Control Resonant is out today, and many are calling it one of the best games of the year. I spent about 40 hours playing it before release today to write a review, and therefore, I feel able to give at least some level of advice for players who are just starting out. There are a lot of pretty significant things I wish I knew far before I figured them out, including some that pretty much transform Control Resonant entirely. Here they are.

Get This Traversal Skill As Soon As Possible

Without question, this is the most important skill in the game. That would be the Reach ability, which functions as a grappling hook to get you higher on the map and it is absolutely necessary to reach loads of zones or make getting around far quicker. I didn’t get this until I flat-out ran into a dead-end in the story, and the game will not direct you to get it until then, even though you can earlier. It is in a fault in the map above as soon as you can unlock the Evacuation Zone.

The Somewhat Confusing Map Will Help With Early Dead Ends

The first couple maps before you can get to Reach will show you that this open world game has some pretty fixed limits. You will be given waypoints that frequently lead to dead ends, and trying to navigate around them is frustrating, and the map doesn’t seem to help. Well, it does, actually. It is not a “complete” map as it may look like the roads all connect, but you run into those walls. However, there are sometimes hard-to-see breaks in the lines that you may chalk up to art style, but they are literally telling you how to navigate. Follow the non-broken lines, which will take you way around the back of a dead end, and often let you through a locked door to get there easier next time. Not usually a system you see in open world games.

Understand This Somewhat Confusing Power Leveling System

Yeah, this one is pretty weird. If you find enemies too tanky or too dangerous, you need to start sinking resources into your weapons and finishers. Not just the ones you like, but all of them. You will see a number on that screen, and the higher it is, the stronger you are. All upgrades in these trees will get you anywhere from 5 power for unlocking an entire tree, starting with the first node, to 1 power for each individual upgrade. Waiting to upgrade the things you are actually using for too long will often mean you fall behind in power, and things that are available to upgrade, you want to upgrade to increase your power, sometimes dramatically.

There Are Optional Entire Zones You Can Miss

I almost beat then game before I realized I had missed an entire zone on the map that the main storyline never sent me to, the Park, a place covered in mold and death in the very top right of the map. There are small gates on the map that will show you they lead to new zones, and again, sometimes the main story won’t send you there. But you want to go there as, for instance, a Park boss gave me what I consider the best skill in the game, and boy I wish I had that earlier.

The Best Early Game Skill To Get

If we’re talking early game, I would get the Inferno skill as soon as possible. Three blasts of that will set any enemy on fire, causing them to burn and be faltered. It was my opening for really any combat encounter for 90% of the game. This is from a boss you will find in Central. Guide here.

The Best Mid-Later Game Skill To Get

This is the skill from The Park that I wish I got way earlier. It’s the partner skill to fire, poison. This is from the boss in the center of the map, which is easy to unlock, and the Spore Burst move can instantly poison almost any enemy, including bosses, which does even more damage than fire and lasts way longer. Then, you can pair it with fire on one enemy, and the two will react by exploding for big damage. I used this for essentially every boss, including the final ones, which made them a breeze.

For moment-to-moment combat, I eventually found that air juggling moves were great, namely the Astral Rebuke skill (I believe you will get this automatically at some point in the main story), and then the unlockable uppercut finisher will lift enemies, causing them to be immobilized. Airborne enemies return more power when hit. Then, you can combine that move with the Crush hammer secondary weapon, which will slam them to the ground for big damage, depending on how high you are, or straight off a building or the entire map.

Secondary Weapons Are Questionable

In my view, the secondary weapons are not great outside of that Crush hammer in certain circumstances. I did not find the drill or whip to be that useful, comparatively, and these are not weapons you are going to use 95% of the time instead of your main weapon, as they are very situational. I think this system needed some work. Still, upgrade them in their trees for more power anyway.

Do (Almost) All Side Quests Always

Outside of “collect things around the map” quests that are not urgent, any side quest you see is worth doing. Sometimes because they are some of the most interesting quests in the game and will take you to the coolest places, but they also have important materials rewards and will give lots of zone XP.

The Way To Level Zones Better

Zone leveling is how you get skill points. As said above, the best way is to do side missions there, other than main missions, which will essentially auto-level when completed. But they are not repeatable. Rather, there are marked “public events” around the map that are little challenges, very easy ones usually, that will get you needed XP, far more than just killing enemies. Eventually these will reset as you rank up, and I’d recommend doing all of them if you’re trying to fill out the skill tree.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .