Yo everyone! Get Alan Wake for just 6$ on GOG and support the channel right here - af.gog.com/index.php/game/alan_wake?as=1672895661 Also..... I love you...
Jared did you play the story DLCs for Alan Wake 1 released before American Nightmare where Alan is trapped in the darkness? They’re pretty good, nothing amazing My copy of Alan wake back in 2010 came with a free download code for episode 1 of the DLC
Bro you absolutely need to review or experience re7 and 8 in ps vr re8 on vr2 was such an amazing experience i felt like a kid again playing re2 for first time. I was legit scared
Hey Jared, hope all is good my man. Have you played Alan Wake 2 yet? Really looking forward to what will probably be an amazing review! All the best man!
Whatever it is, it'll be awesome. This is basically the only dev I do this with, but I essentially just trust them to always deliver. They haven't let me down yet.
The thing that people often overlook with Alan Wake is the amazing soundtrack. Sometimes I just go out for a walk in the woods and just put the soundtrack on to get back in the Alan Wake vibes.
@@RTXWorld-m2h Lol, damn. That's so needlessly rude of a response to such an innocuous comment that it comes back around to somehow being funny for me.
@@AvalancheReviews The Old Gods Of Asgard/Poets Of The Fall are fantastic and pulled me in as a fan just as it did to everyone else in the world after playing Control. And by "everyone", I do mean every single person. If anyone didn't become a fan they simply don't exist to me, and may God have mercy on their souls. (not really but that Billy Madison ref tho)
A quick correction from the American Nightmare section: the actor in the live action video sections isn't the voice actor. Alan Wake is kind of like how Max Payne, in the first game, is physically portrayed by Sam Lake, but voiced by James McCaffrey. Alan (and Mr. Scratch) is portrayed physically by Ilkka Villi, but is voiced by Matthew Porretta (who also portrays Dr. Darling in Control). It looks really clean like Ilkka is actually talking, but it's just some really high quality dubbing.
Great video, as always!! As for your note on Nightingale appearing out of nowhere, his motivations and origin are explained in depth in The Alan Wake Files, a sort of in-universe lore companion which came with the special edition of the original release, and as a PDF with the PC port. For whatever reason, that PDF does not come with the Remaster, which is a shame, because it's kind of crucial if you want to get the full story. The two DLC episodes (The Signal and The Writer) are also crucial, but they seem to go overlooked in a lot of reviews of the game, which I think is in part because they are sorta buried in the game's menu. I might be getting caught up in semantics, but American Nightmare isn't really a DLC for Alan Wake, it was a standalone game for Xbox Live Arcade which cannibalized some concepts from an early scrapped attempt at Alan Wake 2. Devs had said it was mostly them just blowing off some steam and having fun with a smaller scope title. Also, that Remaster bug with the enemies was a bug introduced by a patch. I played and reviewed it at launch and didn't experience that at all. I've become an obsessed Alan Wake fan, but I definitely walked away from the end of the game feeling more confused than resolved. So much of the story was told outside of the main campaign that I mistook it for being an unfinished story full of plot holes. I'm glad to see more and more people warming up to the game, but I wish Remedy would do more to point people in the right direction when it comes to the extended lore stuff that "completes" the story of the first game.
@AvalancheReviews If you bought the Steam-version of Alan Wake you already own the Alan Wake Files, the DLC-Episodes, two comic books, Making Of-Material, etc. You just have to click onthe game in your Library and find the option to purchase the Bonus Material in the shop (which are for free because you already own the game) and then you can download all of it digitally whithout buying the haptic collector's edition (at least, that's how it worked for me back in 2014) Edit: And in case nobody in the comment section already said so, you find the DLC-Episodes in the menu when you click on episoed and have to manually start them one after the other, even some of my friends didn't know that they existed before i pointed this out to them.
@@NicolasF.Costoglouthe bonus files also come with the GOG version! The main difference between Steam and GOG is that one comes with the "Writer in the Cabin" videos, and one comes with the "Night Springs" videos, including a couple Night Springs episodes that didn't make their way into the game.
I am (I think) so excited to hear you talk about Control. I talk about it being the Ocarina of Time of my 30’s. When I was little, no game inspired my imagination more than OoT, and Control did the exact same thing for me when it came out.
I adore this game. I love everything about it and it's expanded universe from Control to House of Dreams. Its what got me into psychological horror and the likes of Silent Hill and Jacob's Ladder. I can't wait for the sequel.
Wow, I just got hit by a giant wave of nostalgia with the intro music to this video. I've been playing Remedy games since Max Payne and absolutely love their games. Even if they aren't perfect. I wish I could personally thank the people at Remedy for sticking to their guns and taking financial risks for the sake of creating a unique experience. I can't wait for your deep dives into the rest of their games!
On det. Nightingale, if I remember correctly this is where it was *kind of* necessary to have bought the collectors edition. It came with some more scraps pertaining to the backstory. Most notably Nightingale's. I *think* he lost his wife to this darkness and kind of track all this to Bright Falls/ Alan Wake. Ofc going by the game Nightingale just pops up and isn't explained really. The collectors edition also introduces a non-character in the game, I forget his name. The very first friendly guy you meet, during the opening dream sequence, that get's axed to death. Apparently he dreams that dream with Wake regularly and sometimes he saves him an other times Wake saves that Guy.
With the caveat that it's been almost a decade since I last played the game, from what I remember SA Nightingale found manuscript pages that looked like Alan was conspiring to kill him. There's even a manuscript page about how he's been searching for and collecting manuscript pages trying to figure out what Alan is up to. Not sure about him looking for a missing wife though. The implication I had at the time was that Wake had basically written Nightingale into existence, and as a result, he doesn't really have any life outside of the events of the manuscript. So, whether his wife was taken by the darkness, or if she ever even existed in the first place, he's having a complete existential meltdown because of the pages he's found and read.
Yeah, I have to retract the wife thing. I actually looked at "the Alan Wake files" (col.edition) Apparently det Nightingale lost his old partner Finn (he does call having a partner as having a second wife, so perhaps that's where I remembered that from) when "the craziness back East" started and Finn needed Det Nightingale. Nightingale apparently didn't believe him (suggested as something similar? to the darkness, but in typical Alan Wake fashion even the A.W. Files don't give a clear answer) and Finn died. Nightingale feels responsible and somehow tracks this to Bright Falls / Alan Wake en holds Alan responsible for, well, everything. Again left ambiguous as to why though. The files are an in universe book authored by Clay Steward (the dude in the beginning that gets axe murdered), the files do make it clear that Nightingale is in Bright Falls of his own accord and not on official FBI business (He didn't even inform the bureau what he was doing). I do think Sarah Breaker mentioned something along the lines of that to Nightingale at one point in the game, but I can be mistaken about that too :p. @@StarkeRealm
Regarding how Alan knows about the Dark Presence, he found out through the TVs that flickered on where he saw himself talking about it. Canonically he watched them, even if you walk by them.
The thing about Remedy is they never seem to make a game just for the money. The studio has to genuinely care about what they're making, and that comes through in the final products. Alan Wake is a passion project for them. Despite the game almost being forgotten, Remedy kept a torch going for it. And now we have the wonderful Remedy connected universe as well as an Alan Wake sequel coming.
I get the impression that you get Alan’s voice and performance actors mixed up. Alan actually is a “mix” of two people… Finnish actor Ilkka Villi as the face and motion / performance capture, and Matthew Porreta as the voice (he also plays Dr. Darling in Control). Awesome review btw!
