CONTROL Resonant Drops Guard and Parry for an Aggressive Melee Loop
Remedy is rebuilding CONTROL's combat around an aggressive melee loop with no defensive options, making the sequel a genre rework rather than a larger version of the original.
Reporting from 1 source: Game Spark.
The gamescom 2026 demo of CONTROL Resonant puts players in control of Dylan Faden, brother of the original's Jesse, as he explores the mold-eroded Park zone in Manhattan. Combat drops guard and parry entirely, leaving dodge as the only defense, with a transforming melee weapon, execution finishers, and a resource loop that rewards aggression. Defeating Resonant bosses grants new abilities, and the world respawns stronger enemies afterward.
Remedy showed the hands-off demo at gamescom 2026, running a quest in The Park, a zone the Mold has fully consumed after leaking out of the Oldest House. Dylan tracks four mold samples and eats them to pursue a Resonant, using the Shift ability to walk walls and ceilings as gravity changes direction.
Combat is built around The Aberrant, a transforming weapon that switches between twin blades, a spinning blade, and a drill form. Enemies carry a Falter gauge; deplete it and Dylan executes them, triggering Dominance, a temporary attack boost. There is no guard and no parry. Dodge is the only defense, and the loop depends on killing enemies to restore health and landing normal attacks to refill ability resources.
The demo closed on The Collective, a fused human and mold boss whose tentacles spawn on floors, walls, and ceilings. Defeating it opened The Gap, Dylan's mental world, where he chose between two new abilities, Spore Burst and Growth. The game launches September 24 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.