I stood in the first hall and watched the Deserter sponge away half my stamina while I tried to react. You know that moment where every fight feels like wading through molasses and you start to wonder if the game’s broken. Remedy shipped a hotfix today that changes that feeling fast.
The early zones punished you for tiny mistakes.
I played the two-day PlayStation 5 early access and heard the same complaint from other players: enemies felt like health towers, especially in the opening areas. Reviews and player reports converged on the same friction point—high health pools and Falter that took too many hits to trigger, leaving fights long and sometimes unfair.
How did Hotfix 1.33 change enemy health and Falter?
Remedy’s Hotfix 1.33 trims those numbers. The patch targets three things: overall enemy health, the hits required to Falter (stun) enemies for executions, and Dylan Faden’s early combat potency. The studio even tightened the numbers on the Dancer and the Deserter—the two early major bosses—so the first set pieces feel like fights again, not endurance tests. You can read the full breakdown in Remedy’s patch notes.
Remedy responded quickly and surgically.
In the hours after release, the studio moved on a narrow set of complaints rather than an overhaul. That matters: instead of sweeping changes, Hotfix 1.33 raises Dylan Faden’s max ability strength and the Aberrant weapon’s ceiling, reduces Falter thresholds, and lowers enemy health pools where it hurt the early flow.
Is CONTROL Resonant easier after the patch?
Yes—at the opening—and not in a lazy way. The tuning makes the early game forgiving without removing challenge. Assist Mode remains an option: sliders for incoming/outgoing damage and Falter let you shape fights on consoles and PC (Steam and Epic players can use the same options). If you want more teeth, crank incoming damage up for an NG+ run; if you were stuck on a boss, dial things down and come back with momentum.
Critics liked the spectacle even when the start was stingy.
Metacritic sits at 84/100 and I scored the game 9/10 for its spectacle and fluid combat. The best set pieces still land—exploring Manhattan hands out upgrades and secrets, and the occasional laundry puzzle will make you smile or curse in equal measure.
Respeccing is less painful now, too. Reset items are more common at vendors and the respec cost has been lowered, making experimentation less of a tax. The studio says it will “closely follow your feedback and make further adjustments as needed,” which reads like a promise to iterate if any new hot spots appear.
If you felt boxed in by the early fights, try respecing or adjusting Assist Mode—those two moves will change how the game plays without changing what makes it fun. The patch is a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer, and it keeps the combat tight while letting your choices matter again. Does this fix keep you invested, or will players call for another balance pass?