18:55 because you put your narration over alan looking at his phone, for a second i thought you were going to say "and this is the section where the game properly introduces us to our main antagonist...verizon" lmao
Awesome video so far but i have to correct a mistake. The first tv show esque "previously on" does not happen when Alan jumps after Alice in to the lake. It happens after you have survived the forest to Stucky's garage and sheriff Breaker takes you to see that there is no cabin on the lake. So there is no immersion breaking point between Alan jumping in and waking in the crashed car. The preludes and previews only happen at the end and start of each episode. Also at least on the console versions there is never a "previously on" when you load back in to a save but on this point i can't assure it isn't this way in the pc version.
Also in the live action cut scenes/videos the one playing Alan is not the voice actor. The person who is acting Alan on screen is a Finnish model/actor Ilkka Villi who's likeness was used for Alan. The one voice acting Alan is Matthew Porreta who is a mainstay voice actor in Remedy games. It's really impressive how well the after dubbing has been done because you really can't see that the voice of Alan you hear is not the person speaking on screen. This point also stands for the remaster. Alan's face in the game is Ilkka Villi and voice is Matthew Porreta and Remedy has confirmed and showed this to be the case in Alan Wake 2 aswell
I’ve been going through this company’s games after Alan Wake 2 was announced and I really enjoy their games some are in my all time favorites and all of a sudden they became one of favorite video game companies, I’m looking forward for Alan Wake 2
NICE! You got to enjoy Remedy's games without any need to wait for them to release which must have been awesome. Welcome to the club of being a fan of one of the best, most unique development studios!
Absolutely! It gave them the ability to have this large world, but the parts you actually interact with, are heavily developed, small sections. Best of both worlds honestly.
American Nightmare is not dlc. It is a stand alone game originally released on xbox live arcade. Alan Wake does however have 2 special chapters titled the writer & the signal that happen after the main story and were sold separately as dlc for the original xbox 360 release but they were included from the get go on the pc version and the remastered version
I don't know if you missed this, or if you chose to not speak about it, but the music in the game is kinda important and could help iron out one of the gripes you have with it. The Anderson Brothers in the game, were members of the Band "Old Gods of Asgard" (Songs performed by the real band "Poets of the Fall"), and there is a point in the game where Alan listens to one of their songs: "The Poet and the Muse". This is where he gets clued in to a lot of the story, as the song is a recount of what happened to Thomas, the writer who previously dealt with the darkness. Furthermore it is in a sense prophetic, as it also perfectly outlines Alans adventure. This is something Remedy continues doing in "Control" btw, so keep your ears open. ;) Additionally, Alan learns more about the story from the script pages he collects, as they tell the whole story and sometimes outline things that haven't happened to him yet.
Everybody misremembers that alan wake is a horror writer, he normally writes noir. Essentially he wrote a novel version of Max Payne. He wrote this story as a horror because that is what the darkness wanted. By the way, that is why the FBI guy is there. At a guess Alan Wake originally was writing a detective novel, then changed midway through writing it, so the FBI character got reduced and reduced in the story until he is just there as a recurring threat then is removed very quickly by the darkness.
I find myself going back to this game at least once a year. I fell in love with the characters, story, and setting I even liked American Nightmare. Bought the remaster for ps5 and day one for AW2.
A great thing about the plot of Alan Wake is that everything that happens after Alan black's out was written by him to happen. In addition, this is his first time writing a horror story. The game stresses that he's a bit of a bad writer who relies on cliches and tacky plot devices, so whenever the characters jump to ridiculous conclusions or make illogical decisions, you can just blame it on Alan's poor writing.
Funny thing in relation to your voice actor looking like the face actor, they are in fact two different people. Alan's voice is played by Matthew Porretta who also plays Dr. Casper Darling in Remedy's own Control. The character is modeled after Finnish actor Ilkka Villi. Super looking forward to the sequel in October!
Remedy is really the only developer out there that's been consistently good with their games. CD Projekt Red, Rockstar, Arkane Studios, etc. have all been releasing terrible games lately. So Remedy is my favorite video game company right now and I can't wait for Alan Wake 2!
Rockstar have not released a new game since RDR2, which is one of their best. Terrible re-releases do not count, they are not even made by Rockstar. We'll see how GTA6 turns out.
You can actually change the shoulder side to which the camera is fixed by pressing on one of the analogue sticks, so it doesn't actually have to be on one side all the time.
So happy you covered this! Honestly Alan Wake is one of my favorite games ever made. I am a huge Twin Peaks fan and I literally own all of Stephen Kings novels. This game is one of those games, to me, that truly shines as art. Not to mention the fantastic live action series you can watch on RUclips Bright Falls, plus that stellar soundtrack. I am oh so excited for the sequel to come out, I don’t believe in preordering games but Alan Wake 2 will probably be a day one purchase for me.
No way dude i just freaking played and beat this game for the first time ever just last week and i wondered what you thought of the game..even searched it. Boom.
How did RUclips not serve me this video?! I literally watch majority hour long (or longer) video reviews on older videogames primarily horror. And I've been a subscriber to you since before RE:2R came out!
4:34 I did not grow up playing these games... I was born in 2003 😂. I always feel a little out of place watching this channel but not in a negative way. I actually love this channel. It's one of the best places to go for content like this. I have watched the video combination of every resi video he's covered multiple times, and I'm always excited when any new video from this channel comes out. Weirdly enough I don't actually enjoy playing videogames. It's just never clicked for me, but channels like this are like crack. I know it'll never be the same as playing but I feel like I get to take part in a little bit of the game. I love videogames, especially the older ones (the first and second fallout are my favorite), I just don't enjoy playing them for whatever reason.
No lie, I was watching YourFavoritesSon’s video on Alan about a week ago and thought, “I wonder if Jared has a video on this”. I looked through your catalog and didn’t see one so I just hoped you would cover it in the near future. Then this video drops because the universe has answered my cries. You are a truly gifted storyteller and I lm legitimately stoked every time you post.
Awesome editing on this Jared! Looking very slick and pro! Pro tip for anyone who hasn't yet, there was a series of short videos released in the runup to the Alan Wake release. The series is called 'Bright Falls', released exclusively on the xbox online platform and they are VERY well done. Kind of like the in-game videos you can watch on all the tv's. It's a very cool prequel story/tie-in to the game and can highly recommend them to anyone who's never seen them. It was a really cool marketing stint they did for Alan Wake.
Great to see this channel back with a vengeance! You pick up on some of the most unique details in certain areas of the game (like with the animations with Alan how the camera moves when he runs etc) that I never see anyone else mention on other channels, which is pretty damn crazy considering what a RUclips video game content degenerate I am. You just seem to have a keen eye for those technical aspects that, as a great man once said, I never noticed (but my brain did). Thanks for this excellent monster of a video here, so excited you're back and going into REMEDY baby hell yeah!
First time I’ve watched one of your videos so close after release I haven’t watched all your videos but I really enjoy this channel. The resident evil ports videos are insane! Your content is highly underrated and I appreciate the work you put in! Awesome video as always
I was drinking water when you say that New York joke at 1:27:57 and of course I spit it out and coughed like I'm in burning house. Thanks for the good laugh sir
I always find it interesting how Sony gets shit on for timed exclusives, yet it was Microsoft that basically made timed exclusives the norm with the 360 generation with this, Bioshock, ME2, Dead Rising, GTA4 DLC, CoD DLC, etc.
