Compare CONTROL Resonant vs Anomalith

One critic found repeated combat and progression interruptions strong enough to pull attention away from the world and story, reducing immersion despite the striking setting.

The distinctive world can be absorbing enough to invite thorough exploration even without exceptional combat challenges or constant story suspense.

Movement and combat animation generally look polished and energetic, with finishers and traversal selling Dylan's speed and force. A few rough character-animation moments keep it from being uniformly pristine.

Stiff movement and slow recovery animations can interrupt combat. The dated presentation offers some nostalgia but remains a conspicuous weakness.

The strangest spaces still generate strong cosmic-horror unease, using impossible geometry, isolation, and paranormal imagery to make exploration feel unsettling.

Uncanny spaces and psychological side stories can be genuinely creepy. Many full-game impressions find that abundant firepower or repeated scares drain the sustained tension.

The game is widely praised as a visual showcase, especially for lighting, surreal geometry, and dense effects. Lower-end modes can introduce softness, artifacting, or weaker lighting that undercuts that presentation.

Technical visuals are dated and noticeably below lavish modern productions. Strong style helps compensate, although uneven geometry and character detail remain visible.

Traversal is one of the game's most consistently celebrated strengths. Double jumps, air dashes, hovering, grappling, and gravity shifting make moving through Manhattan fast, expressive, and frequently exhilarating.

Deliberate movement creates tension for some players and suits the old-school approach. Slow recovery, crowded spaces, and monotonous return routes make it cumbersome for others.

Dylan's growth from damaged FBC test subject to a more self-directed person lands strongly, and his evolving relationships give the story a clear emotional spine.

Reona's history and friendships provide meaningful character material, but opinions split on its development. Several accounts find the cast rushed or confined to predictable traits.

The strongest mechanical moments come from combining traversal, gravity shifts, powers, combat, and environmental ideas in ways that feel purpose-built for this world.

Mutation powers and low-health tradeoffs offer appealing tactical ideas. Their integration is divisive: some enjoy switching styles, while others find guns so dominant that the abilities become incidental.

Upgrade materials are criticized for being overcomplicated and awkwardly distributed, making some desired upgrades harder to complete than the rest of the progression system suggests they should be.

The resource economy is inconsistent. Easily farmed materials can erase scarcity, while one late-game account finds healing funds squeezed by unavoidable damage.

The opening can be daunting because movement, builds, enemy pressure, and RPG systems arrive before the combat fully blossoms. Once more tools unlock, the learning curve becomes far more rewarding.

The demo favors steady exploration and combat management, offering an approachable route into third-person survival horror without demanding constant fast reactions.

Newcomers get helpful recap material and can follow the core story without exhaustive Remedyverse knowledge, though the early combat and build systems are not always explained as clearly as they could be.

The opening tutorial makes a weak impression before the hospital begins to show the game's stronger design ideas.

The roughly 25-to-40-plus-hour scale gives the world room to breathe, but the campaign can outlast the combat system's depth. Late repetition makes the length feel excessive for some players.

Campaign length is generally manageable, with main-story estimates varying by approach. One account finds the short runtime insufficient for the supporting cast, while others appreciate that it does not overstay its welcome.

The sequel earns broad credit for refusing to repeat the original: its melee focus, warped open zones, gravity traversal, and structural experimentation feel unusually bold for a major sequel.

The unusual mix earns credit for trying something different. Its defining mutation mechanics lose impact when conventional shooting becomes the dominant solution.

Requiring physical fast-travel points can be inconvenient, but it also nudges players to stay in the world and stumble into side content rather than teleporting past it.

Hub shortcuts and regularly placed portals keep travel and material deposits manageable. Well-timed drop-off points are a frequently appreciated convenience.

The game generally feels polished for its scale, but scattered technical hiccups, stuck enemies, audio cuts, and other small scuffs prevent it from feeling immaculate.

Clipping, clunky transitions, awkward design choices, and bugs are recurring limitations. A positive demo account finds more polish than expected, but full-game impressions are usually less forgiving.

The roster has memorable supernatural designs and multiple factions, but ordinary encounters can still feel repetitive. Reused archetypes and endless smaller enemies weaken the sense of variety over time.

New enemy types shake up familiar shooting and looting, bringing welcome surprises alongside occasional frustration.

Exploration is a major draw thanks to vertical movement, hidden routes, bespoke side stories, and dense environmental storytelling. Confusing entrances and map limitations occasionally turn discovery into circling the same blocks.

