After marathoning AW1R, Control, and AW2, and letting it marinate for a few days, I have quite a lot of thoughts on the game.

While I found the gameplay far more enjoyable than the first AW, I found the combat to still be the weakest part of the game. It had a similar problem to the first game, where there would be tons of enemies thrown your way, only this time with fewer resources and ammo so it became trickier to deal with. However the gameplay itself still feels good to aim and shoot, it feels pretty close to the Resident Evil 2 Remake (side note: it's a bummer you can't invert both camera angles, that messed with tons of muscle memory on my end, also weird since AW1 and Control had this option). Saga is a pretty good and interesting addition to the AWverse and has an interesting tie to the first game. She has a detective mechanic where you piece together clues to advance the story. It had a few roadblocks pacing-wise, but I found it enjoyable overall. Wake himself is a big step-up gameplay-wise and has a few gameplay quirks to better deal with mobs (if you turn off the flashlight you can sneak past enemies a lot more easily). Similarly to Saga's detective board, Wake uses the writer's room to write the story in realtime which affects level design. Boss fights were pretty weak, but thankfully the game excels in most other areas so I'll overlook this.

The story and presentation are easily the best part of this game, it feels like Remedy has been building to this their whole existence. While AW1 feels like a mix of Twilight Zone, Stephen King, and bits of Twin Peaks, this game goes full out on Twin Peaks: The Return (I could also say that the difference in quality between the games is analogous to Twin Peaks seasons 1 and 2 vs The Return). There is so much passion and creativity in the design here and it's presented in a way that could only work in the gaming medium. The jumpscares were a downside here, at first they weren't too bad but ended up becoming overused (the Cynthia chapter was annoying at times). But it's hard to complain here when the game has two music sequences, a makeshift rock concert and something you'll have to see for yourself (it's easily one of the most memorable experiences in any game). The combination of gameplay cutscenes and live-action scenes adds a discomfort to the atmosphere that makes it uncanny in the best ways.

Going through the game my first time through gave me more mixed feelings (admittedly I should have explored a lot more than I did), but after finishing it twice and seeing the true ending I can safely say this is a truly amazing game. And even better, an expansion was dropped right as I finished my platinum trophy run (which was super straightforward and didn't need too much NG+ busywork). I'll come back for the expansion eventually, but for now I want to give this one a rest.

Strong 9/10