Alan Wake II is a single-player adventure that seamlessly shifts from a slow burning psychological terror to frantic survival-horror action. Entering the tail end of the year where 2023 has already been packed with banger after banger, Alan Wake II still manages to burn as brightly as a freshly fired signal flare.
Alan Wake II is not only a gaming marvel but it's also a cinephile dream come true with the most creative story-telling and cinematics. This game transcends what i thought was possible in terms of narrative delivery and presentation. Filmic art direction, mechanics altering enviroments, and tense traversal came together to create a mind bending survival horror masterpiece. The game feels like a reflection of so many art forms...its a careful dance of theatrical storytelling, melodramatic rock musicals, farce comedy to deliver meta narratives and the whole canvas of noir cinema the entire game is crafted on, i would go as far as saying it is a one of a kind video game. The story is purpossly difficult to follow, it leaves you knowing less at the end of the game than you did at the start...it is a fourth wall breaking story that is truly a mind bender.
The opening couple of hours of mostly combat-free procedural investigation give the story a realistic grounding. Saga Anderson, one of 2 controllable players in the game, seems like on surface level another FBI agent, but comes to realize as reality is transforming around her, the livelyhood of not only herself but everyone around her is at stake. The story isn't something to motor you along a course of shooting 'Taken', the games main enemies, the story is the game.
The graphics are intelsey detailed from the trees to the characters to the city in Alan's section of the game. So many moments you're just taking in your surroundings because of how beautiful it all looks. The Character animations are also well done to evoke the emotions theyre trying to portray even when it's an in-game regular player to NPC conversation. The audio in this game is also among the best, being able to pin-point audio origins very well, further building up the tension of the game.
The gameplay is very comparebale to a game like The Last of Us series, which can explain the somehwat lackluster boss fights. Alan's mental health isn't the only thing here that isn't as strong as it could be, although the different arsenals of the two playable characters each boast their own advantages, their individual skill trees seem somewhat lopsided in their implementation. Furthermore, and in contrast with Alan's impressive enviromental remixing, Saga is regularly given the task with a few too many survival-horror stereotypes, like fuse boxes to repair and combination locks to solve. Still, Alan Wake II is one of the best games to ever implement live action actors and gameplay into one in my opinion, any issue i had with the game i mentioned above, or the poor framerate performance at times, sank without a trace like an out-of-town tourist into Cauldron Lake.
Not only is this one of the best games i have played in 2023, but one of the best of all time. The magnum opus of modern psychological horror. A masterful artistic direction that blows away any mainstream standard. I would wait 13 years again if i had to, Remedy truly knocked it out of the park.
P.S - The "We Sing" musical chapter is amazing lol.
Alan Wake II is not only a gaming marvel but it's also a cinephile dream come true with the most creative story-telling and cinematics. This game transcends what i thought was possible in terms of narrative delivery and presentation. Filmic art direction, mechanics altering enviroments, and tense traversal came together to create a mind bending survival horror masterpiece. The game feels like a reflection of so many art forms...its a careful dance of theatrical storytelling, melodramatic rock musicals, farce comedy to deliver meta narratives and the whole canvas of noir cinema the entire game is crafted on, i would go as far as saying it is a one of a kind video game. The story is purpossly difficult to follow, it leaves you knowing less at the end of the game than you did at the start...it is a fourth wall breaking story that is truly a mind bender.
The opening couple of hours of mostly combat-free procedural investigation give the story a realistic grounding. Saga Anderson, one of 2 controllable players in the game, seems like on surface level another FBI agent, but comes to realize as reality is transforming around her, the livelyhood of not only herself but everyone around her is at stake. The story isn't something to motor you along a course of shooting 'Taken', the games main enemies, the story is the game.
The graphics are intelsey detailed from the trees to the characters to the city in Alan's section of the game. So many moments you're just taking in your surroundings because of how beautiful it all looks. The Character animations are also well done to evoke the emotions theyre trying to portray even when it's an in-game regular player to NPC conversation. The audio in this game is also among the best, being able to pin-point audio origins very well, further building up the tension of the game.
The gameplay is very comparebale to a game like The Last of Us series, which can explain the somehwat lackluster boss fights. Alan's mental health isn't the only thing here that isn't as strong as it could be, although the different arsenals of the two playable characters each boast their own advantages, their individual skill trees seem somewhat lopsided in their implementation. Furthermore, and in contrast with Alan's impressive enviromental remixing, Saga is regularly given the task with a few too many survival-horror stereotypes, like fuse boxes to repair and combination locks to solve. Still, Alan Wake II is one of the best games to ever implement live action actors and gameplay into one in my opinion, any issue i had with the game i mentioned above, or the poor framerate performance at times, sank without a trace like an out-of-town tourist into Cauldron Lake.
Not only is this one of the best games i have played in 2023, but one of the best of all time. The magnum opus of modern psychological horror. A masterful artistic direction that blows away any mainstream standard. I would wait 13 years again if i had to, Remedy truly knocked it out of the park.
P.S - The "We Sing" musical chapter is amazing lol.
RedBackLoggd
7 months ago