HALF of Alan Wake 2 Is Amazing (Spoiler-Free Review)
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- Опубликовано: 1 авг 2024
- Light Early Plot Spoilers, Light Visual Spoilers
Alan Wake 2 is my kind of game. The surrealist plot, the bizarre narrative, the heavy influence of David Lynch. But not EVERY part of the game was spectacular. Remedy Entertainment is known for cinematic games like Control and the Max Payne series and they hit it out of the park again with an innovative visual style combining actual video with the game itself. They stumble in some areas though, like the combat particularly, and the PC version of the game has a myriad of technical issues that I hope will be fixed. It feels almost like Resident Evil 2 or Silent Hill as Alan Wake 2 adopts a distinctive survival horror feel. 
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You have to remember The Dark Place is basically Hell, kinda like Silent Hill is Hell, but not so on the nose, biblical sense. The confusion is intentional. Its not supposed to always make sense and i feel like it forces the players imagination to help bring the horror straight to your head.
"It's not suppose to make sense and let people imagine the horror"
Yeah, it's like telling people to watch a comedy movie and say it not suppose to make sense and you need to think the horror element from it.
@@violau8550 You make no sense
@FoxyGuyHere Irony
@violau8550 I don't think that's a good analogy since sienfeld isn't a horror(I think...) Also, weren't the backrooms/other analog horrors designed to confuse you and be scary?
Yeah the confusion is absolutely intentional. Alan's side is basically in his head, like a dream, and they do an amazing job at it. Imagine putting one of your dreams into a video game and have it make perfect sense.
Watery was settled by Finnish immigrants and it’s right next to Bright Falls so the Finnish accents are very much intentional. Alan Wake 2 is basically a celebration of Remedy’s entire journey to this point, so there’s Norse mythology, Poets of the Fall songs, a character with the same face-voice combo as Max Payne, two characters are alternate universe versions of Quantum Break characters, the FBC is out in force, and it unabashedly celebrates Finland and Finnish culture throughout, while still very much existing in a series of eerily dreamlike, almost archetypical American cities and towns.
Ah, yes, it all makes sense!
I'm totally flipped, I liked the Saga sections, but Alan's sections were just incredible. Seeing reality change before me on a dime and the aesthetic and audio design of each location in the Dark Place was otherworldly to see.
Even the small things that kept me engaged more with Alan's sections like when you're reloading when being attacked and Alan is scream "C'mon c'mon" versus Saga's more action hero-sque quips about spring cleaning or whatever.
The Dark Place also had Tim, my favorite character.
I would have liked the Alan Wake sections if the reality altering sections were more substantial. The sections you change are so small and the changes themselves often minimal. Only 2 or 3 of them feel like actual puzzles. Most are "solved" by flipping through the variations until the right item pops up. It's REALLY apparent on the second playthrough. There is minimal fighting, no boss fights, you spend a third of the time listening to Casey's monologues and only the first murder site feels relevant to the story. It looks pretty and the music section is fun, but other than that Saga's section is better in every way.
But... I agree with the video that the combat feels pretty crappy. Some of the encounters and boss fights were pointlessly frustrating. If feels like you're always either steamrolling them or getting 2-shotted.
Both are amazing but I personally enjoyed Saga parts more. Mostly bc of more freedom and I loved the story of trying to find out what's going on. But Alan parts had more cool stuff, like the musical, Ahti, Tim, Door and cool features.
Yeah Alan’s sections blew my mind more, but sagas sections had more weight
I actually really didn't mind the combat overall in either section, and I'd say I find it a lot more fun than games like RE2/3 remake when it's at its best...but there's one major caveat: the fact that there's a large amount of enemies that zip around randomly. It just throws both accuracy and situational awareness out the window a lot of the time. There's some boss fights that do it as well, but funny enough, I think most of them handle the concept a lot better...with them, it feels like a pattern. With the enemies, I just feel like I can't trust anything.
Ah yeah I like a pattern. I also liked in RE2 that you could strategically shoot enemies in the legs to disable them
I actually thought the entire game was amazing, both sides. It's especially meaningful if you have played the other Remedy Games and can see all the connections. Multiple replays using the Dual Reality system where you play In a completely different order really gives you a different perspective. The game (especially the dark place) would make more sense to someone who is a hard core Remedy fan and knows all the Lore, and understands what's really happening, and what the entity of Scratch is and who Tom and Warlon Door are in the big picture.
That said , they did not really make this game really appealing for people who aren't established fans.
All the downsides you mentioned are either things I loved or did not experience. I played it on ps5 and PC, my only issue was some of the pathing and collision issues.
