WoW D&D Bestiary Monster List (Not Including Dungeon Bosses)

 All right!

The WoW D&D book looks like it will have some really interesting and innovative designs in an effort to replicate the feeling of WoW within D&D. I'm going purely on the information from Insight Check's video about the monster design, which only gave us a couple of (fairly generic) stat blocks, but the details about the blocks he couldn't actually show suggests that the book is going to have some really interesting fights, including the use of Mythic phases to replicate the feeling of a multi-phase WoW boss fight.

Speaking of bosses: the 30 "dungeon boss" stat blocks are not on this list. Presumably, we'll have figures like High Inquisitor Whitemane or Onyxia detailed in that earlier chapter. While I'd love to have an array of memorable bosses from outside of the seven included dungeons, I'm going to avoid getting my hopes up and just assume that we'll be getting the ones that go specifically with Dire Maul, Deamines, etc. The dungeons they picked are generally quite good (I don't really care much about Blackfathom Deeps, but I'll be curious to see how they handle it). Still feels like we should have gotten Hogger as a CR 1 legendary monster.

    (Brief aside: Hogger was the objective of an infamous quest in Elwynn Forest, the human starting zone. He's the leader of a group of gnoll bandits. But he's also the first "elite" creature many players came across when first playing the game, which are designed to be fought in a group and not alone. Players who didn't realize that they were meant to take him on with friends died in droves, giving this fairly nondescript gnoll creature a legendary status as a peerless and savage killer. In Cataclysm, they largely reworked group quests at low levels to be something you could complete on your own, but while players would face Hogger in more or less the same circumstances in Elwynn, the quest ended not with you killing him, but having him arrested. Then, in the Stormwind Stockades dungeon, he became the dungeon's final boss, leading a prison riot. While he was intended to be a challenge for players just about ready to move on from Elwynn around level 10, players have also formed 40-player raid groups of level 1 characters to fight him as well.)

Anyway, let's not beat around the bush and look at the list:

CR 1: Fel Imp, Murloc Forager, Voidwalker

CR 2: Shadowstalker Satyr

CR 3: Murloc Oracle, Voidcaller

CR 4: Felguard, Felsworn Satyr, Furbolg Totemic

CR 5: Felhound, Furbolg Ursa, Naga Myrmidon

CR 6: Green Dragonflight Whelp

CR 7: Blue Dragonflight Whelp, Naga Sea Witch, Quillboar Thornweaver

CR 8: Red Dragonflight Whelp

CR 9: Black Dragonflight Whelp, Naga Siren

CR 10: Bronze Dragonflight Whelp

CR 11: Doomguard, Moonkin, Nerubian Warrior

CR 12: Abomination, Green Dragonflight Drake, Infernal

CR 13: Blue Dragonflight Drake, Nerubian Crypt Fiend

CR 14: Ancient of War, Nerubian Venomancer

CR 15: N'raqi Faceless One, Red Dragonflight Drake

CR 16: Black Dragonflight Drake, Shivarra

CR 17: Bronze Dragonflight Drake

CR 19: Green Dragonflight Dragon

CR 20: Anduin Wrynn, Blue Dragonflight Dragon, Pit Lord

CR 21: Alleria Windrunner, N'raqi Faceless General, Red Dragonflight Dragon

CR 22: Black Dragonflgiht Dragon, Jaina Proudmoore, Thrall

CR 23: Bronze Dragonflight Dragon, Ragnaros, Sylvanas Windrunner

CR 24: Illidan Stormrage

CR 25: Lich King Arthas

    That's actually an impressive spread of CRs. Particularly, it's interesting to see certain monster categories like N'raqi only showing up at quite high levels. I do find it interesting that the Bronze dragons are the most powerful, given that in theory, the Red dragons are the "leaders" of the dragonflights (though the Dragon Aspects are pretty egalitarian, even if there's deference toward Alexstrasza, the Red aspect, who is basically the most benevolent living creature on Azeroth, sometimes to a fault.

Rather than spread out across all the expansions with all their different monster types, it looks like they've focused on a few iconic categories, which is probably wise even if it would have been cool to get, say, Titanforged constructs or something.

There are also a few individual people, and it's pretty impressive that they start at CR 20, though given how superheroic characters in WoW tend to be, that's not terribly shocking.

But let's go category by category here for those who are unfamiliar with WoW terms.

