- Combat
- Melee with the shape-changing Aberrant, plus supernatural abilities won from bosses. No parry (VGC, Kotaku).
- Structure
- Large separate zones of Manhattan with main quests, World Quests and side activities; a hub called the Gap for loadouts.
- Difficulty
- Assist Mode with sliders that make it easier or harder, changeable at any time, and no trophies locked behind it (Remedy).
- Played by us
- Nothing. What follows is Remedy's description and what reviewers report.
The combat loop, in Remedy's words
Hit with the Aberrant
Melee hits refill the resource that powers Dylan's abilities, which the PlayStation Blog's hands-on calls Power (Remedy's Miika Huttunen, PlayStation Blog, 4 March).
Stun with an ability
Supernatural abilities stun enemies — shields, projectile barrages, or an ally assembled from junk lying around are the examples given. Remedy's Thomas Puha names two: Barrage, a projectile attack, and the Volatile Anomaly, a summoned turret.
Execute
A stunned enemy can be executed, and executions can be chained; the PlayStation Blog's hands-on puts it on L3 on PS5.
Hit harder
Executions temporarily raise melee damage, which feeds back into the first step (Huttunen).
The Aberrant
🔨 Named forms
Hammer, Blades, Scythe and Fists are the forms Remedy has named, with more left unrevealed (Sergey Mohov, PlayStation Blog, February). The Steam page shows the two-handed hammer and dual blades.
🔀 Primary and secondary
Forms are split into Primary and Secondary, with Combo Enders on top (Huttunen, March). Push Square describes two weapon slots on Square and Triangle with three forms each; the PlayStation Blog's hands-on counts six primary and secondary forms by default.
🔥 Effects and perks
Forms carry status effects such as burn and infect, and perks such as better cooldowns and more damage on combo finishers (PlayStation Blog, 18 September). Push Square found the damage effects poorly explained in the interface.
🛡️ No parry
VGC and Kotaku both note that there is no parry; Kotaku reads it as a choice that puts the weight on timing and spacing. Remedy's Assist Mode does mention a perfect-dodge window.
Getting around
- Reach: a grappling ability for gravity-defying spaces, unlocked through Jesse Quests (PlayStation Blog, February and 18 September).
- Shift: lets Dylan redirect momentum through Gravity Anomalies, which Push Square describes as changing the axis of gravity.
- A higher jump by holding the button, an air dash, and a double-tap speed dash that leaves an afterimage (PlayStation Blog, 18 September).
- Fast travel between zones, which Puha calls almost instant on PS5.
- Traversal abilities follow the story and do not carry into New Game Plus (Mohov, April).
Structure: zones, quests and the Gap
🗺️ Zones
Manhattan is split into zones, each with its own encounters, lore and secrets. Remedy's line is that it did not want a world map that causes anxiety (Huttunen). The only zone named so far is the West Incursion Zone.
📈 Zone levels
VGC reports that missions and defeated enemies raise a zone's level, which brings benefits such as better crafting materials and healing.
📜 Quest types
Dylan's Journey is the main story; World Quests are self-contained stories; there are also bounties and collectibles (Remedy, March and April). Jesse Quests unlock traversal.
🕹️ Arcade cabinets
Each zone has an arcade cabinet with timed challenges (PlayStation Blog, 18 September).
🌫️ The Gap
A limbo-like hub where loadouts are unlocked, changed and tried out; on PS5 it opens by holding down on the directional buttons (PlayStation Blog, 18 September).
👹 Resonant bosses
Push Square reports one per level, most of them optional, each unlocking an ability. The PlayStation Blog's hands-on describes the first one as a giant porcelain doll's face swinging taxis and girders.
Progression
- Three pillars, per Remedy: supernatural combat abilities from Resonants, Aberrant weapon forms, and Talents that strengthen how they combine (Huttunen, March).
- Character statistics and several talent trees (Kasurinen, via Wikipedia).
- Three Artifact slots, with a fourth in New Game Plus (Mohov, April). Named artifacts include the pre-order Pickpocket's Tool and the Deluxe Untapped wallet.
- Remedy says outright that not everything can be unlocked in a single playthrough.
Assist Mode, option by option
| Option | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Enemy Aggression | How often enemies attack |
| Perfect Dodge Window | How wide the timing window for a perfect dodge is |
| Enemy Projectile Speed | How fast incoming projectiles travel |
| Incoming Damage | Damage Dylan takes |
| Outgoing Damage | Damage Dylan deals |
| Outgoing Falter | How quickly enemies' posture breaks |
| Power Recovery Speed | How fast the ability resource recharges |
| Enhanced Melee Magnetizing | How forgiving melee positioning is |
| Immortality | Dylan cannot die |
| One-Hit Kills | Enemies die in one hit |
| One-Hit Falters | Enemies falter in one hit |
What Assist Mode is for
Mohov's point is that the sliders go both ways: Assist Mode can also make the game harder. It can be switched on or changed at any point, and no trophies or achievements are locked behind it (PlayStation Blog, 10 September). The PlayStation Store lists nine accessibility features for the game; we did not find that list published.
New Game Plus
➕ What carries over
Aberrant upgrades, health and ability-resource improvements, unlocked combat abilities, Talents and Artifacts (Mohov, PlayStation Blog, 30 April).
🆕 What changes
Several abilities from the same boss can be equipped together, a fourth Artifact slot opens, enemies get more dangerous and bosses gain new behaviour. Side stories and conversations can end differently.
❓ When
The April post does not say whether New Game Plus is in the launch version.
What reviewers said about how it plays
- The combat is where they split. IGN (8/10) found the stylish action sound but the RPG layer shallower than it looks and the later hours tedious. Push Square (8/10) says it shines in the first half and turns repetitive as enemy health grows and upgrades dry up. PC Gamer (76) summed it up as too many hours of middling combat.
- VGC (5/5) says the genre change pays off, with the reservation that some open-world activities repeat towards the end and big fights can get crowded.
- Kotaku praises the encounter design and calls it the most demanding game Remedy has made, but finds some dialogue too clever by half and the puzzles uneven.
- Eurogamer (3/5, as recorded by OpenCritic and Wikipedia) argues that leaving the Oldest House cost some of what made the first game special.
Cross-checked
Cross-checked on 23 September 2026 against the PlayStation Blog posts of 12 February, 4 March, 30 April, 10 September, 15 September and 18 September 2026, the Steam page, the PlayStation Store listing, Wikipedia's article, the reviews by VGC, Push Square and Kotaku read in full, and IGN's, PC Gamer's and Eurogamer's verdicts as quoted by OpenCritic, Wikipedia and search results. GameSpot's review returned HTTP 403 and is not used; PC Gamer's page could not be read in full. Not from a playthrough: nobody here has played it, and what the sources do not describe is not on this page.