Some of the strongest sense of authorship I have seen from a blockbuster video game in years, however its biggest faults originate from its reluctance to transcend genre entirely.
NOT THE GAMEPLAY: Much like Twin Peaks: The Return, I found myself very cautiously optimistic throughout most of the story. I did find it really come together in the end though, and this game is easily recommendable on the story alone. It's a shame that you really need to play AW1 first for the complete level of catharsis here though, given that game kinda sucks and the contrast is even starker when placed next to this. Basically every issue I had with AW1 was dealt with here--this is derivative of The Return, but not so blindly and superficially as AW1 is of 90s Twin Peaks. It takes a lot more of the vibes and tonality and a lot less of the moment-by-moment plot points, which was a big source of frustration for me with AW1. The music is leagues better as well and way more atmospheric, there's one scene near the end which uses AW1 music like an anime OP and it's a harsh reminder of how shitty and generic that game's score was lmao.
In the end, AW2's biggest strength is in its willingness to take wild swings, and to take them boldly by prioritizing the narrative more than a lot of blockbuster games are willing to. As far as other postmodern media goes, I think it does a pretty good job, but I get the feeling that my experience with a lot of other stuff in the field both inside and outside of games has numbed me a bit to some of the stuff here. I did still audibly say out loud "dude are you fucking joking no fucking way" multiple times in the closing couple hours, though.
THE GAMEPLAY: However, multiple times I felt myself wishing Sam Lake went a little more Sam Barlow and just threw the third-person shooter mechanics out the window entirely and went full-on interactive fiction. Admittedly, this is coming from a guy who, like, actually reads visual novels, but the gunplay's adequate at best, and it's got multiple pain points, most predominantly with the weirdly inconsistent flashlight and the combat's inability to perform in boss fight scenarios (although, it's not like this is a new problem for survival horror). But it's difficult to spend much time complaining about gunplay when it's so deprioritized and, at the end of the day, fine enough. AW1's gunplay was actively terrible and the game forces much more of it onto you, so really nothing but improvements here. The investigation gameplay with Saga is great and I honestly coulda done with more of it. If that was the Entire gameplay I woulda been a happy camper, but I get the feeling that the shooting is about as deprioritized as it could've ever reasonably been in a sequel to Alan Wake (2010).
All in all, Alan Wake 2 is a pretty solid recommendation from me, pretty much entirely regardless of how you felt about the first game. This is going for something very different and I'm glad for it, and I'm glad something so weird and big-budget at the same time even got made in the first place.
NOT THE GAMEPLAY: Much like Twin Peaks: The Return, I found myself very cautiously optimistic throughout most of the story. I did find it really come together in the end though, and this game is easily recommendable on the story alone. It's a shame that you really need to play AW1 first for the complete level of catharsis here though, given that game kinda sucks and the contrast is even starker when placed next to this. Basically every issue I had with AW1 was dealt with here--this is derivative of The Return, but not so blindly and superficially as AW1 is of 90s Twin Peaks. It takes a lot more of the vibes and tonality and a lot less of the moment-by-moment plot points, which was a big source of frustration for me with AW1. The music is leagues better as well and way more atmospheric, there's one scene near the end which uses AW1 music like an anime OP and it's a harsh reminder of how shitty and generic that game's score was lmao.
In the end, AW2's biggest strength is in its willingness to take wild swings, and to take them boldly by prioritizing the narrative more than a lot of blockbuster games are willing to. As far as other postmodern media goes, I think it does a pretty good job, but I get the feeling that my experience with a lot of other stuff in the field both inside and outside of games has numbed me a bit to some of the stuff here. I did still audibly say out loud "dude are you fucking joking no fucking way" multiple times in the closing couple hours, though.
THE GAMEPLAY: However, multiple times I felt myself wishing Sam Lake went a little more Sam Barlow and just threw the third-person shooter mechanics out the window entirely and went full-on interactive fiction. Admittedly, this is coming from a guy who, like, actually reads visual novels, but the gunplay's adequate at best, and it's got multiple pain points, most predominantly with the weirdly inconsistent flashlight and the combat's inability to perform in boss fight scenarios (although, it's not like this is a new problem for survival horror). But it's difficult to spend much time complaining about gunplay when it's so deprioritized and, at the end of the day, fine enough. AW1's gunplay was actively terrible and the game forces much more of it onto you, so really nothing but improvements here. The investigation gameplay with Saga is great and I honestly coulda done with more of it. If that was the Entire gameplay I woulda been a happy camper, but I get the feeling that the shooting is about as deprioritized as it could've ever reasonably been in a sequel to Alan Wake (2010).
All in all, Alan Wake 2 is a pretty solid recommendation from me, pretty much entirely regardless of how you felt about the first game. This is going for something very different and I'm glad for it, and I'm glad something so weird and big-budget at the same time even got made in the first place.
frisk_asriel
4 months ago