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Playing through Alan Wake Remastered - Some hot takes.

fart town usa

Gold Member
Wait are we talking Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare here? Cause that game is just straight up broken and shit

Alan Wake relies heavily on its story, I put the game on easy and enjoyed its atmosphere and plot more than anything, the difficulty adds nothing except you take less hits to die, thats it,

However, Alan Wake 2 is a masterpiece and improves on the first game and Control so much
Nah, Inferno, it's the one from 2008 or so. Inferno was the PS3 version of the reboot.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Offense? Why, that’s a compliment!

I don’t know how you can say it has good exploration. Again, the hotel. Who enjoys going through the exact same room countless times?
The entire series is filled to the brim with environments that repeat themselves, etc.

The hotel is actually one of my favorite spots in the game, the atmosphere is fantastic. Played it on the CRT a while back and the visuals translated wonderfully.

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I’ve always found Remedy games of being just shy of being great because they always run their gameplay gimmick into the ground around 50-70% through the game. I think Quantum Break does the best job of introducing different enemy types that actually make you use the different game mechanics, but the need to watch 30 min episodes to get the full story makes it a chore to play instead. Like if they didn’t go that route it would’ve been great I think.

I never finished Control because it just seemed kinda average. Like the whole “Have a gun AND use telekinetic abilities” shtick was novel during the 360 era, but not so much now. Plus the whole SCP thing was kinda meh. Idk why they go the sci-fi route in Control and AW and then have all the enemies just be boring-ass people or inanimate objects. Control had some neat weird abstract enemies in the half of the game I played, but nothing was really fucked up or super interesting overall.

AW1 is good but last 1/4 of it is a huge slog. Haven’t played 2 yet because of the whole digital only thing.
 

Doom85

Member
The entire series is filled to the brim with environments that repeat themselves, etc.

The hotel is actually one of my favorite spots in the game, the atmosphere is fantastic. Played it on the CRT a while back and the visuals translated wonderfully.

I cannot recall a single room in Silent Hill 1-3 that was copy/pasted into another room. Certainly not the overwhelming amount that there was in Homecoming.

I didn’t find Homecoming to have any effective atmosphere. Even Downpour managed to achieve that at times (but then fumbled hard with the worst monster designs of the series).

So, in short:

Agree To Disagree Ryan Gosling GIF by The Academy Awards
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Blasted through it last week in two sittings in preparation for AW2.

It's a shit game with a very intriguing everything else, which is pretty much Remedy's MO now (except Control and AW2 actually play just fine). I'm sure AW1 was much more forgivable in 2010 but it's a real slog now. If anyone was curious, watch the Youtube catchup videos instead.
 
You can tell how they cut the original Alan Wake down to give us a more focused game that we got, but it still doesn't change the fact that those open world sections were designed into the original game. I'll say that I think the original is a great game if you are in that mood. Watch some Twin Peaks, maybe a good old film noir movie and just enjoy it. The combat is solid and it all comes together as a good weekend horror-vibe/thriller game. Not gonna blow your mind by any stretch, but it leaves enough mystery to keep the plot relatively interesting and the music is great. Control as a game is kinda like the suped up version of Alan Wake and is better overall if you are in that kind of mood.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
AW1 hasn't aged well, despite some die-hards claiming it's still the best Alan Wake game.

The gameplay is repetitive and oftentimes frustrating, the pacing is poor, and it's just generally kind of a slog to get through.

The concept/atmosphere/vibes are great though.


I'd rank the Remedy games as such:

  1. Alan Wake II
  2. Max Payne 2
  3. Control
  4. Quantum Break
  5. Max Payne
  6. Alan Wake
 
The mistake is playing the remastered version. If you have any way to play the original, do it.
The remastered version is a worsened improvement and does not do justice to the original.



The characters are not stunningly beautiful in the original either, but the game feels cohesive, it is more harmonious to watch.

I played the original 5 times, so I'm good 😁. I didn't finish the remaster play throug, but near the end. If I wasn't as far in I might have opted for the pc original instead. But tnx.
 

Alan Wake

Member
Alan Wake had obvious flaws already mentioned but relied on its amazing atmosphere, the story, the goofy characters and the great soundtrack. Still a solid game. AW2 is better, especially Saga's part, but it still suffers from not so enjoying combat. It's a presentation-first-and-gameplay-second kind of game.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
I'll never forget my first time playing Alone In The Dark.

At some point during the opening bit, you're supposed to set fire to a door in order to progress.

The game, however, decided that this was the time for the physics engine to spazz out, and all the loose objects in said room caught fire, and started frantically flying around, causing me to die in a chaotic frenzy.

I nearly died laughing, god it was so stupid, I could barely believe it was real.

