CONTROL Resonant

Resonant is the rare sequel that dares to demand something different from the player of the original, rewiring the gun combat into crunchy melee with style. It’s perhaps more conventional than the 2019 game but executed with such flair that it’s irresistible.

Control Resonant brilliantly reinvents Remedy’s formula with more moving storytelling, an engaging Dylan and a remarkably rich universe. Its melee combat is immensely satisfying, its bosses are spectacular, and its level design plays with gravity in impressively inventive ways. Striking art direction, inspired side quests and excellent use of the DualSense further enhance immersion. However, the sheer number of documents, overly repetitive encounters towards the end and occasional frame rate drops disrupt its momentum. Despite these shortcomings, this ambitious sequel confirms Control’s potential and leaves us eager to discover how much further Remedy can take this distinctive universe.

Control Resonant might frustrate you at times, especially in its early hours, but the more you dig into it the more enjoyable and rewarding it becomes. Weird in the most wonderful of ways, its creativity makes it one of the highlights of the year.

CONTROL Resonant expands Remedy's universe with changes that work both in gameplay and atmosphere, all without losing that strange, captivating blend of sci-fi, horror, and surreal storytelling. Fans of the studio and the franchise won't be disappointed by the shift toward melee combat, the fresh setting, and a narrative that maintains Remedy's trademark depth.

A true anomaly in the highly structured world of action-adventure games, Control is fascinating for both its strengths and its flaws. By fusing unstructured brawler mechanics, gravity-defying platforming, and deep action-RPG elements, Remedy has created a work of immense ambition and generosity. However, the game pays a price for this boldness through constant friction in its quests and combat that feels a bit too chaotic. If you are willing to embrace the demands of its complex rules, you will take great pleasure in navigating this electrifying, "altered" experience.

A mind-bendingly beautiful world that stumbles at the finish line due to shallow characterization and gameplay that is fun, but ultimately too simple.

Whereas that 2019 title was a splendid synthesis of Remedy’s signature strengths, Control Resonant‘s many failures make it seem as though it came from a different studio altogether. Its melee combat is bafflingly hollow, relentlessly repetitive, and poorly balanced across the board. Dylan’s quest to save the day lacks inventive concepts that stretch the mind and ends up being a fairly one-note story with an unearned ending. By failing to engage the fingers or brain, Resonant is not just a disappointing sequel; it betrays the very notion of what it means to be a Remedy game.

My pick for the game of the year. This game has great story, amazing character progression, music, visuals, traditional Remedy cinema moments and, most of all, addictive fluid combat. I do not want to spoil too much for people who haven't played the game so I'll avoid any details. But my favorite part of the game (in addition to the combat) was seeing how Dylan and Zoe progressed as characters throughout the story. Dylan starts as a stoic character who does not share much or display much emotion. This makes sense knowing his background. He also has a bad posture (with a "gamer neck") having spent so many years in his cell. But over the course of the game he finds more things to care about and his walls start to break. He is not a "badass alpha hero" nor a "modern audience wimp" but a traumatized kind-hearted man who grows to be the hero he deserves to be. I didn't think I would like him more than Jessie from the first game but now I definitely do. The combat is addictive and fluid, and it really stands out in this year of "clunky" combat games. I would personally say it's the best combat of the year, but it doesn't meant it's perfect. It could have a little more depth, like combos that include both the normal and heavy weapons. Some weapons and abilities are also clearly better than others. The uppercut combo finisher combined with ignite is too powerful and makes the game significantly easier. Also, there is some issue with difficulty. If you are a completionist who tends to explore most of the areas before progressing the story or fighting the bosses, the enemies get easier and easier until you progress the game forwards. You get so many weapon upgrades and talent points from doing this that the current enemies become trivial. When you finally get to the area boss, you are already way too strong to fully enjoy the epic boss fights. The boss fights are not difficult to begin with (though they get more difficult towards the end of the game no matter what), but having double the damage and health they were designed for can make the fights anticlimactic. Visually, the game seems to have less fidelity than Alan Wake 2 (which makes sense because of how much more there can be going on in this game), but it still looks great. The art style is almost unmatched. I rarely let go of my performance mode but I switched to "Balanced" mode for this on my PS5 Pro to enjoy the gorgeous lighting with Ray Tracing. The game comes with the usual "Remedy" moments and they are amazing, and they are what push the game from 9.5 to 10/10 for me. And I don't give 10/10 easily.