For me, it's clearly the GOTY based completely on the innovation. Remedy took some really big chances with this game. This is a game that will be a milestone and will be talked about 10 years from now. All the other GOTY nominees are just highly polished versions of the same old formulas.
Bravo! Very accurate and couldn't agree more.
Yeah I’m new to Alan Wake but I did play control (about two hours of it) and appreciated the connections. How did playing it in a different order give you a different perspective? I’m looking forward to new game plus which I’m actively trying to avoid reading anything about
Great review. I didn't have ANY of those problems you mentioned, no audio cutouts, no graphical glithces, just pure amazingness on Highest settings (Minus RTX)
I'm on a 3070 and Ryzen 9 5900x, idk If I'm lucky or that you should have a look at your PC
When did you play it? Maybe they patched it? That'd be nice lol. Or maybe they hate Intel! Or maybe I'm in the dark place... taking 10 seconds to load the map would DEFINITELY bring out my inner scratch
i commented a comment i deleted before watching your video because my moods been so nrgatively upset over alan wake hate lately but i decided to give it a watch when i realized 10 seconds in you did the polar opposite of what id expexted.. like yyah saga is the goat! and alan is alright i mean hes still cool but he aint who shines through this time around but DAYUM, ur like the first person to admit this ive seen pop up in my yt feed tho cuz like most just dislike saga bcuz she's black and a woman and hide their racism and sexism behind 'criticism'. i think youre a very honest reviewer. this game is beautiful masterpiece tier stuff and i hope remedy made their money back at least.
i actually genuinely love this video btw 😭🥺♥️
I really appreciate it!!
Nice hollow knight beats. I thought both sections had great contrast between them so they kept the gameplay feeling fresh. Alan's sections are fun with the changing scenes, the light mechanics and the amazing ambience of nightmare New York. Where saga's sections are some of the best spooky atmospheres i have ever played in a video game. Great video
Thank you! YES, some of the best spooky atmosphere for sure. Also points for recognizing lo fi hollow knight!
Great video - was sure you'd be praising the Wake sections over Saga and it was nice to be surprised. I love both but I think We Sing makes a lot of people overlook the more tedious aspects of the dark place. Then again, I do think the feeling of confusion you got was mostly by design.
Thanks man! Yeah, I feel that, but there’s terrifying confusion and then there’s annoying confusion and for me it was mostly annoying. I kinda wanna replay it tho still
@itsdanielpaul for sure, and your critique is fair. I think they were going for a certain level of frustration, and that's going to land differently for people. For me, it made the payoff of We Sing that much more intense. Try to imagine that sequence happening right away, or shortly after arriving in the dark place, without that buildup of tension. Same with that overuse of "wake". I think Remedy wanted us to eventually go "my god stfu", just like Alan would after so much time there. I'm finding it thrilling that devs are experimenting with sequences that might not feel conventionally fun or satisfying to play because it serves the narrative and emotions they want players to feel. The ending sequence of TLoU2 is similar - NOT fun to play, but an emotional ride for sure.
Oh yeah that’s a good point, cause ur expecting this frustration but then it’s this full on musical!
I didn‘t feel frustrated like you describe it in the Alan sections at all, they were just amazing to me. Only frustrating parts for me was the Nightingale boss fight because the level design was so narrow and you didn’t see where you were going when backing up + the final Scratch encounter at the beach because of the inventory not pausing issue, both in the Saga section. Did you play the game on hard?
Both were fun and unique in their own way. Alan’s could get a little tedious sometimes but I still enjoyed it
on Series X the subtitles wouldnt pop up at times, mostly at the beginning
Nice job with the review! The way you describe Alan's gameplay sections sounds fair. Even though you didn't particularly like it, it sounds like I would probably love it. :D
I would wholeheartedly recommend a play through! Maybe on easy though. Again not because it was too hard but because it was frustrating.
@@itsdanielpaul To me it sounds that the problem in your Alan playthrough was that you are supposed to explore and upgrade the weapons, so that the enemies are no longer bullet sponges. Also, you are able to recognize the enemies from the shadows easily once you catch the difference what to look for. Shadows won't hurt you, they do push you though. The combat flow with both characters is to empty all of your guns in an encounter, and reload the guns after the combat is over, but also understanding which weapons are most economic weapon to damage which type of enemy.
When i played i did all of saga's stuff first cuz i found her detective walking simulator stuff really boring. And drawn out.
When i got to Alan i never knew what to expect. It was also scarier and enemies actually made me jump sometimes. Thats something saga's parts couldnt do.
Saga isnt a bad character. She is just very one note and her reactions to every situation (other then her daughter) did not feel realistic. She just vibes with the supernatural way too well for no reason.
