I don't care if God of War is heavily inspired by the Last of Us' parent/child dynamic because goddamn it just works, especially with great writing and acting.
Love Kratos' and Atreus' dynamic. How Kratos can be brusque but sometimes funny, how he clearly cares about his son deep down but is too guarded to say it.
Atreus is cute and curious, but can get moody and angsty when it comes to Kratos' pretty harsh and angry parenting. It's an interesting flip-flopping of emotions that I like seeing fade in and out every now and then.
Just finished Alfheim tonight.
I think the game gets caught up in its "one continuous shot" cinema a little too much -- as sometimes I wish cutscenes could just cut to black to spawn me a little closer to my next objective -- but I guess I just have to witness everything in real-time and deal with it.
Dad of Boy keeps going on. It has me in a vice-grip.
Recent sequence in the snow area of Midgard had Kratos get a little self-aware and goofy with how over-the-top his "solutions" to obstacles are.
There's a key item hidden under a massive lake of ice. There's no easy way to break through.
But there is a massive giant-sized (and I mean freaking building-sized) hammer stuck in some ice.
Kratos says "we'll cut the hammer free, ride it down, and figure out what to do after."
The son says "so, that just involves a lot of luck"
Kratos: "you are welcome to suggest a different one"
Lmao his methods are crazy but they do work.
The story is also heating up as I got to a big heavy enotional moment between him and his son.
Atreus has some sort of mysterious illness and it came to a head when he got so enraged that Kratos was being tortured by one of Thor's sons, that he passed out in a fever.
Kratos has to go to Hel to get something, where no Fire in all of the Nine Realms can defeat the monsters there.
But the fun and epic thing is, he goes back to his house to get something not of the Nine Realms, his own Chaos Blades infused with a raging flame.
Now, I don't know much of the original GOW lore, but I know he killed like every god in those, and that's his secret tragic backstory in this new one.
And man... that was an awesome reveal, especially when they started throwing in him hallucinating Athena's ghost for some reason.
Greek and Norse mythologies crossing over, oooh!!
(And cool to see even Mimir knows of the Greek pantheon too. And was like "yo, I KNEW you were Greek!" Lmao woo)
Resident Evil 4 Remake Separate Ways DLC is the best 10$ thing I have ever paid for. The original DLC wasn't even that good imo and the remake of it is SOOO much better.
God of War keeps stabbing me emotionally and I love and hate that.
The boys are finally bonding and Kratos has told his son the truth about him being a god, and therefore his son supposedly inheriting said "god status". What this exactly means for Atreus is unclear, but the kid keeps asking questions about his abilities and what he is fully capable of.
He's also getting really annoying and scary with how much of a god-complex he's building up.
After many enemy encounters now, he cheers that "they didn’t stand a chance". He also now looks at the world with an air of superiority, thinking that "we can do anything, no one can stop us both!"
He also just recently (rightfully) called out Brok and Sindri's petty family issues by wrongly saying they're "little people's little problems!" Since they're dwarves, I could feel the pain of that insult was on multiple levels AGH ATREUS WHY.
He's also recently dismissing Kratos' wife's agency and importance after finding out that she was mortal, unlike them.
At least Kratos realises that his son is stepling out of line now. I hope he can rein that child in, this is why he never told him the truth!!
Ah yes, and on a more positive note, it's cool to see more glimpses of Kratos' violent past in the Greek realm and how he's ashamed of it. I also find it very fascinating to know that the character of Tyr in thjs game had legends of travelling to other worlds of gods, such as Greek Gods, Japanese Gods, and Egyptian Gods. Kinda neat that they're making all this religious and powerful pantheons connected together like that.
I managed to beat ALL the main bosses in Elden Ring solo. Even Malenia. This is honestly the hardest game in the series when it comes beating bosses solo.
Started The Quarry (same devs as Until Dawn and the other Dark Pictures games I haven't played yet) since it's leaving PS Extra on the 17th.
Only finished the prologue and a bit of Chapter 1 and it's already annoying me in some key ways
the facial capture is weeeird. uncanny, sure, but it doesn't always feel intentional!
some really weird "scene changes" or "gameplay to cutscene" moments. Makes no sense since the whole game is in-engine, but sometimes there's a quick black cut after a gameplay moment, and suddenly the lighting and character model details have improved drastically.
the fixed-camera angles are tough to navigate the characters with (especially with their sluggish motion-captured walking animation) but it's so much better than the third-person camera in Chapter 1.
DEAR GOD THE MOTION BLUR. Everything in your field of view gets sooo blurry and ghostly with how little you move the camera. I usually never have a problem with motion blur in games, but this is seriously hard to move around in. It hurts. The frame rate feels quite low too so that worsens it. And there's no option to turn it off! Plenty of other great accessibility things but not that basic game feature!
