I tried it in 2019 and I was not able to last more than two hours controlling Alan Wake, so pessimism reigned in me when I decided to give the Remedy Entertainment classic a second chance. The Sam Lake Developer launched the remastered version of the Xbox title in 2021 and the recent arrival of Alan Wake 2 It prompted me to go back into the dark forests of Bright Falls.
What could go wrong? We talked about the parents of Max Payne and Control, two titles with an overwhelming charisma and the legend around the writer is so great that it was clear that there was gold in front of me, but I didn’t know how to see it; It had to be as true as a fist in 2010, but in 2024 it has stuck in my throat a lot.
My memories of the previous game Alan Wake consisted of the city in the northern United States being dull, full of mysteries and with a Stephen King’s own setting. . . . The master of horror in the world of novels seems to have written a script that defined Sam Lake, Mikko Rautalahti and Petri Järvilehto, although his influence is very noticeable.
It is impossible to find anywhere else a story that tells us how a writer with a worldwide reputation isolates himself from the world during a vacation that ends in a nightmare, because his own texts come true. Point in favor of creating the craziest plot possible and thumbs up for the genius who thought of including Barry, a textbook likeable nutcase. Like a kind of television series, the events happen in chapters with summaries of everything that happened previously so as not to lose any details.
An issue that not all developers know how to address correctly is that of collectibles. Remedy gives one of lime and another of sand with Alan Wake, since we can find the manuscripts of the book Departure, which anticipate future events. Is a very clever way to integrate the plot into secondary objects and that collecting them brings benefits in the short term. However, coffee thermoses are forgettable and useless, unlike the radios or televisions that broadcast Night Springs and its mind-blowing paranormal cases. If the studio intended to achieve surrealism everywhere, they deserve applause.
The Dark Presence, the disappearance of Alice, the fog that envelops Cauldron Lake or the evil intentions of Dr. Hartman fit into a puzzle that is revealed throughout a gameplay that has aged horribly poorly. Nobody warned me about this, but the truth is that Alan Wake It is an extremely repetitive title and I am surprised by its excessive inclination towards the action genre. The few doses that you may have of survival horror disappear due to the constant appearance of resources, since we will only have to shoot everything that moves.
And it is not exactly a little, since many beings emerge from the surroundings of Bright Falls, summoned by the Dark Presence, so it is time to annihilate them with bullets and flashes. I have no problem with the combat dynamic being based on the use of the flashlight and turning to light sources, since My complaint is directed at the lack of variety.. He arrives at the sawmill and kills everything that moves; crosses the Cauldron Lake area and shoots down a huge worker; Drive around a farm and run over anyone who gets in your way. So on to infinity and beyond, not to mention that Alan has less endurance running than I do after eating a plate of tripe.
I was surprised that the puzzles are just an anecdote and you never have to make your neurons work beyond pulling the trigger, although in return there are spectacular moments. In the midst of Uncharted 2 a year earlier, the truth is that the script moments are very well executed, putting Wake in complicated situations. Furthermore, the work lived surrounded by a time in which QTEs were the daily bread and it is appreciated that they barely have a presence in the entire adventure. I understand that Alan is a writer and not a soldier, but I think Remedy wasn’t as accurate as he could be when he built the gameplay.
It has been around nine hours of travel with Alan Wake that have been sustained more by my desire to devour the second part than because the title was offering me striking stimuli. The plot of the disturbed novelist ends in a promising way for a continuation and it is not surprising that the community clamored to know the fate of the protagonist. In view of the reactions with Alan Wake 2, everything indicates that Sam Lake has known how to hit the table to make the franchise more rounded. However, I will know that answer later.
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