I'd never played Alan Wake before, I heard good things about the sequel, so when Epic had a promotion in which if you bought Alan Wake 2 with a discount you'd also get the first game free I plunged myself into the series really not knowing much, and I'm so glad I did. Let's get the negative out of the way first, the gameplay could've been better at first the idea is quite interesting, and you wonder where they'll take it, sadly it never really gets evolved, you face other types of enemies sure, but they all basically follow the same pattern only they are tankier and can absorb more light or bullets or both, the game never tries for example introducing an enemy in which you have to shine the light at specific places or an enemy that can take cover from your flashlight, and you have to destroy their cover, which does make it kinda dull by the end. Now that that's out of the way, the story is amazing, it legit stands tall all these years later, it's intriguing, bittersweet, and for being a fantastical horror story all of its aspects make sense, you are piecing the mystery together along with Alan, and the pacing and everything feels very natural. High recommendation from me, can't wait to start the sequel.