The first and only Max Payne without Sam Lake being the main writer and it is pretty immediately felt. The gritty, noir feeling of the first two is replaced a somewhat sunny but still grungy setting as Max hangs up his leather jacket in Hoboken for a flak jacket in Sao Paulo. Dan Houser's writing for Max is still great and the story really grabs you starting in the third act but before that it felt like I was just being dragged along. The gameplay is solid but feels more limited due to the nature of Rockstar's somewhat realism in most there games. No longer is the one man army Max Payne who can carry 2 shotguns, 3 rifles, 4 pistols, and a holy plethora of grenades. You are now limited to 2 pistols and a rifle, the attention to detail is nice but really makes the game feel less fun. Bullet time remains and like everything else in this game feels weighty and visceral. My main complaint with this game however is that it almost feels more like a cover shooter then the power fantasy of the first two games, maybe its due to the age of Payne or Rockstar's commitment to realism but you are a lot more vulnerable and I found it a pretty frustrating shift in gameplay. Overall, Remedy's titles are the superior Max Payne games with their tone and gameplay but this game is still worth the playthrough.

There has never really been anything quite like Alan Wake, this remaster proves it. This edition improves everything that Remedy did great the first time, the excellent use of lighting and use of environment to guide you through this twisting tale. I wish that the combat was improved as this game still contains the most unreliable dodge button in any video game ever. Due to this the game still feels somewhat aged and is pretty difficult to play due to this. The frustrating nature of the gameplay would make this game a hard recommend, however I still believe that this game is one of the pinnacles of game writing. It's bonkers how well the game is written and how much depth every little manuscript you pick up contains. If Remedy learns from Control I do believe the upcoming sequel could be their best game yet.

Really my first dive into the visual-novel genre, the closest related thing being Persona. For the most part, I really enjoyed my time! The writing for the most part was great and funny. The twists were pretty foreseeable, especially if you know the big twist (which you probably do due to the nature of the internet). I did have some annoyances with gameplay, as well as the feeling that the protagonist was a plot device rather than the vessel that pushes the story forward which leads to what could have been some of the more interesting/harrowing moments in the story to be explained rather than shown (which might come with the genre, I do not know). The game also did not perform spectacularly on the new collection on Switch, which is a shame, it also left a bad taste in my mouth when the game crashed on the final case and I lost over an hour of progress. Overall, I will return to the series as I heard the sequels do have better characters and story-telling, I just won't be returning right away.