    Demons:

Demons in WoW are pretty much all associated with the Burning Legion, an apocalyptic army under the command of the rogue Titan Sargeras who seek to burn the universe to cinders rather than let it fall to corruption by the Void. (Demonic Fel magic is also corrupting, but think of this as, like, nuking the world to try to save it from horrible mutations.) While the Fel is inherently chaotic, the Legion itself is actually a bit more Lawful Evil, given Sargeras' leadership over it, and sees the madness of the deeply chaotic Void to be the ultimate enemy. Demons include the Fel Imp, Felguard, Felhound, Doomguard, Infernal, Shivarra and Pit Lord. While the Felsworn Satyr and Shadowstalker Satyr are also demons (satyrs are former Night Elves turned demons in WoW,) they sort of may or may not be affiliated with the Legion, as they're more likely to be associated with the Emerald Nightmare, which is actually a phenomenon created by the Void-affiliated Old Gods. Xavius, the first satyr, fought on behalf of the Legion during the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago, but after the Legion's defeat, he got in good with the Old Gods. Another little asterisk here is that Voidwalkers were long considered demons (they're one of the minions that player Warlocks can summon, and are great for soloing as they basically tank for you) but over time, and as Blizzard has honestly just locked down their lore a bit tighter, Voidwalkers are now generally considered aberrations affiliated with, weirdly enough, the Void.

    Murlocs:

Among the most iconic and beloved (/hated) WoW creatures, Murlocs are silly little fish people. Honestly, not too far off from Kuo-toa, though less weird god-creating powers and more just being silly little guys who tend to be tightly-packed so that it's hard to pull just a single one at a time (this was a bigger problem when soloing out in the world was harder). Unofficially the mascots of World of Warcraft, they had to show up here.

    Void/Old God Creatures:

So, there's a bit of a divide here. The Void is one of the great cosmic forces in  WoW, and while there are benign aspects to it as a source of mystery and cosmic possibility, we usually interact with it as an antagonistic force - the "mystery" often leading to "horrifying abominations" and the yawning darkness of the void being more ravenous and consuming than an invitation to explore. Notably, beings called the Void Lords (only one of which we've actually had named, Dimensius, who honestly just looks like a massive Voidwalker, and was the final boss of 2024's The War Within expansion) send globs of void energy to Azeroth, which took on a physical form to become the Old Gods, eldritch, Lovecraftian flesh-mountains who spawned countless servitors. The Old Gods ultimately settled on Azeroth and created their dystopian Black Empire. Thus, Void-associated monsters come in two pretty distinct categories: ethereal blue/purple energy beings, which I'd say include Voidwalkers and Voidcallers, and then the more fleshy tentacle monsters like the N'raqi, which we see with the Faceless One and the Faceless General. (As a note, the Faceless General is likely technically a C'thraxxi, which are often associated with the N'raqi, but I think might be their own species. When both monsters were introduced in Wrath of the Lich King, they were both simply referred to as "faceless ones," and only later did we get these proper noun terms).

    Furbolgs:

Yes, that's not a typo, and Furbolgs are actually distinct from Firbolgs. Furbolgs are Bear people. That's about it. Just essentially sapient bears. They can be friendly or hostile, and are often affected a lot by whatever is happening to the natural world around them. Generally found in forested lands.

    Naga:

When the War of the Ancients ended and the destruction of the Well of Eternity led to the Sundering of the ancient Pangea-like continent of Kalimdor (the western regions of which retain that name,) the Night Elf Queen Azshara, the greatest mage to ever live on Azeroth, watched as her capital city was about to be consumed by the rushing ocean (Azshara had allied with the invading Burning Legion, so it was partially her fault). Desperate to survive along with her loyal Highborne followers, she accepted a deal from the Old God N'zoth, who transformed her and her people into aquatic, serpentine monsters called Naga. For the next ten thousand years, Azshara rebuilt her empire under the waves. Naga forces periodically raid the surface, and might seem to be just a threat to sailors and fishers, but they're basically the de facto superpower of the ocean depths.

