For me, the game is shockingly good.
I've never been a big fan of Remedy. They peaked for me with their last Max Payne game. I found Control and the original Alan Wake boring to the point of not being worth playing (despite finishing both), and didn't even try Quantum Break.
That said, I'm not sure what brought it home this time. The game's recursive meta-narrative channels Twin Peaks even stronger than Deadly Premonition does, but the survival-horror backbone is strong here. The self-contained maps, the exploration, puzzle-solving, short bursts of intense combat, finite inventory, resource-management, and finite upgrade-material are all well done. The game feels like it comes from the Resident Evil 4 era, in some regards.
Here's where the subjectivity hits it hard though; I do like adventure-games. I like exploring and puzzle-solving the first time around in games in general, and Alan Wake 2 is no exception. I also find the combat to be a flat improvement over the original. However, this is a very one-and-done experience. There isn't enough combat or enough variety in that combat to justify a second playthrough imo, and I have even less interest in going through the motions of walking to where I'm supposed to walk and plugging in the answer to a problem I've already solved. The latter would be less of an issue if the former had a larger presence, and I can't justify saying a game is excellent if I have no interest in playing it again regardless of how good of a time I had with the initial run.
As far as how good that first time was; I found the narrative legitimately interesting. As someone who's staunchly gameplay first, it managed to breach that elusive point that NieR 2010 and Deadly Premonition pulled off of getting me to sit through a game I'd rather not play because the experience was captivating enough even when put up against stronger storytelling-mediums like film and books. What it's got over those 2 games is perfectly serviceable gameplay. It's a shocking feat.
The game's probably a 2.5/5 as just a game, but the experience is worth it and pushes it up a full star to a 3.5/5 for me. I can't believe I had as good of a time with it as I did.
WARNING:
The PC port is kinda trash at the time this review was put up. I had numerous near game-breaking bugs that were happening toward the end. Such as geometry blocking the mandatory progression-path and getting stuck on a black-screen I couldn't resolve without changing settings. Careful here.
Update 11/04/2023: game runs a million times better after Nvidia's hotfix driver update.
I've never been a big fan of Remedy. They peaked for me with their last Max Payne game. I found Control and the original Alan Wake boring to the point of not being worth playing (despite finishing both), and didn't even try Quantum Break.
That said, I'm not sure what brought it home this time. The game's recursive meta-narrative channels Twin Peaks even stronger than Deadly Premonition does, but the survival-horror backbone is strong here. The self-contained maps, the exploration, puzzle-solving, short bursts of intense combat, finite inventory, resource-management, and finite upgrade-material are all well done. The game feels like it comes from the Resident Evil 4 era, in some regards.
Here's where the subjectivity hits it hard though; I do like adventure-games. I like exploring and puzzle-solving the first time around in games in general, and Alan Wake 2 is no exception. I also find the combat to be a flat improvement over the original. However, this is a very one-and-done experience. There isn't enough combat or enough variety in that combat to justify a second playthrough imo, and I have even less interest in going through the motions of walking to where I'm supposed to walk and plugging in the answer to a problem I've already solved. The latter would be less of an issue if the former had a larger presence, and I can't justify saying a game is excellent if I have no interest in playing it again regardless of how good of a time I had with the initial run.
As far as how good that first time was; I found the narrative legitimately interesting. As someone who's staunchly gameplay first, it managed to breach that elusive point that NieR 2010 and Deadly Premonition pulled off of getting me to sit through a game I'd rather not play because the experience was captivating enough even when put up against stronger storytelling-mediums like film and books. What it's got over those 2 games is perfectly serviceable gameplay. It's a shocking feat.
The game's probably a 2.5/5 as just a game, but the experience is worth it and pushes it up a full star to a 3.5/5 for me. I can't believe I had as good of a time with it as I did.
WARNING:
The PC port is kinda trash at the time this review was put up. I had numerous near game-breaking bugs that were happening toward the end. Such as geometry blocking the mandatory progression-path and getting stuck on a black-screen I couldn't resolve without changing settings. Careful here.
Update 11/04/2023: game runs a million times better after Nvidia's hotfix driver update.