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[YeulEmeralda]

Planescape Torment should be given the award for best narrative. Every year.

 

[yamaci17]

they do a great job tying it to the Control universe. so basically you have to assume that there are supernatural elements in this world. its not just in Alan's head.

its not assuming anything, it literally is that way, even in the 1st game. if you were a fan of control, game becomes much more likeable and enjoyable

and it was never in alan's head. Cauldron Lake is a place where supernatural elements do occur. this is cemented in the 1st game as well, not necessarily in Control or alan wake 2. i dont know where this notion that you have to assume it is not in his head. dark place is very much real too, but in a different plane of existence where rules of the world is different

what Control ties in is that cauldron lake is not an isolated event but an event that happens in different parts of the world. it also makes sense because why would it be special to Cauldron Lake to begin with? if this universe is a place where supernatural events can occur, it can occur at any time at any place. it has its rules, special places or maybe special past events trigger it. but in the end it is that way. do you know tim breaker is played by the same person as Jack Joyce in quantum break? did you even read his boards about how he keeps wondering about a specific red headed woman (jesse faden or beth wilder, from control or quantum break) and keeps seeing visions of mr doo. remedy universe is insanely interconnected and alan wake 2 gave so much meaning to everything we've seen in control and quantum break (although they cant officially connect quantum break to remedy universe because licensing is in microsoft hands). martin hatch / warlin door. did u even make any connections ? these make these games super enjoyable for some.

i do not really understand how you can downplay how well Saga's actor conveyed the insecurities of a fictional character in the final sequence and instead find it a bad climax when rewriting story and beating inner demons is what the story is all about or james mcaffrey's legendary monologues, yötön yö movie (I'm pretty sure you haven't seen it in the game. yes there's a 20 minutes full of movie in the theatre part if you wait a bit and let the video play), yötön yö song of Ahti, the Ahti chatacter, the whole part where door and old gods of asgard trying to make Wake remember his past through the power of art/song, the whole dance, or even the nursery rhymes being a mirror to Saga's life and telling the story of what happened with his father and grandfather back in 80s. odin and tor's stories alone would solo most other games that claims to have decent narrative. this is a game that has narratives upon narratives that can be considered their own thing.

idk what narrative baldurs gate 3 has but till I play that game, this game absolutely and definitely deserved that best narrative reward so far for me. and I don't think baldurs gate 3 can't change that.

 

[Alan Wake]

Your nick name is Alan wake

It is. I did change it from another nickname a while back though, and Alan Wake is not my favourite game of all time (I think it's a solid 8/10). But with every hyped game there are people claiming it's not only not as good as people say, it's complete shit. This happens all the time and I'm kind of tired of it. Always black or white, heaven or hell.

 

[Umbral]

Look at all of these uncultured people.

Alan Wake 2's narrative was great and they took a lot of risks which paid off. I agree with the jumpscare faces though, especially in the nursing home which was excessive.

Best sequel of 2023

Feel free to explain.

Ok, so can you guys point me to some games that had a better gameplay/narrative experience than Alan Wake II.

Because it was my GOTY by far, so I must be missing out on some godly stuff for sure..

My profile pic, Prey.

One of the best games of 2023 and most critics and players agree with me. Sorry to hear you were not able to enjoy it.

Most does not indicate quality. There can be a lot of people with poor taste, even the majority. Who cares what critics think?

I mentioned critics and players. Its not just critics that enjoy this game, the average player has greatly enjoyed it as well. Reception on basically everything where opinions like this can be shared has been extremely positive.

The average player likes mediocre, i.e. average games, if you judge by sales and Metacritic.

I enjoyed most of everything you listed, the monologue, the talking, the meta commentary, and the exploration of the world. I didn't enjoy the constant jump scares and the original ending was a bit lame. The DLC did fix the ending though but it requires a second playthrough to see (or look it up on YouTube). The combat is also quite poor when compared to Control or Max Payne.

Fair.

I getting the same deja vu, similar with games like Deathloop and Returnal.

Alan Wake 2, Deathloop and Returnal both got highly praised by reviewers, but players particulary don't like that much. And we got players, the feel that like the game, using metascore as some sort of parameter to avoid criticism.

I think devs need to be warned about making games to please reviewers and more for the players related.

Count me as one who liked both of those games. Deathloop isn’t Arkane’s best, but it was very good for what it was. Returnal was fun and I typically don’t enjoy roguelikes.

Disagree.
Good thing the sane part of gaf voted it top 3 game of last year. There is hope yet.

Oh no, what happened to gaf?

 

[Fake]

Count me as one who liked both of those games. Deathloop isn’t Arkane’s best, but it was very good for what it was. Returnal was fun and I typically don’t enjoy roguelikes.

The point that those games are flops in term of sales. Can't say about quality because I never played, but they do represent the line between reviewers and players.

 

[Ocean Dweller]

also.... no collectible thermos in the sequel. big bummer

 

[Roni]

Took me a while to finish this because this is one boring ass game, but I have played boring games before. The story and storytelling in this game isnt just boring, it's awful from start to finish.

- Constant cheap scares with evil Alan Wake flashes on screen. After around the 100th one I was ready for this game to be over. I am not exaggerating. There are probably over a 100 of these flashes.
- Constant cuts to realtime FMVs that are poorly acted, and feel like a cheap knock off instead of an AAA game.
- Constant monologues. Alan talking to himself because has no one to talk to in his story. Saga constantly talking to herself in the mind place. People tell kojima to get an editor, someone tell Sam Lake to stop writing. Less is more.
- The meta writing a story within a story plot simply doesnt work. Again, it reeks of Sam lake thinking he's a big genius writer when it turns out he's just an amateur. Every single narrative choice he made falls flat.
- Game is like 25 hours long and has maybe 2 hours of actual combat. The rest of the time you are listening to these two protagonist talk to themselves. Sometimes Saga has cutscenes with others which are well acted and directed, but most of the time she's in her mind palace talking to others as they openly reveal to her their darkest secrets and evil plans in what is supposed to be a sinister tone, but comes across as overly robotic and laughable.

The pacing is atrocious. After the final boss fight, Saga ends up in the mind place where she talks to herself for a 30 minute sequence where you simply put up some pictures up on a caseboard. It isnt just awful gameplay, and the worst climax ive experienced in a game recently, it's also a very poor form of storytelling. it's way worse than any walking segment Sony studios have made because it goes on for what feels like 30 fucking minutes. And thats basically 90% of the game.

This is what goes for best narrative nowadays? Has the industry lost their fucking minds? 90+ metacritic, awards for best narrative, gotys. GOTYs?

P.S The ending sucked ass. They were trying to pull off a Prisoners inspired ending but failed miserably. Absolutely atrocious. In Prisoners, you know he's heard the whistle because you hear the whistle. Here, you dont hear her daughter pick up the phone. It cuts before that. Honestly, this entire game can fuck right off.

The game's whole thing is Alan Wake is a stand in for Sam Lake and the game is constantly judging Wake as a poor writer. I'm sure whatever you think of Lake, he has already thought of it himself given how much criticism Wake gets in the game itself.

Also, did you play the Final Draft? Given your opinion of the experience, I'd guess not...