Instant Photos in Control Resonant are tied to a special Camera that appears in different locations throughout the map, all broadly part of an ongoing side quest called Freeze Frame that lasts even past the main credits of the game. Each zone in the game has two instant photos that you have to reverse engineer the location of to find the special AWE camera, which itself needs to be rounded up carefully, as approaching it from the front causes it to freeze you in place temporarily and then make itself disappear.
That means each camera location is broken into three steps: find the instant photo, track down the camera’s position, and then work out how to approach it from behind without setting it off. Effectively you have to do a stealth takedown on the camera, which is sometimes a little puzzle you need to solve in the process. Below, I’ll explain everything you need to know, including the locations of the photos, the cameras, and how to sneak up behind them.
For more collectibles around Manhattan, find out how to discover all the different Control Resonant Taxi locations and the many Mysterious Dog locations, as well as how to solve the puzzles associated with each one!
Full map of Camera and Instant Photo locations in Control Resonant
Control Resonant has 14 Instant Photos to decipher locations for, broken up into two locations per zone/region in the game, as well as the seven more locations to find the photos in question. You can use the map below to find out the locations of both the photos themselves (blue), and the hidden camera locations (orange).
- Instant Photos (Downtown). Inside the entrance to the Oldest House, on a table near the whiteboards.
- Camera location (Downtown). In an upside-down building in the East corner of the Dense Patterning.
- Camera location (Downtown). Inside a portable FBC office with a glass wall that needs to have its Power Core charged to open it.
- Instant Photos (Central). Inside the large FBC main field office, on the tables in the same room as the Outfit Wardrobe.
- Camera location (Central). Inside the Watchtower, accessed via the room beneath Zoe’s office.
- Camera location (Central). On the warehouse roof, looking out of the doors.
- Instant Photos (Evacuation Zone) Inside one of the raised portable FBC offices in front of the Evac Building.
- Camera location (Evacuation Zone). On a rooftop South of the Sinkhole, inside a small structure with a power core behind it.
- Camera location (Evacuation Zone). On top of an apartment building behind a billboard, South of the Railyard Street Station, next to a giant wall of Mold that blocks off the street.
- Instant Photos (West Incursion Zone). Inside the House of Mirrors FBC base, resting on a counter.
- Camera location (West Incursion Zone). Up on the gravity-anomaly wall at the North corner of the region.
- Camera location (West Incursion Zone). On one of two window-cleaning platforms attached to a building down the road from the Museum of Curiosities.
- Instant Photos (The Park). At the FBC base inside a room you can smash through the roof of, to drop down into.
- Camera location (The Park). Outside the South entrance to the Sewers, behind you as you leave, up on a window-cleaning platform.
- Camera location (The Park). Inside the Nomad Avenue Station. After you come down the stairs from street level, it’s on the right.
- Instant Photos (Underpass). Found at the Spire, on the tables under the covered tents.
- Camera location (Underpass). On the island East of the Underpass Vendor.
- Camera location (Underpass). At the unnamed island south of Tubes Island, on the East side.
- Instant Photos (Unknown). After reaching Unknown, progress through the story until you unlock the region’s Resonant, part of a mission at the Field Office island to the North. Follow the mission until you reach the room with the Fast Travel Door for the “Patterned Field Office”. The photos are in the same room, resting on the map table.
- Camera location (Unknown). In the Mold-covered construction building, looking out through a hole in the fungus.
- Camera location (Unknown). Inside the “Wear ‘Em and Wash ‘Em” laundromat, at street level, looking out of the entrance.
We noticed that any photos that you didn’t pick up can spawn in Dylan’s apartment after the main story of Control Resonant is completed. You can also look back at any photos you’ve collected in your inventory in the “Key Items” section.
How to solve the Camera puzzles in Control Resonant
The AWE Camera and Freeze Frame quest in Control Resonant is a recurring puzzle that works in several stages:
- Locate the Instant Photos in a zone, then study the image to work out where they were taken from.
- Go to that location to find the Camera. However, it will freeze you and disappear if it sees you.
- You need to work out a way to get behind it and interact with it to close the Camera Lid. Doing so completes the puzzle.
The precise method needed to perform what is effectively a contextual stealth kill on the camera will vary depending on where you encounter it, but usually involves studying the environment and landscape around it to find some path where it won’t see you.
Downtown
- Instant Photos. On returning to the Oldest House via the broken wall, once the FBC have retaken it, you’ll find the photos on a table inside that first room once you enter through the broken hole you first left through.
- Camera location. In an upside-down building in the East corner of the Dense Patterning, looking through a door. To get at it, approach the building from behind and stick to the roof with gravity anomalies, then use a heavy attack to smash open the hatch on the roof to drop down into the same room behind it.
- Camera location. Inside a portable FBC office near the Chasm. Get a charge from the Power Core Station in the Deserted Area to the North, and bring it back to open the doors behind the Camera. There is a deactivated Core Station on the rooftops between them that you can use to transfer the charge before it fades.
Central
- Instant Photos. Inside the FBC main field office, on the tables in the same room as the Outfit Wardrobe.
- Camera location. Inside the Watchtower, on the floor below Zoe’s office. Head to the Underground Supply Route to go to the room beneath her and drop through the hole in the floor, then come up again on the East side to find the camera. To get it, follow the path around to understand how it loops, then jump up from that initial ascent past the Camera’s level so you’re above it. This will allow you to drop down behind it.