    Dragons:

Dragons in WoW are a bit different from those in D&D. For one thing, broadly speaking, dragons were originally all pretty much good guys, though the Dragonflight expansion complicates that narrative a bit. Originally elemental beings who evolved into living creatures of flesh, the Titanforged Keeper Tyr allied with a group of proto-drakes to fight a dire threat, and upon recognizing their power, "uplifted" them to become the five Dragon Aspects, created modern dragons and having each become demigod-like beings who would sire broad draconic clans known as Dragonflights. The five flights are the Red, Blue, Bronze, Black, and Green. Each was given a domain over which they were supposed to serve as protectors: Red Dragons over life itself, Blue over magic, Black over the deep places under the world's surface, Green over the natural world, and Bronze over time itself. Among the Aspects, Alexstrasza was the most beloved and served as their leader, the Dragon Queen. Infamously, though, during the War of the Ancients (but sort of unrelated to the Legion's invasion,) Neltharion, the Black Aspect, was driven mad by the Old Gods and consumed with a desire to wreak utter chaos upon the surface of Azeroth. This madness spread to nearly all the Black Dragons as a sort of infectious corruption. Other flights have periodically played antagonistic roles: the Blues at one point turning on mortal spellcasters, Green dragons affected deeply by the Emerald Nightmare, and weird alternate-timeline Infinite Dragon versions of the Bronzes fighting to split the timeline into countless branches.

    Quillboar:

Strange that we just get a single Quillboar statblock. These are weird sort of boar-people that also have porcupine-like spines on their backs. Never really front-and-center, they're basically always hostile, though don't seem to be inherently evil on a fundamental level.

    Nerubians:

The Nerubians are spider-folk who were once vassals to the Old Gods' Black Empire. While a humanoid people in and of themselves, our first exposure to them (and where we're likely to see them the most) is after the Nerubian kingdom of Azjol-Nerub was conquered by the Scourge. Thus, the undead armies of the Scourge often have undead Nerubians among their ranks.

    Moonkin:

Weirdly sort of WoW's take on Owlbears, but only very loosely, Moonkin are considered favored creations of the Night Elves' Moon Goddess, Elune, and walk upright with bear-like bodies and owl-like beaks (though no wings other than their feathered arms). Possessing very rudimentary intelligence, they also have the power to call upon astral and lunar magic, and are the preferred form for Druids who wish to focus on offensive spellcasting (there's guidance that if you want to play a Balance Druid, you can take Circle of Stars and just flavor your constellation forms as a Moonkin instead).

    Abomination:

One of the most fearsome and gross weapons of the Undead Scourge, Abominations are massive flesh-golems with several arms and tend to wield hooked chains.

    Ancients:

Ancients are basically Treants, sapient trees that are often allied with Night Elves and help protect their settlements or fight in their wars.

    Individuals:

There are several named characters here. I won't go into a whole biography, but here's the basic rundown:

Anduin Wrynn: The young king of Stormwind after the death of his father Varian during the final Legion invasion. Anduin is a priest/cleric and deeply kind but also has experienced a lot of trauma.

Alleria Windrunner: Former Ranger-General of the High Elves, she left with the Alliance expedition to Outland and, thanks to weird time-warping, spent a thousand years fighting against the Burning Legion. During this time, she cultivated a connection with the Void, using its dark cosmic power in the fight against evil, which makes things... complicated with her husband Turalyon, one of the most devout paladins wielding the Holy Light.

Jaina Proudmoore: Now Grand Admiral of Kul Tiras (effectively the head of state of this deeply nautical nation,) Jaina is also one of the most powerful living mages. Allying with the Horde during the Third War, and ultimately allowing her father to be killed to save the nascent Orcish nation of Durotar survive, this act was thanked with the destruction of the city-state of Theramore that she had founded by an aggressive Horde, which has put her at both extremes of Alliance-Horde relations. Also, she was close friends with Arthas Menethil before he fell to evil (the characters in these games have lived through a lot of trauma).

Thrall: Former Warchief of the Horde, and one of the greatest living Shamans, Thrall was actually the first Orc ever born on Azeroth. Liberating his people from their internment camps they were put in following the Second War, he became a beacon of hope for Orcs who wished to see a Horde free of demonic corruption, but when he stepped down as Warchief and named the hot-headed and, well, honestly, fascistic asshole Garrosh Hellscream as his successor, he found himself weighed down by the erroneous decisions he had made as a leader. Now, basically a private citizen of the Horde but with a lot of power and influence, Thrall mostly tries to live as a family man with his two kids and wife.

Ragnaros: The Elemental Lord of Fire, Ragnaros is staggeringly ancient, having existed pretty much as long as Azeroth. Embodying fire's drive to spread and consume, Ragnaros is a force of pure destruction, and was the boss of WoW's very first raid, The Molten Core. (He would also be the boss of The Firelands later on, when he was killed permanently within the plane of fire).