I'm playing World of Warcraft. Really enjoy new content in Dragonflight, and am looking forward to complete the Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope with my Guild. Sometimes I also play Destiny 2, buy WoW is the main game i'm playing right now.
I've finished God of War 2018, and what an awesome experience that was! WOW!
I'm gonna check out the Making Of doc tomorrow because this was too cool!
I have no experience with the original series, which is fine, since this is some prestige, cinematic storytelling for the reboot, that really, really hooked me.
Plus, any small reference to the Greece series' was cool, as Kratos' gratuitously violent history was teased as mysterious, unspoken, buried truths to his gruff, guarded personality.
And you see how Kratos opens up and teaches his son good morals (mostly) about what it is to be a god and have such immense power, and his son begins to respect him as he opens up more. It's so sweet!
The story itself, and the performances from Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic were outstanding. I was hooked with the mystery involving Kratos needing to survive as an Outsider God in a realm not his own. His son, curious about the world outside their forest, and with some dangerous pieces to his heredity that Kratos doesn't want to reveal. And of the world itself and all the stories told within it -- the Gods who can't help but get in the way of Kratos, and become so vain they're all just major a-holes.
What impressed me the most about the world was the sense of SCALE!! Massive ruins, monuments, constructs built by dwarves and giants. The HUGEmongous beats and monsters you have to fight, that could eat Kratos for breakfast is insane, but you still manage to beat them as they throw you around in different cutscenes, just because of how cool and strong you are!
The way the story's hightened moments with the main relationship was also tied into the gameplay at times was really darn cool!
There's a moment in the middle of the game when Atreus starts getting a god complex about his status as a "child-god", and becomes way more defiant towards Kratos.
It's at this point where, throughout all of the game before this, you fire an arrow with 🔳, he does it.
But in a series of a few fights. He doesn't. He doesn't do anything you tell him to and is left to roam free and fire whatever arrow and is on pure enemy-attack mode, leaving you without a way to strategize combat efficiently. Is this what it's like being a dad whose kid doesn't listen to you?? And you just can't do anything about it?! 😭
The one-shot camera style was a very neat choice to frame the game with, though at times could get in the way of the gameplay.
I wish there were sometimes an easier way to fast-travel, rather than needing to go to-and-from specific points for the sake of the magic-continuous-shot-door. Or, sometimes I wish it'd cut to black so it could spawn me closer to whete I'd need to be for the story, if ever there's a part that involves backtracking.
I also didn't quite enjoy the RPG elements. I don't see why enemies need to be power-levelled or I need to keep buying better and better armour. I ended up skipping a lot of special-looking and "powerful" sets because I kept managing to save up juuuust enough for the newest most-stat-bumping armour piece.
So, things like the Traveller or Ancient set themed around enemies, (and you get a trophy for buying the whole set) I only ever bought at the end to check those off, since they were always so underpowered to what I'd bought at the time I never looked back.
I hope the sequel has some sort of transmog system, where I can change the look to something else but keep the stats.
Lots of special-looking items I never wore because the stats were too low, or I never had enough resources to buy them! I never wore any full-chest covering armours for Kratos, because of those reasons! And I should've!
All in all, I'm really really satisfied with this purchase I made like 3 years ago lmao. This was an AMAZING game and it's already going in my books for one of the best stories and performances in a video game. I was SO invested and SO immersed in everything going on, I really didn't expect that!
Oh yeah and that tease for the sequel is SUPER HYPE. Omg it'll be so cool when I get to it one day. Finally, getting to see the big name gods, starting with Thor himself!
It was a good choice to set the epilogue "Years Later" in the future, since it's clear that Sunny aged up quite a bit between both games, I expect he'll look a lot older in that same scene, if it's recreated in Ragnarok.
currently i am playing Pubg Mobile. this game is very amazing because when i playing this game i never feel bored. i playing this game with my friends and easily can communicate with them.
I am on the road to platinum Dark souls 3. This is so much worse than Dark Souls 2 in terms of 100% completion. If you play this game offline, you will have yourself do SOOOO much grind and that just isn't fun at all.
Playing Dead By Daylight Mobile and having a blast with all the killers I love playing as Ghostface and The shape the pig shouldn’t have gotten nerfed .
Poor Amanda.
The past week I've been playing the PS5 version of Resident Evil 7. Just finished it today, and getting into some of the DLCs now. Never played the DLCs in the original.
God, this thing was super freaking scary. I mean, I've played it before many years ago, but that was a long time ago, and I forgot a lot about the game...