Strange spaces encourage curiosity and rewarding revisits for some players. Others find navigation too obvious or backtracking too slow to justify the rewards.

Pacing is a recurring weakness: the opening can be slow, progression sometimes stalls the story, and several late sections drag. Other sources find the game accelerates impressively once it opens up.

The demo and one full-game account praise an effective rhythm, but others find the story slow to pay off. Exposition, repeated travel, and recovery animations can interrupt momentum.

Upgrades provide plenty of specialization on paper, but restrictive respecs, material requirements, and number-focused improvements can make the system feel cumbersome or less transformative than expected.

Weapon and ability upgrades make scavenging purposeful and progression satisfying. Overpowered bonuses, unclear attachment compatibility, and awkward menus reduce their effectiveness as a balanced system.

Zoe is the standout supporting character, with her radio banter and evolving bond with Dylan giving the journey warmth. Some sources find that relationship rushed or uneven, but the supporting cast is usually viewed positively.

Supporting personalities and the mentor relationship can be engaging, but their depth is disputed. Rushed histories and repeated traits leave some of the cast underdeveloped.

Performance is generally smooth on stronger hardware and PS5 Pro, while base-console stress scenes and Steam Deck play can show dips or compromises. The overall picture is solid rather than flawless.

Dense combat caused frame stuttering in a review build. Patches improved performance during the review period, so the early problems do not establish identical behavior in every build.

The best missions keep escalating into strange, memorable scenarios, giving the campaign a strong sense of surprise beyond standard combat objectives.

Optional missions offer different investigations and aftermath stories, with enough variety to make discovering the next one appealing.

Even skeptical critics repeatedly call the game singular. Its collision of character-action combat, non-Euclidean Manhattan, paranormal comedy, and art-house spectacle gives it an identity few other open-world games resemble.

The blend of retro Japanese spaces, anime characters, and paranormal investigation feels distinctive. Its identity remains appealing even when execution falls short.

The combat-exploration loop can be exciting once a build comes together, but repetition is a persistent concern. Several critics felt the same encounter rhythm and combo patterns wore thin well before the campaign ended.

Diving, collecting, upgrading, and returning can be strongly absorbing. Repeated routes and systems that remove too much resistance make the same loop feel disjointed or routine to other players.

The writing is strongest when it balances human vulnerability, bureaucratic absurdity, and strange lore. Some dialogue and thematic beats are less elegant, but the overall character and world writing earns substantial praise.

Sharp characterization and thematic writing can make the mystery compelling. Other accounts find the same material cliched, repetitive, or too dependent on convenient resolutions.

Loot and world rewards can make exploration satisfying, especially when discoveries feed upgrades, but some reward placement and generic material boxes feel less thoughtfully integrated.

Frequent drops and useful unlocks make collecting satisfying. Simple containers, duplicate artifacts, and unclear material priorities can turn the reward stream into clutter.

Technical bugs are not portrayed as constant, but the glitches that do appear can be disruptive, including enemies getting stuck, traversal oddities, and occasional postgame or loading issues.

Backpack glitches, clothing clipping, and menus switching languages are recurring complaints. These problems range from cosmetic distraction to disrupted play.

Weapon forms offer different rhythms and build possibilities, but critics disagree on how meaningfully those choices change combat. Some forms feel expressive, while others seem like variations on the same basic loop.

Different guns can suit different enemy weak points, but powerful upgrades often erase those distinctions. Several accounts find shooting so dominant that mutation abilities become unnecessary.

Side stories, altered objects, puzzles, bosses, and strange one-off scenarios keep the world varied, though a layer of repeated activities and combat encounters can feel like busywork.

Different builds add variety to an otherwise repetitive experience, though players must choose to engage with those options.

Dylan's guilt, childhood trauma, bond with Jesse, and search for redemption produce some of the game's most affecting scenes. Several critics describe moments that hit harder emotionally than they expected from a Control sequel.

The search for a missing friend gives the journey a personal hook. Strong Japanese performances help emotional scenes land even where the writing has not fully earned the payoff.

Reality warping, particles, reflections, shadows, and large combat effects create spectacular scenes, though the sheer visual noise can occasionally hurt clarity or expose platform-specific image issues.

The supernatural ability effects add an attractive flourish to combat.

Assist Mode is a major strength, with granular sliders and presets that can soften damage, dodge timing, resource pressure, and other difficulty spikes. It gives story-focused players unusually fine control over the experience.

Optional aim assist gives players a useful way to adapt aiming to their needs.

