What the CONTROL Resonant reviews say, outlet by outlet
Several of the outlets below praise the setting and the side quests, and they part ways over the combat. This page lists their published scores, sorted high to low, with a line on what each one said. Many of them went up at the moment the review embargo lifted.
Scores by outlet
Each score is printed the way the outlet gave it, and the table runs from highest to lowest once every score is scaled to 100. The outlet name links to the page the score was read from. The scores for eight outlets come from OpenCritic's listing. Listed on OpenCritic: CONTROL Resonant The other five come from their own review pages.
| Outlet | Score | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| GameSpot | 9 out of 10 | Points to the combat design and Remedy's strangeness as what sets it apart from other action games. |
| Giant Bomb | 4.5 out of 5 | Calls it a messy but beautiful sequel and a sign the studio can still make something odd. |
| Hardcore Gamer | 4.5 out of 5 | Singles out the visuals and a bigger, more expansive game than the first. |
| Tom's Guide | 4.5 out of 5 | Says the larger scope and the brutal melee beat the first game; some maps confuse. |
| DualShockers | 8.5 out of 10 | Recommends it to anyone who likes the studio's craft, and enjoyed walking on ceilings. |
| IGN | 8 out of 10 | Says the combat's edge dulls over time, but the inventive world and the human side of the story carry it. |
| Pure XboxXbox Series X | 8 out of 10 | Likes the story, the traversal and the big set-piece boss fights; finds the combat repetitive by the end. |
| Push SquarePS5 Pro | 8 out of 10 | Calls the sequel confident and stylish, but says “Repetitive combat is the big hitch”. |
| PC Gamer | 76 out of 100 | Glad to be back in Remedy's odd settings; the combat is the weak part. |
| CGMagazinePS5 | 7.5 out of 10 | Credits the improved map and the character work, then closes that it “feels like the weakest Remedy game in over a decade”. |
| Eurogamer | 3 out of 5 | Finds a more action-RPG follow-up that leaves some of the original's magic behind with the Oldest House. |
| ComicBook | 2 out of 5 | Says the melee is “bafflingly hollow, relentlessly repetitive, and poorly balanced across the board”. |
| Rock Paper ShotgunWindows PC | No score | Its standfirst says the “roaring melee battles and grasp of cosmic weirdness put this unlikely sequel up there with Remedy’s finest work”, while noting some overly simple bosses and a few bugs. |
More scores on Metacritic's list
Metacritic's review list also shows these outlets, on its own 0 to 100 scale. Listed on Metacritic: CONTROL Resonant
| Outlet | Score out of 100 |
|---|---|
| IGN Benelux | 100 |
| IGN Brasil | 90 |
| Screen Rant | 90 |
| XGN | 85 |
| Daily Star | 80 |
Where these outlets agree
- The setting. Rock Paper Shotgun, Push Square and Pure Xbox each single out the warped Manhattan, and IGN credits the inventive world. See how open the world is.
- The side quests. Rock Paper Shotgun, Push Square and CGMagazine each call the odd side missions a highlight.
- Dylan and the story. Pure Xbox and CGMagazine both like Dylan as a lead, and Pure Xbox and Push Square call the story more personal than the first game's. See Dylan Faden and how it compares with Control.
Where they split
Combat is the fault line. Rock Paper Shotgun calls it more dynamic and aggressive than the first game's, and was still enjoying it nearly thirty hours in. Push Square, Pure Xbox, CGMagazine and ComicBook all describe repetition, with CGMagazine saying the fights feel nearly the same in hour twenty as in hour two. PC Gamer's listing blurb points at middling combat too, and Gamer.org reports GamesRadar+ at 3 out of 5 with the same complaint.
Bosses divide them. Rock Paper Shotgun says some are enjoyable duels and others are overly simple, leaning on big health bars. Pure Xbox was impressed by how deliberate the set-piece boss fights are. Push Square found the bosses cool to look at but not the most inventive. For how the game handles challenge, see difficulty and Assist Mode.
Technical notes vary by platform. Rock Paper Shotgun lists a handful of bugs in the Windows version, Pure Xbox noticed dithering on reflective surfaces on Series X, and Push Square called the PS5 Pro performance smooth. The figures are on frame rate and modes.
The 2 out of 5 that drew attention
ComicBook's 2 out of 5 sits far below the rest, and Metacritic's list shows it as 40. Gamer.org, which covered the reaction, writes that “Metacritic describes the Metascore as a weighted average”, and that the weights given to individual outlets are not public, so how much one review moves the total is hard to show from outside. It also notes that PC Gamer and GamesRadar+ raise combat complaints of their own, so the low mark was not the only one to criticize the fighting. Reported by Gamer.org: CONTROL Resonant's 2.5 review sparks a Metacritic debate
Live averages, and player reviews
Averages change as outlets add reviews, so this page prints none. The live pages are Metacritic and OpenCritic. Player reviews are a separate thing from critic scores: the Steam store page shows none before the digital release. Shown on the Steam store page (appdetails API)
Related
- The review embargo: when the reviews appeared and why.
- Frame rate and modes: what the technical reviewers measured.
- How long to beat: the studio's figure against what reviewers reported.
- Resonant vs Control