Sylvanas Windrunner: Sister of Alleria, Sylvanas took over for her older sister as Ranger-General of Quel'thalas right in time for the Undead Scourge, led by Arthas, to carve a path of death and terror through her homeland, killing off 90% of the High Elf population, including her. Arthas personally tore her soul from her body to turn her into a banshee, though she later found her own corpse and possessed it. When the Frozen Throne weakened, Sylvanas was among the first to regain her free will, and led an attempted assassination against Arthas, driving the future Lich King from the Plaguelands. She then rallied the free-willed Undead to become the Forsaken, serving as their "Banshee Queen." However, while she had regained her free will, any semblance of morality had more or less drained out of her, and her rule as Banshee Queen was marked by atrocities. Sylvanas is one of those characters who see-saws between antihero and full-on villain.

Illidan Stormrage: The first Demon Hunter, Illidan was a lowborn Night Elf and twin to Malfurion, who would go on to become the first Druid. Illidan was ambitious, and worked his way up through the ranks of Queen Azshara's mages despite his lack of aristocratic status. When the Legion invaded and Azshara's elite partook of their fel powers, Illidan feigned collaboration but instead used his position to learn all he could about the power that the Legion held and found a way to use it against them. While he played a crucial role in defeating the Legion, many still thought of him as a collaborator, earning him the epithet of The Betrayer. For his crimes, he was imprisoned for ten thousand years, only freed during the Third War so that his expertise could be used again. Truly WoW's most classic antihero, Illidan is ruthlessly pragmatic and makes bold moves that many will... not agree with, though his goals are ultimately for the greater good.

Arthas Menethil: WoW's most iconic villain, Arthas Menethil was the Crown Prince of Lordaeron and protege to the first Paladin (well, the first human paladin,) Uther the Lightbringer. However, his actions when the Scourge began to ravage his kingdom led him to acts of reckless violence and callousness that many would argue showed he had already fallen to evil before he gave his soul to the runeblade Frostmourne. However, with the evil sword in hand, Arthas fully lost his humanity and became a Death Knight, acting as the Scourge's mightiest champion. Ascending the Frozne Throne following his victory over Illidan Stormrage (why Illidan was there is... too complicated for here,) Arthas merged with the Lich King, absorbing Ner'zhul's mind into his own to become the sovereign of the undead and one of the greatest threats Azeroth has ever faced.

Control Resonant Goes Full House of Leaves

 I've made it to (and probably done a fair chunk of) the first zone that isn't presented in your initial vista from the Watchtower, a region called The Underpass. But if you were expecting it to be something like the Lincoln Tunnel, it's... very much not that.

What it is is a departure from the "messed up Manhattan" zones we've had previously, and is instead a descent into a realm that recalls far more the Labyrinth from acknowledged major influence on Control, House of Leaves.

I guess that's the big spoiler, but I'll do a cut to talk about what is going on there:

Park Resonant Down and Probably Really Time to Push the Story Forward

I think (think) that the only things that reset when you clear a zone's Resonant are the assaults and all the monsters, while it looks like things like resource crates and such are just there whenever you want to grab them. Thus, having done a good circuit around the Park and feeling like I had more or less done everything that would be reset, I followed through on taking on my next boss.

While I got the first Resonant (the one in Downtown that is still kind of part of the tutorial) in a single go, the ones in Central and Western Incursion Zone took me four attempts each. The Park one took me three, so I guess consider that progress.

At this point, though, while I know there are other zones to discover, I've done all the Resonants in each of the zones I've had access to, meaning I think I really do need to progress the story in order to get access to more of the world.

Let's talk about that boss:

Going to Moldtown in the Park

 Whatever misgivings I might have about Control Resonant's embrace of somewhat rote open-world gameplay tropes, the world of Control remains one of my favorites in all of gaming. I mean, possessed vending machines as our crystal lizard/treasure goblin equivalent? Fighting evil busses?

There's also the atmosphere you get as you progress into new zones - while Downtown, Western Incursion, and Central are all bright and sunny, there's the noir-ish rainy night of the Evacuation Zone and a sort of false snowy winter of the Park (rather than giant piles of snow, it's Mold growing on everything). While I tend to not focus too much on graphics, Remedy is known for making really gorgeous games, and though I have hit a few hitches with the framerate (I might need to quit out of the game and re-start it in case there's a memory leak) it looks predictably fantastic (though I will say, and this was the case in the first game, for some reason the facial animations are a bit off, which is so strange because Alan Wake II's faces were essentially perfect, and all three use Remedy's in-house Northlight engine).