Both companies have been absolute idiots in the past. I tend to find Sony more palatable, but I wouldn't exactly defend them in court. For me, it's not about exclusives or brand loyalty. I just buy the console with the best looking user interface. I'm a simple man.
This is such an important video for me because I absolutely love Alan Wake, and it being the start of a new retrospective series for one of my favorite developers who have made some of my all-time beloved games is just *mwah* chef's kiss to me. I am so glad you actually addressed the Remaster, because I bought AWR on launch on my PS5 and wanted to like it so much, but I found that I really couldn't get into it for a couple reasons. The faces did look odd but I assumed it was because they were essentially placed over old bones, so I did not count too much against it. The main thing that actually made me put it down is that they changed the over-the-shoulder camera. In the original and on pc, you can lock the camera over either of Alan's shoulders (I swapped it to over his right shoulder) but in the Remaster, it is not locked, instead the camera will swap shoulders when moving the camera side to side. With this being an action horror title that requires you to observe your surroundings very often, I could never get a hold on the aiming and it would act as a crutch to me, despite them moving the flashlight to the center of the screen rather than off-center. I always thought this was a specific issue that would be addressed in a patch, but as far as I'm aware, it is unironically "not a bug, but a feature." I even booted it up on my pc to see if I was crazy and just misremembering but over there, I had no issues at all. Did anyone else notice this and find it throwing them off or am I crazy?
Whoa, that's insane to me, actually. So the PC is the lone version to not do that?? I guess the repositioning of the flashlight beam really did affect me that much
Alan does make quite a leap when he's explaining things to Barry. Is it possible that his repressed memories with the lady of the lake are subconsciously coming back and that's how he figured things out?
Very cool analysis! I remember playing this game when it released on the Xbox 360. I appreciated how different it was compared to other games being released at the time and the interesting story. I also appreciated the time dedicated to the Remaster, various ports, and American Nightmare. I feel these topics are seldom discussed. One omission was a discussion on the two story expansions to the base game which take place right after the ending. Not enough people know about these! I would have also loved to see a discussion about the use of licensed music in the game. Really nice video!
I would have liked to see some commentary on the band Poets of the Fall aka Old Gods of Asgard (in-universe name) and their relationship to Remedy. The band was formed to make a song for Max Payne 2 and they have also made music under both names for Alan Wake, American Nightmare and Control. I discovered them through Alan Wake and they became one of my favourite bands
I've been really busy and it's taken me until now to watch this. I never played Max Payne, but I did play the Alan Wake games and really loved them. The combat in the first game wasn't responsive but I felt that it was a choice since Wake wasn't an action hero, just someone trying to survive. I'm not really a psychological horror guy either in terms of but really love the atmosphere of the game. With American Nightmare i definitely noticed the improvement in the gameplay mechanics. I know some people criticised the repetitive nature but I liked what they did. It wasn't a clone of the first and found that as I replayed each level, all I could do was stick to the original plan and original path. You inevitably were ambushed by obstacles and enemies, but what else could you do. Great review, sorry it's taken so long. Probably going to replay Alan Wake soon. Steam has been doing something weird. All at the same time games, of different ages, have required massive updates. It says Alan Wake is 11.7 Gig in Steam and needs a 10.4 Gig update.
Remedy is one of the few consistently great dev companies. They put so much love, care, and effort into each game, and the wait between them is well worth it, because there's still so much to find in each game.
@@AvalancheReviews I understand that it was a long one, i just find it odd to not finish the game and instead proritze ports over the actual ending. Episode 7 and 8 are an integral part of the story even though they were released after to simulate how a Tv serie operate and prevent people for spoiling the ending (probably also to give them more time to polish the ending). Like reviewing Final fantasy 7 and not playing the third Cd i don't get it to be honest. Good job none the less.
So, sorry if this sounds stupid but I feel I should mention this. See, you refer to American Nightmare as an Alan Wake DLC, which it technically isn't. It's a stand-alone expansion that was released a few years after the original game. I have this vague memory it was part of a big XBLA thing that Microsoft did back in the day on the 360, but that might be my brain messing with me, not sure. Anyway, I only mention that because the base game of Alan Wake did get some DLC; specially two extra chapters (The Signal and The Writer) that take place after the main game but before the American Nightmare story. You didn't mention them in the Review at all, and as they're important to the story and also have a couple of fun gameplay gimmicks, guess I just wanted to make sure you'd played them is all. Don't want you missing out on the fun. ^^
Also remedy announced that they're going to be doing a full fledge remake of maxpayne1 they're working in tandem with another Studio to help get it done but it looks like they're going to go through all of their older games and they're going to be remaking all of them by the looks of it, which hopefully means they're going to continue the Max Payne franchise but we'll see
Alan wake has been one of my favorite games, the atmosphere is pretty unique in my opinion and I think the graphics still hold up today. Very excited to see your take on it in this retrospective since the level of care and attention in your other videos is really something special.
I never did get to play this till the remaster came out and I'm glad I did. This was very interesting. Not only am I looking forward to the upcoming sequel but also the other remedy games you will be looking at Jared. At least I know this rather.... unusual retrospective will be an interesting one.
35:02 Nightingale is not an FBI agent. He was let go because of his alcoholism and obsession with finding the truth about the death/disappearance of his partner. He was merely posing as an agent to get close to Wake, because he suspected that he had something to do with the fate of his coworker. It's all in the Alan Wake files. Plus, you can see the suspicion from the sheriff when she doubts that he's a real agent.
You also need to read the comics. When the sheriff asks Barry to call up her close contacts, she also asked him to say the word "nightsprings" to someone and that they'll know what to do. That someone was actually an FBC agent from Control, instructed to investigate and let the berau know about the altered world event in the town
Remedy actually had worked on DLC before American Nightmare, because Alan Wake itself has two pieces of DLC, called The Signal and The Writer, following him as he's stuck in the Dark Place. I believe they come with the original PC version and they definitely come with Alan Wake Remastered. In essence, I think they'll serve as somewhat of a bridge into the sequel (as well as Control's AWE DLC) Definitely recommend checking them out.
The OG Alan Wake Deluxe Edition (and the Steam PC edition) came with a book that explained a lot of background material. There's also a live-action prequel web-series done by Remedy that answers most of your questions with regards to the story. The big one is Agent Nightengale. Basically, his partner died due to some weird X-files level shit, and Nightengale did not deal with it well. He basically suffered a breakdown, went into alcoholism and got suspended from the FBI. Yeah, that's right. The FBI is an EX-agent and the Bureau has fuck-all to do with his investigation. For reasons that's not made clear, he's somehow connected Wake to the weird goings-on and has concluded that his partner's death is somehow Wake's fault too. So he's there for revenge, on false pretenses.
