It's hard to review, as some people will absolutely love the way the game presents itself as a sort of love letter to shlocky 90's television and Stephen King horror novels. But, as I spent more time with the game and up to its completion, I only grew more frustrated by the tedious nature of its one-trick pony gameplay loop and odd choices in railroading players with unsatisfying mechanics that actively reset the player, both by (in)conveniently eliminating their toolbelt and pushing their journey's goalpost from one MacGuffin to another throughout the roughly 10 hour story.
Players are sure to encounter several moments where companions struggle to open a door, activating an event that requires the player to defend against hordes of incoming enemies, of which there are very few in variety. One such enemy includes the ever-interesting inanimate object that will hurl itself at the player while they shine a flashlight at it. These fights in particular felt tedious and arbitrary. Some fights against enemies can be avoided, while others feel like taxes designed to consume valuable resources for the sake of doing so.
The story itself is fun and interesting, if not too abstract at times. Though, it felt rushed near its conclusion after lingering in long stretches of the characters merely getting from A to B. It's a different experience that most games don't seem to explore in the current triple-A gaming landscape, if only possibly because of that more obtuse or abstract nature to its story - which is a sorely lacking space left in today's games.
Overall, if you played Alan Wake before and loved it then, it's here still in all it's original glory - including its heavy product placement for Energizer batteries and Verizon cellular services and commercials. If you've not played it, take some caution; it'll either be a great new experience for you or one that will leave you entirely frustrated by aged mechanics and gaming sins of the past.
if you are on a low end machine, double the minimum to run this game and then you can play it on maybe 30fps on min-mid settings.
the game is very GPU heavy, needing a min 2xMSAA to run that cannot be turned lower, shaders cannot be turned off.
the game also has a shocking motion blur "feature" i recommend adding "-noblur" to the launch command line in the shortcut.
this all said, if you can get this game to run, then you will have a great tense thriller that plays out like a TV show with episodes and even a tv like "last seen on alan wake" segment after leaving play then coming back on another day.
when you get over the strange play camera angle you have a good solid combat system reminiscent of resident evil.
if you are after a freaky survial horror game this is not that type of game, its more of a creepy suspenseful thriller, the game does a great job telling the story and pacing the game.
if you like resi evil style games and or love thriller type games give this one a go.
Disclaimer: 4 Stars for story and atmosphere.
The combat is such a chore, and at times just plain unfair, that I used the developer mode for unlimited guns and ammo.
I don't enjoy survival horror games where you are constantly overpowered and outnumbered by hard to kill enemies with very scarce resources to do so. Yet, even on normal difficulty, Alan Wake is in large parts exactly that.
By the time I realized this I was hooked by the story and characters, so I didn't want to leave it behind unfinished. Good thing you can activate developer mode and simply have a neverending amount of flashbangs aka "boom, get out of fights easily". Even then I died a few times in the second half of the game, sometimes enemies simply crowd and stun lock you so you don't even manage to throw the bomb. No idea how Remedy originally imagined this game to be played without provoking serious anger issues and/or hear attacks.
That being said, i really enjoyed the stories, atmosphere, and characters in this game. Lots of quirky personalities and loads of great dialogue, the local radio show, the mystery tv series you stumble across every now and then, all of this creates a dense mystery that makes you want to see it through to the end.
I purchased this game hoping for something different....I wasn't disappointed. This game puts you in the see of a thriller/suspense story. While the combat mechanics may be a bit limited compared to other genres, the story line and manner in which its told more than makes up for it. The story line is very engrossing and makes you feel like you are really in the game (especially if playing in the dark). The voice acting was fantastic and makes all characters believable. This game has the feel like you are in a New England town in a Stephen King novel and pulls you in deeper with each episode. It's awesome and you won't be disappointed.