So well-made, so claustrophobic, so dark, so spooky, but so good.
Played the Seperate Ways DLC for Resident Evil 4 and really enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun and it was cool seeing Ada's side of the story and all the crazy stuff she went through. I like the addition of the grappling hook, but I do wish there was a bit more of a difference between her and Leon in terms of gameplay. Maybe make her a bit more nimble and faster, or something akin to what Naughty Dog did with TLOU2 with Ellie and Abby, but to be fair, I guess that'd be a bit too much work for a 6 hour DLC.
I also found Lily Gao to be better in terms of voice acting here, since she gets to do a lot more than in the original campaign, though there are still moments where it's clear that voice acting isn't her forte. If Capcom plans to keep her as Ada's voice from now on then I only hope that the more work she gets the more she'll improve. Though we probably won't hear from her again until what I'm assuming is a Resident Evil 6 remake, or possibly Resident Evil 9 if they end up using the dropped storyline from Village.
Finished the main story of Spider-Man 2. Insomniac, thank you for this incredible game. It’s a tall order to balance all of these characters, plot threads, and abilities, but you managed to pull it off without it feeling overly bloated or disappointing. Definitely a worthy successor to the first game…but I’m not sure it’s better.
And I get this is probably the unpopular opinion, but I did find the first game to be superior. There are things greatly improved (they reduced the amount of and improved the quality of the MJ playable sections and gave us more time as Miles/Peter without taking away from her character, the boss fights were challenging and had a lot of heart put into them, the map is larger, and what they do with Martin Li/Mr. Negative was, while not surprising or groundbreaking, very well done). I did find some other things lacking (the final fight should have exclusively been Peter’s to fight considering the emotional impact, not him and Miles, it retreads on some story beats that they used in both SM1 and Miles Morales, and there are some missions and moments where what they’re doing is soooooooooo ham-fisted and in your face that it comes off as annoyingly preachy).
Not willing to go into spoilers, and I’m typing on an iPad and not a computer, but I will say two last things:
1. Just give Yuri Lowenthal his Best Performance award right fucking now.
2. I’m ashamed to say this, but Scream…would.
Anyway, there was no Bully Lowenthal, and no scenes of Peter dancing/threatening to put some dirt in your eye. 2/10.
Do you also find God of War 2018 superior to Ragnarok? I haven't played it yet but I heard that the biggest issue is characters spoiling puzzle solutions.
Finished the main story of Spider-Man 2. Insomniac, thank you for this incredible game. It’s a tall order to balance all of these characters… more, plot threads, and abilities, but you managed to pull it off without it feeling overly bloated or disappointing. Definitely a worthy successor to the first game…but I’m not sure it’s better.
And I get this is probably the unpopular opinion, but I did find the first game to be superior. There are things greatly improved (they reduced the amount of and improved the quality of the MJ playable sections and gave us more time as Miles/Peter without taking away from her character, the boss fights were challenging and had a lot of heart put into them, the map is larger, and what they do with Martin Li/Mr. Negative was, while not surprising or groundbreaking, very well done). I did find some other things lacking (the final fight should have exclusively been Peter’s to fight considering the emotional impact, no… [view original content]
I would also say 2018 was better, but moreso because I thought the writing was more focused. The story was simple, but they executed it flawlessly. Ragnarok they were doing a few things all at once, and it's done great, but it felt a little less tight.
Do you also find God of War 2018 superior to Ragnarok? I haven't played it yet but I heard that the biggest issue is characters spoiling puzzle solutions.
I am FINALLY done with Spider-Man 2. Here are my spoiler-free thoughts:
Better than the original IMO. At least from a gameplay perspective. It shits on the gameplay from the original and Miles Morales in almost EVERY WAY.
Loved Kraven as a character. He was very menacing.
Pete's relationship with characters like MJ, Miles and Harry is something that I always thought was missing in any of the live-action films. MJ won me over with her character. Miles is such a great sidekick and I loved the dynamic between Pete and Harry.
Venom was fucking terrifying. Tony Todd fucking nailed it.
One Venom moment will take you back to your childhood
The difficulty has been highly improved. I died more to this game than I did in the original.
They weren't kidding when they said this game is a LOT darker.
New York is bigger and more alive.
The side quests were even much better and felt less repetitive than the original.
I do have a few complaints:
Final act felt kind of rushed.
Some visual bugs. Not gamebreaking though
A character involvement in the main story was more fanservice than serving actual purpose.
This game is not perfect. What is a perfect game though? I can see why people would prefer the first game, at least storywise but I prefer the sequel because of the gameplay alone. The traversal and combat is just more fun and I loved the villains more. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a 9/10. My opinion might change in the future though depending how much I play the game.
