Alan Wake II

This game is.... impressive. In all ways.

It's a detailed story, rich with characters, who shift around in lots of different ways. I appreciate the story complexity.

While I did appreciate this experience and I enjoyed playing it. I'm not sure this game is for me.

I talk a lot about narrative/gameplay integration. Where some games can be all gameplay, no narrative (i.e., Fortnite). I think the best games have a tight integration where your gameplay drives the story forward, if that makes sense.

In this game I feel like the gameplay is almost an afterthought. In some cases you're literally dragging and dropping notes on a board while the character explains to you what it means and what is happening.

Or like if you go up to an NPC and chat, and it's like "press X to say this, or Y to say this," it really doesn't mean anything. You're just gonna mindlessly click through anyway.

I know there's a lot of games like this and this is nothing new. I'm just saying for me personally, I want more ability to affect outcomes with my gameplay.

K that said, the visuals in this game are stunning. It's freaking art. I'm a huge fan of the mixed media approach of having writing, music, film, etc all in one. This game had to have been a monumental undertaking, in terms of how many talented people had to be involved, as well as the coordination of having everyone do their thing and have it work together.

There are a ton of plot threads, and I bet if I pulled on some or thought too much about it, there'd be lots of plot holes. But I just greatly respect what they did here.

Definitely a unique gaming experience. I'm glad this game exists. It is impressive.

Alan Wake II

Played: 30 hours in December 2023. As of the review, had 930/1000 gamerscore. As of the review date, the game was only available digitally.

This is an excellent game, don't let the missing star fool you. It has an amazing story, looks good (I'll stop short of great, keep reading), is fabulous acted, and does things I haven't seen any other game even attempt. If you're OK with horror including jump scares and a lot of blood, this could be worth a look. I would strongly recommend playing the first game before this, but it's not strictly necessary. You'll mostly know what's going on but you will definitely spoil the plot of the first game, which I think is also worth playing (despite giving it a somewhat unfair 3 stars).

Where I think this game falls short is the combat system, which I have to think was a critique of the first game. To briefly summarize the first game mechanisms for those who skipped it: you had your flashlight and batteries, and a maximum of 2 firearms for most of the game (until you get the flare gun, I think that allowed a 3rd? maybe.) -- generally this was your pistol and either a rifle or a shotgun. You had no inventory to manage, no healing to worry about -- finding a light source was your only way to heal, and they were never in combat zones. You had flares or flashbangs equipped and could use R1/RB to pull one out in the middle of combat. When your flashlight ran out of battery, you had to explicitly choose to pop a new battery. Otherwise, combat mostly proceeded the same -- break the darkness shields and then apply bullet-force trauma. There were several points where you had to make a stand while you waited for an NPC you were escorting to unlock a door, or whatever. These made for intense sequences where you had to conserve limited supplies while facing waves of enemies, and were often challenging, but I completed the game on hard on my 2nd play. You were never fumbling around in your inventory or having to remember which hotkey you put flares on, etc.

This game tries to make combat more interesting? I guess? by giving you freedom to carry as much as you want within your straight-out-of-the-original-resident-evil-4 grid inventory [though requiring far less tetris skill because everything is 1 unit high by N units long]. Then you can hotkey 8 items to the d-pad (2 per direction). Now you can heal in the middle of battle with painkillers (very fast, low immediate healing but applies Regen), trauma pads (middle of the road time to use and immediate healing), and first aid kids (don't even bother in combat, and honestly for the size they take up in inventory, these got tossed in the shoebox for the 2nd half of the game). Oh and you can upgrade your weapons if you find collectibles. And you have a charm bracelet where you can swap out different passive effects... if you find the charms, more collectibles.

There was nothing *wrong* with combat the first time around, and the inventory management is awkward and pointless.

Your run speed is slow, which is a narrative choice I think is fair, but it makes backtracking to get collectibles (and you HAVE to backtrack, you will find locks you cannot open) a giant pain. Still, compared to Alan Wake 1 where you could NOT backtrack (you could replay chapters from the start or 1-2 mid-chapter checkpoints if you missed something), it MIGHT be an improvement.

Graphically, there were times when you just couldn't see clearly because everything is dull, dreary, gray, and yes, it's thematically appropriate, but it's functionally awful.

Finally, I need all game developers to give me an option to at LEAST have a compass on screen, can be a minimal one like Horizon or something, but I am TERRIBLE at figuring out where I am and what direction I'm going without a minimap or a compass, and as an accessibility tool, make it an OPTION to have one. I found myself checking the map CONSTANTLY (like literally as often as 10 seconds when I'm trying very much not to make a wrong turn because I have barely any ammo left and fighting enemies that aren't between me and my goal is a terrible idea), and it just sucked. Even worse, there are a few segments where they take away your map. Fine, again, I get that it's thematic, the character is lost, but throw me a bone here.

Gripes aside, this is still an excellent game, and I will be going back to clean up the missing achievements here shortly.