing either playthrough (and there are three other Lords to try!) but I really love what Creative Assembly has done here, and I'll be playing Total War: Warhammer 3 for weeks and months to come.

A look at the days ahead

There is a lot going on right now. Outside of continuing to sink hours into Lords of the End Times and Control Resonant, I'm also playing Gears of War: E-Day for review. The embargo lifts on October 1 and tangentially, I'm working on some additional thoughts on the chaos over at Xbox.

In the midst of said chaos, some expanded impressions of Age of Empires 2's new Viking DLC eluded me, but I will quickly say that the rest of the campaigns are quite good! There's more Age of Empires DLC to come this year, so I'll likely return with more to write, but with World's Edge hit by layoffs and now transitioning to Activision, I'll just say for now that it's a fitting final note for the studio as it has been.

Then there's the siren song of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered...what a wonderful time for games. I wish the people making it all happen were treated as well as they deserve.