As far as superhero games go, InFamous 2 will always be my favorite and I prefer it over the Arkham games and the Spider-Man ones.
Woooo! Still not done the opening chapter of Alan Wake 2. Just played about 45 minutes, quit out when I got to Bright Falls.
PS5 Activity Card still says I have about 50 mins. Wow this is a big opening chapter.
Ohhh man it feels so good to be back in this world and it's weirdness.
The new detective angle with Saga Anderson is pretty neat so far.
Environments look fantastic.
The cutscenes are as cinematic and spooky as ever. Had me do a few double-takes at the very start, wondering if what I was seeing was live-action or game-engine, until the camera swung behind the prologue character...
I'm hyped AF and falling asleep is gonna be so hard... but omg you can bet I'm HOOKED already!
Let the mystery begin! Wooo this was the best moment so far!
Started playing Alan Wake 2 and I'm enjoying it so far. It's a very pretty game, great atmosphere, the map is huge so there's lots of stuff to look at, and I'm liking Saga and Casey so far. However, I do have one complaint. It has some of the cheapest jumpscares I've ever seen from a AAA horror game. Literally just a jpeg of a creepy face and a scream. I mean, I'm not gonna say they don't get me whenever they pop up (which is a handful of times in the 3 hours I've played) but I feel like there are better ways to brew up some scares than a literal flashing picture of a face lol.
Okay, I gotta talk about Remedy's choice of where to give you the freedom to swap between characters, since it's quite a while in... And I'm pretty sure, it was changed from what was mentioned even a few months ago earlier this year.
As far as I've known, the dual campaign aspect started as a "change nearly anywhere, any time" to "change only at specific Safe Rooms" with the additional caveat that the very beginning and very ending of the game are set in stone and must be completed where they are before/after both campaigns.
But in the game's release as it is right now, the "very beginning" of the game is multiple chapters long.
You have to play through 2 lengthy Saga chapters and 3 slightly shorter Alan chapters before being given the ability to swap campaigns in specific Safe Rooms. And that's like, numerous hours of content. Like 3-5 I'd say, before you're done with those!
And even then -- and I have no idea if they loosen up with repeat playthroughs after finishing the game -- you might have to forcibly play that same sequence of chapters every time you replay the game, and won't have all that much freedom to go Full-throttle through one protag's campaign before swapping to the other one....
I dunno, it feels like I'm definitely a quarter through the game now, maybe even a third? But it struck me as really odd that they restrict this highly-touted feature for so long.
I can see why they might have done that, as Remedy probably wanted to hit you with the setup and hook of "Alan escapes the Dark Place?! (Saga Chp2. End)" --> "Alan Recounts events leading to Scratch/Him returning somehow to the Real World (Alan Pts.1-3)" since those events flow into each other in a very particular, hand-crafted way...
But I just had to mention, that this heavily-marketed feature in interviews this past year, feels like it might be "holding on to the steering wheel" a little too long at the start than some people might want...
However, I do have one complaint. It has some of the cheapest jumpscares I've ever seen from a AAA horror game. Literally just a jpeg of a creepy face and a scream
I'm really liking the game so far, but I have to agree.
At first I didn't mind it, since it was a great jarring way for me to get into the Spooky vibe, knowing "well shit, something's definitely going wrong now"
But I'm quite a few hours into the game, and they keep using it.
Does it scare me every time? Yeah! It's very creepy and it's because they don't really build up to it.
But still, out of all the scares to make me jump, this is basically the one that's been used the most, and it feels a little cheap, or shallow... they can do more!
Heck, the Game Over loading screen for Alan is freaky!! But because it's on screen for so long.
Give me more things too scary to look at, not full-screen unexpected frights.
Started playing Alan Wake 2 and I'm enjoying it so far. It's a very pretty game, great atmosphere, the map is huge so there's lots of stuff … moreto look at, and I'm liking Saga and Casey so far. However, I do have one complaint. It has some of the cheapest jumpscares I've ever seen from a AAA horror game. Literally just a jpeg of a creepy face and a scream. I mean, I'm not gonna say they don't get me whenever they pop up (which is a handful of times in the 3 hours I've played) but I feel like there are better ways to brew up some scares than a literal flashing picture of a face lol.
Okay, I gotta talk about Remedy's choice of where to give you the freedom to swap between characters, since it's quite a while in... And I'm pretty sure, it was changed from what was mentioned even a few months ago earlier this year.
(Spoiler)
Yes, even if you main-line one campaign it's been said that you'll get to a point where the game makes you "catch up" with the other character's story to unlock the endgame.
