It's just as charming as I'd remembered, though still lacking in all the same ways. The puzzles are great, even if largely disconnected from the narrative. It's more of an interactive puzzle book with a simple Agatha Christie mystery to string it through. It's not nearly on her level of complexity, but at least everything serves its small purpose. In the original trilogy it's the one with the smallest scope and the fewest plot holes. That's good enough for me.

Also those tacked on cutscenes are horseshite.

I've had this forever, bought it on release I think. Just could never get into it due to the difficulty, but I decided to give it a genuine attempt today. It's pretty good!

If played on the higher difficulties, it's a game that is more about mitigating damage than it is about thriving. Things are going to go wrong, no way around it, figure it out. I just wish there was a bit more meat on it then. It feels like a smaller, tighter Frostpunk, but without the moral implications. A bit more of a narrative, a connection to your crew, and these decisions might feel more impactful. As is, when my characters cannibalize someone, it's just a question of how much their stress meter will go up. Still a simple fun way to kill a few hours, pick it up for $5 bucks or less.

The more I think about this game the more I regret not having played Max Payne - that’s not necessarily a complement. From my understanding in 2012 Max Payne was basically Remedy’s whole identity. Reading from this game, it’s a fact they must have resented. Being unable to escape their past successes, literally trapped by a fiction. The thesis of this game presents that they needed to balance the strengths of their Max Payne past while moving into new territory. It’s an interesting conflict, but not one I think is handled the most deftly here.

While I haven’t played it, the slow motion shooting of Max Payne has been acclaimed for decades. An appropriate fit for a hard boiled neo-noir. Alan Wake’s main mechanic is using light to dispel enemies' shields to make them vulnerable to gun fire. While perhaps thematically appropriate, gameplay wise it just communicates that they wanted to use flashy gun play because that’s what they know. That and some awful platforming leaves this game coming off as more confused than intentioned.

Don’t get me wrong this somewhat matches the theme. Them messily trying to balance their past and present, but the result ends up being more frustrating than insightful. The shame is that the game gets this a bit right with Alan having the stamina of an eighty-seven year old man or, very appropriately, an unathletic writer. He runs out of breath in about five seconds flat and while it’s frustrating, it’s a beautiful subversion that annoys me in just the right way.

Now let me be clear, I enjoyed this game immensely. I played it one episode at a time over the course of about two weeks and it felt like cozily throwing on an episode of Twin Peaks. I have a particular fondness for mountain towns, and while I don’t think they capture it as well as Twin Peaks, America through the lens of Fins was bound to be fun. I mean so many games have trouble tying their setting into the subtext, but Bright Falls is beautifully realized here. A somewhat removed place where shadows of industry loom heavy beneath the enclosing mountains just as Alan is being shadowed by promotional cutouts, posters, and rabid fans of his ended book series. It’s whip smart stuff. Alan Wake’s greatest flaw then is that it’s a game, not a show.

The strength of many games tends to be their ability to place you in a world as an active participant. This is best done through gameplay, but many games are content to use flashy graphics to overwhelm you into immersion, Alan Wake is unfortunately no exception. While I had a lovely time, I can’t find a way to intelligently resolve Remedy’s own conflict about being caught between the worlds of film/TV and computer games. Though rest assured, I am going to play ALL of their remaining games in the coming weeks.

Neon, filth, and 2000s ass slow-mo. This one gets by entirely on charm and it has it in spades. The actual narrative is nothing to write home about. The devs knew this, so they had a ball coming up with action setpieces to hang off a basic revenge story. It's not well balanced and the level design isn't going nuts, but it has the cool factor and I think that's all it needed. That being said, it will be served greatly by a remake. Tighten up the story, add some nuance, refine the gameplay, and they could really have something here. Just keep James McCaffrey; dude carries this game's narrative.

A much more polished product than the first and it's all the worse for it. Feels like it exists out of obligation; the studio needing to leverage the success of the first game to keep footing. I'm glad I went back and played these, really illuminates the subtext of Alan Wake with this already feeling like the devs were done with this property. Still it felt good enough to play and 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 polished, so if anything it played like a popcorn movie. I'll never think about it again in earnest, but if it did some good for the devs in the real world then why not.

Also, rest in peace James McCaffrey, these games could get by on your performance alone.

I really appreciate the way they carry the subtext from the first game, but I don't appreciate how lacking everything else is. These levels don't have much going on to begin with and having to repeat them several times over is just a drag. The combat is more "fluid", but also way more shallow. It seems a lot of people find this to be better gameplay, but it's just easier because they didn't take the time to consider balancing. At some point they decided to just throw ammo around every corner and make enemy health pools as shallow as possible. It feels like a game made under a deadline, and likely was, but at least has enough aesthetic and narrative to carry it. Still it feels two hours too long.

This one took time to grow on me. If someone played this like a standard rpg, I think they may be bored to tears. The main cast mostly has nothing going on. Like there's enough there to distinguish them, but outside of that they're more like lightly toasted white bread. What makes it for me is the sense of world. It feels like this place has stuff going on. Little rivalries and discussions amongst the towns and cities. The characters acknowledge you when you come back home and they respond to changes in the world. The puzzles seem like they're working towards something more. Feels like they're figuring it out, but I like how psynergy is grounded in interactions with the environment. Like the fact that you can read everyone's mind is fantastic.

Outside of that the combat initially felt very standard rpg, but when the tough battles came the djinn really shined. You need to balance the stat drops it takes to use them while prepping summons, while also making sure you don't take too many that important psynergies drop off. When it works, it really works, but unfortunately it was just for a handful of good bosses. Outside of that it's the general standard rpg encounter affairs. This didn't grate on me though, mostly because I'm playing it the way it was originally intended, while commuting to work and on my lunch breaks. When taken in small chunks, it's a very cozy game. I can't remember, but someone said something similar of DQ11. This is one of those that should be taken piecemeal and casually. I'm very excited to finally give Lost Age a shot. According to everyone that's where this series really shines and if it's anything like this, it should be great.