Alan Wake 2 is one of the most creative games I have had the joy of playing.

It starts really slowly and the mind palace gimmick really got in the way, the story wasn't working for me. But about 1/3rd of the way through it started to click and reveal itself. Please persevere if you can, because you will miss out on so much inventive and novel story telling.

Also fuck Cynthia. My biggest opp fr

Quite honestly this game changed the way I view the entire medium. One could log the complaint that the graphics are too brown and muddy, the gameplay too cookie cutter and bland.

But to complain about this is to miss the point. To satirize the early-mid teens obsession with the Iraq visuals, painting Russia and "generic middle eastern dictatorship" as the ultimate big bad, Spec ops had to assume the trappings of the third person propaganda shooter. By being as generic as possible (while managing to not be boring), there can be no mistake the target of the satire.

I think many people didn't like this as it held up a mirror to the Battlefield's and Call of duty's of the world, and the players did not like what they saw reflected at them. The naraative, all the way down to the loading screens forced you to confront and re-evaluate what you had previously mindlessly consumed as value-neutral entertainment.

Sincerely, thank you to spec ops the line. Few games have completely turned around my mentality to games and video game design. This is a burgeoning art form and we need more risky creative decisions like those found in Spec Ops.