fun with a friend but apart from the visuals and music, I wasn’t really feeling this at all. I like the concept of having all these forms that fill different niches and the progression of getting new forms and abilities to play around with, but the execution is super clunky. Combat is mindless and hits have 0 feedback, switching between forms is awkward, and enemies only dying to certain forms feels like a cheap way of annoying the player into engaging with the transformations rather than naturally letting them experiment with the different play styles they offer.

Ultimately not much to stick around for, I can’t say I found its writing all too compelling or funny either.

Pretty much agree with the common sentiment that this probably should’ve been more of an adventure game than a shooter. The game occasionally creates an interesting gameplay dynamic with its whole Luigi’s Mansion-ass “stun ‘em & shoot ‘em” combat, but oftentimes combat overstays its welcome for far too long and is far too underdeveloped.

Hilariously, this game still fucking owns despite the absurd volume of “Jesus Christ, MORE bad guys????” moments. Alan Wake is such an odd and daring game in just about every factor for a game released by a fairly major studio. Its atmosphere is just so deeply entrancing, and the conflicting nature of all its elements make it so endearing. All these inspirations, Twin Peaks, Stephen King, trashy Hollywood action flicks all end up synthesized into something that feels so personal and standalone. Remedy have always marched to the beat of their own drum, and the oddities and rough edges matched with the artistic ambition on display makes this game so endearing, and so lovely to look back on.