Picked this up during the holiday sale and played via Geforce Now with all the bells and whistles turned up.
strengths:
gorgeous lighting
stash puzzles/doll puzzles
great sound (guns, VO, ambient)
exploration is rewarded with lore bits and resources
story gets spicy as the campaign goes on
weakness
un-interactive props/environment (huge let down, especially after Control)
the visuals behind the taken can make the screen a blurry mess
the Mind Place isn't fun to navigate (sluggish controls) and fails at making you feel like a detective/smart. It feels very much like "put the square clue in the square hole."
open hubs are nice, but let down a bit by the linear paths
backtracking suffers from the linear level design. would have been mitigated if you could drive/warp to different corners of the Hubs
combat feel in general feels like a step down. there is poor feedback when using the flashlight to melt away the enemy's armor, which makes combat often feel tedious and evoke a "wtf why is this not working" thoughts
Takeaway: I think the world and setting can work for Remedy to create more games beyond Alan Wake. The Dark Presence or other phenomena could be solid vehicles to tell new stories.
I have no desire to replay the campaign (the combat/traversal is the weakest component of the game) but I will check out the DLC.