Never did fininsh that game either. I think I quit after the driving sequence made me want to break my controller in half.
Jack Nicholson Yes GIF
michael fassbender perfection GIF


It's honestly not a bad experience once you get a handle on the controls. It was definitely patched post-launch but it still has a fair bit of jank, and the driving sequences can be rough when you collide with stray pieces of geometry (which also leads to fits of laughter) There's enough checkpoints though and it has the DVD style system so you can just skip forward if you want but people who do that are weak as f.

It rides the broken/brilliant line so hard and the line is often blurred, but it's a total gem if you can get past the rough edges and come to grips with what the game sets out to do.

I'm gonna stream the game sometime this winter and collect clips/create a RTTP thread. It's gonna be glorious.

 
I personally love Alan Wake. I watched Twin Peaks for the first time around the time AW launched and the game hit just in the right spot.
I liked the remaster a lot. The game has it's flaws but I love it.
 

Hollowpoint5557

A Fucking Idiot
This game sucks. I don't care how much of a hit it was back in the day because as of today it is dumpster juice. How did anyone make it past chapter 2 is beyond me. I hate the combat, I hate finding the collectibles, the environments just funnel you into the next mob spawn. It's better left in the past. It's just boring.
 
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Sleepwalker

Member
Gameplay wise it's better. There's so much more to do in Homecoming than there is Alan Wake. People get way too hung up on the story in Homecoming and overlook that the game is a solid survival horror experience by any standard.

In AW all you do is run through the woods and fight the same trash mobs over and over. The combat is fun but there's nothing remotely special about the gameplay. Most interesting thing in the game are the Night Springs episodes.

Alan Wake honestly has not aged that well, and its mechanically one of remedy's weakest games (so is alan wake 2 tbf). I don't think you can even put it in the survival horror genre, its more like an action adventure game with some scary elements.

AW2 tries to go full resident evil tho.

Quantum Break is underrated and better than all of them. I just reinstalled it on Xbox and it's amazing how well the visuals hold up against Alan Wake 2.

I played QB recently on series X and thought it doesn't look that great anymore, it's very low res and not really that detailed although that is to be expected. Probably looks much better on PC.

But I agree its better than Alan Wake.
 

Muffdraul

Member
I really, really loved AW when it first released. I played through it a couple times, played both DLCs. I remember hoping hard for a sequel.

I was super stoked for the PS4 remaster, I hadn't played it since 2010 and was so excited to play it again, spruced up. Surprisingly, I found it to be a bit of a chore. Overall I still enjoyed it, just nowhere near as much as I recalled. I think a lot had to do with me not having the patience to re-read the all of the scattered pages all over again, and that kept me from being engaged.

I started AW2 a few days after it came out, played for about an hour and then put it down. I didn't hate it, I just wasn't in the mood for something that slow and deliberate. Pretty sure I'll be more amenable when I have my full two weeks off at the very end of the year and I can just chill and take my time.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
The atmosphere in AW is nothing like Twin Peaks despite maybe the diner and a bootleg log lady. The rest is really wannabe Stephen King.
Agree. You can tell it's inspired by Twin Peaks at times but the vibe is not there whatsoever.

Twin Peaks is without peer but Deadly Premonition does a damn fine job.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
Agree. You can tell it's inspired by Twin Peaks at times but the vibe is not there whatsoever.

Twin Peaks is without peer but Deadly Premonition does a damn fine job.

For what it's worth, AW II has a bit of a different vibe altogether. It's more of a True Detective meets Silent HIll meets Alan Wake vibe.
 
AW1 hasn't aged well, despite some die-hards claiming it's still the best Alan Wake game.

The gameplay is repetitive and oftentimes frustrating, the pacing is poor, and it's just generally kind of a slog to get through.

The concept/atmosphere/vibes are great though...
but, see, there's nothing you mention here that i didn't feel at least equally, if not more so, applied to alan wake 2. so, yeah, with the idea that the first game was completely original, & focused on actually telling it's story rather than gloating over just how marvelously clever it was, i do indeed feel it's the superior game...
 

RagnarokIV

Member
Alone In The Dark: Inferno is legit 100% better than shitty Alan Wake (gay hispter game).

Ridiculously underrated.

I remember armake21 (RIP) fucken loved the game and and supported it furiously! I followed him big time after that.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Update.

I finished it sometime last week.

Final thoughts; I'm about to shine a military-grade flashlight and focus in on the word "Delete"... You better believe I got all the batteries I need. :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 

BigLee74

Member
Muddled through the remaster.

Overall, I quite enjoyed it - brought back some good memories (the scene where you battle the baddies on the music stage with fireworks going off everywhere was just as fantastic as I remembered it).

It was definitely a better game back in the day though. Having said that, still better than Control!
 
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