Combat is responsive, aggressive, and capable of spectacular build-driven highs, but opinion splits sharply on its staying power. The strongest criticism targets repetitive strings, damage-spongy enemies, and a system that can feel shallower over a long campaign.

Gunplay is usually praised as snappy, satisfying, and rewarding to upgrade. Melee transitions, animation delays, and limited tactical pressure keep the wider combat system from feeling equally refined.

The warped Manhattan, Patterning effects, impossible architecture, and surreal set pieces are among the game's clearest triumphs. Its visual identity is repeatedly described as bold, gorgeous, and unlike almost anything else in the genre.

Showa-era Japan, warped architecture, and anime character designs create a striking visual identity. The unusual look often makes a stronger impression than the technical graphics.

The sequel keeps Control's uncanny blend of cosmic dread, bureaucratic absurdity, and offbeat humor alive across Manhattan. A minority feel the broader city setting dilutes some of the Oldest House's concentrated unease.

Empty corridors and distorted everyday places create a convincing sense of unease. The mood survives even when combat becomes too empowering to feel frightening.

Most sources found the game highly enjoyable once its systems open up, especially when traversal, powers, and side quests click together. A few harsher takes found the repetitive combat too intrusive to sustain that fun.

Several players had substantial fun despite the rough edges, especially once gunplay and upgrades clicked. A more reserved account found the enjoyment merely average.

Zone leveling, skill points, powers, and build choices often make exploration feel purposeful and Dylan's growth tangible. Criticism focuses on opaque power-level tracking, restrictive respecs, and progression that can become busywork.

Equipment gains are often tangible and satisfying, providing a reason to keep diving. A critical account finds the RPG progression hurried, and powerful upgrades can flatten challenge.

The story is broadly praised for Dylan's redemption arc, surreal set pieces, and powerful character moments, but the central plot is less consistently loved. Some critics find the overarching tale, finale, or emotional transitions weaker than its best individual scenes.

The personal mystery and late revelations can sustain a compelling character-driven adventure. Plot holes, familiar tropes, and rushed supporting material produce sharply different reactions to the story.

Dialogue is uneven: the best exchanges give Dylan and Zoe warmth and personality, while snarky banter and some overt thematic writing can feel forced.

Reona's blunt reactions and the cast's exchanges can make dialogue lively and engaging. A dissenting account finds repeated character responses grating.

Manhattan is packed with strange signage, abandoned interiors, warped streets, and small physical details that reinforce the setting, though some sewers, warehouses, and city blocks repeat too visibly.

Warped hospitals, inverted apartments, and decaying interiors make familiar locations feel alien. Dated geometry and low-resolution textures can still show through the atmosphere.

Documents, recordings, side stories, and environmental details keep the FBC mythology rich, with the best optional material adding texture to Manhattan and the broader paranatural world.

Optional investigation reports add substantial depth without requiring every player to stop for exposition. Reading them helps the supernatural world feel considered rather than merely decorative.

The default difficulty is one of the most disputed elements, especially in the opening hours and against tanky late bosses. Better builds and extensive Assist Mode settings help, but progression walls can still feel abrupt.

The most persistent complaint is uneven challenge: upgrades can make standard play trivial, while higher settings and late encounters sometimes feel unfair. The demo's tactical risk-reward balance earns a more favorable response.

One critical take finds progression too dependent on repeating activities and combat to keep pace with enemy scaling, turning advancement into unwanted grind.

Repeated sections and material farming can become grating, particularly when traversal gains little variety.

Routine world events and chore-like objectives can clash with urgent story beats, making some mission structure feel like open-world padding rather than purposeful adventure.

Flexible backtracking and preparation give players appreciated control over how to approach missions and manage supplies.

Hits, metal transformations, spatial ambience, and supernatural effects are repeatedly praised for giving combat and exploration weight. The audio mix helps sell both spectacle and unease.

Impactful gunfire can make shooting rewarding, and exaggerated sounds offer nostalgic charm. Weak directional cues make locating enemies and objectives much less reliable.

Level design is a standout, from folding streets and gravity-shifted city blocks to stranger interior spaces that turn perspective itself into a traversal and puzzle mechanic.

Compact spaces and creative boss arenas can use the setting effectively. Basic routes, repeated lockdowns, and unfair late-game placements hold the level design back.

Puzzles can be clever and visually inventive, especially when gravity and perspective are involved, but they also produce some of the game's most confusing or progress-stalling moments.

Straightforward supernatural puzzles and boss gimmicks reward observation without becoming overly obscure. Working out special weak points gives encounters a welcome identity.

