I guess I just don't "get" Alan Wake. I bought Alan Wake 2 on high praise from some content creators whose opinion's I respect, and Epic Games gave me 1 for free, so I felt obliged to play it. I had played Control and its AWE DLC previously, but of course I didn't really understand the Alan Wake part of that story at the time.
The story in Alan Wake is pretty good, I enjoy the writing aspect tying in with the events and supernatural parts of the plot, although I do feel that they could have done more with it, such as having Wake react to the pages he finds during exploration. This all being said I don't think the story lived up to the hype that fans of the game give it.
Past the story this game just does not do it for me. In a lot of ways it feels like a resident evil clone that does not prioritize "fun." The levels are all huge sprawling linear paths that drag on for far too long. It also doesn't help that Wake feels terrible to control, and can sprint for a whole 10 seconds before getting tired.
The atmosphere of the world is nice overall, however it is all thrown away when enemies spawn, accompanied by a shock violin stinger and slow motion, with enemies saying nonsensical random lines.
The combat in this game has potential, however it just does not cut it. Having to shine your light at enemies for several seconds before you can damage them does not work for the most part, and just makes the core of combat dodging around until you can unload and kill an enemy. This is not helped by the "deemphasized aiming" as I like to describe it. You don't actually need to aim your shots, they'll just land if you're pointing in the general direction, taking all strategy out of the combat. The game seems to pretend it's "survival horror" but not once did I have to worry about my ammo consumption.
On top of the lackluster gameplay the enemy variety is also terrible, as it just consists of small medium and large dudes with melee weapons, inanimate objects, and birds.
When comparing this game to its kind of sequel, Control, it is clear that the devs really improved the gameplay aspect of their projects, so I am hopeful that I will enjoy Alan Wake 2 much more than I enjoyed 1.
The story in Alan Wake is pretty good, I enjoy the writing aspect tying in with the events and supernatural parts of the plot, although I do feel that they could have done more with it, such as having Wake react to the pages he finds during exploration. This all being said I don't think the story lived up to the hype that fans of the game give it.
Past the story this game just does not do it for me. In a lot of ways it feels like a resident evil clone that does not prioritize "fun." The levels are all huge sprawling linear paths that drag on for far too long. It also doesn't help that Wake feels terrible to control, and can sprint for a whole 10 seconds before getting tired.
The atmosphere of the world is nice overall, however it is all thrown away when enemies spawn, accompanied by a shock violin stinger and slow motion, with enemies saying nonsensical random lines.
The combat in this game has potential, however it just does not cut it. Having to shine your light at enemies for several seconds before you can damage them does not work for the most part, and just makes the core of combat dodging around until you can unload and kill an enemy. This is not helped by the "deemphasized aiming" as I like to describe it. You don't actually need to aim your shots, they'll just land if you're pointing in the general direction, taking all strategy out of the combat. The game seems to pretend it's "survival horror" but not once did I have to worry about my ammo consumption.
On top of the lackluster gameplay the enemy variety is also terrible, as it just consists of small medium and large dudes with melee weapons, inanimate objects, and birds.
When comparing this game to its kind of sequel, Control, it is clear that the devs really improved the gameplay aspect of their projects, so I am hopeful that I will enjoy Alan Wake 2 much more than I enjoyed 1.