A masterful journey of a game and very much so a "me game" that I have to give it a perfect rating.

Alan Wake 2 is confusing, surreal, mysterious, funny, terrifying, and engaging as hell all at the same time. When video games as a medium can expertly tell stories this experimental and presented in the mind-bending way that it does, it's mind boggling that some people still think of this medium as a dumb kids hobby. The directing, acting, gameplay, environment design, presentation, it's all meticulously planned and thought out. I've been seeing people comparing Sam Lake to Hideo Kojima lately and the guy is absolutely up there now as one of the best minds working in games today. I could not be happier to be a fan of the Remedy-verse and to be as sucked into its world as I am.

On the topic of Sam Lake/Remedy... my god, the Alex Casey stuff. My partner was watching me play at one point and witnessed one of the Alex Casey echoes that Alan finds where Casey's face is projected across the screen and his voiceover narration monologues over the scene. Nearby were posters for the Alex Casey movies, with Casey smirking and pointing his gun towards the camera on the poster. I couldn't help myself and asked, "you want to know something really cool about this character?" Cue me, for ten minutes, explaining the very meta Sam Lake/Max Payne/Alex Casey pipeline, all the while going into the plots for Alan Wake 1 and Control. I caught myself with how excited and giddy I was talking about it and how fucking cool it all is, and that's exactly when you know you really truly admire a work of art and that this is a very special thing.

Honestly, there is so much I could talk about here, I have to try and limit myself. The way you can tackle the plot and structure of the story, jumping between Saga Anderson and Alan Wake, from Bright Falls to New York City, and that it all works, no matter which way you do it, is a marvel. I bounced between to balance my time with each character, but the way some things will become clearer earlier on depending on how you do the story, is crazy to think about in terms of game design. Saga has a "mind place" in her head which is a room piecing together all the things you've collected and investigated, including a wall of evidence and clues all connected via individual cases, and I imagine Remedy had something similar in their offices to keep track of everything going on in this game. The way the world can be explored, changed, shifted, the little clues and collectibles you find, it's all part of the bigger story and fleshes everything out.

The first Alan Wake game throws hordes and hordes of enemies at you, in a typical action game fashion, where by the end of the game you would have taken out hundreds of them. The slo-mo bullet-time effects as you light up flares and shoot them into groups of enemies as they explode, it's very stylish. Alan Wake 2 keeps the intense action but reduces the enemy count considerably; most of the time encounters are under five enemies, sometimes more depending, but even just a single one sometimes. It keeps you on your toes, uses them sparingly but always effectively. The horror is really on display here; some really twisted and freaky shit to contend with. It doesn't burn you out on the action, which is something the first game did by the end. I will admit, I did miss the bullet-time effects when firing my flare gun into an enemy, especially with how absolutely incredible it would've looked here, but that's not a nitpick, just a personal wish.

The world design is so detailed and effectively realistic that this is a game that sometimes make it hard to determine what can and can't be interacted with. It has a little button prompt on all items which is helpful, but sometimes areas are so packed and dense that you may miss resources or collectibles; you really have to walk around and look at everything. It begs you to explore it all, and when a game looks this good, you can see why. Facial animations when characters speak look incredible, and of course the switching between live-action and in-game cinematics just makes the stylish factor and overall presentation that much more unique. The Alan Wake sequences in particular feature some absolutely incredible scenes.

I won't lie, I think the only thing I'm not crazy about are the songs that play at the end of chapters. This is just my own musical tastes speaking, but it's just not my style. The use of "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison in the first game was done perfectly and I was just waiting for that to appear again, or for another great classic song to be featured, but unfortunately there's nothing here. There's one in particular, "Lost At Sea" that I liked, which has a bit of a new-wave 80's sound, and the New Gods Of Asgard stuff, especially the stuff used in actual gameplay, is really really great, but the others, not so much. But that's just me!

Resident Evil 4 Remake earlier this year is my only other 5 star rating of 2023 (I found it hard not to give it 5 stars purely based on it being a remake to one of my fave games ever) but this is now the other. I couldn't help but compare the 2 as I played for obvious reasons; slow burn survival horror with frantic action set pieces, isolated environments, weird creepy cult shenanigans, memorable characters, they have a lot in common. The New York City sections even felt Resident Evil 2 inspired as well. Both game sequels do a funny thing where they changed to keep their series interesting as well - RE4 adapted a third-person action game feel, and Alan Wake 2 became more of a survival horror game. Ultimately, RE4 Remake brought me back to the glory days of the GameCube and reminded me of why I love RE4 so much, but Alan Wake 2, as a brand new and exciting weird horror experience, gets the upper edge.

