"You know what this reminds me of Zack. The 2010 video game cult classic. A horror influence potpourri by legendary action developers, Remedy. That's right Zack, Alan Wake."
Wait, wrong game.
Or is it…
So Alan Wake 2 finally came out and it looks pretty good so i thought: "I'll play the old and busted one quickly so i can get to the new, shiny one."
And old and busted it is.
Alan Wake has aged terribly. In fact, most of its design is so underwhelming and janky, that i would say it was already aged at release.
The combat shows all its tricks in the first ten minutes, and tricks it lacks. It's very simple. Boringly so. I wouldn't go as far as to call it tedious, especially on easy, but i can't see it not becoming so in a full playthrough.
And the level design doesn't help. You walk forward through samey looking forests ad infinitum, which are only occasionally and briefly broken up by city sections. Its classic PS3/XBOX 360 forgettable design, but applied to a horror game, which means its even more boring cause of the lower density of puzzles and combat. Not that i would want more combat, but still.
Puzzles aren't anything to write home about. So i won't.
But the worst aged of all the fine wines is the presentation. Some transitions from gameplay to cutscene are laughable. One occurs early on, when Alan goes to the little dock behind his cabin to ponder on his shitty writing or whatever. The editing, if you want to call it that, is disastrous. That whole sequence was so forced i genuinely laughed when it happened.
The narrative, or more specifically, the dialogue, isn't very good either. Alan's narration is a mood killer. I can see why he has writers block.
The writing mostly moves between failed Twin Peaks inspiration, and failed horror fiction inspiration. Alan Wake stands on the shoulders of horror legends, and it mostly limits itself to repeating what they did.
There's a great example early in the game. Alan shuts a door behind him, only for it to get The Shining'd. This moment doesn't work for me in two ways. The first, and admittedly more biased one, is i believe references mostly don't work in fiction. Most times, i find they take away much more than they add. And second, it is such an overdone reference (also true in 2010), that it feels kind of lazy. The surprise third reason arises mere seconds later when Alan himself remarks (paraphrasing): "I need to go before i get The Shining'd". This goes even further in taking away the already little tension the moment had, and transforms it into a pure reference, with barely any substance.
Many times, the game feels like a more "serious" Deadly Premonition. For some that may be a compliment. For others, me included, not so much.
Maybe it gets better later on, but there are too many games to play and too little time.
In the end it turns out i can't even play Alan Wake 2.
Damned technology.
Wait, wrong game.
Or is it…
So Alan Wake 2 finally came out and it looks pretty good so i thought: "I'll play the old and busted one quickly so i can get to the new, shiny one."
And old and busted it is.
Alan Wake has aged terribly. In fact, most of its design is so underwhelming and janky, that i would say it was already aged at release.
The combat shows all its tricks in the first ten minutes, and tricks it lacks. It's very simple. Boringly so. I wouldn't go as far as to call it tedious, especially on easy, but i can't see it not becoming so in a full playthrough.
And the level design doesn't help. You walk forward through samey looking forests ad infinitum, which are only occasionally and briefly broken up by city sections. Its classic PS3/XBOX 360 forgettable design, but applied to a horror game, which means its even more boring cause of the lower density of puzzles and combat. Not that i would want more combat, but still.
Puzzles aren't anything to write home about. So i won't.
But the worst aged of all the fine wines is the presentation. Some transitions from gameplay to cutscene are laughable. One occurs early on, when Alan goes to the little dock behind his cabin to ponder on his shitty writing or whatever. The editing, if you want to call it that, is disastrous. That whole sequence was so forced i genuinely laughed when it happened.
The narrative, or more specifically, the dialogue, isn't very good either. Alan's narration is a mood killer. I can see why he has writers block.
The writing mostly moves between failed Twin Peaks inspiration, and failed horror fiction inspiration. Alan Wake stands on the shoulders of horror legends, and it mostly limits itself to repeating what they did.
There's a great example early in the game. Alan shuts a door behind him, only for it to get The Shining'd. This moment doesn't work for me in two ways. The first, and admittedly more biased one, is i believe references mostly don't work in fiction. Most times, i find they take away much more than they add. And second, it is such an overdone reference (also true in 2010), that it feels kind of lazy. The surprise third reason arises mere seconds later when Alan himself remarks (paraphrasing): "I need to go before i get The Shining'd". This goes even further in taking away the already little tension the moment had, and transforms it into a pure reference, with barely any substance.
Many times, the game feels like a more "serious" Deadly Premonition. For some that may be a compliment. For others, me included, not so much.
Maybe it gets better later on, but there are too many games to play and too little time.
In the end it turns out i can't even play Alan Wake 2.
Damned technology.