I mostly decided to play this because Alan Wake 2 looks amazing, so I wanted to see where everything started so I could build up to the sequel. I liked this a lot, but it does have a few sizable flaws.

The combat is probably the biggest thing. In short it just ends up being very repetitive. I love the idea of having to use light against the enemies, but it should definitely have been implemented with more variety in mind. The enemies are also reused a lot, so you sort of get used to fighting the same exact way every time you run into anything.

The narrative is definitely the most interesting part of Alan Wake. The structure, for one, makes for one of the most original ways of telling a story I've seen. The characters are also great, Alan himself is weirdly memorable despite initially seeming like a bland 2010's game protagonist at first.

This definitely feels like a blueprint for what would turn into Remedy's future game design philosphy. I haven't played the Max Payne games yet, so I can't really say how it is different from those, but I have just started playing Control as of writing this. I can already see how they've improved off the general gameplay loop of Alan Wake. I love the atmosphere here too, I'm a huge fan of Lynch's stuff, especially Twin Peaks, so I really loved the vibes here.