Like I said earlier, it's just so much "my shit" in terms of gritty action, nightmarish horror, weird mind-bending sequences, great writing, and so much more, on top of being another wild Remedy experience (and actually making me love Control even more now). I got the Platinum trophy, which wasn't a grind at all; getting all the collectibles in this game is great and absolutely worth it and a lot of the trophies you'll get naturally.

If you made it this far: I fucking love this game and it's up there with Killer7 and Inscryption as some of the all-time best weird horror that video games can offer. A must play.

My Game of the year.

Experimental, layered, innovative, brilliant. Could only work as a video game and could only be done by Remedy.

bugs made me depressed and miserable because they completely halted my progress for 2 days but they’re fixed now and the ending was so good that I completely forgive them. BUT I don’t wanna see that bullshit in a game ever again I nearly took my god damn life.

Not controversial to say that writing in video games aren’t anything extraordinary barring a few cases, but this narrative had me clutching my balls from the prologue all the way through to the cliff hanger conclusion. What starts as a simple murder mystery, evolves into a huge multi media, genre spanning survival horror experience.

The combat is nothing special whatsoever but it does what it’s supposed to do and I have no gripes with it, the few boss fights are fun and I’m glad they’re centred around interesting mechanics rather than bullet sponges.

Alan’s scene writing gimmick is one of the most coolest video game mechanics I’ve ever seen, I never got bored of it once and it’s so intuitive. Thank u next gen

Visually one of the greatest games out rn. The dense forests or the noire stylised New York, it’s jaw dropping every time. Some of the best environmental story telling I’ve ever seen, every pixel was designed with love.

As a Norse mythology enjoyer I was very happy to see it be a central theme throughout the game, it’s in your face while subtle at the same time, they respect your intelligence. Small note I haven’t seen mentioned much, Remedy filling the game with Finnish culture is such a nice touch. Specifically having Ahti sing Yötôn Yõ, I haven’t been able to get the song out of my head all week.

Speaking of music… it’s huge in this game. Every chapter closes out with a song with relevant lyrics, sitting back for 2 minutes and digesting the chapter you just played while the lyrics make you rethink everything again is an amazing feeling.

There are so many brilliant characters here, Brightfalls and Watery are so alive. There’s not necessarily any side quests or real interactions with the majority of npcs, but these places fill really lived in. So much personality displayed in every corner. Ahti, Rosa, Odin, Tor, Mulligan, Thornton, Booker, Door, all beyond exceptional. And this is just the side characters… Wake is as you’d expect, but Saga is a really great addition to the game. I think her voice work is a little rough at times but the character is brilliant.

Giving the choice to switch between either character and play at our own pace after the introduction was a genius move, I personally played through all of Alan’s side and then came back for Saga, but you can go in whichever order you please.

There’s foreshadowing thrown in your face from the get go, things are constantly being revealed while asking more questions, while also wrapping everything up in a nice bow and at the same time, opening the door for another sequel. I’m super invested in Remedy’s universe and will definitely will be playing Control after.

I haven’t actually said much of substance since I think it’s best you play this as blind as you possibly can. There’s more I wanna say but it’s 6am, pls just play the game

"Show me the Champion of Light
I'll show you the Herald of Darkness"

How do you even review a game like Alan Wake II? This is a game that has been 13 years in the making. A game that many (including me) never thought we'd actually see in our lifetime. The fact it exists at all, let alone in its current state is a miracle in itself. However I ask this question for more reasons than just that. Yes, how do you even review a game like Alan Wake II because simply put there's absolutely nothing else like it in the medium of video games.

You can call Alan Wake II a postmodern detective murder mystery, an atmospheric psychological horror fever dream and a meta 4th wall shattering narrative with enough mind-bending twists, turns and revelations and layers upon layers of metaphors, meta commentary and cryptic symbolic messages to make even David Lynch, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Christopher Nolan proud. You can also clearly see influences and elements pulled from TV shows like Twin Peaks, True Detective and The Twilight Zone or movies like Inception, Se7ven, Hereditary, Midsommar and The VVitch, alongside games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill and even theater and rock opera, but even saying all this still doesn't do Alan Wake II justice because nothing else has ever blended all these various elements together in the same kind of way that Sam Lake and Remedy have done here and it's something you can't truly explain and just need to experience for yourself because that's what Alan Wake II is. An experience like no other.

