CONTROL Resonant Review Roundup: Every Score, the Consensus, and Whether Remedy's Sequel Beats Control

The verdict is in: CONTROL Resonant opens to a Metacritic average of 84 (86 on PS5, 85 on PC) across roughly 60 critic reviews and an OpenCritic average of 85 — better than the original Control's 82, but short of the 2026 heavyweights and of Remedy's own Alan Wake 2. The embargo lifted on Friday, September 18 at 8:00 AM PT, six days before the September 24 launch, and the first wave is unusually polarized: this is a game drawing 10/10s and 2/5s in the same 24 hours.

That split is the story. Critics almost universally agree that Resonant's vision of a paranaturally warped Manhattan is one of the most striking worlds of the generation, and that Dylan Faden's redemption arc lands. They are sharply divided on whether the pivot from gunplay to a melee-focused action RPG expresses that world brilliantly or buries it under repetitive encounters and open-world padding. Below is the full record: every score, the consensus themes, and a should-you-buy verdict for each type of player.

Release and Embargo Schedule

CONTROL Resonant launches Thursday, September 24, 2026 for $59.99 on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Here is how the rollout lines up:

The Scores at a Glance

The aggregate picture first, then every individual score we tracked from the first wave:

Every Review Score We Tracked

What Critics Agree On: The World

Every review, positive or negative, bows to the art direction. GameSpot's Mark Delaney, who awarded the game 9/10, called the setting the high point: "This vision of New York is unlike anything I've ever seen... Scenes of the city folding in on itself à la Inception are merely scratching the surface." Push Square's 8/10 goes further, calling Resonant's Manhattan "some of the best-looking environments of the console generation," worked directly into the mechanics through a double jump, light flight, and a gravity-shifting traversal ability that turns the city itself into a playground.

The consensus treats the world as the true main character. Dylan leaves the Oldest House behind to investigate paranatural incursions across a Manhattan that folds, melts and rewrites itself, and reviewers repeatedly describe set-pieces that escalate the original Control's Brutalist weirdness into something more varied and more ambitious. Even the harshest reviews concede this ground before moving to their objections.

The Melee Combat Split

This is where the 10/10s and the 2/5s part ways. Resonant replaces Control's service-gun-and-telekinesis gunplay with a full melee action system built around the Aberrant, a shapeshifting weapon that flips between primary forms (broad axe, swift dagger, whip staff) and secondary forms (hammer, drill, extension), plus six equipable finishers. A stagger system rewards secondary attacks with an execute window, and skills — earned by defeating Resonance bosses — consume an energy meter that only refills through melee hits.

Vice's perfect 10 frames the whole thing as a triumph, calling combat "an absolute thrill, mixing levitation maneuvers, air dashes, telekinetic powers, and fast-paced melee attacks" that comes "together to create one of the best action RPGs released this year." IGN's 8/10 lands nearby: the combat stays "excellent" even when the campaign's later hours get "somewhat dull in certain stretches."

ComicBook's Michael Leri, at 2/5, sees the identical systems and writes the most-quoted negative line of the cycle: "It's all just mashing, mashing, mashing. Thoughtlessly pounding on the same button is at odds with the freedom of expression present in the genre's best," measuring Resonant against Devil May Cry, God of War, Bayonetta and Hi-Fi Rush and finding it restrictive rather than expressive. Eurogamer's Alexis Ong, at 3/5, answers the question most Control fans are asking directly: "Inquiring minds will want to know if Control's combat has improved, and the unfortunate answer is not really."

IGN China's review adds a specific mechanical complaint worth flagging for anyone sensitive to encounter design: many fights pit you against a heavy enemy that must die to end the encounter while ranged fodder respawns endlessly around it, meaning you melee the big target while eating a constant rain of off-screen projectiles.

The Open World Question

Resonant is not a true open world: Manhattan's core districts open up early with the double jump and float abilities, while several large zones gate behind main-story progress. Side content is dense — side quests, hidden chests, health and energy upgrades tucked into storefronts and street corners — and region-level progression feeds a talent tree Dylan upgrades in the Dreamrealm, his inner mindscape.

