Gravity Anomalies are paranatural distortions that warp the physical geometry of Manhattan in Control Resonant. Where a Gravity Anomaly is active, the rules that govern up, down, walls, and floors stop applying. Streets twist upside-down, roofs tilt sideways into vertical bridges, and stretches of streetscape rotate so that what was a wall becomes a walkable surface. For wider context, see the Overview and the Manhattan world page.
Quick Profile
Field | Detail |
|---|---|
Type | Paranatural spatial distortion |
Location | Across multiple Manhattan zones, including the West Incursion Zone |
Effect | Twists physical geometry; reorients gravity and surfaces |
Navigation | Dylan's Reach and Shift abilities, plus the Aberrant's grounded combat |
Combat role | Forces engagements onto vertical, rotating, or inverted ground |
How an Anomaly Reshapes a Space
An Anomaly is a localised event rather than a global rule. Inside the affected area, the player can find:
Inverted streets where the road sits above the player and ordinary buildings hang downward.
Tilted skylines where rooftops become vertical bridges to traverse.
Rotated stretches of urban geometry where walls behave as floors.
Localised zones where orientation shifts as the player moves, rather than staying constant for the duration of the encounter.
The Anomalies are a visual departure from the first game's brutalist interior corridors. The Northlight engine has been retuned for the outdoor scope they require, with broader draw distance and a lighting palette built around vertical sightlines.
Traversal Through an Anomaly
Dylan crosses Gravity Anomalies using two paranatural traversal abilities introduced for Resonant.
Ability | Function |
|---|---|
Reach | Gravity-defying movement skill that carries Dylan across paranaturally warped architecture. The basic traversal tool for hopping between inverted or tilted surfaces. |
Shift | Redirects Dylan's momentum through the Anomaly itself. Used to swing through rotating geometry and to convert a fall into a directional dash. |
Both abilities arrive early in the campaign. They are not gated behind late-game unlocks, since the world starts asking the player to use them as soon as the West Incursion Zone opens up.
Combat Inside an Anomaly
Fights do not pause for the geometry. Encounters spill across vertical surfaces, rotating platforms, and broken sightlines, and the player is expected to keep moving with the Aberrant in hand. Reach and Shift double as repositioning tools, letting Dylan close distance on enemies who would otherwise be on a different orientation entirely.
The combat loop is unchanged inside an Anomaly. Melee strings still build resources, abilities still stun and open enemies up for executions, and executions still grant the temporary damage buff that carries momentum into the next exchange. The added cost is awareness: keeping track of where the floor is and where enemies are coming from when those answers shift.
Story Trigger
Anomalies are a direct consequence of the lockdown failure at the Oldest House. Paranatural forces previously contained inside the building have spilled into Manhattan, and the Anomalies are one of the most visible signs of that leak. The Federal Bureau of Control has deployed Dylan into the affected zones because regular agents cannot operate where geometry no longer obeys ordinary rules.
Unconfirmed Details
The full catalog of zones that include a Gravity Anomaly.
Whether Anomalies have on/off states tied to story beats, or remain active throughout the campaign.
Mechanical interactions between Anomalies and specific enemy types beyond the publicly shown West Incursion Zone footage.
Whether the player can disable, redirect, or close an Anomaly during the campaign.
Map-side accessibility options for players sensitive to rotating perspectives.
This page will be updated as more is revealed.
Where Shift Comes In
Gravity Anomalies are the in-world hook for one of Dylan's specific paranatural abilities. Shift, as Remedy describes it, redirects momentum through a Gravity Anomaly rather than fighting against the field's pull. The practical effect is that an anomaly that initially reads as an obstacle becomes a traversal tool once Dylan can use Shift to ride its physics. The interaction is part of why Resonant's traversal layer (covered on Dylan Faden's page alongside Reach) is built on more than just running, jumping, and dashing.