I've heard the campaigns are a pretty even 50/50 split between the two so if you're enjoying both then hopefully you won't feel short-changed in terms of content for either of them!
Just finished Return 3 myself! I've been finding Saga's chapters to be way longer with way more complex (and disorienting) Forest maps that I enjoy exploring. For now at least!
I think I'll keep going for another half/full chapter until I get to a point where I can swap to Alan again.
I'm surprised to say I think this is actually my GOTY of 2023. This game was fresh, unique and it lived up to its survival horror marketing. It does play like a Resident Evil game but still keeps some of the Alan Wake elements, like having to use the flashlight to weaken the enemies.
I didn't understand what the hell was going on through the story but it didn't ruin my experience at all. Alan Wake's voice acting is just as iconic as you remember from the first game. Saga Anderson was a great addition to the story. Her gameplay was very detective-based and I was oddly addicted to her collecting and placing clues and evidence on a Case Board. Something I have never experienced before.
I feel like the ending is gonna piss off some people due to vagueness but then again, so did the first one. They are either setting up a third game or will conclude the whole story with future DLC. Only time will tell.
I don't think there has ever been a recent game sequel that jumped the quality as high as this one. Weren't a fan of the first one but Alan Wake 2 is a HUGE improvement. Reminded me a lot of Uncharted 2.
I haven't finished the game yet, but will tomorrow (I've just finished all of Alan's Initiation chapters and am in the final endgame!) and hooooo boy I've got a lot to say about this game, it's really complex and multi-layered. Sam Lake and the team pulled out all the stops for this title, for writing, music, visuals, claustrophobic combat, it's insane.
Reminded me a lot of Uncharted 2.
Now that you mention it, it really does. Much like Uncharted, the first game had way too much focus on travelling from Shooting Gallery A to Shooting Gallery B, etc. etc. and while it's the mysterious and engaging story that keeps you interested in continuing, overall the game hasn't really aged all that well and is a little basic overall.
I finished Alan Wake 2. What a helluva game
I'm surprised to say I think this is actually my GOTY of 2023. This game was fresh, unique an… mored it lived up to its survival horror marketing. It does play like a Resident Evil game but still keeps some of the Alan Wake elements, like having to use the flashlight to weaken the enemies.
I didn't understand what the hell was going on through the story but it didn't ruin my experience at all. Alan Wake's voice acting is just as iconic as you remember from the first game. Saga Anderson was a great addition to the story. Her gameplay was very detective-based and I was oddly addicted to her collecting and placing clues and evidence on a Case Board. Something I have never experienced before.
I feel like the ending is gonna piss off some people due to vagueness but then again, so did the first one. They are either setting up a third game or will conclude the whole story with future DLC. Only time wil… [view original content]
while it's the mysterious and engaging story that keeps you interested in continuing, overall the game hasn't really aged all that well and is a little basic overall.
One thing that made me forgive it more than Alan Wake 1 is that it only takes 6 hours to complete the whole thing. AW1 didn't really justify its 15 hour runtime.
I haven't finished the game yet, but will tomorrow (I've just finished all of Alan's Initiation chapters and am in the final endgame!) and h… moreooooo boy I've got a lot to say about this game, it's really complex and multi-layered. Sam Lake and the team pulled out all the stops for this title, for writing, music, visuals, claustrophobic combat, it's insane.
Reminded me a lot of Uncharted 2.
Now that you mention it, it really does. Much like Uncharted, the first game had way too much focus on travelling from Shooting Gallery A to Shooting Gallery B, etc. etc. and while it's the mysterious and engaging story that keeps you interested in continuing, overall the game hasn't really aged all that well and is a little basic overall.
Well, shit. That's the end of Alan Wake 2 for me.
At least until New Game Plus comes out.
Tons of lingering questions, tons of answers and continuations from the original game, so much interpretive writing, music, and characters.
But I enjoyed every second of this game.
This is such a cool merging of video games and artistic vision!!
It took 13 years (well, for me only 8-9 years since I first played) but damn did they finally deliver on a worthy sequel.
The first game was a good cult-classic. Very far from perfect, as the main gameplay loop was extremely shallow, long, and repetitive. But was held up by a fairly engaging supernatural mystery and a tease of greater surreal ambitions, should a sequel ever come...
And that sequel has delivered on that surrealism in ways I could not have ever expected.
The writing for the main plot in AW2 is wonderfully cyclical. There are so many connecting pieces to this story that reference, reflect, echo, repeat themselves and offer many different interpretations of events, due to their vagueness.
This can either be a good thing or a bad thing for some people, but as an artist I am blown away.
