Control Resonant, like 2019’s Control, starts a little slow, with only a few weapon powers and abilities to wield by the closing third of the game. Slow is putting it kindly; the early chapters were a slog – or at least they were before Remedy adjusted some settings just before it went on sale.

There are a few moments of struggle later in the game, which took me roughly 50 hours to complete, with plenty of side quest distractions. One area of Manhattan, overwhelmed by moss, mould and mold-spewing monsters, proved especially challenging during my playthrough. Despite Dylan’s ability to float and leap around with minimal gravity, poisonous areas and attacks constantly chipped away at health, while my blunt attacks barely registered on the bigger enemies. (I’d later learn that fire-based attacks are super-effective against mold enemies, you just have to defeat a resonant boss to unlock them.)

The final parts and bosses in Resonant suffer from the typical action RPG flaw of large-scale damage sponges. Once you’ve learned the attack pattern and environmental quirks, it’s rinse-and-repeat with your favorite combos and attack powers until the horrific creature collapses. Remedy again excels at major enemy design, and I especially liked the puppet-dancer amalgam that appeared midway through my playthrough.

There is a solution, and thankfully it’s not a casual mode that nerfs the entire game. Instead, Remedy created Assist Mode, rather than a traditional difficulty option.(Control got its own assist mode after launch). In Resonant, the feature includes three presets that could be roughly described as easy, high-risk (high damage for the protagonist and foes) and low-risk (low damage for both sides). 

Adjustable parameters include increasing damage output, reducing player damage, or improving falter damage so that Dylan can perform one of his raging execution animations. You can even reduce projectile speed or enemy aggression if it’s mobs that are giving you the most trouble.

The game warns you that you should probably play with the default settings – and I did that. While playing the post-game content, just a few nudges to falter damage and power recovery made me feel incredibly powerful against even the rare Apex monsters that offer big rewards in build material and in-game currency.

All of these features, while ensuring many will finish the game (I’ve started and stopped the original Control countless times when I first bought it), will strip some of the challenge and delight. I’m intrigued to see how streamers will show off their prowess in a game like Control Resonant when you can beef up your character so early. It helps to immerse yourself in everything the game does well. Besides the lore of the world of Dylan, Jesse and the FBC, there are delightful spot-the-difference taxi puzzles, mini logic puzzles inside laundromats and diners, and other sci-fi distractions, some of which feel meaty enough for their own Doctor Who episode.

Remedy

During my playthrough, I never came across enemies that were that many levels above me, yet the parts I mentioned earlier were struggles: desperately chipping away at enemy health bars or getting overwhelmed and killed countless times in a row. I was in the right place, at the right supposed level.

Remedy’s Day 1 patch apparently flattened the difficulty curve a bit so that you may have fewer issues with the start of Control Resonant. Those mold monsters, though? Grab one of those paranatural fire powers first and thank me later.