I’ve always been a die-hard horror gaming fan. Franchises like Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Resident Evil, Outlast and others have often kept me busy for hours and my favourite way to play a horror game is to turn all the lights off, put my headphones on and disappear into the darkness. Now, you might be wondering why am I talking about horror games even though the title says that this is the review of Control Resonant. The answer is that this game just made my heart pound. And very few games have had that effect on me.
Control Resonant isn’t really categorised as a ‘horror’ title but for me, it was an experience that led to a few nightmares and I am not forgetting that anytime soon. Right from the first few minutes, the game got me invested in it and what was supposed to be a chill gaming night turned into a horror adventure. Let’s get to the details.
Before we talk about the game, let’s take a moment to talk about what I played it on because that matters way more than some people realise. I tested Control Resonance on my PC, which is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU and 32GB of RAM. It is also custom water-cooled and has 2 TB of storage.
Talking about the game’s performance, I played it at 2560×1440 resolution with the graphics and ray tracing settings initially set to High.
With DLSS enabled and frame generation turned off, I was getting around 70 fps. And the overall experience felt quite smooth. There weren’t any noticeable lags or stutters while moving around or during combat. I can perfectly enjoy the game in these settings but I still wanted to see what Nvidia’s frame gen can do. And that is a decision I don’t regret.
The moment I turned 2X frame generation on, things got even better. The frame rate went up to around 140 fps and there wasn’t any noticeable drop in the picture quality.
I then pushed both the graphics and ray tracing settings to Ultra with the rest of the settings remaining the same. In this case, the FPS (as expected), dropped to around 45 fps without frame gen on. Even though there was some loss in smoothness, the game was still very much playable.
With that, I decided to turn frame gen on one more time.
So with the graphic and ray tracing settings set to max, 2X frame generation gave me around 90 fps. Moving to 4X pushed that number to roughly 180 fps, while 6X took it all the way up to around 270 fps.
Now, 270 fps sounds fantastic, but there was a noticeable hit to image quality at 6X.
So for me, 2X frame generation ended up being the sweet spot. In this case, 90 fps gave me the smoothness I wanted without compromising too much on image quality.
The game also includes Legacy DLSS. This is aimed at older Nvidia GPUs, including 30-series cards and earlier models, so people who haven’t upgraded to a newer GPU can still make use of the upscaling technology.
For my Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti though, DLSS with 2X frame generation was the best scenario.
Confession time. The story here took me a little time to get used to. I played the first Control back in 2019 but never finished it. So if you ask me what exactly happened in the game, I would probably struggle to give you a proper answer. I remember the strange building, the supernatural objects, Jesse Faden and a lot of things that made absolutely no sense at first.
So when I started Control Resonant, I knew that I had some catching up to do. And that was sorted thanks to the built-in preview video that you can watch the moment you start the game. So even if you haven’t played the older Control game (even though I strongly suggest that you do), you won’t be completely unfamiliar with the plot.
Control Resonant begins with Dylan breaking out of the Old House. Meanwhile, his sister Jesse, who is now the Director of the Federal Bureau of Control, has disappeared. And then there is the Hiss, which has escaped and is now spread across Manhattan.
Manhattan is cut off, and Dylan has to make his way through a world that is, well, extremely difficult to explain. And that is also what I enjoyed about it.
There are supernatural objects, mysterious powers and a whole lot of things happening around you that don’t immediately make sense. The game doesn’t stop every few minutes to explain everything. Instead, it lets you discover things as you go.
For someone like me, who played Control years ago but remembers only bits and pieces of it, this could have been a problem. There is clearly a lot of history between Jesse, Dylan and the Federal Bureau of Control.
But instead of making me want to stop playing, it made me curious.
I wanted to know what happened to Jesse. I wanted to understand Dylan better. And I wanted to know what exactly was happening to Manhattan.
The setting also plays a huge role in this.
There is always something slightly unsettling about the world, even when nothing scary is happening. You could be walking around thinking everything is fine, and then the game does something that makes you stop and wonder what the hell is going on.
And then there are moments when it reminds you that, yes, this game can actually be creepy.
Just to give you an idea, I started playing the game at my home setup, all alone in the room. I turned all the lights off and put my headphones on like I usually do for all horror games. But, roughly an hour into the game (after the first major fight which made me slay a giant human head), I had to turn some of the lights on. Now I am personally much more affected by psychological thriller/horror games. So for me, Control Resonant is a spooky yet fun experience.
Dylan is at the heart of the story this time and gets you invested in him rather quickly. He is powerful. Very powerful, in fact. But also, sweet and innocent he sounds at times. The voice actor here has done a commendable job. And that contrast makes him much more interesting than if he were simply another powerful character walking around and destroying everything in his path.
There is also something strange about hearing Dylan speak so innocently while knowing what he is capable of. And I think that fits the larger tone of the game.
The characters don’t always feel like they belong in a straightforward superhero story. There is something strange and slightly unsettling about the world they live in, and that makes even normal conversations feel like there is something more happening underneath.
The combat is where Control Resonant really lets me play according to my own style.
The game lets you build on three types of weapons and each one works differently. So there isn’t really a one size fits all approach here.
For instance, in the first few minutes, you get three Aberrant forms to choose from: Strike, Glaive and Cleave. Strike focuses on fast attacks and comes with a high critical hit chance. Glaive is built around wider attacks that can hit multiple enemies, but it has no critical hit chance. Cleave sits somewhere in between. It is more balanced and can deal extra damage when the attack is performed from behind, although it also has no critical hit chance.
Now since I like to attack quick and fast, I picked the Strike option. But if you prefer wider attacks or want something more balanced, the other two forms give you that option.
So basically, your choice doesn’t have to be based on what the game tells you is objectively better. It can simply come down to how you like to play.
The combat can also be challenging, but there is an Assist Mode if things become too difficult. And that Assist Mode is more like God mode. You can turn on immortality, completely turn off damage that your character takes, and much more.
So the gameplay, overall, is super fun, bit challenging, and something that rewards exploration and time spent. In other words, the more you play the game, the better you get at it.
If there is one thing I did not expect from Control Resonant, it is just how much the sound design would get under my skin.
Dr Casper Darling’s video messages give me the creeps every single time.
There is something about watching these strange recordings in the middle of everything that is happening around you that makes them super uncomfortable. It isn’t necessarily that something scary is happening on screen. It is the feeling that something is very, very wrong.
And then there is the title track.
When the credits started loading and that music kicked in, I actually turned the volume down because I was getting goosebumps. It felt less like the title track of a game and more like the opening of a horror film that you just know is going to be so good.
That is when I also realised just how effective the game’s sound design is.
Control Resonant doesn’t need to constantly throw jump scares at you to make you uncomfortable. Sometimes, all it needs is the right piece of music or sound effects playing at the wrong time. And this game does that, a lot.
I have spent over 15 hours in the game and I am already thoroughly invested in its strange little universe. The game doesn’t feel like it is trying too hard to explain itself and that is also its best part. There is a lot I don’t understand yet, but instead of frustrating me, that uncertainty makes me want to keep playing.
The combat is fun, the game lets me play in whatever style I want to and the performance on my RTX 5060 Ti has been excellent. And the genuinely eerie atmosphere takes things up a notch. I could be sitting in my studio, completely comfortable, and suddenly one message from Dr Casper Darling can make me question why I decided to play this title alone.
In a nutshell, Control Resonant has managed to make me curious enough to keep digging through its weird, supernatural world even when I don’t have all the answers. And right now, I am perfectly happy being confused.
Rating- 9 /10