Control Resonant is out today, and reviews have been landing since 18 September, when the embargo lifted. Remedy Entertainment’s sequel is pulling strong scores with a set of reservations that keep cropping up from one outlet to the next. We have not had time to review it ourselves, so rather than dress up a second-hand verdict, here is what the French-language press wrote about it, scores and arguments included. The Metacritic figures below were read this morning.
At a glance
Control Resonant launches on 24 September on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series.
Metacritic sits at 84 on PS5, 83 on PC and 81 on Xbox Series X.
Reviewers praise the art direction and flag repetitive combat.
Control Resonant lands on three platforms at once
Control Resonant arrives today on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, developed and published by Remedy Entertainment. The game leaves the Federal Bureau of Control behind for a warped Manhattan, hands the lead to Dylan Faden and pulls its fights towards melee.
That shift explains a good chunk of the spread between reviews. Anyone who played the first game finds the same universe and the same staging, wrapped around an open structure that catches them off guard.
Remedy built the 2019 Control around a single labyrinthine building that rearranged itself as you walked through it. Control Resonant swaps that closed box for a whole city. It is the studio’s riskiest bet in years, and the reviews reflect that.
Metacritic, three platforms and three numbers
As of 24 September, the Metacritic page for Control Resonant shows 84 on PlayStation 5 across 74 counted reviews, 83 on PC across 42, and 81 on Xbox Series X across just 11. The PS5 breakdown reads 91% positive, 7% mixed and a single negative review.
The gap between platforms comes down to how many reviews have been filed. Eleven on Xbox Series is far too thin a sample to draw a technical conclusion from. All Control Resonant versions carry the same content, and no outlet has flagged a serious difference in polish.
The consensus puts Control Resonant near the top of the pile. Without the near-unanimity the first game managed.
jeuxvideo.com gives it 16 out of 20
The review at jeuxvideo.com settles on 16/20 after more than 25 hours on Xbox Series X and Series S. Its headline sums the position up: a science fiction game as brilliant as it is frustrating.
On the credit side it lists spectacular art direction, a deep pool of skills to unlock, impressive freedom of movement and level design that often turns inventive alongside a deliberately fractured plot. Against it, the outlet points to constant friction in progression, combat that grows repetitive and increasingly chaotic, and rough face modelling.
A 9 out of 10 from 4WeAreGamers
Guy Wegria files a far warmer review for 4WeAreGamers, scored 9/10, after 25 to 35 hours on PS5 Pro for the main story.
He singles out the storytelling, the vertical open world and its level design, hack-and-slash combat that deepens as you go, the art direction of this warped Manhattan and the soundtrack. His reservations cover French lip sync, a thin enemy bestiary, character rendering outside cutscenes, and a story that raises more questions than it answers.
The scores ActuGaming gathered
ActuGaming went for a round-up instead, stating plainly that its newsroom had received no code to review the game early. Its tally cites Gamekult at 8/10, IGN France at 9/10, IGN at 8/10, PushSquare at 8/10, VGC at 5/5 and Eurogamer at 3/5.
The site put both Metacritic and OpenCritic at 85 when it published on 18 September. Six days on, the averages have slipped a little as the more measured reviews came in.
For its part, Xboxygen logged 83 on PC, 84 on PS5 and 81 on Xbox Series that same day, figures that have held steady since.
The complaints that keep recurring
Read side by side, four complaints come up often enough to matter to a buyer. Combat turns repetitive over a long run. Some bosses drag on without getting any cleverer. Navigation frustrates in several areas. And the open structure feels stretched thin to a share of reviewers.
What stands out is that almost all of those same reviews praise the side quests, regularly named among the best content in the game. A title that shines brighter around its edges than along its main line, which is worth holding in mind before buying.
Control Resonant divides opinion more than the first game. Scores stay high, the caveats are more numerous and more specific.
Why our own review is missing from this list
Let’s be straight about it: we did not have time to finish our own Control Resonant review before launch. Writing a house verdict out of other people’s work would be dishonest, and that isn’t how this magazine operates.
A proper review takes hours of play and notes taken with a controller in hand. When ours lands, it will carry a score and a table of highs and lows like every review we run. For now, this round-up should give you enough to decide.
One practical note for anyone still undecided. The harshest reviews come from outlets that pushed through to the end of the story, while the warmest lean on broader exploration. How you play will weigh as much as the average on the aggregators.
To see what’s landing over the next few weeks, the Hitbox release calendar lists every date with its official source.