Hell, nothing else even has the same kind of visual presentation or tells its story in the same way Alan Wake II does either. The closest thing to it would be Remedy's other hit game Control, but even then that game is so vastly different from what Alan Wake II accomplishes. We're talking in-engine graphics and cutscenes mixed with pre-rendered cutscenes mixed with tons of entirely live action sequences as well. With plenty of times when all 3 of these techniques are utilized and blended together all at once flawlessly to create a truly unique experience that only the medium of video games could ever provide.

If I could describe Alan Wake II in a single word, it would be "love" because you'd have to be blind to not see how much love went into this game at every turn while making it. The mind-blowing, revolutionary audio and visual presentation alone are proof of that, but that's far from the only thing Alan Wake II should be praised for, every single aspect of this game is mind-blowing in its own way. The budget for the game was £70 million which makes it one of the most expensive cultural products in Finnish history and it clearly shows in the sheer scope of the game and the insane and creative set-pieces, but don't let this massive budget fool you because Alan Wake II is also clearly a passion project in every sense of the word as well. A massive AAA game with the level of passion, soul and love put into it that an indie developer just starting out would put into their game.

Remedy Entertainment as a developer however aren't just starting out, no, they've been around for 20+ years and Alan Wake II is a game that truly shows this feeling like a culmination of everything Remedy have learned and done in those past 20+ years. You can clearly see elements and shades of all their previous games from Max Payne, the OG Alan Wake, Quantum Break and of course Control, but it all pales in comparison to Alan Wake II which is Sam Lake and Remedy's magnum opus and best game to date in every way possible. It's also the most Remedy game that ever Remedied and if you're a fan of the studio you'll understand what that means. Especially since this is the first Remedy game since the Remedy Connected Universe has been officially established and it has so much in-depth world-building and lore for die-hard fans who have played Remedy's other titles like Max Payne, Quantum Break and Control.

And while Alan Wake II is much more than a game, it IS still a game at its core and just like every other aspect of this experience, the gameplay is top notch as well. From the level design to the atmosphere and tension to the incredible boss fights and mind-boggling puzzles and exciting exploration which always rewards you for going off the beaten path with much needed supplies or valuable manuscript pages for extra added lore or manuscript fragments to upgrade your weapons, Alan Wake II is a master class on how to make a true blue survival horror game and feels like the closest thing we'll ever get to a modern Silent Hill 2.

Ambitious is a word that's thrown around a lot nowadays. Everyone wants to release the next game changing piece of media, but few ever do reach that level. If there's one single game that was released this year and truly deserves to be described as ambitious, it's Alan Wake II. Not only is Alan Wake II a technological marvel and the best looking game I've ever seen from a graphical standpoint, but Alan Wake II is more than a game, it's a truly one-of-a-kind multimedia EXPERIENCE that blends together cinema, literature, music and gaming all into one package in a way never before seen in this medium, but also in a way that could only ever be done in THIS medium.

Alan Wake II is simply a boundary pushing, genre defying, tour de force of creativity and innovation that would take decades of time to ever fully replicate in this same way again by anyone other than Sam Lake and Remedy and even though it took 13 years to release, the wait was more than worth it because this is the best possible version of the game we could've gotten and it was only made possible because of Remedy's own experiences making games like Quantum Break and Control leading up to Alan Wake II, which is not only a game, but an EXPERIENCE unlike any other and one that I know will stick with me for as long as I live.

Thirteen years ago, I was in the Dark Place, my own Dark Place, in a really bad way when I heard about Alan Wake a game taking influence from a lot of my favorite things and sources of inspiration such as Twin Peaks or Silent Hill. I loved the game, the narrative and more importantly the overarching lore really appealed to me, the metanarrative twists and the set up for a larger universe of stories really blew me away and the mixed media usage was an incredible artistic achievement. The original game changed how I viewed media and this went even further with Control.

I say all of that to say, after thirteen years of waiting is Alan Wake II worth it? I certainly think so, it's the perfect sort of sequel, a love letter to true fans, its filled with lore and answers to questions from things over a decade. New players need to realize, some of us have waited thirteen years for this, and I think its nearly perfect honestly. The story was amazing, answering many things while leaving more questions for future titles, lots of lore payoff for people invested in the larger universe of games like Control that are tied directly to AWII. The combat is fun and fluid, though I think on higher difficulties the balance should be examined a little, and the jump scares which I normally detest DO work here and have a narrative purpose, however I think in one particular section they are slightly overused, but those are my only two complaints. I'm honestly floored, once again Remedy has made something truly full of love its very special. I cannot wait to see what happens with the DLC as they always go really hard there, I'm a bit confused on people's complaints with the ending as well theres a free NG+ dlc that adds new stuff soon, as well as two expansions, there's more Alan Wake to come and I couldn't be happier, I'm so glad this exists, thanks to Remedy and Alan Wake for once again being my Champion of Light.