Navigation is one of the most consistent pain points. The flat map, unclear entrances, multi-level spaces, and gravity-bent geometry can leave players lost even when the world itself is visually compelling.

Maps and objective markers make directions easy to follow and help compensate for untranslated signs. They can also remove the disorientation some players want from strange environments.

Bosses are visually memorable but mechanically divisive. Some fights are inventive spectacles, while many others are criticized for huge health pools, limited move sets, and late-game battles that turn into endurance tests.

Creative weak-point mechanics and distinctive bosses supply some of the best encounters. Upgrades can trivialize them, while mandatory parries and occasional cheap attacks divide opinion.

Side quests are a major strength, often delivering the funniest, strangest, and most memorable stories in the game. A smaller layer of repeated tasks and weaker rewards keeps the optional content from being uniformly excellent.

Side stories can deliver intriguing investigations and memorable psychological horror. Reused locations and familiar encounters make some optional quests feel repetitive.

The FBC's bureaucracy, Manhattan's altered neighborhoods, scattered documents, and small survivor stories deepen the setting at nearly every turn. World-building remains one of the sequel's most dependable strengths.

The distorted Japanese setting and bureaucratic response to supernatural disasters are widely praised. Institutional secrets and ordinary spaces made alien give the world a strong identity.

Progress and power-level information can be buried too deeply in menus, making it harder than necessary to understand whether upgrades are meaningfully changing Dylan's strength.

Equipment screens omit key details such as effects, rarity, and equipped status, making disposal and rerolling unnecessarily risky.

Positive value comments point to the substantial campaign, side content, replay potential, and localized pricing, making the package feel generous to players already invested in its style.

Full-price value is contested: an enthusiastic demo impression finds the price fair, while full-game critics favor a sale. Bugs, repetition, and stronger competition weigh against the asking price.

Build experimentation, postgame exploration, missed side content, Resonant cycles, and New Game Plus-style interest give enthusiastic players clear reasons to return after the credits.

One enthusiastic account continued experimenting with builds and guns long after the main story ended.

The Portuguese localization is received positively overall, including the dub, but the reviewed build had enough missing or inconsistent localized lines to keep it from being fully seamless.

Dialogue localization earns strong praise in one account, but environmental signs remain untranslated and English dubbing is absent. A first-impressions session also encounters menus unexpectedly switching into Japanese.

Inputs are consistently praised for immediacy: attacks, dodges, air movement, and cancels respond quickly enough to support the game's fast, aggressive action.

Basic gameplay can feel highly responsive, and melee inputs improved from preview builds. Awkward mouse conventions and clumsy shooting-to-melee transitions remain notable exceptions.

The cast is usually praised for grounding the strange material, especially the supporting performances, but Dylan's delivery is unusually divisive and receives a few pointed complaints.

Japanese voice acting is consistently praised for giving characters weight and helping emotional scenes land, even when the writing is weaker.

One source specifically criticizes loadout management for making important changes more cumbersome than they need to be during an action-heavy game.

Quick deposit actions and demo revisions offer useful conveniences. Poor sorting, missing equipment details, and inconsistent mouse interaction are more serious sources of friction.

Dylan is deliberately awkward and damaged, and most sources warm to his vulnerability, guilt, and dry personality. A vocal minority strongly dislike his writing, voice, or demeanor and would rather have stayed with Jesse.

Reona's blunt, pragmatic determination is one of the most consistent highlights. Her composure and personal motivation make her more engaging than a conventional frightened rookie.

Technical performance is usually strong, particularly on high-end PC hardware and PS5 Pro, with ambitious effects running smoothly in many accounts. Some platforms and heavy scenes still show frame pacing, image-quality, or optimization compromises.

Modest hardware demands and ongoing fixes inspire cautious optimism. Review-build stuttering and loading problems mean optimization is not consistently settled.

Music and licensed tracks remain strong and often memorable, but some critics miss a single transcendent set piece on the level of Remedy's most iconic musical moments.

Uneasy music reinforces the atmosphere effectively.

Enemy behavior draws a sharp complaint for leaning on hectic pressure rather than convincing intelligence, making some fights feel artificially chaotic.

Patient aiming, weak-point shots, and strong hit registration are rewarding. Aim assist can pull toward body targets and work against intended headshots.

Scarce ammunition supports careful play in a favorable demo impression. A full-game account finds crafting makes bullets so plentiful later on that those decisions lose much of their importance.

The camera and targeting can struggle when arenas get crowded or fights move vertically. Mis-targeted attacks and awkward framing around large or airborne enemies are recurring frustrations.

