Remedy's genre pivot on Control Resonant lands 84 Metacritic with boss design as the sole weak point
Summary
Control Resonant, Remedy's sequel to Control, launched September 24 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC with an 84 Metacritic.
The sequel swaps Jesse Faden's third-person shooter for Dylan Faden's melee-focused open-world action, Remedy's first character-action combat build.
Critics across five outlets independently flagged boss encounters as the weakest element, the system built in a genre Remedy had never shipped.
The score held anyway, with praise clustering on narrative continuity, environmental design, and the sibling relationship.
"[Some bosses are] overly simple, their sense of threat owed to massive health bars and the sheer damage of their attacks, not the challenge of recognising and avoiding them"
01
Remedy swapped protagonist, weapon, and world structure at once
Dylan's shape-shifting melee Aberrant, with skill trees per form, replaces Jesse's Service Weapon and third-person shooting.
The Oldest House's contained rooms give way to an open, zone-based Manhattan map.
Zone leveling ties power progression to time and effort spent per area.
Creative director Mikael Kasurinen planned the sibling-protagonist split since the first Control, seeding the pivot years before execution.
02
Boss encounters exposed the genre inexperience
IGN's Michael Higham found "roughly half the bosses are spongy slogs" built on attrition rather than mastery.
Rock Paper Shotgun's Archer tied the same weakness to "Remedy's character action inexperience."
Eurogamer's Alexis Ong faulted the story for leaning on lore the first game already resolved.
03
The critical trust held despite the weak combat system
A studio three decades deep in narrative action posted 84 on its first character-action build.
Eurogamer's 3/5, the lowest score, still credited the world design and writing.
Praise clustered on narrative, environment, and the sibling bond across all five outlets.
What this means
For Publishers & Developers: Anchoring a genre swap in existing character and world equity absorbed the mechanical risk that critics flagged.
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