How does exploration work in CONTROL Resonant’s warped Manhattan? The world leans on gravity anomalies to turn ordinary streets into vertical puzzles, and a grapple-like ability called Reach opens up paths you cannot take any other way. This guide covers the traversal, the anomalies, and how the open-ended zones keep exploration at the heart of both puzzles and combat.
What are gravity anomalies?
In the warped Manhattan, gravity does not always behave. Areas literally bend the vertical and horizontal plane, so a wall becomes a floor and a ceiling becomes a wall. Remedy says these anomalies add extra dimensions to puzzles and new tactical decisions to combat, and the environment itself becomes the space you fight through, not just look at.
Anomalies are a staple of the environmental storytelling, doubling for the “can I get to that?” question and for vertical positioning mid-fight. They are one reason traversal and combat share a single system in this game.
The Reach grapple and movement kit
To cross the gaps and vertical drops that anomalies open up, Dylan has a Reach ability, a movement tool players unlock partway through: the opening of a breach dungeon (the city’s contained “dungeon” layer) that opens into a vertical shaft. Reach acts as the game’s grapple point: you hook onto ledges and pull yourself across chasms and up structures. Preview coverage shows this in the 13-minute Metro trip, where Dylan uses it alongside dodging trains and fighting the Mold.
Reach plus the base movement kit (dash, double jump, hover) is what lets you read the environment’s hidden routes, climbing the honeycomb rooms and skirting the ground. It’s confirmed as a common tool by the time you finish the earlier breach content.
Zones, dungeons, and why exploring matters
CONTROL Resonant is structured as open-ended zones with handcrafted areas inside them (see the zones page). Dungeons like the Sinkhole and the Metro breach are nested under the open world and act as hubs for side quests and world quests. The campaign, main quests, side quests, and exploration content all deliver at a respectable pace: main story is roughly 30 hours, with completion closer to 50 if you chase the side content.
Because reaching new places frequently unlocks new traversal tricks, exploring is rarely wasted, and the anomaly-heavy zones reward paying attention to vertical routes rather than just running across the floor.
Sources: Remedy’s official PlayStation blog, the Epic Games Store description, and IGN hands-on preview footage of the Metro breach (2026). Full gravity content and unlockable Reach upgrades remain TBA.