Alan Wake 2 - new survival horror experience from Remedy

[Skinwalker]

Is it shit?

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

Is it shit?

Depends on what you're looking for. It's just a fairly simple survival horror game with a pretty interesting plot for AAA terms. I like it more than Alan Wake 1, anyway.

 

[Skinwalker]

I'm watching a let's play of this game on youtube, it's fairly interesting so far. I think I'd be bored "playing" this, though, it doesn't seem to be much of a game, tbh (even though it has combat and inventory management and stuff).

 

[Modron]

I remember watching a commentless lp of Deadly Premonition and enjoying it even if I would not necessarily be excited by its gameplay myself, so I could see that. I'd imagine watching an LP of a dressed up puzzle game like Catherine for story beats would be okay as well.

 

[Ash]

OP what the fuck? If this game is anything like the first, you don't classify this shit as "survival horror". Alan woke is an action game for starters, secondly it is a terrible action game. Popamole with a horror theme. That should be the thread subtitle.

 

[Wunderbar]

It's probably Remedy's worst game so far.

The "gameplay to cinematics" ratio is really bad here, 30% of the AW2 are cutscenes and dialogue segments, 30% - actual gameplay, and 40% - filler sequences where you slowly walk around the areas, look for clues, and then pin them to a clue board. Except that those 40% are utterly devoid of any challenge since the clues are highlighted and cannot be pinned in the wrong order or in the wrong cathegory.

The gameplay is basically RE2-RE3 remake, but worse in every way. There are only four enemy types - three in Saga's campaign (melee rednecks, fast rednecks who throws shit at you, possessed wolves) and only one in Alan's campaing (shadowy dudes who turn into rednecks after you point a lantern at them). The item management and resource conservation barely matter cuz AW2 has RE4-style adaptive difficulty, so as soon as you start running low on certain types of supplies the game will start showering you with them via lootable containers.

The levels at times have a non-linear structure, but the game never actually gives you freedom of tackling the objectives in your own order - you cant sequence-break, and you can't even do certain tasks out of order even if logically it should be possible to do them. At one point in the main quest you are given a task to find a ritual deer mask. There's a hint - the mask may be near the well. You find a well, and the mask is not here, but as soon as you open a clue board and pin "deer mask may be located near a well" clue to it, the mask magically spawns from the thin air. Another example was a fusebox in the nursing home. You're standing outside, your objective is to find a mcguffin hidden in a room locked with an electronic lock, and you can see that the lights are out. It makes sense to go to the basement and swap a broken fuse, but you can't do that - the fusebox will not be interactable until you go upstairs to the locked door and try to open in. The main character will mutter something like "ugh the door is locked and the power's out, I must replace the fuse', and only then the fusebox becomes interactable.

And the story isn't even good. It's just another Twin Peaks/Stephen King pastiche, except a bit gorier and edgier than the first game because now the list of "inspired by" was expanded by adding Twin Peaks Season 3. And don't get me started on the constant Control/Max Payne/Quantum Break references, because everything needs to be a part of some "expanded universe", or "multiverse", or "Remedyverse", or whatever the fuck. Alan Wake, Max Payne from alternate timeline, and Federal Bureau of Control all team up to fight Thanos!!! :soyface:

The bottom line is that someone must travel to Finland and beat Sam Lake to death (in minecraft).

 

[Fedora Master]

Gee looks like I was right once again.

 

[SlamDunk]

 

[Devastator]

How long is this game realistically if you don't just brute force past everything? I played the first one only once and ages ago, but it seemed kind of 'meh' at the time. Since this one isn't any better, I would prefer for it to be short, like 8-12 hours max, otherwise I'm skipping it.

Here's some negative Playstation reviews I copied from Metacritic. Yikes.

It certainly starts off strong but once you revisit the same map for the 4th time, you realise this game has been heavily padded out.

Alan Wake 1 was a decent game when it was released and interesting due to its scenario strongly inspired by: In the Mouth of Madness. Its sequel seems to have been stuck in the 2010s gameplay-wise. Alan Wake 2 bombards us with repetitive jumpscares

The PCMR is even saltier...

Cheap and overused jump scares. Little combat compared to AW1, Control etc. It is not a "Survival horror" game. You never feel vulnerable against enemies or bosses. After 13 years the main story is not going anywhere. It indeed is a spiral. It feels like a filler, is a filler and now do we wait another 13 years for some major developments in the story?

In 13 years, Remedy has learned absolutely nothing about how to tell a compelling story. The writing, dialogue, and characters are largely archetypical junk. Not a single, original thought in the game's head. The gameplay is either boring gunplay or placing sticky notes on a big wall. In order for this style of paranormal/investigative game to be engaging, the story has to be rock solid and compelling. Spoiler warning, it isn't.

 

[SlamDunk]

It's probably Remedy's worst game so far.

Remedy has not made a good game since Max Payne 2.

