CONTROL: Resonant's Sinkhole section is Remedy's strongest artistic directions I've ever seen. Read on to learn more about why it's an upgrade of the original's Ashtray Maze.
CONTROL: Resonant’s Sinkhole Section Is Remedy’s Next Great Ashtray Maze Moment
Remedy Keeps Surprising Me
CONTROL: Resonant is personally one of this year's biggest Game of the Year contenders. Our review awarded it an 86/100, praising how it showcases Remedy "at its weirdest," with a much bigger world to explore and even stranger implications for its lore. However, its underwhelming ending and intentionally vague story remain a notable blemish, one that I personally found disappointing.
Still, the journey leading up to that point is mesmerizing. Remedy doubles down on its surrealist level design, with Manhattan’s warped landscape serving as the perfect playground for the studio to unleash its mind-bending, non-Euclidean concepts. From towering buildings stacked on top of one another to grotesque amalgamations of transdimensional creatures, CONTROL: Resonant constantly pushes the boundaries of its visual spectacle.
One particular level, however, takes things up a notch, delivering its own version of the original game's Ashtray Maze. This section takes place roughly halfway through the game, after you've already defeated several Resonant bosses and unlocked two gravity-altering abilities. I consider it one of the game's finest moments packed with so much sauce, standing alongside Alan Wake 2's iconic musical sequence as one of the Remedy Connected Universe's most memorable set pieces. But before I talk about it, let’s discuss what made the first game’s Ashtray Maze so memorable.
Keep in mind that there are spoilers for CONTROL: Resonant here, so you’ve been warned.
Control’s The Ashtray Maze
If you’ve played the first Control game, you know what I’m already talking about. But for those who haven’t, the Ashtray Maze is a shifting, non-Euclidean labyrinth similar to what you’d expect to see in the Backrooms, only ten times trippier, with the environment constantly shifting and moving around you. What makes this section so memorable is how it puts everything you’ve learned to the test in one massive battle arena. Swarms of Hiss enemies surround you, while platforming sections challenge how well you’ve mastered Jesse’s movement abilities.
The problem is that no ordinary FBC employee can enter without clearance from Director Trench or Dr. Darling, both of whom are now gone. It was only after Ahti, a janitor (and presumably a god, don’t ask why), handed Jesse a cassette player to use while traversing this place outside of space and time.
Safe to say, it worked. And it worked VERY well, as we’re thrown into a frenetic battle against an army of Hiss creatures. But that’s not even the best part. The real highlight is taking down enemies while listening to the game’s biggest needle drop, “Take Control,” by Old Gods of Asgard, a recurring band that exists exclusively in the Remedyverse. It was loud. It was intense. Like an acid trip gone wrong.
Conquering The Ashtray Maze was basically the game’s way of telling you that you’re now “officially in control” after hours and hours of vague exploration across The Oldest House, dealing with parasitic eldritch terrors like the Hiss and an Evil Refrigerator (yes, it’s real). This was the moment where Jesse finally turned into the Director the Bureau wanted her to be. It's such a shame I didn't get to take screenshots during that moment.
The closest thing Remedy has ever pulled off to another moment like this was Alan Wake 2’s “Herald of Darkness” section, where we see Alan battling the Taken in an otherworldly talk show while watching himself dance and sing across multiple projectors. Now, CONTROL: Resonant does something similar with the path to the Sinkhole level, but in a more subdued way. That makes even more sense, considering its new protagonist, Dylan, isn’t nearly as rebellious as his sister, Jesse.
Path to the Sinkhole
Entering the sinkhole in CONTROL: Resonant was supposed to be a one-time gig where I’d dive into this underground system to help the Bureau build a weapon capable of taking down the Hiss. Then things get weirder, and crazier.
The first dive turned out to be a standard clean-up job, taking down the Hiss trying to get in my way while testing out Dylan’s newfound Inferno powers and such. As I dive deeper and deeper into the abyss, Remedy Entertainment makes it clear that this isn’t over just yet. I soon find myself in the middle of a transdimensional war between Lovecraftian forces I can’t even begin to understand.
The mysterious Patterning phenomenon has seemingly harnessed the people inside this Sinkhole, which was once an apartment complex filled with ordinary residents. Now, I see their bodies suspended in the air, patterned and fractured, creating one of the most gruesome yet impressive displays of helplessness I’ve seen in a sci-fi game. These people are all dead, scattered and fractalized, victims of a war we can’t even see. All I had to do is lay these bodies to rest.
It Goes Deeper and Deeper
After dealing with the Hiss problem, I had to retrace my steps and climb back up through the Sinkhole, which is easier said than done considering I’m over 20,000 feet below the Earth’s crust. Heck, I’m not even sure if I’m still on Earth to begin with.
Then, like Will Navidson finding that one mysterious door in his new house on Ash Tree Lane, I find myself staring at something completely mesmerizing. Rooms upon rooms with the same features are stacked together, patterned like one massive dollhouse. This is what was inside the Sinkhole the whole time, a living, breathing alien world molded from the last traces of humanity it had consumed. This is where the dead floating bodies were taken. Their homes, furniture, and everything they ever had are all arranged in an alien-like order, almost like that scene in the Backrooms movie, with a massive gaping void sitting right in the center.
But this was supposed to be an Ashtray Maze situation, so it wouldn’t be complete without good music to back it up. Unlike the Old Gods of Asgard blaring through the speakers, though, the song used here is a little more mellow, a ballad of sorts that juxtaposes Dylan’s chaotic mind and his need for a safe space. He was lost in this massive labyrinth with no way out, and Zoe, his partner in crime, plays a song from one of her mixtapes, “Another World” by Frida Amundsen and Sakima.
The only way to get out is by following the music blaring from TV screens, providing a clear guide that’s far more competent than the fart trails we see in Wolverine or the yellow paint everyone’s familiar with. As the dulcet tones of the song hum in your ears, you get closer and closer to the exit. There aren’t any enemies waiting for you along the way, unlike Jesse’s rampaging path through the Ashtray Maze. Dylan needed something calm after all the trauma the Hiss had left him with.
It’s the exact kind of parallel that works in Remedy’s case, because simply doing the same Ashtray Maze sequence again with rock music playing as Dylan finds his way home wouldn’t have worked. Instead, you’re left listening to the words of a budding relationship with Zoe as she slowly loses hope that he’s ever coming back to the surface. It’s a far more personal moment. Dylan was trying to find a way out, lost and confused, while Jesse had to find a way in with a clear plan in mind.
Remedy Entertainment continues to surprise me in ways I didn’t even know were possible, pulling off these moments that not even most AAA games manage to accomplish. CONTROL: Resonant keeps breaking the laws it tries to establish, which is pretty in line with how out-of-this-world its concepts are. The Sinkhole section sells me on the idea that this is going to be something special, a moment people will talk about for years to come. It feels like Remedy was just warming up with the Ashtray Maze and realized it could do more than just another gauntlet of action-packed encounters. It could tell a simple story about a troubled boy finding his way back home.
And the craziest thing is that this isn't even the end of it. The entire Sinkhole section leads me deeper into an infinite threshold called the Underpass, a place that completely disregards the laws of time and space. Here, towering spires of rectangular rock formations are clustered together like buildings, arranged in an almost perfect symmetry. To make matters worse, the scientists are dealing with one of the craziest time loops imaginable, one that has even affected Dylan. It's terrifying to think about, but thankfully, he has supernatural powers to deal with all of this. As for the rest of the lowly expeditioners and Bureau scientists hoping to get a piece of the paranatural cake, well, let's just say it's a hard day's work.
