3.5/5 ★ – Tye_Boy's review of Alan Wake II.

Oh, how long I've looked forward to Alan Wake 2, even beyond its initial release. I was willing to wait as long as I could to get my hands on a physical copy... or until the digital version was dirt cheap. I just HATED how this high-profile game launched without a physical, even with the reasons given. Nevertheless, one whole year after release, my hands have finally been graced with a physical version, complete with all the DLC and other goodies. I knew then that no matter what I thought of the game, having a disc for it would alone have made the wait worthwhile. Between my anticipation and initial impressions, I loved Alan Wake 2. All signs pointed to it being another home-run for Remedy in their first foray into survival horror. But the further I delved into this game, the more and more issues I ran into, turning this clearwater hit into something far murkier. Starting with the good, the presentation is fantastic! This is easily one of the best-looking games money can buy. The graphics are beautiful between realistic characters and environments, colourful lighting and immense detail everywhere. Undoubtedly, the game is Remedy's boldest, most ambitious effort yet, mainly regarding the storytelling, what they're best known for. The sheer scale and density of the dual-narratives completely warrants the beefy playtime. No matter how much interest towards it may waver, there is always something in the story that kept hooking me in. With the first game having taken inspiration from Twin Peaks, the long-awaited follow-up taking cues from Twin Peaks: The Return proves to be utterly ingenious, incorporating so many themes and motifs from that revival into this one itself, enriching the experience even more; no matter that the story's mind-bending nature lost me more than several times. The entire voice cast does a terrific job. All the effort that went into cutscenes and filmed live-action segments are remarkable in their craftsmanship - the sets, lighting, cinematography, and acting. Both the music and sound design are top-notch, the former overloaded with incredible original songs, while the latter evokes unease from the mixing of skin-crawling sounds. Now... the bad. While the first chunk of the game was my most positive with it, the pacing showed itself to be rather lacklustre. For the first two to three hours, the first big chunk of the game, there's just no way to save. Why wait that long to introduce the save points? From there, most chapters are enormous in length, peppered by a few others that are so short they almost entirely amount to a couple of cutscenes. To me, the pace is jagged, uneven, off-kilter. It left more and more of a sour taste in my mouth as it went on. Touted as Remedy's first dive into the survival horror genre, I found this game's take on it to be disappointing. The combat is too stiff and clunky. Enemies are bonafide bullet-sponges that kill you way too easily. Playing this on normal difficulty, I only grew increasingly frustrated during my playthrough at how quick it is to die. It infuriated me. Not helping was how awkward it is to move and dodge. More than half the time, dodging attacks doesn't do shit. It feels like you have to create way too much distance between you and an enemy just to avoid a single charged-up attack, and that's if there's just one of them you're up against at that given moment. Worse yet, there's no way to effectively heal yourself amidst combat, not unless you're ready to lose that regained health immediately once you've healed. Bosses, while smart in their design, don't fare much better. Frustration often became the word best used to describe how I felt about the combat. On an entirely different level, the horror is also disappointing. Frequent jumpscares annoyed me more than they could ever truly scare. The only real sense of horror I felt throughout these twenty-five or so hours came from a few chance moments, a couple of enemy designs, and one particular sequence towards the end of the game. Collectibles are integrated poorly into the experience. Exploration is practically discouraged from the game's annoying difficulty, extending into the awkwardly spread-out collectables and side objectives. It flat-out discouraged me at times from checking out a lot of the environments, no matter how hard I tried. Now, I've played my fair share of horror games up to this point. I understand the level of intentional frustration and clunk that goes into them. But in Alan Wake 2, the horror and associating combat pale in comparison to what's come before it. In the end, it's the story, presentation, and sheer production values that make this such an engrossing experience, far more than the gameplay. Given what Remedy has cooking up, I'll still be there for every one of those releases. I found Alan Wake to be a middling game back when I played the remaster, despite its ideas and charm. With this sequel, the ambition and upgrade in presentation makes it the better of the two, but frustration, like in the first game, spreads to this one too.