A challenge that suits you
Assist Mode in Control Resonant gives you the freedom to adjust the challenge without restricting trophies or achievements. Alongside help in combat, the mode can now also make the game harder. You can switch it on or off at any point during gameplay, so you’re free to change your mind as you play.
The most interesting part of this approach is the choice of individual adjustments. From a player’s perspective, it makes sense to tune the things that put you under pressure separately: dodge timing, positioning, or the balance between damage taken and dealt. That makes choosing your challenge more specific than simply picking a difficulty label.
More room to manoeuvre in melee combat
The new combat system is built around Dylan’s shapeshifting melee weapon, the Aberrant. That gives positioning assistance a clear role among the options: Enhanced Melee Magnetizing can make positioning during melee attacks more forgiving.
There are two separate settings for avoiding attacks. Perfect Dodge Window lets you widen the timing window for a perfect dodge, while Enemy Projectile Speed lets you slow down enemy projectiles. One gives you more leeway with your timing; the other slows the projectiles you’re reacting to.
You can also reduce Enemy Aggression. These options address different sources of pressure in combat, so it helps to understand what each one changes before choosing your settings.
Damage and powers under control
Incoming Damage, Outgoing Damage and Outgoing Falter can be adjusted independently. The first two control the damage you take and deal, while the third determines how quickly you break an enemy’s posture. Keeping them separate means that adjusting incoming damage doesn’t have to involve an equivalent change to outgoing damage.
Outgoing Falter deserves attention as a setting in its own right: it affects how you break an enemy’s posture, rather than the same value controlled by Outgoing Damage. Alongside these options, Power Recovery Speed lets you speed up power recovery. That part of combat gets its own adjustment, too.
From presets to immortality
If you want a starting point, Assist Mode Presets offer ready-made groups of settings designed around different ways of playing. Once you’ve chosen one, you can fine-tune individual options. A preset gives you a foundation for finding the setup that suits you.
The available options also include Immortality, One-Hit Kills for taking out enemies with a single hit, and the new One-Hit Falters for breaking an enemy’s posture with one hit. Alongside the individual adjustments described above, the range extends to these more direct changes to combat.
Control Resonant launches on PS5 on September 24.