Reading some mixed to negative reviews of this on here before I played this one, I was a bit surprised. I played the original back in 2010 on Xbox 360 and really enjoyed it, and wanted to check out the remaster to get brushed up for the sequel in a few months. Now that I’ve played it again, I can understand some of the mixed reception. But I still really like this game!

It’s weird, kooky, creepy, features a writer as an action protagonist, and has so many tributes to other pop culture things I love. Wake as the narrator works so well, Barry is fun comic relief, and the spooky woods/factories/lumber yards/small town etc. setting is perfect for this tale. And Remedy as a developer are so good at action gameplay mixed with weird challenging narratives; loved the segment where Alan is doing a late night TV interview along with Sam Lake next to him and the host tells him to do the “face” referencing Max Payne - chefs kiss. And in terms of shooting, it’s smooth and never gets old blasting the Taken away with the slo-mo rag doll effects as they explode into light fragments.

Now… what got to me here was the annoying difficulty spikes, sometimes clumsy dodging, and the gunplay felt uneven. The game gets real frustrating at segments where you are being chased and attacked at all angles, as well as poltergeist items flying at you and taking huge chunks of your health. If you could just blast away at your hearts content, it would be different, but this is Alan Wake; you need the light to weaken enemies. The flashlight and even regular flares sometimes take forever to destroy the dark aura shields on the Taken, and when you’re overwhelmed and surrounded it can be hard as hell. Especially when there’s no automatic weapons in this. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good old handgun, shotgun and rifle and I’m glad Wake doesn’t turn into a machine gun wielding generic badass, but some situations almost call for it to survive. Thankfully the rocket launcher-like flare gun helps. Dodging though, as cool as it looks when pulled off, can be iffy where you feel like you should’ve easily dodged a particular attack, but nope. And there’s also the typical brute bullet-sponge enemies. It gets a bit repetitive.

I decided to check out the DLC episodes that come with this that I missed originally, and only managed to finish The Signal before putting the game down - the final “boss battle” segment is so unbalanced, especially without a flare gun. You’re overwhelmed from the front and behind in a small space and it just wasn’t fun. I’ll check out The Writer at some point, but I think I’m done with the game for now.

Still, 4 stars for just being a very “me” game! I love the character, the 3rd person action gameplay, the setting, the weirdness, and when it does the cool Matrix-y bullet time 360 camera spin when you light up a flare or shoot a flare gun into a group of enemies gets me every time.

Legitimately can’t wait for the sequel!