All of the strange live-action pieces in the game were so strangely captivating and only added to the weird mystery, deciding what could be trusted as Fact vs. Fiction...
And for fans of Finland, they put a lot of their own culture in this too, which I find pretty cool for a developer team to do.
Saga Anderson, introduced as the newcomer's insert to this tale, is a cool, mysterious protagonist, who seems unaffected and unsurprised by the really weird supernatural happenings of the town, as she pushes forward into the mystery.
Her gameplay is very claustrophobic as the forest environments can get a little confusing, but that adds to the spooks. Enemies often hang around different areas during/after missions while exploring, makes for tense encounters.
She also has a really engaging Case Board that we don't see enough of in detective games.
Sure, some of it can be pretty basic "question and answer" linking, but it's a very fun way to piece together the weird elements to the plot, act as a way to recap yourself, and see what conclusions come from it.
There are also a lot of side-collectibles that were fun to hunt down, and I found abiut 60% of each, I decided to follow a guide to get the rest before jumping into Saga's ending 😅 so, I got the platinum trophy already too! Cool!
Alan Wake's side of the story is for the Remedy die-hards. He's inhabiting a nightmarish, noir-styled New York, and things get WEIRD. Paths to your objective don't follow logic, as you'll find doorways on top of roofs that open to the ground floor. You're constantly haunted by groups of shadows, taunting you and making you question which ones are hostile and which are simple illusions. (There's a minor bit of stealth you can do by turning off your flashlight, but it can make running into one all too easy...)
He is my favourite part of this sequel going full M-rated survival horror. He can finally drop F-bombs! And ohhh boy does he deserve it. Trapped in a nightmare, full of relentless torture from his own mind and the darkness around him, it was great to hear him and other characters swear in fear when the tension gets to be too much.
I will say, that the game relies on full-screen unavoidable jumpscares too much. It always gets me. Sure, that means it works, and it can tie into the game's psychological themes, but I think it's used too much for what the game's horror hook already works without, or much less...
You feel constantly under threat when you come across shadows. The environment is gorgeously dark, with neon and light echoing off of the environment.
You meet strange characters like Alex Casey, his legally-distinct Max Payne, engage with strange but neat Live-action cutscenes that further the plot, but can also confuse you even more... it is a place of dreams, nightmares, and illusions.
I'm going to be very interested in seeing what other fans have theorized so far.
There are also plenty of other connections to Control's FBC, plus some sneaky "Not-Quantum-Break" connections using some similar actors/characters. I loved Mr. Door's mysterious nature, and David Harewood echoed the really great late Lance Reddick -- though his portrayal was still all his own.
Overall, this was a great purchase. A game that truly looks Next-Gen, with a production that far outshines what Remedy did back in the first Alan Wake. It's impressive, and I can't wait to see what comes next with its expansions. Didn’t get the Deluxe version, but I sure will now.
Oh yeah, and one last thing:
Where the fuck is Barry Wheeler, my comic relief, Remedy??! How could they make a sequel without him, even a little? He was so fun in the original!
MEGA SPOILERS TO NOTE:
I really enjoyed how Saga and Alan's stories connected, both in how their "investigations" played out, and in how Alan's connection from the Dark Place played around with time, not always running in tandem with the real world...
Saga's story was very long and engaging, and I really liked how it revisited a lot of the key characters from the original game -- and how all Boss Taken of her story were key characters somehow in the original game.
Alan's story revolving around loops, repetition, and a never-ending self-torture was fun in a twisted way. Yes, I get that we kinda already had this in AW:AN but due to this darker sequel it brought some great, sad mind-fucks to this one.
I had called it after the 2/3rds of the game that he'd loop in and shoot himself trying to fix the story in the writers room, and I'm glad to have been unfortunately right.
The side-story involving revisiting Alice was very sad, though I'm glad there seems to be a silver lining in that she's willingly trapped herself into the Dark Place to help Alan. Hopefully this means in DLC, NG+, or a sequel, we'll see more of her have some agency in helping Alan find the right art to escape?
it's interesting this game once again has a scripted "dark-reflection" climax involving Saga at the end, where her doubts trap her in her own mind, much like the Hiss try to trap Jesse in Control.
a whole lot of lingering questions about who Zane is, what's with the possible retcons about him being a director instead of a poet, and how he looks just like Alan, or Scratch.
I'm betting that he's some dark reflection of Alan, Scratch in disguise, trying to get Alan to work together if his plan of "take over Alan's mind" doesn't. He behaves in a similar laid-back way to Scratch from American Nightmare... Or, its another case of "history repeats itself, and Alan must not become Zane".
There's just so many layers to cut into here. I love it SO much. I really hope it gets recognized this year for some very bold writing and artistic presentation.
