Alan Wake

Really atmospheric and good story. Plays like a limited HBO series. Epic games, please swallow your pride and publish AW2 on Steam, it would turn a profit on day 1!

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautifu (Even at 2024 the graphics are pretty good)
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Cyberpunk 2077
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

10/10, I'm currently on Chapter 3 and I really enjoy it so far.
EDIT: Finished it, amazing experience, highly recommand it, will play the second game as well when it comes to steam.

Alan Wake is a survival horror game developed by the Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment. It's a unique blend of a mystical action film, a psychological thriller, and an adventure game.
Plot
The main character of the game is writer Alan Wake, who, along with his wife Alice, comes to the small town of Bright Falls to relax and work on a new book. However, shortly after arriving, they encounter unexplained phenomena: dark forces begin to pursue them, and Alan himself loses consciousness and wakes up in the forest.
To save Alice, Alan must fight against dark forces that take on the form of sinister creatures and even the revived pages of the manuscript of his book. In the course of his adventures, Alan discovers that dark forces are linked to his manuscript, which becomes the source of their power.
Gameplay
Alan Wake combines elements of a third-person shooter, survival horror, and action-adventure. The player controls Alan, who fights enemies, solves puzzles, and explores the game's world.
The game has two main mechanics: shooting and using light. Alan can shoot a pistol, submachine gun, or shotgun, and also use a flashlight or other light sources to fight the dark forces of evil. Light is the only way to defeat enemies, as they are afraid of it and disappear when hit by a beam of light.
There are also survival elements in the game: Alan must watch his health, ammo, and lights. If it is left without power or ammunition, it can quickly die.
Graphics and sound
The game's graphics are made in the style of film noir: dark colors, dark landscapes and an atmospheric soundtrack. The game's soundtrack also deserves attention: music, nature sounds, and character voices create a unique atmosphere.
Conclusion
Alan Wake is an exciting game that combines elements of different genres and creates a unique atmosphere. If you love psychological thrillers and games with survival elements, then Alan Wake is a great choice.

Review After 100% Achievements

I had a lot of fun with this game. As an achievement hunter, I played through the game twice, and each DLC twice as well.



Pros

- The game itself was good. Gameplay was straight forward and the game is not too long, but just long enough where the pacing doesn't feel rushed/too slow.
- The collectibles were not tedious and out of the way, but did make me go off the beaten path some.
- Both DLCs brought something new, and both were really fun to play through the first time.

Cons

- The story is pretty confusing at times. I had to watch a story explainer after beating the game in order to fully understand.
- The "no death" achievements were relatively easy except the one for the second DLC, which requires some pretty annoying jumps and jumping in this game is pretty jank.

Overall

Overall, I really enjoyed the game and would recommend for basically anyone to try at least once. As an achievement hunter, this game is the perfect 15-25 hour game that still challenges your skill slightly. The achievements could be done a bit quicker than I did (21 hours), if you're just better than me :D

This is a solid game, go give it a try!

Alan Wake is a very special game for me. Along with the lesser-known Guns, Gore & Cannoli, it's what got me back into video games in 2020 after five 'wilderness years' where I thought I was done with this hobby. It brought me so much joy in a way that simply doesn't come when you're a habitual player. Far be it from me to claim it works for everyone, but I genuinely believe video games cured my depression, and Alan Wake was the game that started this return.
I could not have chosen a better game to get back into the hobby, because even non-gamers would find a lot to appreciate here. Alan Wake has an intriguing story, beautiful graphics and a kick-ass soundtrack. Also, its gameplay isn't very good. So it fulfills all the requirements for a classic survival horror title.
The first two words spoken in this game are 'Stephen King.' Alan Wake is a love letter to the campy, commercial horror that makes up so much of his work. There are shot-for-shot homages to his film adaptations, and the protagonist directly lampshades his knack for turning innocuous objects into horror stories. And just as with some of Stephen King's favourite heroes, the main character is an author. A tweed-suited author, unshaven and unassuming, who can't run three steps without running out of breath. He seems to be have written a story that is coming true, word for word. This gives us such brilliantly meta passages as, "He took out his hip flask when he reached the page that described how he reached the page that made him take out his hip flask." Sam Lake is a great writer himself.
It was an incredible feeling to explore this game's world, and remember how entertaining video games are - I'd forgotten. The gameplay gimmick is illumination - in the light you're safe, in the dark they get you. This makes every unlit spot in the game feel like a threat, and street lamps are safe havens. It's tense, and was even more so when I replayed this game because I accidentally selected Hard difficulty without realizing it. The gameplay isn't going to win any awards, however. Alan sucks at cardio, and for a game that heavily advertises Energizer batteries, all it taught me was that they can't even power a dinky torch for 5 seconds. It's a repetitive game, and vestiges of its scrapped open-world design still shine through in the nigh-pointless driving segments.
Yet it still brought me so much joy. The development team might not have known how to make movement feel good, or the gunplay satisfying, but they definitely knew how to create a moment. Fighting off dark demons with the power of heavy metal, fireworks exploding everywhere, is a memory I will treasure forever. Even the small things - the in-game TV programmes, the NPCs in the loony bin and the thermoses you pick up because Alan's body is 75% black coffee - they made me so happy. This re-ignited a video game addiction that has still to subside 4 years later. So thank you, Remedy, and thank you Sam Lake. Now do the face.

Great story hindered by old gameplay/controls.
Camera is a common complaint with this game, Alan runs out of stamina pretty quickly, and the rare platforming sections are terrifying because of how wonky Alan moves at times.
If you can get past those, you'll enjoy this game very much.