After some dramatic story-focused missions in the Evacuation Zone, and then some lower-stakes but still weird trips into the subway to align various leylines, I decided to deviate from the path a bit and head into The Park, a zone that at least as far as I can tell is pretty much optional.

There's very little Hiss here, because this is Mold Territory. The enemies are thus a bit more bulky (many Mold enemies have a shield that grows over them that must be broken before you can damage them. Actually, some Hiss have something equivalent, but I think the mechanics work slightly differently). My normal secondary Aberrant form, the massive hammer, is less well-suited to these foes because of their resistance to blunt damage, so I've invested in building up my Drill secondary form, which deals Sharp damage that I believe they are vulnerable to. Likewise, the fiery power I got off the Central Resonant makes building up Falter on them very quick.

Still, maybe they're just tougher enemies or maybe my tactics have become too focused on Hiss-fighting, but I do find I'm ending combat with more missing health (still not dying). Theoretically, if the enemies in the game are finite in number (at least the Heavies) then I suppose that there also might actually be finite health to pick up. Still, there are enough free health pickups that I don't imagine you'll ever be truly on the edge of things without any way to recover (this ain't a survival horror game).

Seeking out a hidden resource box I think I had missed in the Patterned Factory in Central (I still didn't find it) I went back to the boss' room to see if you could re-fight them. It does not appear that you can, though I wonder if we'll get a SHUM arcade cabinet that allows it at some point (perhaps even added in a patch or DLC). Again, I think that the bosses in Resonant are truly the best that Remedy's ever done (well, of the three prior games of theirs I have played). Monty Zander would be very pleased to know (I'm sure he's playing it) that the bosses do not rely on having a bunch of swarming smaller enemies to inflate the pressure (ironically, this would make the fights easier because it would give you a chance to recover health outside getting the bosses to certain health percentages).

I've found what looks like the entrance to the Park's "boss dungeon" area, though I'm hesitant to go in there until I've fully explored the Park and fought everything there, to take best advantage of the resources I can gain.

I do think I'd prefer a version of this where things were just kind of farmable - that they're respawn either simply over time or, in the style of Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom (which I have to imagine was an inspiration for this) have periodic events where everything comes back (actually when you beat a Resonant, there's a similar animation to the Blood Moon one where you see Hiss and Mold enemies pop back into existence).

Still finding more hidden Secret Organization cells around the city, including at least two that have been in Atlantis Cafes (which seem to be kind of the equivalent of Starbucks - I get that for a game world this big, having them as a chain rather than unique coffee shops helps as you only have to make a single set of assets. You find yourself in a lot of laundromats, gyms, and cafes). Still no direct confirmation that it's the Blessed Organization, but I'm leaning that way.

I realize that by slow-playing the main story quests I really shouldn't complain about the slow drip of the story. I think I want to just do a few more things in the Park and then continue on. (There's one infuriating elevator near a fast-travel door where Underhill's lab is set up in the Park - naturally she's studying the Mold and as unpleasant as she was before - that has a power block, but I cannot for the life of me find the energized block to transfer the energy to it. So while I can get back to that part of the Park via fast travel, it's not the usual convenient "you've opened this door as a shortcut" that it ought to be.)

I did do one side quest that was weirdly anticlimactic - it seems to be completed, but I must have picked dialogue choices that gave it the more mundane conclusion - I found a woman out in the Park who said that her twin sister was still stuck in their old apartment. The sister seemed weird, but I basically just told her to hang tight and the FBC would evacuate her, then went and told the first sister. Given that the quest was called "Carbon Copy," I expected something weird like the twins actually being two Mold-based pod people who split from one another or something, but as far as I can tell, it was just the most basic of "go here and talk to this person" quests, which... it can't have just been that, right?

I also continue to find Taxis in each zone - I don't love this style of "there's one of these in every zone" style of quests, but I do find the Taxi Dimension really atmospheric and cool. It also gives us the kind of simple puzzles that Jesse had in the Oceanview Motel, which are not very hard but just feel kind of satisfying to scratch that itch.

I'm trying to do my best to avoid any kind of guides or suggestions on builds here and take the game in on its own terms. (I did momentarily fear I was screwing up the last of the subway puzzles for the main quest, but the IGN guide was so confusingly worded that I found it easier to just trust my own instincts and ignore it. Perhaps there's a lesson in this?)

