The original Alan Wake is a game I've always been interested in but never played. I completely missed its release on the Xbox 360 and after a while, I had no decent way to play it. Over the years my interest in the game kept growing especially after I played Control, the latest game by Remedy games. So when the remaster was announced, it felt like the right time to finally play Alan Wake!
Now that I have played it, I feel a bit conflicted. On the surface, AW is still in an interesting game but it never goes deeper than that. Especially with its gameplay and story.
Using your flashlight the get rid of the darkness in the taken (the enemies) so they're weakened and you can kill them with your gun is fun at the start of the game but it gets boring really quickly and it's like that for the entire game. There is some weapon variety (shotguns, flare guns, flashbangs, etc) but they don't make it more interesting but instead give you a way to kill them quicker. It becomes extra tedious when Alan Wake loses his flashlight and all of his weapons MULTIPLE times throughout the game and you have to look for the different equipment you had before again.
The story was interesting enough to keep me going but it also didn't blow me away like I hoped it would. The premise is that you (Alan Wake) wrote a manuscript without knowing it and that story is actually happening IRL and now you're living through it. It is a cool idea but it became predictable fast. None of the characters really stood out, even Alan. I did like how the story was told like a tv series with different episodes.
As I said, I never played the original game but I do think this is a good remaster. I played on the PS5 and visually it looked good, especially for an 11-year-oldgame. I didn't run into any bugs or glitches, so that's always good. The haptic feedback made using the flashlight a bit easier. It's also not that expensive for a remaster and if you own the PS4 version, the PS5 upgrade is free.
In conclusion, I'm still happy that I finally had the chance to give Alan Wake a fair shot but overall it was a lukewarm experience. Maybe it's because I've built up some mental image of the game over the years and the game didn't match that idea or it's just not that good of a game. I do believe there is a foundation for a good game and what they said after the credits make me believe they're working on a sequel. If they flesh out some of the ideas of the first game in the sequel it might actually be a good game but for now, I've had enough Alan Wake for a bit.
Now that I have played it, I feel a bit conflicted. On the surface, AW is still in an interesting game but it never goes deeper than that. Especially with its gameplay and story.
Using your flashlight the get rid of the darkness in the taken (the enemies) so they're weakened and you can kill them with your gun is fun at the start of the game but it gets boring really quickly and it's like that for the entire game. There is some weapon variety (shotguns, flare guns, flashbangs, etc) but they don't make it more interesting but instead give you a way to kill them quicker. It becomes extra tedious when Alan Wake loses his flashlight and all of his weapons MULTIPLE times throughout the game and you have to look for the different equipment you had before again.
The story was interesting enough to keep me going but it also didn't blow me away like I hoped it would. The premise is that you (Alan Wake) wrote a manuscript without knowing it and that story is actually happening IRL and now you're living through it. It is a cool idea but it became predictable fast. None of the characters really stood out, even Alan. I did like how the story was told like a tv series with different episodes.
As I said, I never played the original game but I do think this is a good remaster. I played on the PS5 and visually it looked good, especially for an 11-year-oldgame. I didn't run into any bugs or glitches, so that's always good. The haptic feedback made using the flashlight a bit easier. It's also not that expensive for a remaster and if you own the PS4 version, the PS5 upgrade is free.
In conclusion, I'm still happy that I finally had the chance to give Alan Wake a fair shot but overall it was a lukewarm experience. Maybe it's because I've built up some mental image of the game over the years and the game didn't match that idea or it's just not that good of a game. I do believe there is a foundation for a good game and what they said after the credits make me believe they're working on a sequel. If they flesh out some of the ideas of the first game in the sequel it might actually be a good game but for now, I've had enough Alan Wake for a bit.