The judder on the ferry stems from the direct aiming option. If you leave that off it'll run just fine. No need to cap the framerate. 🙂 A developer from remedy said in a forum post that the entire section is basically a giant engine hack and that they're doing something there the engine wasn't designed for. Also, you can switch the viewpoint to the other shoulder and that feels *much* better and is more aligned with the center of the screen. The console version switched automatically depending on the direction you spin the camera in. PC let's you disable that. I tried remaster on PC but it was full of weird graphics glitches and I refunded it. That's my 2 cents. Thanks for the great review/love letter! 🙂🧡
I know right, the YT internal software teams need to get their sh*t together. I love how you blended in a synopsis like retrospective of Remedy before getting into Alan Wake specifically. Max Payne was a huge deal for us back with the PS2 before GTA3 and Vice City were out. Not at all making a jab at Rock Star but Max Payne was on another level than what would come not too much later with the gritty, firearm focused action games during the 6th generation. Amazing to see you can still consistently produce content at the same level of quality, for me 6 years on now from when I first found your channel! Keep up the amazing work and hope there is enough support for your channel from fans if YT revenue streams are doing another left turn for no reason. Also just to mention I finally found and bought Growlanser: heritage of war on PS2 due to one of your awesome obscure rpg videos way back in the day
Alan Wake PC HEADS UP: Get the Remastered from EPIC, you can play with DLSS natively on RTX GPUs OR mod in FSR2/XeSS on non RTX/AMD/Intel GPUs. Game is extremely clean and performant across the board. JUST DON'T USE IN-GAME Vsync, cap it externally. Steam Deck: 800p60 maxed out on Deck probably using the FSR2 mod also. Personally: played Alan Wake Remastered at 1440p120 using FSR2 Balanced on AMD RX 5700 XT + R5 3600 + 32 GB ram.
I started back on the 360, in 2010 when it was released, but stopped playing on Episode 3 of the game just a few days later. My father was working night shifts and I couldn't play it for thisand other reasons. I didn't pick it up again until last March, when I was using my One S as a DVD/Blu-ray player. I decided to start again, having forgotten everything that had happen. Then I saw this on my watch feed back in August and had to skip it, as I hadn't finished the game. Come to a little over a week ago and finally finished it and America Nightmare. I enjoyed the game more then expected to and going control for it's DLC on Alan Wake before hitting Alan Wake 2 in the new year. Solid 8/10 from me.
Alan Wake, along with Control are 2 games i consistantly return to. I've loved everything Remedy has done since first seeing screenshots of Max Payne all those years ago. They're truly a one of a kind studio.
It's weird to hear how you supposedly like the story but 'hate the plot holes' even though they are explained by the core revelations which basically are the story. Seems like you just haven't paid enough attention. 46:53 - case and point: confession for willingly skipping the whole point of the story. Just like in 13 Sentinels, it's there to deliberately mislead or recontextualize all events. Spoilers: 1) Manuscript pages reveal that FBI agent was created by Alan Wake himself through the power of the lake. 2) Alan Wake himself and all his life are creation of Zane through the power of the lake; I think Alan (and/or Zane?) also rewrote his own childhood, created or changed many residents of the town. 3) How can you sandbag one of the greatest moments in all of gaming: magical metal song that both serve as story exposition for characters, in-universe 'written destiny' through the power of the lake and a banging song ? 4) Hard-mode has bonus Manuscript pages for more lore.
I really hope there are more tie-ins to Control in the sequel. Maybe they show up halfway through to investigate, since we know that they are aware and studying the area.
I recently replayed the game as I played it on 360 years back and liked it so much I got the PS5 remaster. I really loved the atmosphere, personality and visuals the game gave. I even stood still to watch all the twilight zone inspired episodes on the t.v. I will say the story well more specifically the end left me disappointed because it felt unfinished even with the story DLC. The gameplay is fun and I like the light mechanic but there are issues such as the invisible stamina. Your out of breath way to fast and thats an issue in a game where they want you to run a lot not only from enemies but to find secrets in a big open area. They also start to throw way to many enemies at a time later on so much so that it feels like they wanted a game with faster paced combat and Alan reloads and switches way to slow and its especially noticeable in the DLC. I hope part 2 fixes these issues.
They acknowledged the problem for alan wake, went back and fixed it. CDPR kept pushing the problem, lied about it to the public and released an unfinished half baked game.
When you said most ppl trying to relate the games would think of the gunplay, which is mighty different, I pictured the brothers in the coffee shop or random ppl you could talk to just for a weird experience. Even Control had that, like the strange janitor or the guy in the security dept who had a godawful hair piece. Not much to do with the story at large, but cool, little, idiosyncratic encounters.
Ohh my God. I'm not the only person who went back to the Anderson bros. To see why Alan had suddenly become all knowing. In my defense, I was high as hell when I played this a decade ago.
You mentioned in this video about liking a show/movie more than Twin Peaks.....I was just wondering what the name of it was. Sorry to ask but I listened to this in the background on Sunday & can't remember the name or when you said it.
Yo everyone! Get Alan Wake for just 6$ on GOG and support the channel right here - af.gog.com/index.php/game/alan_wake?as=1672895661
Also..... I love you...
Jared did you play the story DLCs for Alan Wake 1 released before American Nightmare where Alan is trapped in the darkness? They’re pretty good, nothing amazing
My copy of Alan wake back in 2010 came with a free download code for episode 1 of the DLC
Bro you absolutely need to review or experience re7 and 8 in ps vr re8 on vr2 was such an amazing experience i felt like a kid again playing re2 for first time. I was legit scared
Hey Jared, hope all is good my man. Have you played Alan Wake 2 yet? Really looking forward to what will probably be an amazing review! All the best man!
I'm curious to see what they'll do with characters like Barry and Mr. Scratch in the sequel.
Whatever it is, it'll be awesome. This is basically the only dev I do this with, but I essentially just trust them to always deliver. They haven't let me down yet.
The crossover I didn’t know I wanted
@@AvalancheReviewsplease collab on a video together I’ve seen all of both of your videos
Please collab together I would love that!
I know I said that we've never seen either of you in the room at the same time, but this comment proves nothing I tells ya, nothing!
The thing that people often overlook with Alan Wake is the amazing soundtrack. Sometimes I just go out for a walk in the woods and just put the soundtrack on to get back in the Alan Wake vibes.
How do you know that they overlook it, do you go to everyone and ask them about it
It's licensed music is great too, but that's always the case with Remedy.
@@RTXWorld-m2h ? you mad bro, chill.
@@RTXWorld-m2h Lol, damn. That's so needlessly rude of a response to such an innocuous comment that it comes back around to somehow being funny for me.
@@AvalancheReviews The Old Gods Of Asgard/Poets Of The Fall are fantastic and pulled me in as a fan just as it did to everyone else in the world after playing Control. And by "everyone", I do mean every single person. If anyone didn't become a fan they simply don't exist to me, and may God have mercy on their souls. (not really but that Billy Madison ref tho)
A quick correction from the American Nightmare section: the actor in the live action video sections isn't the voice actor. Alan Wake is kind of like how Max Payne, in the first game, is physically portrayed by Sam Lake, but voiced by James McCaffrey. Alan (and Mr. Scratch) is portrayed physically by Ilkka Villi, but is voiced by Matthew Porretta (who also portrays Dr. Darling in Control). It looks really clean like Ilkka is actually talking, but it's just some really high quality dubbing.
Only Avalanche casually returns after a month with 2 hour video and greets you with Max Payne OST, golden game from 2001
I figured since it's been so long, you guys deserved a longer one.
Great video, as always!!
As for your note on Nightingale appearing out of nowhere, his motivations and origin are explained in depth in The Alan Wake Files, a sort of in-universe lore companion which came with the special edition of the original release, and as a PDF with the PC port. For whatever reason, that PDF does not come with the Remaster, which is a shame, because it's kind of crucial if you want to get the full story. The two DLC episodes (The Signal and The Writer) are also crucial, but they seem to go overlooked in a lot of reviews of the game, which I think is in part because they are sorta buried in the game's menu.