So going into this game, this is probably the Metal Gear I was least nostalgic for/excited to replay. I do love all these games, so much, but for whatever reason MGS 2 doesn't have that same pull for me, despite being an obviously incredible game. After my replay, I can't say too much has changed, but it's clear that this is still an utter masterpiece.

The story is so so far ahead of it's time here, and that's been talked about to death. The early twist in this game is one of the best ever done, and it still makes me mad how upset "gamers" got about it (and would again get angry later in TLOU2 over it. Gamers do NOT like being fooled)

Raiden is awesome, Snake is awesome, all the characters are so great. The soundtrack in this game is phenomenal just heater after heater.

So what makes this not a 5/5 for me unlike the other MGS games (besides V?). I think for me, the only thing holding me back here is a couple of things. My nostalgia for some of the other games plays a huge part, but I also feel like the setting is one of the weakest in the series. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's still very good, but compared to shadow Moses and the jungle, I just enjoy this setting a little less, and that's really the only knock I have on this masterpiece of a game otherwise.

Kojima is a creator who is much discussed, but MGS has made him the GOAT. God I fucking love these games.

An incredible, gripping, stunning experience start to finish and unequivocally one of the best sequels of all time. Takes everything good from Control and Alan Wake and just mashes it all together and the result is fucking fascinating. I typically find this level of "it's meta dude!" annoying, but Remedy managed to approach it with such an immense amount of care and subtlety that I can't help but adore it.

That's not to mention everything on the visuals and sound side of things including the visuals themselves, the cinematography, the excellent yet campy FMV implementation, the amazing sound design and just...the atmosphere of it all. This game looks and feels like an HBO show and that's one of the highest compliments I can give it.

if I had to criticize one thing, it'd be Saga's case board. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but I wish there was actual puzzle solving involved. The ending's also a tiny bit unsatisfactory, but Remedy's building this massive story across multiple franchises so it's not unexpected. On the technical side of things, I found the HDR implementation frustrating and there's one very nasty visual bug on PS5 that's apparently related to FSR, but it's only in one small area so it's no big deal.

Other than that, I'm honestly head over heels in love with this and can easily see this turning into a 5/5 with time. Control put Remedy on the map for me and this game shot them up my favorite devs list. I can't wait to see what's next from them.

Ho boy. When i say this is the most important game of all time to me, and perhaps one of the greatest, I truly mean it.

Metal Gear Solid is a love letter to gaming for me. I can still remember playing this game late at night, sneaking up past my bed time to get a little time in on the old Playstation 1. The way this game made you think out of the box with some of its creative puzzles and boss fights, it's a level of creativity that is still unmatched today and only could have been done by someone like Kojima.

The story is of course tremendous, with fantastic voice acting, character work.

The boss fights are iconic.

This game still holds up incredibly well, and I'll be honest, if you don't think it does, that's a you problem, not this games problem. A true masterpiece in every sense of the word. Godbless Metal Gear.

It's not a game, it's a masterpiece of art

Easily become Game of the Year for me. love every element in this game, especially the insane art direction and music.

Remedy Entertainment and Sam Lake did a great job, setting a new standard for narrative-based video games with this sequel.

(Master collection)
Finally playing through metal gear solid after all these years was quite the experience. The story, music, voice acting and stealth elements were fantastic. While the game itself might be a bit dated, it still holds up in many aspects. Bosses were probably the lowest point for me because while they were interesting in their own right, fighting them was probably the biggest slog. I hope that's one issue addressed in future installments. Overall, I can see the love that stems from this franchise now, and I'm looking forward to playing future installments.

Can't believe what I've finished playing yesterday. I'm still processing all that happened, but I'm ASHAMED that took me this long to play this masterpiece.

The characters are charismatic, the plot is beautifully written and the change of pace in CD2 didn't bother me. Even I thank for a more straight-forward change to start explaining everything that the game built in the almost first 50h.

The gameplay is addictive. It isn't complex, but the accessories and Gear equipment let you adapt to every situation and even do a kinda "glass cannon" build. Getting all the Deathblows for Fei and Citan (my faves for combat) was fun and did a bunch of sidequest that really liked (that Emeralda sidequest was very good even tho short).

Can't wait to keep diving in the Xeno world, as I've played (and loved) Xenoblade and now Xenogears.

Yes, I'm looking at you Xenosaga ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)