Control Resonant is one of the few modern open-world games which doesn’t always point you to where you should go next. This desire to give players time to figure their way around is the reason why, according to the game’s director, Resonant does not have yellow paint.
“It was a conscious decision, obviously,” Control Resonant director Mikael Kasurinen said on the Dropped Frames podcast (via Kotaku). Kasurinen went on to explain he believes player autonomy is one of the key factors that make a good game.
“It’s not like the game is telling me what to do and I just go and do it. I feel like I’m the one making the decisions in the game,” he added. “It’s so important that the players feel like they’re the ones figuring it out.”
Yellow / white paint has become the subject of ridicule in recent years. By covering ledges, climbable walls and other surfaces with said paint, games – especially open-world – attempt to grab the player’s attention to point them in the right direction and ensure they don’t get lost.
However, excessive use of yellow paint is something players have been increasingly rejecting. Things seemingly came to a head with Marvel’s Wolverine, another triple-A game released right around the same time as Resonant. Players dubbed the game’s blue scent trails, which act as a constant reminder of where you should go next, as “fart trails”.
Developer Insomniac Games eventually added a toggle to turn it off in most situations, but the damage had already been done. On top of the visible markers, Wolverine also has white paint to signify ledges that boost the player’s jump, as well as walls the player can climb.
Remedy’s decision not to rely on similar tricks is especially notable given the larger size of Resonant’s map compared to the original Control, which took place inside an office building and relied mostly on diegetic signs in the world to orient players.
Now, Resonant does utilise the colour yellow with certain objects in the world, but because of the industrial design of many of those surfaces, it looks far more organic, like something you’d see if you visited a shipping yard or factory floor.
Kasurinen indicated he’s not entirely against the practice, it only has to fit thematically within the game’s world, saying, “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, ‘go here,’ it’s not anymore a decision for the player. Somebody has already decided for you.”
Many have called on developers to afford players a bit more trust, and for a return to the days of games relying on framing, lighting and other visual aides to guide players around levels.
In the Eurogamer Control Resonant review, Alexis Ong felt the game’s larger, more open world setting leaves behind the magic of the original Control.