I might be getting caught up in semantics, but American Nightmare isn't really a DLC for Alan Wake, it was a standalone game for Xbox Live Arcade which cannibalized some concepts from an early scrapped attempt at Alan Wake 2. Devs had said it was mostly them just blowing off some steam and having fun with a smaller scope title.
Also, that Remaster bug with the enemies was a bug introduced by a patch. I played and reviewed it at launch and didn't experience that at all.
I've become an obsessed Alan Wake fan, but I definitely walked away from the end of the game feeling more confused than resolved. So much of the story was told outside of the main campaign that I mistook it for being an unfinished story full of plot holes. I'm glad to see more and more people warming up to the game, but I wish Remedy would do more to point people in the right direction when it comes to the extended lore stuff that "completes" the story of the first game.
Damn, I'd love to track that down and give it a read!
@AvalancheReviews If you bought the Steam-version of Alan Wake you already own the Alan Wake Files, the DLC-Episodes, two comic books, Making Of-Material, etc.
You just have to click onthe game in your Library and find the option to purchase the Bonus Material in the shop (which are for free because you already own the game) and then you can download all of it digitally whithout buying the haptic collector's edition (at least, that's how it worked for me back in 2014)
Edit: And in case nobody in the comment section already said so, you find the DLC-Episodes in the menu when you click on episoed and have to manually start them one after the other, even some of my friends didn't know that they existed before i pointed this out to them.
@@NicolasF.Costoglouthe bonus files also come with the GOG version! The main difference between Steam and GOG is that one comes with the "Writer in the Cabin" videos, and one comes with the "Night Springs" videos, including a couple Night Springs episodes that didn't make their way into the game.
Remedy is probably my favorite developer. Totally stoked for you to cover this, and for AW2!
I think they might be one of my favorites too. Their output is just so damn unique.
I am (I think) so excited to hear you talk about Control. I talk about it being the Ocarina of Time of my 30’s. When I was little, no game inspired my imagination more than OoT, and Control did the exact same thing for me when it came out.
Such a gem of a game. So glad they are making another one
I'm getting more stoked on Alan Wake 2 by the day!
@@AvalancheReviews hell yeah brother! Keep up the good work on your end too! Huge fan of what you put out
I adore this game. I love everything about it and it's expanded universe from Control to House of Dreams. Its what got me into psychological horror and the likes of Silent Hill and Jacob's Ladder. I can't wait for the sequel.
Part 2 is looking amazing!!
Wow, I just got hit by a giant wave of nostalgia with the intro music to this video. I've been playing Remedy games since Max Payne and absolutely love their games. Even if they aren't perfect. I wish I could personally thank the people at Remedy for sticking to their guns and taking financial risks for the sake of creating a unique experience. I can't wait for your deep dives into the rest of their games!
Honestly me too. This video got me really stoked to jump into Control and QB.
On det. Nightingale, if I remember correctly this is where it was *kind of* necessary to have bought the collectors edition. It came with some more scraps pertaining to the backstory. Most notably Nightingale's. I *think* he lost his wife to this darkness and kind of track all this to Bright Falls/ Alan Wake. Ofc going by the game Nightingale just pops up and isn't explained really. The collectors edition also introduces a non-character in the game, I forget his name. The very first friendly guy you meet, during the opening dream sequence, that get's axed to death. Apparently he dreams that dream with Wake regularly and sometimes he saves him an other times Wake saves that Guy.
Damn, I would have loved to see that play out in game. That sounds like a perfect explanation for why he was acting so crazy.
With the caveat that it's been almost a decade since I last played the game, from what I remember SA Nightingale found manuscript pages that looked like Alan was conspiring to kill him. There's even a manuscript page about how he's been searching for and collecting manuscript pages trying to figure out what Alan is up to. Not sure about him looking for a missing wife though. The implication I had at the time was that Wake had basically written Nightingale into existence, and as a result, he doesn't really have any life outside of the events of the manuscript.
So, whether his wife was taken by the darkness, or if she ever even existed in the first place, he's having a complete existential meltdown because of the pages he's found and read.
Yeah, I have to retract the wife thing. I actually looked at "the Alan Wake files" (col.edition) Apparently det Nightingale lost his old partner Finn (he does call having a partner as having a second wife, so perhaps that's where I remembered that from) when "the craziness back East" started and Finn needed Det Nightingale. Nightingale apparently didn't believe him (suggested as something similar? to the darkness, but in typical Alan Wake fashion even the A.W. Files don't give a clear answer) and Finn died. Nightingale feels responsible and somehow tracks this to Bright Falls / Alan Wake en holds Alan responsible for, well, everything. Again left ambiguous as to why though.
The files are an in universe book authored by Clay Steward (the dude in the beginning that gets axe murdered), the files do make it clear that Nightingale is in Bright Falls of his own accord and not on official FBI business (He didn't even inform the bureau what he was doing). I do think Sarah Breaker mentioned something along the lines of that to Nightingale at one point in the game, but I can be mistaken about that too :p. @@StarkeRealm
Regarding how Alan knows about the Dark Presence, he found out through the TVs that flickered on where he saw himself talking about it. Canonically he watched them, even if you walk by them.
The thing about Remedy is they never seem to make a game just for the money. The studio has to genuinely care about what they're making, and that comes through in the final products. Alan Wake is a passion project for them. Despite the game almost being forgotten, Remedy kept a torch going for it. And now we have the wonderful Remedy connected universe as well as an Alan Wake sequel coming.
I get the impression that you get Alan’s voice and performance actors mixed up. Alan actually is a “mix” of two people… Finnish actor Ilkka Villi as the face and motion / performance capture, and Matthew Porreta as the voice (he also plays Dr. Darling in Control). Awesome review btw!
Yeah the face model and voice actors are two different people
18:55 because you put your narration over alan looking at his phone, for a second i thought you were going to say "and this is the section where the game properly introduces us to our main antagonist...verizon" lmao
We stan mega corporations around here
So beyond awesome to see another video from you!! I hope Tokyo is treating you well!
So far so good. This place has been a dream, and people really are super nice to us.
Awesome video so far but i have to correct a mistake. The first tv show esque "previously on" does not happen when Alan jumps after Alice in to the lake. It happens after you have survived the forest to Stucky's garage and sheriff Breaker takes you to see that there is no cabin on the lake. So there is no immersion breaking point between Alan jumping in and waking in the crashed car. The preludes and previews only happen at the end and start of each episode.
Also at least on the console versions there is never a "previously on" when you load back in to a save but on this point i can't assure it isn't this way in the pc version.
Also in the live action cut scenes/videos the one playing Alan is not the voice actor. The person who is acting Alan on screen is a Finnish model/actor Ilkka Villi who's likeness was used for Alan. The one voice acting Alan is Matthew Porreta who is a mainstay voice actor in Remedy games.
It's really impressive how well the after dubbing has been done because you really can't see that the voice of Alan you hear is not the person speaking on screen.
This point also stands for the remaster. Alan's face in the game is Ilkka Villi and voice is Matthew Porreta and Remedy has confirmed and showed this to be the case in Alan Wake 2 aswell
God, I loved that narration from the first 2 Max Payne games so much. 3rd one was nice too just different, which isn't a bad thing necessarily.
I’ve been going through this company’s games after Alan Wake 2 was announced and I really enjoy their games some are in my all time favorites and all of a sudden they became one of favorite video game companies, I’m looking forward for Alan Wake 2
Sounds like you have great taste, because I totally agree.
