I have a unique perspective on Alan Wake 2, as a person who was very critical on the original game, and not a fan of the survival horror genre. Yet Remedy did something special and unique and intriguing here, that i was glued to my seat from the narrative perspective and even invested in the new protagonist Saga. Remedy also did the dual protagonist in a great way that didn't make any of them feel less important than others, or even making the new character uninteresting. They excelled this game alone from a writing perspective and I do hope if they don't win game of the year, they should win narrative of the year, Sam Lake is one of the industry's best writers. Now the gameplay, I think the combat works alot better when it feels more sparse and is not just spamming waves of enemies at you like the first game, because of that it felt more repetitive without the satisfying feeling. But here it was more sparse and the boss fights quite fun and unique, tho I must critique that the gameplay didn't feel as good as the first one, I dont know if clunky is the right word, but I believe this is on purpose because of the genre switch, to be more like resident evil. Also the soundtrack is good man, especially some cool story ones. The puzzles worked here for me, where i felt annoyed and bored in Resident Evil, the story made me care and the gameplay mechanics made the puzzles and mystery quite engaging to me. Gameplay is what it is, but does what it does for the focused narrative, also the backtracking isn't nearly as annoying in Resident Evil for me. I apologize for kind of rambling on here, but i applaud Sam Lake for making me enjoy a game this much, in a genre that really isn't my cup of tea.

Ps: This game made me want to give control another shot.