The defense: GameSpot, GameBlast and the 90-scores treat this structure as a natural and rewarding expansion of Control's level design, with side quests that are individually crafted rather than generated. Omelete's 100 calls the whole thing "a portrait of a braver studio" that could contend for awards at year's end.

The prosecution: Polygon's Willa Rowe calls Resonant "a perfectly serviceable game. But that is exactly the problem," faulting it for padding the world "with rote activities" and arguing that "missing is that all-important Remedy magic that makes its games so compelling. Without it, Control Resonant completely falls apart." GamersHeroes' 70 agrees that the open world is "completely disconnected" from what makes the game special. GamesRadar+'s Oscar Taylor-Kent, at 3/5, wishes the game had "more of the restraint and tightness of the original game and its DLCs."

Kotaku splits the difference with the cycle's most quotable middle ground: Resonant is "imperfect, but relentlessly, characteristically interesting."

What You Are Actually Buying: The Systems Behind the Scores

If you are deciding on day one, it helps to know what the machinery under the discourse looks like. The reviews give us a clear picture of Resonant's structure, and it explains both halves of the split.

The Aberrant, Dylan's shapeshifting weapon. One button drives a primary form — broad axe for reach, swift dagger for speed and crits, whip staff for wide sweeping arcs against crowds — while a second drives a secondary form such as the hammer, drill or extension. Combining a primary, a secondary and one of six finishers (launchers, spin slashes, orbiting blade fields) is the entire build system, and that is precisely the point of contention: Vice sees a fast, expressive kit; ComicBook sees two buttons and no sandbox.

Stagger and the energy economy. Primary attacks damage health; secondary attacks build the yellow stagger bar underneath it. Fill the bar and the enemy freezes for an execution. Skills — chosen two-at-a-time after defeating each Resonance boss — spend an energy meter that does not regenerate on its own: melee hits are the refill. The loop is self-reinforcing (fight to fuel the fighting), which reviewers on both sides describe as either elegant or as the reason fights blur together.

Progression without XP. Dylan has no experience level. Activity within each Manhattan region — side quests, encounters cleared, collectibles found — raises that region's level, which pays out talent points spent in the Dreamrealm, upgrade materials for the Aberrant, better merchant stock and chest reveals. Materials also build equippable relics (three at once, four in New Game Plus) that add passive effects. It is a "do things near the thing" progression model, and how much you enjoy the open world is largely how much you enjoy feeding it.

Boss fights. Near-universal praise for the visual design of the Resonance bosses; consistent criticism of their movesets, which multiple reviewers describe as visually spectacular but mechanically plain. If you are buying primarily for boss battles, temper expectations.

Dylan Faden Carries the Story

The narrative consensus is warmer than the mechanical one. IGN's Michael Higham singles out the protagonist: "Dylan is a real sad sack who feels sorry for himself, and it's quite tragic as you unpack what really happened to him as an FBC experiment... he's not a complex character, but he is a good guy and a clear lens to demystify a lot of the esoteric concepts of Control's world." The arc — a former experiment working to earn the trust of an FBC staff that whispers behind his back — lands for most reviewers, with Gamer.no as the notable dissent on character depth.

The overall story verdict: more traditional than Remedy's usual reality-bending structures, but willing to take real swings at key moments, and deeply intertwined with the world design that everyone praises.

Where Resonant Lands in 2026's Field

GamesRadar+ places the 84 in context: it clears the original Control's 82 but misses Metacritic's 2026 top 20, whose current floor is 007 First Light at 87. Resident Evil Requiem and Pokemon Pokopia sit at 89, Sektori tops the year at 94, and Polygon slots Resonant into a crowded mid-80s tier alongside Star Wars: Zero Company, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Mixtape — a strong field where Game Awards nominations will be fought over hard.

Against Remedy's own record: better received than Control (82), below Alan Wake 2's 89. "Another hit, but not its best game" is Polygon's summary, and it is as accurate a one-line verdict as the cycle produced.

Should You Buy CONTROL Resonant?

Frequently Asked Questions

The bottom line: an 84 that plays like a 94 or a 60 depending on what you come for. Read the 9/10s if you are here for the world, read the 2/5s if you are here for the combat, and buy accordingly.