Control Resonant reviews praise its spectacular world and bold new direction

Control Resonant is among the most visually impressive games I've encountered with low graphics settings. Even after 25 years of PC gaming, I typically avoid low settings on anything but the most budget or demanding games. However, my initial testing of Control Resonant's performance and image quality has been quite surprising. The open world looks remarkably good even when everything is set to the lowest preset, as demonstrated in this clip recorded at 1080p with ray tracing disabled.

While the quality might not be immediately apparent on a phone screen, the video compression makes it harder to appreciate the details. Despite this, the Manhattan streets still look quite nice even with all options turned down. The art style is a significant factor, with distinct building details, prominent light-to-shade contrast, and good shimmering puddles.

The sense of scale is also impressive, as background buildings shrouded in haze create an atmospheric effect that works well with the lighting. The environment is also reactive, with semi-destructible objects pulled into Dylan's path during combat and thrown around the area. While there are some compromises like plastic-looking faces in cutscenes and low-res textures on some shopfront signs, the overall visual experience in motion is still very good.

I'm hard-pressed to think of another major-budget game that looks as good with all options turned down. While Halo: Campaign Evolved is a strong contender, Control Resonant is still the better choice. This experience may signal a shift towards more games offering reasonable low settings as the norm, rather than the exception, given the current high prices of graphics cards.