I have stockpiled seven Reset items that let you reassign your talent points, as well as I think resources spent on Aberrant upgrades, as well as swapping the powers you get from the Resonants. So far, though, I have felt mostly happy with what I've got. I have a ton of Talents on my tree that have a big "this doesn't interact with any abilities you currently have" sign, which probably means I need to get fighting more Resonants.

I'm given to understand that Control Resonant has sold very well - there was a pretty concerted marketing effort, and I wonder if the switch to melee action appealed to more people. Frankly, my relationship with Remedy today is basically "whatever gameplay you like is fine (except online multiplayer, apparently,) as long as I get that signature weird style and story." I do hope that this means that rumors of the studio struggling to stay open will fade in the wake of a big success.

Truly, it's one of the most unique creative forces in the industry, and I think the medium is far richer for it being around.

A Trip to the Evacuation Zone Gives Control Resonant an Infusion of Stakes

 In my last post, I talked about how the need to broaden out the options for players to do countless tasks across Control Resonant's open-world warped Manhattan can wind up messing with the game's pacing and stakes. Yeah, I'm never going to complain about a very good dog appearing in a video game, but I don't know that it needs to appear in every zone with more or less the same task each time.

The Resonants are, so far, all banger boss fights, with unique designs and exciting challenges. But I sort of wish that their role was felt more across their respective zones as an embodiment of what in particular is going on there. Instead, these bosses feel more like just another category of objective on the map, which is a shame.

However, a mission sending me into the Evacuation Zone was a real highlight. Simon Arish, just a plucky mid-ranked security agent in the first game who got very suddenly promoted to Head of Security after everyone above him turned either Hiss or dead, is now also acting co-director of the FBC along with Emily Pope.

I guess we gotta start doing spoiler cuts.

Control Resonant and the Open World

 I love the world of Control - the corner of the larger Remedy Connected Universe that puts mundane government bureaucracy against the bizarre and unusual.

Indeed, I think the crux of the appeal is to make the familiar strange: one of the, not exactly common, but not rare either, Hiss-associated enemies you fight is a city bus that is turned on its nose, the back of the bus warped and deteriorated, with poor passengers hanging out the windows, their Hiss infection lending the bus its animation. Altered Items, a key part of the world's lore, are objects that look utterly normal but behave in unusual and often dangerous ways.

A few more hours into the game, I've defeated another Resonant, this one "The Dancer," who also appeared in various trailers for the game (as far as I know, I think at this point I've beaten all the bosses that showed up in the previews).

While Remedy downplayed the open-world-ness of Resonant in its marketing, I can't really think of a different way to describe the game. Manhattan is divided into various zones that each tend to have their own iteration of many of the features found in others - you have your Resonant, a mapping station, a vendor ice cream truck (usually hidden out of the way - I haven't found the one in the Western Incursion Zone,) etc.

The game takes a Breath of the Wild approach to its open world - there's no set order in which you're meant to complete the zones (at least as far as I know - I imagine some might unlock later on) and even going to a zone's Resonant boss isn't really treated as something the entire zone is driving you toward, but more of an additional objective.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know that this is the right choice for the game. I've seen some critiques of the game that bemoan its adherence to Open World game design tropes that originated in Assassin's Creed nearly 20 years ago.

Remedy's strongest suit is its storytelling, and I think that the open-world nature of the game makes it feel like that primary plot is only dripping in on occasion. It also leads to a sort of rote recursion even in what feel like story-critical parts, like when we enter Faults to commune with the absent sister (and previous game protagonist) Jesse, which is also where we learn important traversal abilities. (Shift, for example, lets us re-orient our gravity in areas where there are streets and rooftops that are jutting out at 90 or 180 degree angles).

I think that the promise of Open World games when they first emerged (probably Grand Theft Auto III is the one that truly codified the format) was a sense of freedom. But the danger can be a lack of structure.

Remedy games that I've played at least are not interested in making a whole bunch of different endings based on player choices, and Control Resonant evidently just has one ending. As such, I wonder if Control Resonant would be better off with a somewhat more curated path through its messed-up NYC.

The first Control flirted with Open World ideas, with some ideas that worked and some that didn't. It's probably unfair to compare this with Alan Wake II, which is a totally different genre of game, but while you could swap between Alan and Saga through the middle of the game, each character's story was essentially linear, which I think worked quite well for it.