NICE! You got to enjoy Remedy's games without any need to wait for them to release which must have been awesome. Welcome to the club of being a fan of one of the best, most unique development studios!
Its open world origins gave the final linear game a greater sense of place rather than an artificial one.
Absolutely! It gave them the ability to have this large world, but the parts you actually interact with, are heavily developed, small sections. Best of both worlds honestly.
2023 is a really special year when many classic IPs make a comeback after more than a decade
I am SO excited to see you do a video on Alan Wake 2. Along with Signalis, is peak modern psychological horror imo
American Nightmare is not dlc. It is a stand alone game originally released on xbox live arcade.
Alan Wake does however have 2 special chapters titled the writer & the signal that happen after the main story and were sold separately as dlc for the original xbox 360 release but they were included from the get go on the pc version and the remastered version
I don't know if you missed this, or if you chose to not speak about it, but the music in the game is kinda important and could help iron out one of the gripes you have with it.
The Anderson Brothers in the game, were members of the Band "Old Gods of Asgard" (Songs performed by the real band "Poets of the Fall"), and there is a point in the game where Alan listens to one of their songs: "The Poet and the Muse".
This is where he gets clued in to a lot of the story, as the song is a recount of what happened to Thomas, the writer who previously dealt with the darkness. Furthermore it is in a sense prophetic, as it also perfectly outlines Alans adventure. This is something Remedy continues doing in "Control" btw, so keep your ears open. ;)
Additionally, Alan learns more about the story from the script pages he collects, as they tell the whole story and sometimes outline things that haven't happened to him yet.
Everybody misremembers that alan wake is a horror writer, he normally writes noir. Essentially he wrote a novel version of Max Payne. He wrote this story as a horror because that is what the darkness wanted.
By the way, that is why the FBI guy is there. At a guess Alan Wake originally was writing a detective novel, then changed midway through writing it, so the FBI character got reduced and reduced in the story until he is just there as a recurring threat then is removed very quickly by the darkness.
I find myself going back to this game at least once a year. I fell in love with the characters, story, and setting I even liked American Nightmare. Bought the remaster for ps5 and day one for AW2.
Same, I would love to have a friend like Barry and a visit a whacky town like bright falls
A great thing about the plot of Alan Wake is that everything that happens after Alan black's out was written by him to happen. In addition, this is his first time writing a horror story.
The game stresses that he's a bit of a bad writer who relies on cliches and tacky plot devices, so whenever the characters jump to ridiculous conclusions or make illogical decisions, you can just blame it on Alan's poor writing.
Funny thing in relation to your voice actor looking like the face actor, they are in fact two different people. Alan's voice is played by Matthew Porretta who also plays Dr. Casper Darling in Remedy's own Control. The character is modeled after Finnish actor Ilkka Villi.
Super looking forward to the sequel in October!
Really!? Well, I don't know how I messed that up. Thanks!
@@AvalancheReviews No worries my dude! I still love ya!
Remedy is really the only developer out there that's been consistently good with their games. CD Projekt Red, Rockstar, Arkane Studios, etc. have all been releasing terrible games lately. So Remedy is my favorite video game company right now and I can't wait for Alan Wake 2!
I couldn't agree more. They've never put out a bad game.
Rockstar have not released a new game since RDR2, which is one of their best. Terrible re-releases do not count, they are not even made by Rockstar. We'll see how GTA6 turns out.
You can actually change the shoulder side to which the camera is fixed by pressing on one of the analogue sticks, so it doesn't actually have to be on one side all the time.
So happy you covered this! Honestly Alan Wake is one of my favorite games ever made. I am a huge Twin Peaks fan and I literally own all of Stephen Kings novels. This game is one of those games, to me, that truly shines as art. Not to mention the fantastic live action series you can watch on RUclips Bright Falls, plus that stellar soundtrack. I am oh so excited for the sequel to come out, I don’t believe in preordering games but Alan Wake 2 will probably be a day one purchase for me.
Yooo the remaster messing up the enemies death animations on PC is brutal. That's like my favourite thing about the combat.
Alan Wake was one of my most play games back in the 360 era next to COD World at War and MW2.
I still listen to this Soundtrack
these kinds of videos are why im subbed. love the work!
Thanks!! Seems like you guys are really enjoying this one and that really puts a smile on my face.
No way dude i just freaking played and beat this game for the first time ever just last week and i wondered what you thought of the game..even searched it. Boom.
Hey, great minds think a like.
and we are all so fortunate to be here on the journey with u
It's great to have you guys aboard
Almost 2 hours!? Perfect.
My thoughts exactly
How did RUclips not serve me this video?! I literally watch majority hour long (or longer) video reviews on older videogames primarily horror. And I've been a subscriber to you since before RE:2R came out!
4:34 I did not grow up playing these games... I was born in 2003 😂. I always feel a little out of place watching this channel but not in a negative way. I actually love this channel. It's one of the best places to go for content like this. I have watched the video combination of every resi video he's covered multiple times, and I'm always excited when any new video from this channel comes out. Weirdly enough I don't actually enjoy playing videogames. It's just never clicked for me, but channels like this are like crack. I know it'll never be the same as playing but I feel like I get to take part in a little bit of the game. I love videogames, especially the older ones (the first and second fallout are my favorite), I just don't enjoy playing them for whatever reason.
No lie, I was watching YourFavoritesSon’s video on Alan about a week ago and thought, “I wonder if Jared has a video on this”. I looked through your catalog and didn’t see one so I just hoped you would cover it in the near future. Then this video drops because the universe has answered my cries. You are a truly gifted storyteller and I lm legitimately stoked every time you post.
Awesome editing on this Jared! Looking very slick and pro! Pro tip for anyone who hasn't yet, there was a series of short videos released in the runup to the Alan Wake release. The series is called 'Bright Falls', released exclusively on the xbox online platform and they are VERY well done. Kind of like the in-game videos you can watch on all the tv's. It's a very cool prequel story/tie-in to the game and can highly recommend them to anyone who's never seen them. It was a really cool marketing stint they did for Alan Wake.
Great to see this channel back with a vengeance! You pick up on some of the most unique details in certain areas of the game (like with the animations with Alan how the camera moves when he runs etc) that I never see anyone else mention on other channels, which is pretty damn crazy considering what a RUclips video game content degenerate I am. You just seem to have a keen eye for those technical aspects that, as a great man once said, I never noticed (but my brain did). Thanks for this excellent monster of a video here, so excited you're back and going into REMEDY baby hell yeah!
I just beat this game for the first time yesterday lol. Perfect timing
Dude, hell yeah! I'm getting a lot of these comments. i guess everyone is getting ready for part 2.
@@AvalancheReviewsand it was free last month for PlayStation!
13:14 Tears in my eyes
Sometimes you gotta set the tone. Let everyone know you wont be doing things in a "smart" or "correct" kind of way.
First time I’ve watched one of your videos so close after release I haven’t watched all your videos but I really enjoy this channel. The resident evil ports videos are insane! Your content is highly underrated and I appreciate the work you put in! Awesome video as always
Well thank you very much!! I'm thinking about adding to the RE port series pretty soon actually.
@@AvalancheReviews awesome!! That’s exciting
Liked your thoughts on lighting, my dude. Made it come alive, no pun intended!
