Control Resonant's Combat Is Exhilarating When All Gears Are Firing - Summer Game Fest 2026

If you haven't yet, follow us on X (Twitter), Mastodon, or Bluesky to know when we post new articles, and join our Reddit or Subscribe to us on YouTube to check out our content and interact with our awesome community. Thank you for supporting us!

My final appointment at Summer Game Fest is usually one that I loathe. Not because of the game being bad, but because by the time we get to the end of the event, I’m exhausted. I had been walking around for three days straight, going to multiple different areas and checking out tons of games. However, my final appointment was Control Resonant, and it became my favorite appointment of the entire event.

In my demo, I had a chance to play through the entirety of Act 1, getting the full story of how the events in the game started. After that, I had a chance to check out one of the later parts of the game, where I had a lot more power unlocked to experiment with. Both of these showed me a different side of the game, with one giving me an introduction into the story and mechanics, and the other putting me much further in where I can see how the gameplay mechanics expand and what they become. Ultimately, both of them convinced me that this is going to be a must-have game.

I won’t spoil too much, but Act 1 definitely set up an interesting story. I’m curious how the Hiss got out of The Oldest House, and why Dylan Faden is the one everyone has to rely on. On top of that, I want to know where Jesse is, and why we get some hints during the first act; there is still a lot to discover. But it shapes up to be a very intriguing experience that has only piqued my curiosity further.

It also introduces us to the combat and powers that we’re going to be utilizing in Control Resonant. We will have two different forms of our bar to utilize, and there are different options for each. We can attack with each of these, and essentially take the form of a light and heavy attack. Other than dodging, we have three different abilities and a combo breaker to equip and utilize. These abilities use our powers in different ways, and can range from a simple push and ground slam to a flame blast and creating an orb that will shoot at enemies for us. And as we play, we will be able to unlock more, as well as upgrade our skills to make them more powerful.

I was actually a little worried when playing during the first act. The combat felt repetitive, and even though the massive boss at the end was cool and challenging, the combat just didn’t click yet. It showed some promise, but it definitely wasn’t enough.

This changed immediately when I got to the section of the demo where I had much more unlocked. There are tons of enemies in this Evacuation Zone, and with all three abilities, a combo breaker, and the two forms for our attacks, it increased the chaos and action by a significant amount. It was so much fun, jumping around, using the abilities, and smashing the enemies on the ground and in the air. Each of the abilities changed up my plan of attack, but none of them hurt how much I enjoyed the experience.

My favorite combination was using the hammer as a heavy attack form, while using an ability to power up my attacks and add a burning effect to them. I would regularly swap between the light dual sword slices with higher critical rate, and charging up my heavy attack to slam enemies down. When we kill them with a finisher, we get a Bloodlust buff, which gives us more health drops when we kill enemies during that time period it’s active. The flashiness of the attacks was extremely satisfying, and really made everything else feel that much more satisfying to utilize.

The Evacuation Zone seems to be a special zone as well. As we kill enemies in it, our rank in the zone will increase, which can give us some buffs in the zone. There are also different side activities and collectibles to find, which will give us more skill points and materials we need to increase our skills. We can also head into our mind palace at any time, as long as we are not in combat, to change out our loadout and upgrade. We aren’t forced to find a save spot; we can just hold the Dpad button down and get into the place.

However, I do wish there was a quicker way to change out our forms and abilities. In the palace, we have to run over to a specific wall to individually change each ability and form, as well as upgrade our skills. It’s a bit on the annoying side, especially if you’re doing it constantly. It may have felt a little bit worse for me since I was experimenting, so I was going back-and-forth a lot, but I wouldn’t mind a simplified system where we can change everything much quicker.

I also asked about Steam Deck support, but they couldn’t give me any new information that they haven’t already shared. They are aiming for Steam Deck support at launch, but they couldn’t go into detail about whether they would actually hit it or what the performance could be.

Ultimately, Control Resonant is shaping up well, with intense combat that feels fantastic once everything is unlocked. I don’t mean everything in the game is unlocked, but having three different abilities, two forms, and a combo breaker is going to elevate the experience so much more. The opening did a great job of making me curious about the story, but the combat was worrisome. It gets significantly better later on, and I can’t wait to play around with all of the powers and forms more. And hopefully, it will be a good experience on the Steam Deck at launch.

Control Resonant can be pre-purchased for $59.99 ahead of its September 24th launch.

If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got you covered!