To be clear, I'm still enjoying the game quite a lot. But I think I've been getting more intriguing and enticing stories out of side quests so far, like reuniting a set of speakers that act as conduits to some other plane of existence, or a weird Taxi dimension that someone's trapped in (said Taxi dimension feels weirdly similar to the Dark Place, including similar camera angles when Dylan is talking on a payphone to the trapped civilian as the ones when Alan talks with Tom Zane in Noir York City).

As for "lore" spottings, I have finally gotten some explicit mentions of the word Blessed, which are involved in the speaker side quest. I have yet to find out if the Organization is actually central to the plot, but I imagine that that requires some more progression (with the Western Incursion Resonant dealt with, I think I'll be heading to to the Evacuation Zone, which seems to be where the true main quest plot is actually directing me).

There's no mention of anything Alan Wake related, other than that Ahti appears not to have returned to the Oldest House after the events of AW2, and we also see some posters of Ahma Beer, which I guess must be thriving given that it used to be a local microbrewery. (Hope Ilmo is doing ok). Fingers crossed for an Old Gods of Asgard song, which at this point is expected.

Again, I still feel like I haven't progressed the "main plot" forward much since being unleashed in the open world, but I also really wonder if we might see Barry Wheeler pop up - a sore absence from Alan Wake II, but also someone who for sure got involved in the Blessed Organization.

Once again, I've been finding secret hideouts across the city that I suspect are Blessed installations, though that's unconfirmed. Whatever this "Secret Organization" actually is, it uses similar memos, documentation, and jargon to the FBC, but it's all just a bit different - referring to "Extranormal Objects" in contrast with "Altered Items."

Now, I do think that the Blessed Organization could be slightly Scientology-coded, and the Church of Scientology has been known to pull off some pretty extraordinary feats, including a massive infiltration of the FBI, using its own pseudo-governmental acronyms and abbreviations.

The Secret Organization, as the documents we find about it are classified in our personal archive (oh yeah, there are a bunch of documents,) uses a symbol that appears like a keyhole or possibly a beacon of some sort. I can't remember if any of the Oceanview doors had that symbol, but it's worth bearing in mind.

(Oh yeah, so far no Oceanview Motel.)

In terms of difficulty, I'm sort of inclined to maybe push forward a bit more aggressively. It's very rare that I die to non-Resonant enemies, though both the Central and Western Incursion bosses took me four attempts each.

Enemy variety, even though I've fought almost exclusively Hiss, is step up from the first game, and there are basically no "this is just a corrupted dude with a gun" enemies to fight. You will start to get familiar with them - the ones with giant hammer-like heads are probably the most common of the "Heavy" Hiss foes - but I think we're already at a more interesting variety than we got in the first game, and I've only fought like one group of Mold enemies.

It is strange, though, that in stark contrast to the first game, where Hiss would teleport into a room without warning and endlessly respawn, here once a group is dead, they're dead, at least until you beat the area's Resonant. But I don't think you can re-fight bosses and I assume once you beat each enemy group a second time, that's it. This does mean that the resources you gather from fighting foes is presumably finite, and I don't love that. (I could be wrong, though).

One thing that's kind of interesting is that upgrading your weapon, even by unlocking other weapon forms, is going to help you even if you don't care to use said forms, because each unlocked form and trait for those forms will improve the overall damage you deal with the weapon.

Each Resonant gives you a choice between two (maybe one gave three?) Powers, which are similar to the various OoP abilities Jesse got in the first game. You can try each one out separately, but you get locked in after you leave The Gap (your little Mind Place/Writer's Room equivalent) and require a Reset item to change them after that. I assume this means there will be six Resonant bosses in total, given that we can equip six at a time (swapping between sets of three at least on a PS5 controller).

I suspect that there is a kind of Mega Man-like ideal progression path - the boss in Central gives you fire-based abilities, which are extra-effective against the Mold.

One of the things that makes Dylan an interesting contrast with Jesse is that he literally trained through his entire adolescence to work for the FBC, so he's already well aware of Bureau protocols, procedures, and terminology. Even if most of the Rangers hate him for his past with the Hiss, he knows what the job entails.

I think Dylan's generally going to be a pretty heroic character regardless of what dialogue options you pick, which does make it kind of interesting that he's sort of a new character in this game - the Dylan we encountered in Control was really the mouthpiece of the Hiss. I'm eager to see how he reckons with that contrast.