Whe Alan is scared or anxiety infused at all times. Which feels so much more immersive.
Idk. Its a mixed bag. But basically. The game shined for me after i finshed saga's story.
Edit: should mention i played Alan Wake 1, and have emotional attachment to his character and story. So that prolly helps.
But that doesnt change my opinion about Saga's personality being kinda stale and unrealistic for most situations.
Yeah I didn’t play the first one I think that has a lot to do with it
I prefered the Saga parts over Alan's
This was a really great review, I agreed with pretty much everything you said about the gameplay and combat. Even though I absolutely love this game to death, the combad is... pretty bad. I also pretty much never got above 40 fps, which isn't a dealbreaker for me, but was still annoying. I definitely liked the Saga sections more as well, but I still really enjoyed the Alan sections too. I think playing them in tandem and switching after every part helped with that, because I could see how you could get burned out on the Wake parts if you played them back to back. I'd be interested to know if you played the first game as well because seeing all the connective tissue between the first game and the second really enhanced my enjoyment.
Thank you! I hadn’t played the first I think that has something to do with it. And I consulted a video about tuning my video settings to get a good frame rate and eventually I did
Disagree with a lot of your points but I think you did a good job of making your case, so here's one for the algorithm. Good luck my guy
Thank you! I was probably too hard on the Alan sections but that's truly how I felt as I was playing. I was so distraught about having to leave the Saga story. But I also didn't play the first one I think that has a lot to do with it
Haven't finished the game yet, but I love the horror that Alan's story brings. I try to go back and forth once per "mission" so that I don't get burnt out on one side over the other.
It's so weird that you had so many graphical problems with the map. I think I had one hard crash with AW2 but never had a problem with loading the map or the assets of the game.
I was playing on a XSX, btw.
That’s frustrating! It’s weird they’d let something like this slip but I also heard it was the same issue in Control
Couldn't disagree more. The Alan sections were not very confusing at all. I got stuck maybe once or twice but resolved it pretty fast. The maps show all of the important points. The combat is very engaging, creepy, challenging and satisfying. The only parts of the game I really felt was a slog was the vast amount of walking around in the Saga sections, and the case board was tedious as hell. The areas she had to cover were just bloated with these rhyme puzzles and stashes scattered about that felt like a pointless slog that was completely unnecessary. I always felt annoyed at how much ground I had to cover just to continue the story during Saga sections. Saga did have some really fun areas like the old folks home and coffee world. But the woods were only visually appealing. Everything else about these sections were just annoying with all these random spawn wolves and taken that clogged up trying to get back to town.
I love all of Remedy's games, and think they are by far the best third person shooter devs out there, but I also think AW2 has easily their weakest combat. Which is an even greater shame when AW1 might actually be their best in terms of combat. But at the end of the day, most of Remedy's other games are shooters, while AW2 really isn't. It's survival horror, and it does an ok job at it.
And I love it for that! Control was fun but I wanted it to be more survival horror and I got that with AW2
Interesting takes. I kinda had the opposite opinion, but I see where you're coming from. For me, it felt like saga's sections had a lot more downtime with the long wanders through the woods, and especially the case board which just felt like a chore. The case board could've been executed well with actual deduction and stuff, but as is it just felt like it should've been automatic. In wake's sections, I felt like I was more actively engaging with the story, and was also more interested in what was going on there. I think saga's sections peak higher with the overlaps and the sections preceding them, but the sheriff's station at the end kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. So much busywork of doing long dialogues, grabbing things, coming back for more dialogues, then throwing crap on the board without any thought sorta capitalized a lot of what annoyed me in the saga sections. Still loved the game though obviously. These little annoyances don't mean much for my enjoyment of the greater story.
Yeah the case board grew on me at first it felt like they were holding my hand too much but I got used to it. I definitely would have liked it they let me do more deductions
Ironically, it was Saga's sections that dragged for me. Alan's always felt fresh and exciting.
Yeah I'm active on Reddit and it's an even split between ppl who like which section better. I never played the first which seems like is a big reason why ppl like Saga's more. Did you play the first game?
@@itsdanielpaul that would make sense to me. i guess i felt more engaged in the alan bits cuz i was more invested in his story.
Alans story is absolutely meant to be confusing and fuzzy, not making absolute sense. This is because he is creating this world from his head. Like a dream. If you were to put a dream of yours into a video game, how much sense would it make? This is why Remedy should be applauded because they captured being in someone's head beautifully .
Yeah I agree with you they designed it like that but that doesn’t mean it’s fun. And there are ways to design it so it’s both. But honestly after new game plus comes out I’ll probably replay and see how I like it upon a second play through
@@itsdanielpaul Its not for everyone of course. Being a huge Remedy fan tilts my biases in one direction as well as some insight into the story in its entirety.
