Alan Wake Remastered
This was originally posted on the 20th of June, 2024, in this Twitter thread.
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| AlanWake.com |
This game was pretty neat.
While I thought the gameplay at its core was interesting with its light mechanics and stuff, it did feel held back by the small weapon and enemy varieties.
The DLC's had this creating objects and events out of words mechanic that made things a little more interesting. There was also platforming in one of them which kinda sucked.
The game's camera is terrible when you're driving. It really fucks up what would otherwise be pretty cool power trips.
There were physics object which were generally pretty funny to observe, although I wasn't a fan of how even the non hostile ones could deal damage to you if they were moving fast enough (although to be honest the 2 times I died to them were actually pretty funny).
The game was fairly easy. I was able to get through both Normal, and Nightmare difficulty with much less trouble than I would've expected considering this was my first time ever playing a survival horror game.
Somehow, I nearly went through my entire first playthrough without realizing that every flashlight automatically recharges. For whatever reason, I at first only thought the lanterns could automatically recharge. I also didn't realize my first time through that flares would stay lit even if you let go of them (which seems particularly obvious in retrospect).
Within my 2 playthroughs, I had 2 drastically different playstyles. My first time through, on Normal, I fought most enemies that came my way, and I explored most areas to ensure I was well stocked on ammo, and to find collectables. While on Nightmare, I ended up doing essentially the opposite by running past most enemies and items.
From what I can tell by playing, while being able to run away from enemies is probably intentional on some level, I'm pretty sure you're generally expected to actually fight them considering they get in the way of you grabbing collectables, and especially considering that some checkpoints straight up don't appear until you defeat them. Running past enemies was still really effective in spite of the reduced checkpoints though.
Speaking of the collectables though, while I got most collectables, I didn't even entertain the idea of getting the ones I missed since there's seemingly no way to check which areas still have collectables in them. That's not really a huge problem though since most of the collectables are completely superfluous, and the ones with videos, audios, and text could be easily supplemented by just looking up that stuff online.
Those collectables with text, audio, and videos tied to them were still pretty neat to see though. I especially liked the videos since they use live action which looked bizarre and out of place in a great kind of way.
As for the story, I thought it was pretty interesting. There's a nice balance with how the magic works to where you're not totally sure what to expect, but the rules are clear and balanced enough to where you know the conflict of the plot is just going to shatter in an instant.
I also found Alan specifically to be a really engaging protagonist. He's just the right type of rough around the edges but also fairly compassionate for my taste.
Unfortunately the story kinda drags during the 2nd and 3rd chapters. It's not like things don't happen during them, but story-wise they didn't feel like they needed to be as long as they were. Thankfully I thought chapter 4 was a nice change of pace.
This isn't really a problem but, I thought it was a little weird how some of the chapters were segmented. Especially gameplay-wise, it was kinda weird losing all your weapons partway through chapters 2 and 5.
I guess I should mention the music since it was the heart of my favorite moment in the game. The Old Gods Of Asgard songs were great and extremely well implemented into the events of the game. The chapter credits songs, which from what I can tell are just licensed music, were alright. As for the rest, I didn't find anything else particularly notable, although it is a horror game, so I'm willing to accept that the music generally doesn't take center stage.
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