First Impressions of Control Resonant

 It's finally here!

With Control Resonant downloaded nicely last night, I booted the game up this morning and have been playing it, well, most of the day (had a doctor's appointment in the middle).

I've now beaten my second Resonant boss - the major monsters whose power dominates each of the various zones that the warped Manhattan is broken into. The first, I'll note, is basically part of the tutorial, coming before you even (if I recall correctly) get your secondary Aberrant form.

Thanks presumably to a day-one patch, the reports of intense difficulty in the early game seem to have been addressed, as I didn't really struggle much. Indeed, this second major boss, the Central Resonant (who has appeared in some of the previews and trailers) is the first time that I really had to work, dying three times before taking it down on the fourth attempt.

First and foremost, let's talk about the action gameplay:

I actually really like it, despite a lot of reviews poo-pooing it. Each button does something different, and at least with my build, it feels like each ability and weapon serves a clear purpose. My heavy secondary attack, using the titanic hammer form seen in the announcement trailer, is for building Falter on foes, which can eventually stagger them for an execution. Likewise, my launch-like ability gained from the first boss gives me a ranged option and also inflicts some Falter, while my wide-sweeping scythe main attack is a quick source of damage that hits lots of foes. I have a combo finisher that launches enemies into the air, during which I deal bonus damage to them, and I cant then bring the hammer down on them.

Falters and Executions are a really interesting mechanic: while executing a foe doesn't give you back health, you will gain a buff that increases your damage done and the health gained by defeating other enemies, so I try to get something staggered as quickly as possible and then slash at the remaining foes with my main attack as much as possible during that short "Dominance" window.

One of the issues I have with a lot of action games is that there's often little that really distinguishes attacks, and you wind up spamming the same things over and over, but here, it feels at least as if you're constantly making tactical decisions.

Now, the flow of the game is something I'm still wrapping my head around: monsters (mostly the Hiss early on, though I've seen some Mold and there's also a new enemy faction called The Pattern, which seems to actually be the central antagonist of the game) don't respawn until you beat the area's resident Resonant, and thus as far as I can tell, you get to fight each just twice, so I think maybe you want to fully clear a zone before going after the boss to maximize the resources you gain.

Completing objectives within a zone will level that zone up, increasing rewards dropped from enemies and enhancing the offerings at the spooky ice cream trucks that serve as your merchants. There are various objectives to complete across a zone, including side missions with their own little plots.

There are a few familiar faces: I did a side quest for Langston (though I don't know if he'll pop up elsewhere or if he's just a one-scene appearance). The overall plot is a bit slow to develop so far, though I've also been really pushing side quests and side objectives rather than driving forward with the main stuff.

Dylan traverses Manhattan with the weight of his role as the herald of the Hiss, and also the destruction that he wrought while he was in training as P6. We did get a Dr. Darling video, though sort of non-diagetically. His role in Dylan's abusive upbringing is something the game seems eager to explore further - as charming as Darling is, and as much as he plays a role of kind of absent guide for Jesse in the first game, Dylan naturally has very complex feelings about him.

Similarly, the FBC has very mixed (mostly negative) feelings about Dylan. Zoe, the FBC agent he meets when he first exits the Oldest House, becomes his handler, and while they're working together, she's also got a kill switch for the "Mobile Containment Device" attached to the back of Dylan's head, which will give a lethal blast of electricity if they decide he's too much of a threat. I'm curious to see how much of a Chekov's gun this is.

But despite the atrophy of being in a coma for seven years, Dylan is an absolute beast. Traversal abilities that took a long time to get in Control come much faster here, which makes it a bit easier to traverse the tall buildings of NYC (though there are buildings too tall to climb still, meaning you need to either find a way to get up shorter buildings or need to unlock Shift at some point.

Dylan is, of course, nothing like was in the first game, and it's really interesting to see someone who is clearly a good guy deep down reckon with the traumatic loss of identity that the Hiss, and his upbringing as P6, which pushed that kind, heroic personality back.

A few notes:

There are some secret hideouts hidden in various buildings around Manhattan. There's no proper nouns here to associate with any existing lore. They issue memos with verbiage similar to that of the FBC. If this is the Blessed Organization, it would imply that that organization is far more professional than we might have assumed, and I even wonder if it's a splinter cell of the FBC itself. Either that, or this other faction has nothing to do with Blessed.

Expect a lot more posts about this game.