I don't know what to think of Alan Wake II. It's a game that feels like it never gets going. Every time I feel like it's building momentum it sorts of stops and keels over. Part of me is disappointed there isn't more gameplay. Part of me finds all the gameplay, particularly the shooting, uninspired. The big, heavily expected metal shootout setpiece was incredibly underwhelming because this is not a game designed for Max Payne or Control styled gun fights. I found a bizarre friction between the compelling mystery in the Saga section versus the much more visualy stimulating Alan sections. I always felt equally underwhelmed in both but for different reasons. For a game with high aspirations and interesting ideas, it just felt like a huge tease that went nowhere.

The high peaks are good though. Even if they're inconsistent. I disliked how stilted the word felt because despite the zaniness, a lot of the Saga sections seemed to imply a verisimilitude. I would have appreciated more commitment to reality than all the Twin Peaks/Shining dream-like logic.

I think there's a lot of interesting stuff in here about the death of auteurism and the trappings of it. There's so much meta shit going on I felt too dizzy to care whether it was too self indulgent or not. I think the genuis of this is, if it were a TV show, or a movie, or even a book, it'd feel pretty pedestrian. But as a video game - and the rare game about a novelist in a Tweed jacket - I think it workds really well.

I think this might be the best written game I've played all year. I just wish it played as straightforward as say a key inspiration like Resident Evil 4.