I found the game to get a little bit Kojima-like in the end, with how wild and strange it got with its own plot, but that's kind of the appeal with it, I guess?
Now to get into Spider-Man 2, in another dark-ish streak...
But man, it's going to be really hard to find another game that can give me the same vibes and presentation as Alan Wake 2 though... this game, for good and bad reasons, is one of a kind. Great job Remedy. More people need to make games as weird and experimental as you...
Lmao did my comment's length just break the site hahaha
Hope this bump fixes it... lmao nope, not on my phone... not on my computer either, sorry guys...
EDIT: Oh wait, got it, (previously, the last paragraph would spill off the edge of the page, breaking the formatting...)
I'm still enjoying Alan Wake 2, but I really do have to complain about the jumpscares again. They are so incredibly cheap it's ridiculous, especially considering how overly reliant the game is with them at times. The atmosphere, lighting, and sound design are more than enough to have my heart racing, but the face.jpeg + scream.mp3 dollar store indie horror game level jumpscares absolutely kill these moments for me.
It's especially bad in the
Valhalla Nursery with Cynthia Weaver. Holy shit there are so many jumpscares here what the fuck.
At least they were done much better in Alan Wake 2 than in Callisto Protocol. If you think Alan Wake 2's jumpscares are bad, Callisto Protocol is much worse and cheaper. That game did NOT scare me in the slightest cause I saw pretty much all jumpscares coming.
I'm still enjoying Alan Wake 2, but I really do have to complain about the jumpscares again. They are so incredibly cheap it's ridiculous, e… morespecially considering how overly reliant the game is with them at times. The atmosphere, lighting, and sound design are more than enough to have my heart racing, but the face.jpeg + scream.mp3 dollar store indie horror game level jumpscares absolutely kill these moments for me.
It's especially bad in the
(Spoiler)
Comments
I don't care if God of War is heavily inspired by the Last of Us' parent/child dynamic because goddamn it just works, especially with great writing and acting.
Love Kratos' and Atreus' dynamic. How Kratos can be brusque but sometimes funny, how he clearly cares about his son deep down but is too guarded to say it.
Atreus is cute and curious, but can get moody and angsty when it comes to Kratos' pretty harsh and angry parenting. It's an interesting flip-flopping of emotions that I like seeing fade in and out every now and then.
Just finished Alfheim tonight.
I think the game gets caught up in its "one continuous shot" cinema a little too much -- as sometimes I wish cutscenes could just cut to black to spawn me a little closer to my next objective -- but I guess I just have to witness everything in real-time and deal with it.
Dad of Boy keeps going on. It has me in a vice-grip.
Recent sequence in the snow area of Midgard had Kratos get a little self-aware and goofy with how over-the-top his "solutions" to obstacles are.
There's a key item hidden under a massive lake of ice. There's no easy way to break through.
But there is a massive giant-sized (and I mean freaking building-sized) hammer stuck in some ice.
Kratos says "we'll cut the hammer free, ride it down, and figure out what to do after."
The son says "so, that just involves a lot of luck"
Kratos: "you are welcome to suggest a different one"
Lmao his methods are crazy but they do work.
The story is also heating up as I got to a big heavy enotional moment between him and his son.
Atreus has some sort of mysterious illness and it came to a head when he got so enraged that Kratos was being tortured by one of Thor's sons, that he passed out in a fever.
Kratos has to go to Hel to get something, where no Fire in all of the Nine Realms can defeat the monsters there.
But the fun and epic thing is, he goes back to his house to get something not of the Nine Realms, his own Chaos Blades infused with a raging flame.
Now, I don't know much of the original GOW lore, but I know he killed like every god in those, and that's his secret tragic backstory in this new one.
And man... that was an awesome reveal, especially when they started throwing in him hallucinating Athena's ghost for some reason.
Greek and Norse mythologies crossing over, oooh!!
(And cool to see even Mimir knows of the Greek pantheon too. And was like "yo, I KNEW you were Greek!" Lmao woo)
Resident Evil 4 Remake Separate Ways DLC is the best 10$ thing I have ever paid for. The original DLC wasn't even that good imo and the remake of it is SOOO much better.
God of War keeps stabbing me emotionally and I love and hate that.
The boys are finally bonding and Kratos has told his son the truth about him being a god, and therefore his son supposedly inheriting said "god status". What this exactly means for Atreus is unclear, but the kid keeps asking questions about his abilities and what he is fully capable of.
He's also getting really annoying and scary with how much of a god-complex he's building up.
