3.5/5 ★ – nickmazz15's review of Alan Wake Remastered.

ALAN WAKE REVIEW - Played this weirdly made me feel nostalgic. Alan Wake came out in 2010 and it felt nice to play something that feels video gamey. After playing through a bunch of modern games that are dozens and dozens of hours long, that are trying to be the most immersive experiences possible with sprawling stories that when you finish you feel like you’ve lost part of your soul, its nice to play a game where you point a flashlight at enemies or literal words and they blow up. I had a good time with Alan Wake. Even though I say it is very video gamey, it does feel ahead of its time. In a lot of respects its something experimental and neat but feels like its held back by the time in which it was made. A meta narrative about a tortured author whose works that reflect his life are affecting the world around him. Plenty of walking around and listening to colorful characters shape this oddball town. Integrating live-action footage. I can see how this was really ambitious for the time. I cant say it all comes together. Much of that has to do with the formula which never changes. You start off each chapter milling about talking to other characters which I enjoyed. While the writing overall is intentionally campy there’s still a wit and charm to the dialogue and the voice acting is really good. Then there’s a gameplay stretch then you’re moved to diffent location for another gameplay stretch. Even with the base game not being that long. Nine hours max. I did tire a little of the repetitiveness. While I liked the combat which requires you to consider how to engage enemies with light and firepower since Alan Wake is not a strong protagonist. Dude has less stamina than an eighty-year old man. Gunplay feels great. It is very satisfying to blast the fuck out of enemies. But sometimes the gameplay just felt like it was stretching itself on and on without much variety. There were some fun setpieces like a rock concert setting which was awesome. But those were few and far between. Also the inanimate objects were super annoying to fight. Even when they’re laying still they can still hurt you. So you miraculously dodge them but tap them when you try to move and you get damaged. Bullshit. I must say though the atmosphere in this game is excellent. Amazing gloomy art direction and the sound design is great. The eery wind is so foreboding. I also did enjoy the two DLC chapters. The story in the base game ended anti-climatically and the DLC has more proper closure. I mean I wish it was all just integrated together instead of feeling like a make right but it isn’t even that. Looked it up and the DLC chapters came out within the year the game released so it was clearly planned. Guess I cant be too surprised since this was the beginning of DLC and studios thought they could milk gamers sooner rather than later. Gameplay is stronger in the DLC. Lot more creativity throughout. More challenging as well. Most of the time that just means the game throws more enemies at you which could get annoying but you think your way out of it and it pays off. Not a perfect game overall but I see why Alan Wake developed the cult following it did (just Erik Matthews and Erik Matthews alone). Had a good time and will eventually check out the sequel which from what I hear seems to be an improvement on this in every way.