Alan Wake 2: The Review (Spoiler-Free)

13 and 1/2 years ago remedy entertainment released a title that over the years became a cult classic it it's Alan Wake it's the the subject of this review anyway it told the story of a troubled writer going to a small town with his wife who then goes missing where he finds he wrote a manuscript that is coming true and has to fight Dark shadowy Forces to this day though that original game story still has people coming back and asking a variety of questions it told a relatively simple story but contained a lot of depth and hidden meanings with memorable characters and Mysteries to keep you hooked to the very end and a cliffhanger that had people demanding answers they never really got the game play was simple but effective you sh a light of the enemy burnt away the darkness and used your weapons to defeat them then it continued with Alan wake's American Nightmare and whilst it didn't have the greatest story to keep it going what it did have was improved gameplay ideas taking the action of the first game and making it feel a little faster than the original then we come to Alan Wake 2 which throws that gameplay style completely out the window in favor of slower paced combat so instead of Thrills and intensity you would get a sense of dread and eeriness from promotional material it seemed to solidify that the story would be a worthy follow-up of the original game including crazy characters and wild environmental storytelling after more than 13 years of struggling to get the game off the ground Remy had their work cut out to make Alan Wake 2 a worthy successor but did they well initially I was going to have this review out pretty quickly after I completed the game but I decided to wait a little bit as I allowed myself to digest what I just played and after digesting over the past week I can safely say Allan Wake 2 is one of the best games of this year it's it's a crazy jumble like like a nightmare now similar to my review in progress there won't be any major story spoilers in this video so you don't have to worry about that however as I am way past embargo also again shout out to epic games for hooking me up with a review code I will be showing clips from missions later in the game however none of it will show any Major Spoilers just traversing some of the environments as generally you'll be hiking back through some of the same type of environments anyway across the game let's start with the story where you'll be progressing through two separate but related stories you'll begin your journey as Saga Anderson an FBI detec detective who arrives in bright Falls with her partner Alex Casey who veteran Alan Wick fans will know the name of they arrive to investigate ritual murders performed by The Cult of the tree but the same day they arrive they are informed of a new murder as they investigate they are sent down a dark path as they not only find manuscript pages that seemingly tell the future including theirs but encounter dark shadowy people known as the taken which they need to fight with light and that's all I can really say because anything more than that we'll be entering major story spoilers but what I will say is that saga's story at first started really slow where there was of course a lot of setup but little bits of action sprinkled in however the pace of the story didn't really pick up until around 4 or so hours in and with someone like me who explores a lot in video games it did feel like it dragged to start with but what followed though was an intriguing and heroic Journey that raised new questions as soon as you got some answers and whil not all my questions were answered as Alan Wake once said there's little fun to be had in explanations they're antithetical to the Poetry of fear that much is definitely true when you inevitably begin Allan's side of the story as you start in a television studio with no knowledge of how you got there as Alan progresses he realizes he has to write again in order to escape the dark place he's been trapped in for numerous years and from this finds himself in a dark twisted and cruel wink version of New York where he's seemingly haunted by visions of Alex Casey the thing with Alan's story is that there are far more questions raised than answers which is what I love because as you explore and put the pieces together you begin to find double meanings for a lot of what he's learning I'm sure for the average player though someone who maybe isn't familiar with the rbony connected Universe they may struggle to Gras but straws with all of this but if you let yourself to be absorbed into this absolutely bizarre world you'll appreciate what Remy has built so much more across both campaigns you'll encounter new and familiar characters from remedy's past titles all of which give Stellar performances throughout but it doesn't shoehorn every fan favorite character which I'm sure for some will be a disappointment but I feel it would be a hindrance to the horror story remedy are telling if they had remedy wanted to make make a chilling Horror Story and all I can say is that they absolutely succeeded especially when they use live action to sometimes transition from gameplay to cutscene as it allows you to see the real emotion of characters on screen there is a lot to be found in this world with specific crossovers with control as well as references to remedy's other titles and none of it over stays as welcome remedy are absolutely cooking with this Rich world and I never never want anybody to stop [Music] them so in the original Alan Wake the gameplay Loop went something like this you'd progress through a dark area a group of Taken enemies would come and hunt you you'd burn away their Darkness with your flashlight kill them and repeat it didn't do too much with its gameplay and in some areas came across as quite repetitive but it's still allowed for some intense combat scenarios here in alen Wake 2 that somewhat still stands except you're not fighting hordes of taken or fade outs as I believe they're called on Allen's side where instead you'll maybe face off against two or three of them at any one time and afterwards it may be a little while before you encounter more at least to start with anyway combat is severely stripped back as Romany opted to be more atmospheric where the game doesn't give you much indication of when the next combat encounter was coming which in my eyes works in the game's favor you'll need to be careful with your resources as these can deplete quite quickly since a lot of the enemies do require a beating in order to take them down fortunately the game seems to have a dynamic resource system where over time you'll find more locked boxes which usually gives you just enough items to fight your enemies as long as you don't squander them both Allan and Saga will have their own weapons to use in