Alan Wake is a game i've been putting off playing for quite a long time due to being really fearful of where i would end up in terms of liking it but after playing Control and adoring it (despite AWE going entirely over my head) and seeing exactly how AWII pushed everything together from the sidelines I finally gave it a go! as it turns out I clicked with this a lot more than I had ever expected to, from a distance I considered it's referential nature to be somewhat off putting at best and annoying at worst (especially as a huge fan of twin peaks) but within the context of the game and it's narrative this ceased to be an issue for me, the way it explores meta narrative through the lens of someone actively struggling to come up with something good, to explain away why anything is happening ended up coming together really nicely in such a close way that could have easily fallen apart if even nudged slightly to the left. my one complaint in the narrative would have to be that I wished Alice Wake got a little bit more room to breathe, everything involving her revolved around Alan and while yes, he is the protagonist I think fleshing out Alice would have only serviced the story more.

gameplay was gameplay. I didn't have any major issues there other than they could have improved the dodges, gun feel nice.