This game just keeps getting better and better on replay, the more you think about it, the more thought provoking it is, the more captivating it is and the more emotional. I cried a lot in the final chapters, didn't think I was going to, but it really touched me. This game helped me get through and over a spiral of depression I didn't think I was going to get out of for a long time over the course of 4 months. I am eternally grateful to Sam Lake and Alan Wake as a character for showing me how to find the light in the darkness. Easily top 5 games as of now, probably top 3 by the time I get around to The Final Draft and the eventual DLCs.

"This is not the story that I hoped it would be, this is not the ending that I wanted, this story will eat us alive. This story is a monster and monsters wear many faces."

Not really sure what to make of this game, but I do know that I enjoyed it. I was pretty frustrated for awhile that I had no clue what was going on, but after a certain point I realised that the story really is what you make it and it was never going to make sense, something Christopher Nolan said once... just feel it.

Nevertheless, a great plot, convoluted for it's own sake, Sam Lake really giving Kojima a run for his money with absolute balls out, nonsensical gibberish and really amazing creative direction. Never before did I ever think I'd be playing through a musical in a video game but they did it and they made it work, so many things here were very daring, pushed the medium forwards in so many instances and were very ambitious. I think both Remedy and Sam Lake took a chance with this one and I'd like to say that it paid off.

My only issue was the lack of gameplay, really. If we compare this to the first game, surprisingly Alan Wake had a lot more going for it in the gameplay department. There were so many encounters with Taken, a lot of tense moments with them that at a certain point playing it's companion sequel, I felt a little underwhelmed and sort of associated the survival horror genre this game claimed with the first instead. I think what makes it work here was the atmosphere and level design. Sure, there's less Taken and you really don't have to fight any of them if you didn't want to, but the art direction and set pieces such as the Herald of Darkness musical or the Dark Ocean Summoning segments were really tense in themselves and scratched (haha) that itch of wanting to take on hoards of Taken. Speaking of which, the music in this game was really well done, made me an instant fan of Poets of the Fall and Old Gods of Asgard which I looked over in the first game.

When there is Taken and gameplay segments though, it does nail the feel of a survival horror in any case. I think the atmosphere is up there and even in some aspects rivals the likes of Resident Evil 2 (2019), they feel very similar in atmospheric execution but... I wouldn't pit it above RE2R as some would, I think there is a lot as aforementioned that could have been improved on and hopefully Remedy will remedy in the coming DLCs.

Back to the narrative, though (this game is making me loosely pun like I'm in a meta narrative 😭), regardless of whether or not you get it, you have to admit, it is great in it's execution and there are so many great plot elements that when you figure it all out, actually make a whole lot of sense, too many for me to talk about without spoiling, but, yeah, it's just really beautifully crafted with a ton of attention to detail that pretty much anything you read in the game means something. Even the writing on the walls.

They went above and beyond with this one, it is definitely Remedy's magnum opus and a cut above the original Alan Wake, a cut above Control, Max Payne... a real push forward for the limitations of what this industry can achieve with great minds like Sam Lake.