Out of Control a Alan Wake 2 A Review

he's gone like magic Magic's not real Magic's not real to me Alan Wake was something different it was a triumphant piece of Western storytelling a fascinating treaties on [ __ ] that at times felt like the best of John Carpenter and at other times the worst of Stephen King but it was always something special a uniquely mystical many times magical combination of camp and horror that comes along very rarely following a protagonist who is never seen a happy ending he can't take the piss out of with a sad oneliner that makes you go from nodding long to just sadly shaking your head that's a reason why now 13 years later Allan Wake 2 from remedy is really so looked forward to Allan Wake like its predecessor is a third person horror game but unlike its predecessor it leans more towards survival with two main leads Allan Wake and Saga the agent that Allan written into the story to help him out of the dark place and finally Escape into the light of release just like the game itself has Alan Wake is out on Epic store soon for $50 as well as PlayStation and Xbox series s and X remedies asked us to be very careful with spoilers in the story so be aware that some stuff will be talked about and not shown Alan Wake left off with Allan inside the dark place a dimension ruled by the dark presence a world that requires Allen to write his own story that he believed in to escape while he may have saved those that he cared about he was stuck there because Allan is a morose bastard who can't write a happy ending to save his life and so Allan does what Writers Do sat down and got cracken writing a story of an FBI agent that comes to investigate the murders in bright Falls and ultimately will hopefully help Allan Escape as Saga the FBI agent in question you hang out with your partner investigating a murder learning the first skills that are used throughout the rest of the game like a mind Palace this is a place where Saga can put Clues together in a mystery likee CSI crime board attach stories to one another to further piece along the mystery both characters have their own style with Saga a bit more of a cut and dry fact simile of an FBI agent little Snippets of her backstory being explained out by the narrative and like Allen she's consistently talking to herself musing over all that she finds hears and sees throughout the chapters Allen's gameplay is more cerebral it's a rewriting and writing of his own events as you play them as they change the level and that's when Allan Wake is at its strongest when Allen's just doing his Allen thing which is heavy in the pros and deep into the darkness of the world itself but it is best to understand one thing remedy has made it very clear Allan Wake 2 is more of a survival horror game and has mentioned Resident Evil titles as a sizable impact on this game however where Resident Evil despite its puzzles has zombies to fall back on Allen wake 2 is always more metaphysical still more cerebral and at times can lead to a lot of fraking walking around longer than the original game by far also because just Allen wake 2 is a longer game checking in at over 20 hours and while I was enjoying all this and playing one thing is tremendously noticeable it's obvious the original Allen wake game was helped in the fact that it was originally an open world horror game and then development technical issues and decisions caused them to slice it up into bits but the feeling of the world where many locations you could look back on to see places you had explored while some of Allen wake 2's locations are large they do feel like separate entities to one another luckily they kept a number of the mechanics but altered them a little bit for current day the flashlight still your best friend shattering enemies shrouded Shadow selves so that you can take them out with your weapons or unlock locations with Allen's light capturing trinket wand which lets him move light from one spot to another in the levels which changes their makeup dramatically the game's greatness comes into its own once the longer introductions are done and both Saga and Allen settle into more expected roles even if they're in unexpected situations one part I won't talk about but I will point out there are a lot of awesome cameos and callbacks to the original and other games from remedy when those times are prominent it shows their World building prowess is on point another place where they're on point is overall graphic presentation firstly graphically Allen wake 2 is pretty incredible a testament to the developers desire to make sure that their game offers a unique look among many titles that seem to be aiming at a particular middle ground it's really one thing to throw a huge number of graphical effects at someone it's another to offer tangible realism even in a surreal world with the lighting slightly bouncing around the street level environments of the Town it can truly offer outstanding visuals as a game about light and dark the former being weapon in the ladder an actual tangible enemy where Allen wake 2 Revels is in that exploration while so many games plunge nighttime worlds into a blue hu Darkness almost like they're more afraid of the dark than many of the characters fighting in it Allan Wake 2 absolutely celebrates deep Shadow and a lot of times just pitch black levels later levels throw the gamer Into Darkness with nothing but a solitary flickering light for direction and later using Allen's power to move that light and change reality seeing something just outside the flashlights range as scary as as hell because of their use of night and light and darkness something that again we see a lot of games not doing while it was offered