I was drinking water when you say that New York joke at 1:27:57 and of course I spit it out and coughed like I'm in burning house. Thanks for the good laugh sir
I always find it interesting how Sony gets shit on for timed exclusives, yet it was Microsoft that basically made timed exclusives the norm with the 360 generation with this, Bioshock, ME2, Dead Rising, GTA4 DLC, CoD DLC, etc.
Both companies have been absolute idiots in the past. I tend to find Sony more palatable, but I wouldn't exactly defend them in court. For me, it's not about exclusives or brand loyalty. I just buy the console with the best looking user interface. I'm a simple man.
Death Rally was amazing, omg what a blast from the past, I forgot about that game existing
Nightingale is there as a rogue because he found a manuscript page that tells how he dies. That's why he's after wake
This is such an important video for me because I absolutely love Alan Wake, and it being the start of a new retrospective series for one of my favorite developers who have made some of my all-time beloved games is just *mwah* chef's kiss to me.
I am so glad you actually addressed the Remaster, because I bought AWR on launch on my PS5 and wanted to like it so much, but I found that I really couldn't get into it for a couple reasons. The faces did look odd but I assumed it was because they were essentially placed over old bones, so I did not count too much against it. The main thing that actually made me put it down is that they changed the over-the-shoulder camera. In the original and on pc, you can lock the camera over either of Alan's shoulders (I swapped it to over his right shoulder) but in the Remaster, it is not locked, instead the camera will swap shoulders when moving the camera side to side. With this being an action horror title that requires you to observe your surroundings very often, I could never get a hold on the aiming and it would act as a crutch to me, despite them moving the flashlight to the center of the screen rather than off-center.
I always thought this was a specific issue that would be addressed in a patch, but as far as I'm aware, it is unironically "not a bug, but a feature." I even booted it up on my pc to see if I was crazy and just misremembering but over there, I had no issues at all. Did anyone else notice this and find it throwing them off or am I crazy?
Unfortunately, despite me not remembering this, the original 360 version i just started replaying switches shoulders over and over. Its maddening
Whoa, that's insane to me, actually. So the PC is the lone version to not do that?? I guess the repositioning of the flashlight beam really did affect me that much
@@timothyhammons6913 yeah its crazy. Ive played it twice before and didnt remember this fighting me so much XD
Alan does make quite a leap when he's explaining things to Barry.
Is it possible that his repressed memories with the lady of the lake are subconsciously coming back and that's how he figured things out?
I'm so hyped you're doing this I decided to buy the remedy collection a lil while ago
Very cool analysis! I remember playing this game when it released on the Xbox 360. I appreciated how different it was compared to other games being released at the time and the interesting story. I also appreciated the time dedicated to the Remaster, various ports, and American Nightmare. I feel these topics are seldom discussed.
One omission was a discussion on the two story expansions to the base game which take place right after the ending. Not enough people know about these! I would have also loved to see a discussion about the use of licensed music in the game. Really nice video!
I would have liked to see some commentary on the band Poets of the Fall aka Old Gods of Asgard (in-universe name) and their relationship to Remedy. The band was formed to make a song for Max Payne 2 and they have also made music under both names for Alan Wake, American Nightmare and Control. I discovered them through Alan Wake and they became one of my favourite bands
I've been really busy and it's taken me until now to watch this. I never played Max Payne, but I did play the Alan Wake games and really loved them. The combat in the first game wasn't responsive but I felt that it was a choice since Wake wasn't an action hero, just someone trying to survive. I'm not really a psychological horror guy either in terms of but really love the atmosphere of the game. With American Nightmare i definitely noticed the improvement in the gameplay mechanics. I know some people criticised the repetitive nature but I liked what they did. It wasn't a clone of the first and found that as I replayed each level, all I could do was stick to the original plan and original path. You inevitably were ambushed by obstacles and enemies, but what else could you do. Great review, sorry it's taken so long. Probably going to replay Alan Wake soon. Steam has been doing something weird. All at the same time games, of different ages, have required massive updates. It says Alan Wake is 11.7 Gig in Steam and needs a 10.4 Gig update.
Awesome video, Jared! Remedy is such a neat studio and I'm super excited to see you cover more of their work! Can't wait for Alan Wake 2!
Remedy is one of the few consistently great dev companies. They put so much love, care, and effort into each game, and the wait between them is well worth it, because there's still so much to find in each game.
Absolutely. You can always count on them.
I've learned Remedy through Max Payne as most people. They haven't made a bad game, Alan Wake oozes with atmosphere as all Remedy games.
I completely agree. They are undefeated in my eyes.
Great video but i don't understand why you stopped the story review at episode 6 and leave out episode 7 and 8?
If you saw how long it took to make this video, you'd understand real well. I just couldn't put anymore time into this one.
@@AvalancheReviews I understand that it was a long one, i just find it odd to not finish the game and instead proritze ports over the actual ending. Episode 7 and 8 are an integral part of the story even though they were released after to simulate how a Tv serie operate and prevent people for spoiling the ending (probably also to give them more time to polish the ending). Like reviewing Final fantasy 7 and not playing the third Cd i don't get it to be honest. Good job none the less.
So, sorry if this sounds stupid but I feel I should mention this.
See, you refer to American Nightmare as an Alan Wake DLC, which it technically isn't. It's a stand-alone expansion that was released a few years after the original game. I have this vague memory it was part of a big XBLA thing that Microsoft did back in the day on the 360, but that might be my brain messing with me, not sure.
Anyway, I only mention that because the base game of Alan Wake did get some DLC; specially two extra chapters (The Signal and The Writer) that take place after the main game but before the American Nightmare story.
You didn't mention them in the Review at all, and as they're important to the story and also have a couple of fun gameplay gimmicks, guess I just wanted to make sure you'd played them is all.
Don't want you missing out on the fun. ^^
Also remedy announced that they're going to be doing a full fledge remake of maxpayne1 they're working in tandem with another Studio to help get it done but it looks like they're going to go through all of their older games and they're going to be remaking all of them by the looks of it, which hopefully means they're going to continue the Max Payne franchise but we'll see
Alan wake has been one of my favorite games, the atmosphere is pretty unique in my opinion and I think the graphics still hold up today. Very excited to see your take on it in this retrospective since the level of care and attention in your other videos is really something special.
Don't forget your Energizer™ flashlight batteries and your Verizon® phone (lots of Verizon billboards). 😂
A long review of a game that I finished recently. Can't wait! Thank you for this!
I spoil you guys
Amazing video! Thanks for the hard work you put in your videos. 😊
I never did get to play this till the remaster came out and I'm glad I did. This was very interesting. Not only am I looking forward to the upcoming sequel but also the other remedy games you will be looking at Jared.
At least I know this rather.... unusual retrospective will be an interesting one.
35:02 Nightingale is not an FBI agent. He was let go because of his alcoholism and obsession with finding the truth about the death/disappearance of his partner. He was merely posing as an agent to get close to Wake, because he suspected that he had something to do with the fate of his coworker. It's all in the Alan Wake files. Plus, you can see the suspicion from the sheriff when she doubts that he's a real agent.
You also need to read the comics. When the sheriff asks Barry to call up her close contacts, she also asked him to say the word "nightsprings" to someone and that they'll know what to do. That someone was actually an FBC agent from Control, instructed to investigate and let the berau know about the altered world event in the town
I played Alan Wake at the beginning of this year which started off a multiple month obsession, ive had it in my Steam library for years.
Love it when I see one youtuber whose work I enjoy point me to another one I had already found independently.
Sick. Alan Wake video by Avalanche Reviews.
