I’m fighting a possessed bus with a weapon that morphs from an axe to a whip whilst the skyscrapers of Manhattan fold in on themselves like I’m in a dream from Inception. Nowhere else could this be the case than in a Remedy game.

Releasing its third entry in the Remedy Connected Universe, Control Resonant has the Finnish developer’s DNA all over it. It’s inventive, weird, gorgeous, and as far as sequels go, a pretty hefty step up from the 2019 original – although I still have my issues.

Resonant is a much different game from its predecessor, and for me that’s a good thing. While I adored the setting of The Oldest House, I found too many aspects of Jesse Faden’s adventure a little dull, namely its lengthy chats with expressionless NPCs. That is more or less gone now, with many conversations taking place over the radio, and in-person conversations being a lot snappier.

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Set seven years after the original, Resonant switches out its protagonist, this time opting for Jesse’s brother Dylan – the near-mythological P6, a parautilitarian whose Hiss possession caused the death of hundreds of FBC agents. However, awakening from his lengthy coma, Dylan has a chance at redemption as the Hiss break containment from The Oldest House, and are spilling out into the streets of Manhattan.

Manhattan is drop-dead gorgeous in this twisted and malformed rendition, ensuring that Resonant has its own unique look. It loses a bit of the edge that The Oldest House has, especially since Resonant plays out like an open-zoned game, but across its 25-ish hour campaign, I was regularly taken aback by some of the best-looking environments of the console generation.

Roads fold at 90 degree angles, entire cityscapes are consumed by blue mould, and there’s a particular show-stopper of a level later in the game that still impresses me, even after hours of exploring its streets. Remedy is clearly going wild with this sequel, and it results in one of the most visually interesting games on PS5.

Even better is that it’s not just an aesthetic thing, as Resonant’s folding city is also worked into the game’s mechanics. A double jump, light forms of flight, and an endlessly cool shift ability that lets you latch onto a new axis of gravity make Resonant’s world a delight to traverse.

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The story that unfolds across these weird settings is a bit more personal than the original Control. It at times digs into the horrendous life that Dylan has led, trapped within the clutches of the FBC, and I really liked this moral ambiguity for those who still work for a knowingly shady government organisation.

If you're looking for a more directed narrative, like the one found in Alan Wake 2, Control Resonant is not that. I had fun with some aspects of the story, but most of the meat here is found in the quirky discoveries made in a whimsical yet enigmatic world, filled with unknowable entities and perplexing mysteries.

To that end, I really enjoyed all the weird and wonderful little side quests that you come across. Some are mini-investigations, like a string of headless bodies showing up around Manhattan, while others involve some of that signature Remedy quirkiness, like a dance karaoke party from hell.

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Something you’ll be doing a lot of when exploring is fighting, and combat is Resonant’s biggest switch-up, but also quite possibly its most divisive aspect. Switching out the FBC service weapon for a transformable melee weapon – alongside abilities, of course – Resonant’s combat initially feels a lot deeper than it really is.

You equip two weapon styles, mapped to Square and Triangle, and both of these have three forms to choose from. You can then also choose your combo ender, which has a bunch of styles along with their own mini skill trees.

You can mix the sweeping scythe with a heavy-hitting hammer, or an axe with a pinpoint spear. I tried various combinations during my time with the game, but ultimately landed on the dual blades and the whip, along with a sort of spinning blade as my combo finisher.

Across the first half of the game, combat has a solid click to it, and you can respec to find a playstyle that fits you. You’ll steadily receive skill points to boost various stats and expand the movesets possible with each of the weapon forms — and when you mix in aggressive enemies along with some of those killer traversal capabilities I wrote about, there are times that Resonant’s combat sings.

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I also loved that some genuinely meaningful abilities are tied behind the game’s Resonant boss fights. Each level comes with its own Resonant boss, and while some are tied to the main campaign, most are optional, despite unlocking some game-changing damage type abilities.

These bosses are always cool to look at, although they aren’t the most inventive, and that brings me nicely to my issues with the action in general.

Towards the back half of the game, skill upgrades begin to dry up, and enemy health bars increase to a tedious extent, resulting in a stale and repetitive feel.

A lot of the complexities of the combat are the damage effects and the way that they can synergise, but the game doesn’t do a great job of highlighting what all of this means. It’s there in the menus, but more than a few times I had to go digging through skill trees to find an explanation for a specific status effect.

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It all culminates in a handful of really dull final bosses that almost entirely killed the momentum for me. In theory, the combat system has so much depth to it, but in reality, it’s a lot of spamming the same combo finishers. It’s a shame because at times, it really works, but those tougher fights shine a light on the action's cracks.

Something that thankfully holds up under scrutiny is the game's technical performance. I primarily played on the PS5 Pro on performance mode with no dips in frame rate, and an incredibly sharp-looking image. Performance mode on the base PS5 is, as you'd expect, a little fuzzier, and does suffer from some frame rate dips during particularly intense fights.

I also have to shout out the DualSense controller haptics, which are impressively utilised; the most notable use being whenever the ominous Board speaks. It’s not Sony first-party level, but it’s good stuff.

Conclusion

Control Resonant is an impeccably confident and tantalising sequel that has all the hallmarks of a Remedy classic. It’s endlessly stylish and playful; it looks gorgeous, especially on the PS5 Pro, and it manages to address many of the woes that I had with the original Control.

Repetitive combat is the big hitch, however, holding the game back from true greatness. Ultimately, though, it's not enough to overrule all that Remedy is doing right with this sequel.