their campaign which whilst being slightly different to shake up the gameplay is also similar enough so you're not left trying to remember slightly different mechanics I think where the gam playay falters just a little bit is when it comes to the upgrading for Saga you'll find charms which you can use to help give you a bit of an edge some of these charms are actually pretty useful where one might give you a free revive when you lose all of your health or even show you where various Collectibles are whilst others don't really feel like they have any effect at all however they're not really necessary anyway and if anything just seemed like a nice little perk but then there's the weapon upgrading on saga's side and the words of power on Allan's side for Saga you'll find Alex Casey lunchboxes that provide you with manuscript fragments which you can use to upgrade the weapons you found now don't get me wrong some of the upgrades are pretty useful especially early on like increased ammo in your guns but most of them don't really give much of an edge over the enemies you fight especially when they require specific scenarios in order for them to become useful then on Allan's side is the words of power across the environment you'll find spirals that allow you to upgrade a specific word only which I can sort of understand why they did this since there are some upgrades which can be really useful and so if you are always able to pick and choose the more powerful words of power from the start it may take away some of the challenge however similar to the weapon upgrades whilst there are some powerful word upgrades a lot of what you find doesn't really impact the gameplay too much however what I will appreciate from both of these mechanics is that they do incentivize exploration when trying to find what is required for upgrading never knowing what cool thing you'll find around the corner next the mine place this place felt familiar a ghost of a memory surfaced one of the major mechanics of both stories are the Mind place and the writer's room again starting with Saga within her own mind she can go to her mind place a location that allows her to not only piece together her investigations on her caseboard but also help with upgrading and looking back at past Collectibles she's found the caseboard will however be the main thing you'll be using as you Tred to put the pieces together and solve various cases now at first in my review in progress I mentioned how it just kind of felt like a means to an end but as I used it more and more it began to grow on me as it also incentivized me to explore giving me hints on where I might find the next puzzle piece it was also nice to have a little board showcasing everything I found so far when it came to things like the lunch boxes or even nursery rhymes which by the way are sort of cool Little Riddles you'll need to solve to get a new charm for Allan's side of the story he has his writer's room which is similar to the m place but with less things to interact with which was a shame but not necessary the main thing he'll be using though is his plot board where in certain locations he can use story elements to change the environment some will progress the story whilst others just show you a sort of what if Min scene I really enjoyed this mechanic as it made me want to go back to previous areas I had already visited to try out certain plot threads to see what happened though I will say there are some which kind of went nowhere which did let me down just a tad but hey it's optional content anyway as well as using his plot board Allan will also use his Angel lamp which allows him to pull light from one area and use it in another to change the environment sometimes it'll open an optional area whilst others it's required to solve an environmental puzzle to progress again I really enjoyed this though I will say as I progressed through the story or even generally explored Allen's campaign seemed to use it less and less and I would have loved to have had more opportunities to experiment with it one thing I absolutely Want To Praise just like in the first Allen weight game is its music the score helps to build the intense atmosphere remedy was going for but what I want to gush about more are the lyrical songs you'll find most of which are played at the end of chapter with the majority of them being specifically made for this game Each of which fit imperfectly with the mood as well as feeling like a beautiful conversation between [Music] characters raing hard too far I will never lose myself [Music] again I hear your tears at [Music] night as iar the [Music] storing losing my child taken by the tie nowhere to hide I don't know also if you enjoyed episode 4 in the first alen waight game with the stage fight or even the ashtray maze in control then buckle up because without saying anything more you will be in for an absolute treat the environments in this game as well just incredible there's so much density to them that it often feels like the world is closing in on you which only heightens the atmosphere remedy was trying to go for it's incredible the amount of detail they've put in as well however whilst beautiful environments did feel a little hazy at times especially in the lighter areas as I mentioned in my review and progress having a sort of grainy effect to it but mostly this was unnoticeable and didn't hinder my enjoyment I also did encounter a few bugs in my playthrough however it seems the majority of these have already been patched out so just know your mileage may vary I will say as well that whilst Romany does nail most aspects of the survival horror genre they did somewhat over rely on jump scares with clips of enemies basically screaming screeching on the screen which are only there to make you jump in some chapters there's a huge overreliance on this to scare you once or twice sure go ahead but not eight or nine times in half an [Music] hour so what more can I say about Alan Wake 2 was it worth the 13-year weight absolutely it was is it a perfect game no but if you take your time with it you'll come to realize there's so much here the world has been painstakingly crafted to suck you in with Mysteries around every corner for you to theorize about Alan Wake is and has always been about creating conversations and on that front remedy has succeeded it might not be the best on the combat side but it doesn't need to it just needs to be enjoyable enough to get you from A to B which again it does my score for the game is a n out of 10 Alan Wake 2 is absolutely outstanding and genuinely there's nothing quite like it remedy are storytelling Geniuses and I cannot wait to see where the remedy connected Universe goes [Music] next

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Id: XfbvtNl3CTs

Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2023