I will sleep well tonight.
Or will you?????? Yes you will
Alan Wake isnt a horror writer, he writes crime thrillers. IN fact it seems heavily implied that he WROTE Max Payne, as a book series
Yes Alan Wake wrote Alex Casey
Nah, Remedy stated that Max Payne and Alan Wake are not connected. Alex Casey is just an easter egg.
Remedy actually had worked on DLC before American Nightmare, because Alan Wake itself has two pieces of DLC, called The Signal and The Writer, following him as he's stuck in the Dark Place. I believe they come with the original PC version and they definitely come with Alan Wake Remastered. In essence, I think they'll serve as somewhat of a bridge into the sequel (as well as Control's AWE DLC) Definitely recommend checking them out.
Here's to seeing alan wake 2 till i reach my 80th birthday
Indeed!!
The OG Alan Wake Deluxe Edition (and the Steam PC edition) came with a book that explained a lot of background material. There's also a live-action prequel web-series done by Remedy that answers most of your questions with regards to the story. The big one is Agent Nightengale. Basically, his partner died due to some weird X-files level shit, and Nightengale did not deal with it well. He basically suffered a breakdown, went into alcoholism and got suspended from the FBI. Yeah, that's right. The FBI is an EX-agent and the Bureau has fuck-all to do with his investigation. For reasons that's not made clear, he's somehow connected Wake to the weird goings-on and has concluded that his partner's death is somehow Wake's fault too. So he's there for revenge, on false pretenses.
I love the Pitcher of Shenannigans ;D
I like your videos so much!
You are awesome!
Thanks for showing the remaster issues.
The judder on the ferry stems from the direct aiming option. If you leave that off it'll run just fine. No need to cap the framerate. 🙂 A developer from remedy said in a forum post that the entire section is basically a giant engine hack and that they're doing something there the engine wasn't designed for. Also, you can switch the viewpoint to the other shoulder and that feels *much* better and is more aligned with the center of the screen. The console version switched automatically depending on the direction you spin the camera in. PC let's you disable that. I tried remaster on PC but it was full of weird graphics glitches and I refunded it. That's my 2 cents. Thanks for the great review/love letter! 🙂🧡
Why are there so low views and comments here? What not to love about a 2 hour Avalanche vid??
You're making a lot of sense here
It always makes my day to see your notifications
Hell yeah! I'm just happy you're getting my notifications. My wife doesn't even get notified when I stream. HA!
I know right, the YT internal software teams need to get their sh*t together. I love how you blended in a synopsis like retrospective of Remedy before getting into Alan Wake specifically. Max Payne was a huge deal for us back with the PS2 before GTA3 and Vice City were out. Not at all making a jab at Rock Star but Max Payne was on another level than what would come not too much later with the gritty, firearm focused action games during the 6th generation. Amazing to see you can still consistently produce content at the same level of quality, for me 6 years on now from when I first found your channel! Keep up the amazing work and hope there is enough support for your channel from fans if YT revenue streams are doing another left turn for no reason. Also just to mention I finally found and bought Growlanser: heritage of war on PS2 due to one of your awesome obscure rpg videos way back in the day
Alan Wake PC HEADS UP: Get the Remastered from EPIC, you can play with DLSS natively on RTX GPUs OR mod in FSR2/XeSS on non RTX/AMD/Intel GPUs. Game is extremely clean and performant across the board. JUST DON'T USE IN-GAME Vsync, cap it externally.
Steam Deck: 800p60 maxed out on Deck probably using the FSR2 mod also.
Personally: played Alan Wake Remastered at 1440p120 using FSR2 Balanced on AMD RX 5700 XT + R5 3600 + 32 GB ram.
The original looks better and can be bought pennies
I started back on the 360, in 2010 when it was released, but stopped playing on Episode 3 of the game just a few days later. My father was working night shifts and I couldn't play it for thisand other reasons. I didn't pick it up again until last March, when I was using my One S as a DVD/Blu-ray player. I decided to start again, having forgotten everything that had happen. Then I saw this on my watch feed back in August and had to skip it, as I hadn't finished the game. Come to a little over a week ago and finally finished it and America Nightmare. I enjoyed the game more then expected to and going control for it's DLC on Alan Wake before hitting Alan Wake 2 in the new year. Solid 8/10 from me.
Alan Wake, along with Control are 2 games i consistantly return to. I've loved everything Remedy has done since first seeing screenshots of Max Payne all those years ago. They're truly a one of a kind studio.
It's weird to hear how you supposedly like the story but 'hate the plot holes' even though they are explained by the core revelations which basically are the story. Seems like you just haven't paid enough attention. 46:53 - case and point: confession for willingly skipping the whole point of the story. Just like in 13 Sentinels, it's there to deliberately mislead or recontextualize all events. Spoilers:
1) Manuscript pages reveal that FBI agent was created by Alan Wake himself through the power of the lake.
2) Alan Wake himself and all his life are creation of Zane through the power of the lake; I think Alan (and/or Zane?) also rewrote his own childhood, created or changed many residents of the town.
3) How can you sandbag one of the greatest moments in all of gaming: magical metal song that both serve as story exposition for characters, in-universe 'written destiny' through the power of the lake and a banging song ?
4) Hard-mode has bonus Manuscript pages for more lore.
I really hope there are more tie-ins to Control in the sequel. Maybe they show up halfway through to investigate, since we know that they are aware and studying the area.
Did you play the DLC specials? I was impressed with how trippy they got, mostly reusing main game assets.
I recently replayed the game as I played it on 360 years back and liked it so much I got the PS5 remaster. I really loved the atmosphere, personality and visuals the game gave. I even stood still to watch all the twilight zone inspired episodes on the t.v. I will say the story well more specifically the end left me disappointed because it felt unfinished even with the story DLC. The gameplay is fun and I like the light mechanic but there are issues such as the invisible stamina. Your out of breath way to fast and thats an issue in a game where they want you to run a lot not only from enemies but to find secrets in a big open area. They also start to throw way to many enemies at a time later on so much so that it feels like they wanted a game with faster paced combat and Alan reloads and switches way to slow and its especially noticeable in the DLC. I hope part 2 fixes these issues.
They acknowledged the problem for alan wake, went back and fixed it. CDPR kept pushing the problem, lied about it to the public and released an unfinished half baked game.
When you said most ppl trying to relate the games would think of the gunplay, which is mighty different, I pictured the brothers in the coffee shop or random ppl you could talk to just for a weird experience. Even Control had that, like the strange janitor or the guy in the security dept who had a godawful hair piece. Not much to do with the story at large, but cool, little, idiosyncratic encounters.
What about the two episode expansion?
Great video, dude! However it's Ameircan Nightmare, not Wasteland :p
God I've been waiting for this
And it has finally arrived
Ohh my God. I'm not the only person who went back to the Anderson bros. To see why Alan had suddenly become all knowing.
In my defense, I was high as hell when I played this a decade ago.
i feel like they were fans of the show Fringe, which did a 'previously on...' VO for most episodes that sounds very similar
You mentioned in this video about liking a show/movie more than Twin Peaks.....I was just wondering what the name of it was.
Sorry to ask but I listened to this in the background on Sunday & can't remember the name or when you said it.
Remedy’s one of the few developers that I will happily give all my money when they drop a new game
So hyped for number 2
You and me both.
Curious if you played the other dlc story content that came out. I remember it introducing new mechanics. It was ver enjoyable