Pretty good game overall ! I played this game because I saw all the praises Alan Wake II was getting, and since I liked Remedy's previous game Control, I decided to try the Alan Wake games to see what the hype was all about.
Visually, the game is pretty dated in some aspects, but it's to be expected for a more than 10 years old game with a realistic art style. I'd say the animations during cinematics are especially dated, but I thought it was pretty funny so I didn't mind it. The game can still have so pretty landscape at times though !
Voice acting is pretty good but there's some moments that were unintentionally funny because of some weird delivery, but again it's pretty inoffensive.
Gameplay-wise, I thought the shooting wasn't that bad, it was pretty fun. Having to flash the enemies with light before shooting them is a fun gimmick, but, for me at least, it was getting a bit annoying towards the last episodes, especially since you have to flash enemies longer. I was sometimes running past encounters because I didn't want to deal with them in the special episodes. I'm also not sure if I like the concept of fighting random mundane objects throwing themselves at me, especially because you have to shine the light on them for a bit too long, in my opinion, to defeat them. Shooting in itself felt pretty good.
The more interesting part is, non surprisingly, the story and narrative. It was pretty confusing, but interesting. I think it got really especially interesting in the second half of the game, were everything really goes down and starts to make sense. Barry was also a really fun side character, I thought he was pretty funny and nice to have around during some episodes. The part with the Old Gods of Asgard was really cool, mainly because of their really good songs carrying the episode they're featured in.
I also played the two special episodes and thought they were great ! I loved how they really went all in with the insanity factor, I'm guessing that these specials were some sort of showcase of what to expect in Alan Wake II and it certainly got me interested ! They were a bit too combat heavy in my opinion, but other than that they were really well made and fun to go through.
Alan Wake is a good game, although a bit dated on some aspects, that I enjoyed going through and I'm really excited to see how much better the sequel is !
Visually, the game is pretty dated in some aspects, but it's to be expected for a more than 10 years old game with a realistic art style. I'd say the animations during cinematics are especially dated, but I thought it was pretty funny so I didn't mind it. The game can still have so pretty landscape at times though !
Voice acting is pretty good but there's some moments that were unintentionally funny because of some weird delivery, but again it's pretty inoffensive.
Gameplay-wise, I thought the shooting wasn't that bad, it was pretty fun. Having to flash the enemies with light before shooting them is a fun gimmick, but, for me at least, it was getting a bit annoying towards the last episodes, especially since you have to flash enemies longer. I was sometimes running past encounters because I didn't want to deal with them in the special episodes. I'm also not sure if I like the concept of fighting random mundane objects throwing themselves at me, especially because you have to shine the light on them for a bit too long, in my opinion, to defeat them. Shooting in itself felt pretty good.
The more interesting part is, non surprisingly, the story and narrative. It was pretty confusing, but interesting. I think it got really especially interesting in the second half of the game, were everything really goes down and starts to make sense. Barry was also a really fun side character, I thought he was pretty funny and nice to have around during some episodes. The part with the Old Gods of Asgard was really cool, mainly because of their really good songs carrying the episode they're featured in.
I also played the two special episodes and thought they were great ! I loved how they really went all in with the insanity factor, I'm guessing that these specials were some sort of showcase of what to expect in Alan Wake II and it certainly got me interested ! They were a bit too combat heavy in my opinion, but other than that they were really well made and fun to go through.
Alan Wake is a good game, although a bit dated on some aspects, that I enjoyed going through and I'm really excited to see how much better the sequel is !