by Remedy Entertainment returns with Control Resonant, marking a distinct departure from the studio's traditional linear shooter format in favour of a semi-open-world melee action title. Operating on Remedy's proprietary Northlight game engine - previously responsible for visual showcases such as Alan Wake 2 - the game pushes technical ambitions in new directions across larger playable environments.
However, adapting an engine designed primarily for tightly controlled single-player experiences to a broader urban sandbox introduces some trade-offs.
Control Resonant features rich diffuse global illumination that gives its environments a convincing, lived-in quality with minimal artifacting. The game appears to use a precalculated global illumination solution supplemented with screen-space ambient occlusion. Volumetric lighting and atmospheric particulate fog also return to convincingly render a moody New York setting. The game's action sequences also contain a lot of physics-driven mayhem, like the original Control. Here, the player can break stone structures into fractured chunks, while propelling various props through the environment.
But Control Resonant does have some visual issues, which seem to stem from the game's expanded scale. The game's cascaded shadow maps often look incoherent and artifact-ridden from distant views. Screen-space reflections prove a fine solution for specular lighting, but the reflection detail isn't preserved when on-screen details are occluded. The game's camera follows the player at considerable distance to frame brawls, but it can collide awkwardly with walls and other geometry. Image quality isn't great either on non-Pro consoles, exhibiting substantial breakup and a poor resolve on fine details.
On the base PlayStation 5, performance mode runs at an internal resolution of roughly 864p upscaled to around 1440p using FSR, delivering a generally smooth 60fps target. Framerate drops are largely confined to minor traversal stutters and heavy transparency effects during a specific boss encounter. Quality mode increases the internal resolution to approximately 1260p, providing a sharper, near-4K presentation at a stable 30fps with modestly improved shadow coherency and reflection clarity. Hardware ray tracing is absent in both modes.
Sony's PS5 Pro provides a noticeable step up in overall visual quality and stability. In performance mode, the console leverages PSSR to reconstruct an 864p internal image to a 4K display target, significantly mitigating the shimmering and aliasing artefacts seen on the base hardware. Frame-rates are also improved, maintaining smoother - though not perfect - performance in demanding encounters.
The PlayStation 5 Pro truly sets itself apart through the inclusion of hardware-accelerated ray tracing within its quality and balanced modes. Quality mode operates at roughly 1224p at 30fps, integrating ray-traced reflections across glossy city surfaces and ray-traced shadows that resolve contact detail with variable penumbras. Meanwhile, a dedicated balanced mode introduces the same ray tracing feature set at a 1080p internal resolution targeting 40fps, making it an appealing option for displays with variable refresh rate (VRR) support.
On Microsoft hardware, Xbox Series X achieves visual and performance parity with the PlayStation 5, utilising identical 864p and 1260p resolution splits across its performance and quality modes. Performance remains solid overall, with a similar performance level to PS5. Xbox Series S operates a single visual mode matching the settings and 864p resolution of the Series X performance mode, and it generally hits a steady 30fps target.
Ultimately, Control Resonant demonstrates both the flexibility and the limits of Remedy's Northlight engine as it transitions into open-world territory. While base consoles struggle with image clarity and draw distance limitations, the overall graphical presentation remains engaging. For players seeking the optimal console experience, the PlayStation 5 Pro stands out as the premier platform, successfully using advanced upscaling and ray tracing to better realise the game's high-end visual features.