- Camera location. On the warehouse roof, looking out of the doors. Let it freeze you, then head into the Warehouse and kill the Hiss inside to open up the building properly. Then reverse your steps to sneak up behind the Camera.
Evacuation Zone
- Instant Photos. Inside one of the raised portable FBC offices in front of the Evac Building.
- Camera location. On a rooftop directly South from the Sinkhole at the edge of the region. The camera is looking out through the door of a small rooftop building, and you need to get a Charge to activate a Power Core that’ll open the door behind it. There’s a Power Core Station down the road at the Evac Building, with an empty Power Core halfway at the checkpoint barricade for you to transfer the energy and reset the timer, and again just past the Parking Lot besides the exterior elevators.
- Camera location. On a rooftop besides the street blocked off by a huge Mold wall, beside a billboard advertising Florida holidays. Let the camera freeze you, then enter the building and use the elevator inside to go to ground level. Open the building doors from inside, then retrace all your steps to surprise the camera from behind.
West Incursion Zone
- Instant Photos. Inside the House of Mirrors FBC base, resting on a counter.
- Camera location. Up on the gravity-anomaly wall at the North corner of the region. Once aligned in the same direction, use the raised rooftop it’s backed against to drop down behind it.
- Camera location. On one of two window-cleaning platforms attached to a building down the road from the Museum of Curiosities. Use the floating platforms made of bollards and road barriers further down the street to leap up to the camera from behind.
The Park
- Instant Photos. At the FBC base inside a room you can smash through the roof of, to drop down into.
- Camera location. Outside the South entrance to the Sewers, behind you as you leave, up on a window-cleaning platform. Power up the exterior elevator to the West with a charge from the FBC Base street section, then use that raised platform to jump across the window cleaning platforms to the Camera.
- Camera location. Inside the Nomad Avenue Station. After you come down the stairs from street level, it’s on the right in a Mold-filled hallway. Head down the stairs further to the main platform and come up the other side, where you’ll find a door you need to burn through. Follow that path around back behind the Camera.
Underpass
- Instant Photos. Found at the Spire, on the tables under the covered tents, near the Fast Travel Door.
- Camera location. On the island East of the Underpass Vendor. Drop down onto the stepping stones under the island itself so you go beneath the camera without setting it off, then adhere to the ceiling and kill the Hiss blocking the hole upwards (or downwards, depending). Go through the hole, and this should bring you behind the camera.
- Camera location. At the unnamed island South of Tubes Island, on the East side. Go to the West side of the island and invert your gravity so that you’re standing on the wall, and there’ll be a hole you can drop down. With your gravity changed, a little bit of careful accuracy means you can “fall” down the hole sideways across to the other side of the island and land behind the camera.
Unknown
- Instant Photos. After reaching Unknown, progress through the story until you unlock the region’s Resonant, part of a mission at the Field Office island to the North. Follow the mission until you reach the room with the Fast Travel Door for the “Patterned Field Office”. The photos are in the same room, resting on the map table.
- Camera location. In the Mold-covered construction building, looking out through a hole in the fungus. To get at it, enter the building via the floor above and drop down into a room full of Mold enemies. Kill them to get the barriers down, which will allow you to access the camera from behind.
- Camera location. Inside the “Wear ‘Em and Wash ‘Em” laundromat, at street level, looking out of the entrance. To find it, let the camera freeze you and go through the Laundromat then through the back door, and hit a panel to open up the garage door beyond. Go back around so that the camera respawns, then use the back entrance you just opened to sneak up on it.
How to capture the Camera and complete the Freeze Frame quest
With all photos located, you’ll get a message from Zoe telling you that the Camera has been seen Downtown. Head to the marked location at the “Lookout Point”, and now you’ll see lines of Cameras that you need to sneak up behind. They appear in different locations in that Field Office complex in the ordered sequence below, though keep in mind that if you get caught, this sequence goes back by 1. So if you screw up catching them at position 3 and get caught, the cameras move to position 2.
- East side of the FBC office (marked area), looking in the East gateway. Easy enough, just enter the office through this gate and shut the lid as normal.
- On the rooftops overlooking the office to the North, next to the box with the Health Point inside. Approach that building from the back so that they don’t see you, then drop behind them.
- On top of one of the FBC offices buildings in the South section. Leap onto the rooftops South of the complex and jump over the barrier wall so you can land behind them.
- North side of the complex, both on the offices and at ground level. Simply enter through the Northern gate to jump them.
- On top of the Southwest corner wall. Like in Step 3, simply use the rooftops to jump up from the South side.
- On the exterior elevator on the Northwest corner of the office. Drop down from the North rooftops again to catch them.
- In the middle of the office complex, looking at the frozen workers. It’s just one this time. Walk up behind it to end this quest for good.
Freeze Frame quest rewards
For completing this quest, you’ll get an untapped Artifact called the “Shiny Pebble”, which slowly restores your health up to 50% while you’re using a Gravity Anomaly. Each camera you individually locate will also increase the Zone Level of the area you found it in.
Control Resonant Radio and Panopticon puzzle: Solve the puzzle for Langston at the Field Office
Control Resonant Pattern Break: What does this World Feat mean?
Best Abilities and powers in Control Resonant: How to choose your gifts correctly
Control Resonant map: The full Manhattan map and all the zones therein
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