any version to request to review I decided I wanted to do the PC due to remedy's choice to use some tech in the newer cards and see how it all worked the only issues I had was a couple moments of frame rate jutter at times in some locations and a known issue with the FMV overlays causing a bit of a stutter both of which are on the Slate to be day one patched this is with the newest NVIDIA drivers that the dev supplied earlier one standout has to be some of the character models and detail and enemy designs at first the game starts out in somewhat expected territory but later on some of the enemy designs and NPCs you meet really do look amazing the game has large moments where it just lets the soundscape itself perform its own accompaniment and you have environmental sounds that really are the music tracks many of the game's levels are a steadfast representation of minimalism when it comes to music with a low vibe in the occasional Stinger but it continues the game's use of vocal lead tracks I'm not going to spoiler here I will say they are epic they create a feeling of really just this truly unique horror game that you don't see in a lot of other titles or in this case here now no one talks about Alan Wake without a nod towards his campy over the top self-narration he is melodramatic delivery at its best Allen's delivery is the same as the players a mix of consistently being surprised and stunned by the environments but also an almost riter likee worksmanship a guy who says yeah sure I don't have a hammer but if I write that you can't get to me because there's no stairs anymore you can't do anything and then runs off saga's delivery is more dead pan until a bit later in the game feels a little more robotic than I expected it's not necessarily like someone who's having a measured response and an immeasurable situation it plays off in the narrative for various reasons but it didn't really hit very well what never fails though are the sound effects they're truly excellent and it's a testament to how to use processing to add effects to sounds and warp their location audibly and then packaging that with the graphical changes and it consistently exudes this feeling of awe and that blank gets everything in this muted hush and then as you swing your light around a corner of what appears to be an empty building you hear the wood cracking in the wind or rainwater leaking through a dilapitated roof it is incredible soundwork very well done there when it comes to everything as a package some of the changes from Allen wake as well as some of the parts that they've stuck to it does take a while to get going also I will say that after 13 years Allen still Jes and Dives like he has a spine fused at a Chevy dealership and an unannounced special deal this is something we've seen a lot of horror games do and let's be honest here Allan isn't making sure to stretch his hammies before leaping out of the way of some Twisted aberration bent on sucking his writing Talent away but I mean come on Allan stretch a little bit while you have a double tap button to spin around it makes you think to yourself why can this person go 180 lickety split but get shin splints the moment I try to turn like 45° all that being said The more I played the game the more I dived into to Allan's Twisted broken psyche as he writes himself into a TV show level of twists and turns all to explain his own version of the polar bear and lost was awesome it just took longer than I expected to really get going it is entertaining fascinating it's also flawed but it does hit different it feels a little bit like a John Carpenter flick filtered through something more akin to True Detective season 2 or three than it does the original game for that ultimately the game is an enjoyable Survival game with its own twist on the genre it's not like almost anything else at the same time personally I miss the vibe I got from Allan wakes original and the DLC but if you're cool with these changes and in some places no changes at all then Allen wake 2 is worth buying if it puts a pause in your plans it may be something you actually want to wait on the best way to enjoy this game is to throw it on surround sound or throw some headphones on and just sit back for a game that again is genuinely unique where every sequels made there's a truism that just rears its ugly head how do you do better than the original how do you carry on elements and individual aspects that tie it intrinsically to the original but stop from Simply repeating the same treaded ground unless you're EDF those guys haven't changed in like five games and while the original always felt a bit campy like we were all in on some joke this game's a little bit more like a long running dark ass punchline by Design or delivery it doesn't have that feel and while I like the game and I feel many will to me it feels as if it is missing a little bit also bug reports I had zero crashes and aside from those gfx issues which we are already aware of I got stuck on the geometry twice that was pretty much it that's it for me enjoy it if you get it if you don't stay tuned for reviews on upcoming games and the winsday and Friday podcast gang gang

Channel: ACG

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Keywords: acgreview, angrycentaurgaming, gameplay, ACG, gaming news, acg reviews, video games, angry review, acg impressions, videogame reviews, videogame review, game review, acg review, games, gamenews, reaction, steam deck, react to, comedy, podcast, alan wake 2, alan wake 2 review, alan wake II review, Alan wake, alan wake 2 moments, alan wake 2 story, awe, control, remedy verse

Id: 200uGF8YMOY

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 26 2023