This game survives off of vibes alone, and for that I love it. But as a game, it's pretty meh overall.
Let's start with the good: the weird, haunted small town vibe is the strongest selling point of this game. The way it mixes so many familiar ideas to horror/thriller fans, from the Twin Peaks inspired Oh Deer Diner, to the entirety of Bright Falls feeling like it's right out of a Stephen King novel, complete with an Overlook Hotel section. Even things like the collectible radio shows from the local DJ Pat Maine, and my personal favourite: the Twilight Zone inspired Night Springs episodes that you can find and watch throughout the game. The game is weird in the best way possible, throwing a ton of different ideas from around the thriller genre together to make a wonderfully strange experience.
This weirdness extends to the characters. From the titular Alan Wake, a famous writer suffering from writer's block, constantly narrating his every thought as if he's the star of his own novel, to my personal favourites Odin and Tor, the dynamic duo at the head of the fictional band Old Gods of Asgard, played by the very real band Poets of the Fall. Remedy has created such a deep and interesting lore between this game and Control (and the larger Remedyverse) that I cannot wait to dive into Alan Wake 2 to see what more they have to offer.
Now for the bad: the gameplay is pretty weak. At first I was in love with the idea of a flashlight serving in place of a reticle - wherever you point the flashlight, that's where Alan will shoot. I still think it's a great concept, but that's about where the fun stops. The combat loop is very simple: point flashlight at enemy to break their 'shield', then shoot to kill. I actually don't mind this as a survival horror mechanic, but the problem is that this is the ONLY method of combat, and there is a lot of combat in this game. If there had been more tension and less combat I think the gameplay would have felt better, but as it stands the combat scenarios become incredibly stale and since killing enemies doesn't actually benefit you in any way via ammo drops or anything, I ended up just running away from a lot of combat scenarios to save time.
Speaking of running, the stamina and dodging systems are atrocious. The dodge only works half the time, and it doubles as the start of the running animation, which can be pretty awkward. Not to mention there is no stamina meter so the only way to know if you're running low is by Alan's body language, which would be fine for immersion if it weren't for 2 things: the first being that there's a mini map with a health bar, so if they wanted to do this for immersion they could have also showed Alan's health in a more contextual manner (or double down on the health bar and just add a stamina bar), and the second issue being that whenever Alan slowed down from a sprint to a jog, you could just press the sprint key again to make him fully sprint?
Finally, let's talk about the story. The plot of this game is actually kind of awesome: a writer looking for inspiration from a small isolated town, when his wife goes missing and he loses a week of time in his memory. He then proceeds to spend the game looking for his wife, while finding copies of a manuscript written by him that he doesn't remember writing, detailing the events that are happening to him. It's fun, it's campy, it's mysterious, and Remedy really plays to their strengths here by making it equal parts comedy as it is thriller. It's light hearted and heavy at the same time, while taking itself seriously the whole way through. It's nothing new and exciting to write home about, but it works very well in this setting and even better with the context of Control, and I'm hoping the sequel just builds upon this.
All in all, this game stands as a great starting off point for the weirdness of Remedy: the weird setting and plot is all there, but the janky awkwardness of the gameplay brings it down. Remedy has learned this over the years to create more enjoyable experiences (I know I keep bringing up Control but man, what a game), and I'm hopeful that Alan Wake 2 is Remedy's magnum opus.
Let's start with the good: the weird, haunted small town vibe is the strongest selling point of this game. The way it mixes so many familiar ideas to horror/thriller fans, from the Twin Peaks inspired Oh Deer Diner, to the entirety of Bright Falls feeling like it's right out of a Stephen King novel, complete with an Overlook Hotel section. Even things like the collectible radio shows from the local DJ Pat Maine, and my personal favourite: the Twilight Zone inspired Night Springs episodes that you can find and watch throughout the game. The game is weird in the best way possible, throwing a ton of different ideas from around the thriller genre together to make a wonderfully strange experience.
This weirdness extends to the characters. From the titular Alan Wake, a famous writer suffering from writer's block, constantly narrating his every thought as if he's the star of his own novel, to my personal favourites Odin and Tor, the dynamic duo at the head of the fictional band Old Gods of Asgard, played by the very real band Poets of the Fall. Remedy has created such a deep and interesting lore between this game and Control (and the larger Remedyverse) that I cannot wait to dive into Alan Wake 2 to see what more they have to offer.
Now for the bad: the gameplay is pretty weak. At first I was in love with the idea of a flashlight serving in place of a reticle - wherever you point the flashlight, that's where Alan will shoot. I still think it's a great concept, but that's about where the fun stops. The combat loop is very simple: point flashlight at enemy to break their 'shield', then shoot to kill. I actually don't mind this as a survival horror mechanic, but the problem is that this is the ONLY method of combat, and there is a lot of combat in this game. If there had been more tension and less combat I think the gameplay would have felt better, but as it stands the combat scenarios become incredibly stale and since killing enemies doesn't actually benefit you in any way via ammo drops or anything, I ended up just running away from a lot of combat scenarios to save time.
Speaking of running, the stamina and dodging systems are atrocious. The dodge only works half the time, and it doubles as the start of the running animation, which can be pretty awkward. Not to mention there is no stamina meter so the only way to know if you're running low is by Alan's body language, which would be fine for immersion if it weren't for 2 things: the first being that there's a mini map with a health bar, so if they wanted to do this for immersion they could have also showed Alan's health in a more contextual manner (or double down on the health bar and just add a stamina bar), and the second issue being that whenever Alan slowed down from a sprint to a jog, you could just press the sprint key again to make him fully sprint?
Finally, let's talk about the story. The plot of this game is actually kind of awesome: a writer looking for inspiration from a small isolated town, when his wife goes missing and he loses a week of time in his memory. He then proceeds to spend the game looking for his wife, while finding copies of a manuscript written by him that he doesn't remember writing, detailing the events that are happening to him. It's fun, it's campy, it's mysterious, and Remedy really plays to their strengths here by making it equal parts comedy as it is thriller. It's light hearted and heavy at the same time, while taking itself seriously the whole way through. It's nothing new and exciting to write home about, but it works very well in this setting and even better with the context of Control, and I'm hoping the sequel just builds upon this.
All in all, this game stands as a great starting off point for the weirdness of Remedy: the weird setting and plot is all there, but the janky awkwardness of the gameplay brings it down. Remedy has learned this over the years to create more enjoyable experiences (I know I keep bringing up Control but man, what a game), and I'm hopeful that Alan Wake 2 is Remedy's magnum opus.