Frequent checkpoints make supply runs and retries convenient, and boss-phase restarts reduce frustration. That generosity also contributes to weak survival stakes for some players.

Documents, recordings, hidden reports, and other collectibles make exploration feel worthwhile by feeding the world's mysteries rather than functioning as empty checklist filler.

Crafting provides worthwhile rewards for gathered materials but can flood the game with ammunition. Unclear attachment compatibility also makes some crafting decisions frustrating.

One full-game account reports outright freezes, while a favorable demo session had no major crashes. Stability impressions therefore differ by build and experience.

The first-impressions session finds the cutscenes visually appealing.

Forgiving retries encourage persistence and reduce lost progress, especially during boss phases. The limited penalty also weakens the sense of danger for players seeking survival pressure.

The complete opening chapter gives a generous, useful sense of pacing, combat, and atmosphere before purchase.

The postgame gives completion-minded players room to keep exploring, finish side stories, refine builds, and chase remaining discoveries after the main campaign.

Facial work is one of the visual weak spots, with some expressions looking stiff or strange compared with the quality of the environments and effects.

Despite changing protagonist, setting, and combat style, the sequel usually retains Control's strange humor, paranormal logic, lore, and visual identity. A smaller group feels the open-world structure leaves too much of the original's magic behind.

The demo can run more smoothly after adjusting display and frame settings, but its internal options still need refinement.

DualSense feedback is used effectively to reinforce powers and supernatural moments, adding tactile texture without being treated as a defining feature.

Reona's pragmatic responses to revelations provide welcome humor and help her avoid familiar melodramatic reactions.

The suitcase inventory creates satisfying packing decisions for some players, helped by convenient portals. Others find repeated unloading annoying or the available space too forgiving to force meaningful sacrifices.

Occasional freezes during area transitions interrupt the flow in a review build.

Alarmed character reactions can clash with enemies that fall to a few shots, weakening the connection between story danger and actual combat.

Anomalith earns a qualified recommendation as a stylish, characterful shooter with strong ideas. Overall reactions range from enthusiastic enjoyment to disappointment with its disconnected systems and limited polish.

Precision platforming becomes frustrating when gravity changes, tight trajectories, or awkward geometry demand more exact movement than the traversal system comfortably provides.

Simple random equipment progression can be satisfying, with enough options to explore builds. Dominant weapons reduce the need to engage deeply with the available systems.

Players can choose when to revisit areas and how much equipment to carry, allowing useful freedom within the mission structure.

The ability to reduce a seventeen-year-old protagonist's clothing to the bare minimum draws strong criticism as unnecessary sexualization.

The skill tree supports multiple builds and can be satisfying to optimize, yet several critics find its apparent depth overstated or its upgrades less transformative than the sprawling layout suggests.

Late encounters can place enemies off-screen or combine threats in cramped spaces without fair warning, producing frustrating unavoidable damage.

Limited space and low-health powers create promising survival decisions in the demo. Several full-game accounts find that abundant supplies and forgiving failure strip those systems of meaningful pressure.

The early handgun tutorial is serviceable but leaves little impression.

One favorable demo impression values environmental unease over reliance on cheap gore. The praise concerns that restraint, rather than the amount of violence present.

Multiple firearm categories provide useful loadout variety and support the appeal of classic survival shooting.

Physics, destructible scenery, telekinesis, and gravity manipulation make the environment feel like part of the action rather than a static backdrop.

Extensive clothing choices and a separate cosmetic layer let players combine preferred looks with useful stats. Clipping on some outfits weakens the otherwise appealing customization.

Attachments and loadout choices offer worthwhile customization. Unclear compatibility and the ease of relying on a single powerful gun discourage deeper experimentation.

Anomalies stand out through unsettling designs and unusual rules, including enemies controlled by eye contact. Discovering those rules adds interest beyond ordinary shooting.

The zoned Manhattan is admired for feeling hand-crafted, vertical, and distinctly Remedy rather than like a generic checklist map. Still, some critics see bloat, repeated activities, or a loss of the first game's tighter spatial focus.

Hidden doors and lockdowns can generate effective uncertainty. Predictable repeated ambushes and too much uneventful space limit that unpredictability.

The survival horror presentation can set misleading expectations for a game that often feels much closer to an arcade action shooter.

PS5 Pro receives especially strong praise for ray-traced reflections, shadows, reconstruction quality, and a cleaner presentation, while Steam Deck support is notably less convincing.

A first-impressions session unexpectedly overwrites another early save, raising a concrete concern about reliable progress management.