I really don't like disliking things, honestly. When there's media or art that's incredibly beloved and I don't like it, my heart breaks. It can make me quite existential honestly, wondering if I even played the game right or zoned out of the movie, maybe something's wrong with me and that's why my experience is so different to everyone else's. Alan Wake was definitely one of those times for me.
I love Max Payne (ridiculously broken PC port aside) and really enjoyed its sequel too. But as much affection as I felt for the Payne games, I felt an almost equal amount of disdain for Alan Wake. A boring, trite sendup of Stephen King tropes wrapped around one of the worst combat systems I've ever experienced, combined with dull performances, ugly visuals and repetitive levels all together produced an experienced I loathed. I found little charming in its ten hour runtime, but I wasn't happy about the fact. At least with Quantum Break, I wasn't alone in my hatred, but Alan Wake seemed to be adored in a way I just couldn't understand.
But here's American Nightmare anyway. A truly pointless experience, it has less meaningful content in it than either of its progenitor's DLC, three short levels repeated three times tacked on to an arcade mode for a game with terrible combat. Honestly, I didn't mind it to start with. I enjoyed the FMV cutscenes and the notes, but eventually they become less frequent and less interesting, till you're playing what is little more than the same three or four fights over and over dressed up in an even more baffling story than the base game.
I'd say avoid this at all costs, but I might just be the only person that remembers that American Nightmare exists, so such a warning would be pointless. I really hope the Remedy-verse starts to click for me with Control and Alan Wake 2, but either way, I'll always have the sixth gen perfection of Max Payne.
I love Max Payne (ridiculously broken PC port aside) and really enjoyed its sequel too. But as much affection as I felt for the Payne games, I felt an almost equal amount of disdain for Alan Wake. A boring, trite sendup of Stephen King tropes wrapped around one of the worst combat systems I've ever experienced, combined with dull performances, ugly visuals and repetitive levels all together produced an experienced I loathed. I found little charming in its ten hour runtime, but I wasn't happy about the fact. At least with Quantum Break, I wasn't alone in my hatred, but Alan Wake seemed to be adored in a way I just couldn't understand.
But here's American Nightmare anyway. A truly pointless experience, it has less meaningful content in it than either of its progenitor's DLC, three short levels repeated three times tacked on to an arcade mode for a game with terrible combat. Honestly, I didn't mind it to start with. I enjoyed the FMV cutscenes and the notes, but eventually they become less frequent and less interesting, till you're playing what is little more than the same three or four fights over and over dressed up in an even more baffling story than the base game.
I'd say avoid this at all costs, but I might just be the only person that remembers that American Nightmare exists, so such a warning would be pointless. I really hope the Remedy-verse starts to click for me with Control and Alan Wake 2, but either way, I'll always have the sixth gen perfection of Max Payne.