WAKE!

A great and absurdly overwritten, overdesigned & ploddingly paced game. Gratuitous exposition beating you down & down & down until Garth Marenghi (Wake) can escape the darkplace, a dim Mauve Zone/Silent Hill analog. Drawing from Twin Peaks: The Return, The Night House, True Detective & a little bit of Vanishing on 7th Street(?!!), Sam Lake is so buried under the weight of his influences that he rarely finds his own voice.

Contained in here is an efficient, stripped-down survival horror game, full of winding paths, plenty of fleshed-out re-visitation of areas that make Bright Falls a real sick Place to be by the end. Saga’s mindplace asks you to build your evidence to produce your own objectives (often to an insane degree of detail, where you find out you must speak to someone, as you are in that very moment standing in front of them). Rendering every objective and clue a physical, tactile object does align the player with the characters - who are (especially Lake) idiots.

Remedy have inverted the small puzzle-intermissions from Control into the entire structure of this game, all winding, looping, shifting architecture (a trope they indulge in here with glee). Enemies are relatively bland but encountered infrequently enough it was almost a non-issue (compared to the excessive waves of Control). Many of the kitsch FMV sequences were underwhelming, but it was where they were layered directly into the world that it worked for me, transparent membranes of Max Payne’s Lake/James McCaffrey in silhouette just hanging out and talking complete nonsense (I love him).

Honestly this is a case where the energy, humour and confidence of this overwhelming mess tips into endearing. Not to mention the absolutely beautiful soft, dimly-lit spaces in here that I'd be happy living in (especially the retirement home and Nu York apartment). Between this, Death Stranding & recent RE titles I begrudgingly accept that sometimes photorealism is valid & not just dull marketing for graphics cards. WAKE

Edit: RIP James McCaffrey! <3

While Alan Wake II was on my radar, I didn't expect it to be THIS good. AW2 is a masterwork of surreal survival horror. With some many layers to unpack in its story and presentation, to its tense and engaging combat, AW2 takes you on a wild ride that you won't soon forget.

The shining star here is the story and presentation. Some may find Sam Lake's writing to be a bit pretentious at times, but I found this to be his best work. The game is separated into two stories: the titular character, Alan Wake, is trying to escape The Dark Place after the events of the first game, and the brand new character, Saga Anderson, is attempting to solve a string of murders that are occurring in Bright Falls. The story has so many surprising moments that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Those who enjoy a complex narrative will find themselves wholly engaged with every chapter, especially when playing as Alan.

The gameplay is expanded and more modernized from the previous game. With tons of stuff to collect, weapons to try, and intimidating enemy encounters. There are a few boss fights as well that help increase the tension even more. The general design of the game from both stories are unique and interesting.

AW2 just achieves a vibe that I haven't felt from any franchise since the golden era of Silent Hill. It isn't cheap horror, nor is it meant to be scoffed as some kind of stupid jump-scare fest (tho there is a fair share of those). The metanarrative and deeper themes only sink you more and more into the horror. I won't dare spoil anything, but this is most definitely the best narrative of the year.

In terms of negatives, I do think that the dodge that you're given for combat is a bit finicky, especially when trying to get a perfect dodge against enemies. I also found that exploration can be a bit tiresome. This may just be a me thing, but I don't really like when a survival horror game tries to have open world elements. I like a more linear approach overall, with some little side paths or optional little areas for some extra goodies to collect. Having the game be open world (mostly for Sagas story, but also somewhat present in Alan's) just made me feel like I was getting too drawn away from the main narrative and objective. It was fun sure, but it kind of took me out of the tense experience a lot.

All that being said, Alan Wake II is an absolute banger of a game. Yet another GOTY contender in my eyes. Remedy is continuing to put out some incredible games lately, and is quickly becoming one of the best developers around. This is a must play for any survival horror fan. Though I would recommend either playing through the original Alan Wake or reading up on the events of that game in order to fully enjoy this one.

After the remake of RE3, I was relatively nervous about what they would do to our boy, RE4. Needless to say, they pulled it off and then some. Playing this remake feels like I’m playing a dream version of the original. Everything is mostly the way you remember it, but with interesting twists thrown around every corner. The changes to the knife, making it more of a parry tool than a standard weapon, completely alters the flow of combat in a much more fast paced way. RE4 Remake defied all the odds and turned out to be just as good as the original, even surpassing it in multiple areas. This game is a dream come true for RE fans, and an unbelievable achievement for Capcom.

Surprise, surprise! A remake of one of the greatest video games of all time does in fact slap major ass! This remake is near-perfect in every conceivable way. From visuals to voice acting to quality-of-life gameplay changes to even the most granular detail in the world design. Holy fuck the architecture and art design of this game's environments man - jesus, what are they feeding those artists at Capcom? Crayons? But ones that make you good at art instead of being highly toxic?? Yeah I bet that's what they're doing!!

So if it's basically perfect, why isn't it 5 stars, you may ask?

Well, here's my thing. I gave the original RE4 a 5 star rating. When it comes down to it, making a good remake of an already brilliant game is not that impressive - nor that interesting. RE4 still holds up beautifully and is one of the best even by modern standards. So I don't mean to say that this game itself is not impressive, but making a remake of RE4 and it being good is not that huge an achievement! Like, congrats! You didn't fuck it up!

I dock points for remakes by virtue of them being remakes, especially remakes of already great games, which is what basically every remake is. If a remake of RE4 wants to be considered as good as the original RE4 is in context, that shit better suck my dick. It'd better blow my back out and give me some of the most delectable backshots imaginable for DAYS on end, you understand me?

This is what makes me far more interested in the potential Resident Evil 5 remake that's hinted at in the end cutscenes. Now there's an interesting proposition. A remake of a divisive, flawed game. That's the kinda shit I wanna see remakes do, touch up some of the messier games that clearly had potential to be great. I wanna see what they look like when you get to execute all your ideas! When you get to go back and give it some extra polish and time! RE4 is already a Top 10 Game Of All Time imo, it did not need a remake or even warrant one, as much as I am not opposed to its existence.

ALSO, they cut out a lot of my favourite parts. The minigun section in the castle, the Salazar statue chase - Salazar in particular feels quite toned down in this game, nowhere near as fun and cheeky. I get that they went for a darker, more straight-up horror vibe for this remake but I still think you could get that balance with Salazar giggling like a little cunt when I walk into the first room he's in or Luis calling Mendez "the big cheese".

Weirdly with this darker, more horror-focused tone I expected the Verdugo and especially the Regenerators to scare me quite a lot more in this version than they did in the original. Not so! You know what got me way more in this version? The fucking Garradors, man. That musical sting that plays when they spot you, the way they just go fucking ape with the flailing arms, the menacing expressions and stitched eyes, yeah man. They were the only thing to make me really uncomfortable here.

Anyway, I've said most of what I wanna say on RE4 in my previous review of the OG or on my video on the HARD DRIVE MAG YOUTUBE CHANNEL - not much more to say, game is incredibly goated. Banging inventory system, banging resource economy, banging upgrade and merchant mechanics. Banging. And the shooting range they added in this version is banging too. Fucking banging mate