coining 'the max payne curse' for when developers demonstrate a strong understanding of how to make third-person shooting engaging and then fail to implement at least some of those elements in their future titles. i'm really happy remedy's moving on to making survival horror now with alan wake 2; what little i played of control was wonderfully presented and narratively intriguing but came across as totally rote and obstructive, and a more restrictive genre just feels like something remedy would find more life in given their strengths and obsessions as a development stable.

anyways, alan wake's american nightmare. i played one loop and a bit and im probably not gonna finish this. it's not even like, completely awful. technically it plays better than its predecessor but it really only accomplishes this by quickening the pace and including Enemy Types. the encounter design is more or less still one-dimensional and the lenient dodge button chokes interesting decision-making by providing an easy out whenever combat gets too hectic. it deserves some credit for being a seventh-gen third person shooter that tried to forego cover but no mechanical introduction here really plays to what feels like the series' design throughline, which is constructing ludic drama around perspective. you aim closely with your flashlight at an enemy for an extended period of time to eventually be able to do damage to them, but doing so limits your movement and observation and leaves you open to flanks. simple premise and little is done to really heighten this element of surprise sadly. but there are other titles we can learn from which not only orchestrate their challenge around limited perspective but also accomplish so much more in the grand scheme of things. i am thinking in particular about a little known game called resident evil 4.