@phoenix___7747 I got stuck in control otherwise I would have kept playing I think I have to restart the level I’m on cause I’m so lost lol
@@itsdanielpaul Ah right, yeah can be frustrating. I normally cheat and seek help from our friends at Google! Lol
That loading issue with the game happened to me as well. I put the game on a faster SSD and it worked much better. Map still took a full second to load though.
I have a top of the line nvme SSD and I was sitting there waiting. Especially in the ending section where you can get insta-killed I would get insta-killed, 1 minute of loading, play for 6 seconds, insta killed, 1 minute of loading, play for 6 seconds. It was annyoying to say the least.
I hope they fix it soon, I have one of the fastest NVME on the market and I still have to wait a whole second for some textures to load...
Half is amazing, the other half is a masterpiece
Agree haha
Solid review
Alans side definitely has its downs and sagas side was definetly superior in terms of horror.
Combat is also very much better for saga.
Collectables was easier and more fun for saga too.
Alans side is only good for the narrative which was ass for saga. Really hated the story board shit.
The shadow part of the dark place was genius. It was the only way to make it scary and found it captivating.
Thanks!! I loved the stuff with her daughter really raised the stakes
tbh i dont understand the saga hate or people calling the game woke or something, its not even woke or anything, i loved sagas part more then alans tbh, she was a great character
I appreciate the time put into the video but these are all just your own personal gripes. Sounds like a lot of “you” problems honestly. I personally loved the dark place because I got mind f’d as much as Alan was and it helped immerse me.
I dunno how to do a review unless it’s thru my perspective, glad you liked the dark place more than me, it didn’t mind fuck me as much as sagas story did
i loved Control,i would love to play this but damn the constant out of nowhere jumpscares are just not for me. sucks
There were constant jump scares! I liked them haha
I would give it a go anyway. Just beat it last night and WOW what a game. The jump scares are a little annoying not gonna lie but technically they only take up like 1% of what you’ll experience in the game. Overall 100% worth the quick scares to get terrified by the real scares.
@Bakemovies yeah I would definitely recommend playing
I don’t like jumpies either, but AW2 got me jumping and thrashing all my limbs every time and yet… didn’t bother me?? It was weird, but I think it’s because unlike, say, a licker banging through a vent and attacking, these jump scares don’t require you to act fast, and they are neither bright nor particularly loud. They are a nice, flat grey (I’m assuming they’re trying to avoid triggering seizures with that color pallet?) and the sounds are distinct and crisp but don’t overload your ears. It gets the jump with the snarling mouths and the growls, triggering a primal DANGER response but it does so with such precision and without any unnecessary excess that as a jump scare hater, I wasn’t actually turned off at all. Turns out it’s not the scare that I don’t like, it’s the excess sensory shit that always accompanies them, which this game does away with to great effect
@chexfan2000 the scares in the nursing home were the best
Imagine people play horror game is for great songs and musical scene that put smile to their face from ear to ear. And that alone make this game 10 out of 10, and brush aside all bad writing.
Guess "gamer" now a day are really so easy to satisfy, not only they are missing the point what is a horror game, and also dont even know what is a game.
But the writing is genius. You may not like it, but it's why thousands of people have put it as their GOTY.
@phoenix___7747 Writing is genius? Lol, man, seem people who love this game never ever read a book in their life.
This game has tons of basic mistakes and plothole, it's like a writer who never read try to write a pretencious story.
@@violau8550 What are the plot holes and mistakes?
@@violau8550 Its easy to say it has mistakes and plot holes. Have you even played the game or are aware of the other games that tie into it?
@phoenix___7747 lol, why you people always assume others never play this game.
And yes, this game story is tie to other game, which make it one of the most pretencious story ever.
Bad writer always Try to Make a story too complicated, pretencious and tie to other world, and you fans are eat it all up like some most unique stuff ever, which there are already some bad writer already did that, there are one so call genius writer in HK who wrote sci fi story, guess what, he has no idea about science, he just simply create things out of imagination and connect diffrent world and people who don't know anything about science just ate it all up, yet didnt know his book has tons of plothole and mistake.
No good writer ever want to connect a story to another different story, even they do that, it must have really strong reason, and they maybe just connect 1 or 2 character. Because good writer know at the end, the core story and protagonist matter.
Connection diffrent world and so call universe is means the plot lost its center focus and main direction.
Imagine you add Solid Snake into Silent hill, it would be hilarious.
Ultimately, it's a game, not a novel, this game not only have bad story also bad game play.
Only people who don't read book try to get "good story" from game.