Context: Played the original Control and consider it a solid 8/10. Critique: Control Resonant takes what made the original enjoyable and pushes it even further, particularly when it comes to gameplay. Combat feels even better, with a more developed and engaging gameplay loop that could have easily carried the game to a 9/10. Unfortunately, the overall experience is held back by a frustrating tendency to prioritize quantity over quality, turning what could have been an exceptional sequel into a considerably more uneven experience. Pros: - Gameplay: Easily the game's biggest strength. The improvements over the original make combat even more satisfying, with a stronger gameplay loop that feels like a genuine evolution rather than a simple rehash. This is the kind of sequel that understands how to build upon its predecessor's strongest foundations. - Combat: Fighting remains incredibly enjoyable, with enough depth and variety to keep encounters engaging. The core gameplay is strong enough that you genuinely want to keep playing, which makes the game's shortcomings all the more frustrating. - World and Atmosphere: The distinctive supernatural identity that made the original so memorable remains a major part of the experience, preserving much of what makes this universe so appealing. - Potential: At its best, Control Resonant demonstrates just how much further this formula can go. With more focused content and better pacing, the improved gameplay could have supported a genuinely outstanding sequel. Cons: - Artificial Playtime Extension: The biggest issue is how much additional content seems designed to increase the game's overall runtime rather than meaningfully improve the experience. More content is not inherently a bad thing, but here, the quantity often comes at the expense of quality. - Formulaic Quest Design: The sequel feels considerably more repetitive in how it structures its quests and open world exploration. What initially feels like a welcome expansion of the original's formula gradually becomes a predictable cycle of objectives and encounters. - Repetitive Open World: Exploration loses some of its appeal as the game increasingly relies on familiar activities and repetitive objectives. The additional space and content do not always translate into meaningful discoveries or memorable experiences. - Artificial Difficulty: This becomes particularly noticeable towards the end, when the game starts throwing increasingly difficult encounters and seemingly nonstop fights at the player. Rather than feeling like a natural escalation of the challenge, the constant combat begins to feel like an artificial way of extending the experience. - Pacing: The combination of repetitive content, formulaic quest design, and excessive fighting becomes increasingly difficult to ignore as the game progresses. What should have been an increasingly rewarding journey instead starts feeling like a checklist of activities to complete before reaching the conclusion. Conclusion: Control Resonant is a frustrating sequel because its core gameplay is genuinely excellent, arguably even better than the original. That alone could have made it a 9/10 for me. Unfortunately, the decision to expand the experience with increasingly formulaic quests, repetitive exploration, and artificially prolonged combat undermines much of that potential. The problem is not that the game offers more content, but that too much of it feels designed to fill time rather than deliver meaningful experiences. By the end, the repetition becomes difficult to overlook. Final Verdict: 7/10. A sequel with gameplay good enough to deserve a 9/10, held back by a bloated and repetitive experience that struggles to justify its additional content.

Control Resonant me parece un juego complicado de evaluar. Conforme avanzaba, no podía dejar de sentir que la historia, el gameplay, el mundo, etc. iban en direcciones contrarias. No sé si es intencional y parte del universo del juego, pero al menos para mí resultó disonante. Gráficamente es extremadamente atractivo. Los escenarios se sienten como esa ciudad corrompida por realidades que nos plantea el juego, con miles de objetos y físicas. El gameplay es atractivo. La movilidad en el mundo abierto se siente bien, y muchas veces hay momentos en los que no entiendes si estás en el suelo, en una pared o en un tejado al revés. Moverte por el mundo abierto es divertido. El combate es un problema recurrente en los juegos de Remedy. Desde las primeras dos horas se siente que simplemente repetirás lo mismo hasta el final del juego: no hay progresión ni cambios. Lo peor es que el juego abusa de los enfrentamientos, por lo que en la recta final decidí saltarme los combates, ya que se sienten muy monótonos e incluso aburridos por la cantidad de vida de algunos enemigos. Los jefes son muy olvidables. Diría que solo el primero tiene un diseño interesante; si bien todos son visualmente buenos, pues representan las realidades colapsando, ninguno tiene un diseño o una característica memorable. La historia es densa y se siente separada de lo que estamos jugando. Intenta demasiado y, en este caso, menos es más. En conclusión, para mi gusto este juego es demasiado pretencioso y, por la cantidad de cosas que intenta, falla en muchas de ellas. Por otro lado, con la cantidad de diálogos que hay, es una pena que no esté doblado al español latino, al menos para hacerlo más disfrutable. Se nota que quisieron hacer un juego más grande y largo, pero en su búsqueda de ese objetivo terminaron haciendo uno que en la recta final se siente tedioso, repetitivo y cansado. Es un excelente juego, pero recomendaría jugarlo con mucha calma.

Overall, the game falls short of the Jesse version in terms of story and combat enjoyment; it also suffers from repetitive missions and ramped-up difficulty, as if the studio has shifted toward a "Souls-like" approach.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]