 

[toughasnails]

And don't get me started on the constant Control/Max Payne/Quantum Break references, because everything needs to be a part of some "expanded universe", or "multiverse", or "Remedyverse", or whatever the fuck. Alan Wake, Max Payne from alternate timeline, and Federal Bureau of Control all team up to fight Thanos!!! :soyface:

In their defense, both of their "senpais" were doing this for a long time. Lynch's later movies contain nods to earlier ones and to TP, so much so that some take them as set in the same "Lynchverse" if you will. But Lynch is p restrained with this, so you can always either ignore it or interpret it in other ways. In King's case, most of his novels used to connect to Dark Tower multiverse. I'm not sure if he still does this, haven't read anything new of his for a long time...

 

[lightbane]

How long is this game realistically if you don't just brute force past everything? I

Around 7 hours. Buffmaister's channel has the "movie" with the game using mostly cutscenes.
It's indeed woke it seems. It also commits the uber-woke and fatal mistake of...

MASSIVE SPOILERS

Having the strong black female kill Alan Wake. In his own game.
Granted, it's a convoluted plan to save a third guy, and Alan doesn't really die, sort of, but it's quite symbolic of having the new strong female protagonist literally taking over Alan's own stuff. Similar stuff tends to happen in recent movies, repeatedly.

 

[Alienman]

Jesus, that spoiler. Glad I gave up on the game.

 

[JDR13]

Remedy has not made a good game since Max Payne 2.

I was literally about to post the exact same thing.

 

[Tyranicon]

If you guys don't know what 9/10 gaming reviews mean in 2023, I don't know what to tell you.

-reads spoiler-

I had to fact-check that spoiler because it was so predictable and hilarious that it was almost noncredible.

Imagine waiting double-digit years for your cult favorite IP to get a sequel, and it's this.

-looks over at VtM: Bloodlines 2-

 

[Fedora Master]

cult favorite IP

That's certainly not Alan Wake. Any "cult status" for this game was at best made up by shills.

 

[lightbane]

I had to fact-check that spoiler because it was so predictable and hilarious that it was almost noncredible.

I thought so, but Wikipedia says so, and so does some videos I watched. Predictable indeed... However, they don't go all the way, of course, because a third game can be done... After 10 years or so, I guess. And DLCs, of course. There's one to be done minimum according to datamining.

 

[Zlaja]

At this point Remedy has to be one of the most overrated game studios out there. Max Payne 2 was released back in 2003, so they haven't made a truly good game in 20 fucking years.

 

[random_name]

I remember playing Alan Wake 1 when it came out and thinking: how do you go from Max Payne to this crap? Nice to see things are not getting better.

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

How long is this game realistically if you don't just brute force past everything? I played the first one only once and ages ago, but it seemed kind of 'meh' at the time. Since this one isn't any better, I would prefer for it to be short, like 8-12 hours max, otherwise I'm skipping it.

Here's some negative Playstation reviews I copied from Metacritic. Yikes.

It certainly starts off strong but once you revisit the same map for the 4th time, you realise this game has been heavily padded out.

Alan Wake 1 was a decent game when it was released and interesting due to its scenario strongly inspired by: In the Mouth of Madness. Its sequel seems to have been stuck in the 2010s gameplay-wise. Alan Wake 2 bombards us with repetitive jumpscares

The PCMR is even saltier...

Cheap and overused jump scares. Little combat compared to AW1, Control etc. It is not a "Survival horror" game. You never feel vulnerable against enemies or bosses. After 13 years the main story is not going anywhere. It indeed is a spiral. It feels like a filler, is a filler and now do we wait another 13 years for some major developments in the story?

In 13 years, Remedy has learned absolutely nothing about how to tell a compelling story. The writing, dialogue, and characters are largely archetypical junk. Not a single, original thought in the game's head. The gameplay is either boring gunplay or placing sticky notes on a big wall. In order for this style of paranormal/investigative game to be engaging, the story has to be rock solid and compelling. Spoiler warning, it isn't.

It's around 14-24 hours depending on how much side crap you do. But you can easily beat it in 14 hours if you have half a brain and don't do side stuff

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

OP what the fuck? If this game is anything like the first, you don't classify this shit as "survival horror". Alan woke is an action game for starters, secondly it is a terrible action game. Popamole with a horror theme. That should be the thread subtitle.

The gameplay is a lot more like survival horror than alan wake 1. It has all of the survival horror tropes, resource management, intentionally shitty controls. It's just not a particularly challenging survival horror game, but yes it is in fact survival horror. Ticks all the boxes.

 

[Skinwalker]

Why is there a musical number in the middle of the game? What the fuck.

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

Why is there a musical number in the middle of the game? What the fuck.

Apparently Sam Lake had been wanting to put a musical into one of his games since forever. They almost cut it from the game as well but Sam Lake pushed for it staying in.

 

[Alienman]

It's a reddit game. Should explain it.

 

[Zlaja]

The game is indeed survival horror. You play the game (which is the horrific part), you survive at the end, and then move on to play something better. See? Survival horror.