After many enemy encounters now, he cheers that "they didn’t stand a chance". He also now looks at the world with an air of superiority, thinking that "we can do anything, no one can stop us both!"
He also just recently (rightfully) called out Brok and Sindri's petty family issues by wrongly saying they're "little people's little problems!" Since they're dwarves, I could feel the pain of that insult was on multiple levels AGH ATREUS WHY.
He's also recently dismissing Kratos' wife's agency and importance after finding out that she was mortal, unlike them.
At least Kratos realises that his son is stepling out of line now. I hope he can rein that child in, this is why he never told him the truth!!
Ah yes, and on a more positive note, it's cool to see more glimpses of Kratos' violent past in the Greek realm and how he's ashamed of it. I also find it very fascinating to know that the character of Tyr in thjs game had legends of travelling to other worlds of gods, such as Greek Gods, Japanese Gods, and Egyptian Gods. Kinda neat that they're making all this religious and powerful pantheons connected together like that.
I managed to beat ALL the main bosses in Elden Ring solo. Even Malenia. This is honestly the hardest game in the series when it comes beating bosses solo.
Started The Quarry (same devs as Until Dawn and the other Dark Pictures games I haven't played yet) since it's leaving PS Extra on the 17th.
Only finished the prologue and a bit of Chapter 1 and it's already annoying me in some key ways
DEAR GOD THE MOTION BLUR. Everything in your field of view gets sooo blurry and ghostly with how little you move the camera. I usually never have a problem with motion blur in games, but this is seriously hard to move around in. It hurts. The frame rate feels quite low too so that worsens it. And there's no option to turn it off! Plenty of other great accessibility things but not that basic game feature!
I'm playing World of Warcraft. Really enjoy new content in Dragonflight, and am looking forward to complete the Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope with my Guild. Sometimes I also play Destiny 2, buy WoW is the main game i'm playing right now.
Starfield Its no bueno so far
I've finished God of War 2018, and what an awesome experience that was! WOW!
I'm gonna check out the Making Of doc tomorrow because this was too cool!
I have no experience with the original series, which is fine, since this is some prestige, cinematic storytelling for the reboot, that really, really hooked me.
Plus, any small reference to the Greece series' was cool, as Kratos' gratuitously violent history was teased as mysterious, unspoken, buried truths to his gruff, guarded personality.
And you see how Kratos opens up and teaches his son good morals (mostly) about what it is to be a god and have such immense power, and his son begins to respect him as he opens up more. It's so sweet!
The story itself, and the performances from Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic were outstanding. I was hooked with the mystery involving Kratos needing to survive as an Outsider God in a realm not his own. His son, curious about the world outside their forest, and with some dangerous pieces to his heredity that Kratos doesn't want to reveal. And of the world itself and all the stories told within it -- the Gods who can't help but get in the way of Kratos, and become so vain they're all just major a-holes.
What impressed me the most about the world was the sense of SCALE!! Massive ruins, monuments, constructs built by dwarves and giants. The HUGEmongous beats and monsters you have to fight, that could eat Kratos for breakfast is insane, but you still manage to beat them as they throw you around in different cutscenes, just because of how cool and strong you are!
The way the story's hightened moments with the main relationship was also tied into the gameplay at times was really darn cool!
There's a moment in the middle of the game when Atreus starts getting a god complex about his status as a "child-god", and becomes way more defiant towards Kratos.
It's at this point where, throughout all of the game before this, you fire an arrow with 🔳, he does it.
But in a series of a few fights. He doesn't. He doesn't do anything you tell him to and is left to roam free and fire whatever arrow and is on pure enemy-attack mode, leaving you without a way to strategize combat efficiently.
Is this what it's like being a dad whose kid doesn't listen to you?? And you just can't do anything about it?! 😭
The one-shot camera style was a very neat choice to frame the game with, though at times could get in the way of the gameplay.
I wish there were sometimes an easier way to fast-travel, rather than needing to go to-and-from specific points for the sake of the magic-continuous-shot-door. Or, sometimes I wish it'd cut to black so it could spawn me closer to whete I'd need to be for the story, if ever there's a part that involves backtracking.
I also didn't quite enjoy the RPG elements. I don't see why enemies need to be power-levelled or I need to keep buying better and better armour. I ended up skipping a lot of special-looking and "powerful" sets because I kept managing to save up juuuust enough for the newest most-stat-bumping armour piece.
So, things like the Traveller or Ancient set themed around enemies, (and you get a trophy for buying the whole set) I only ever bought at the end to check those off, since they were always so underpowered to what I'd bought at the time I never looked back.
I hope the sequel has some sort of transmog system, where I can change the look to something else but keep the stats.
Lots of special-looking items I never wore because the stats were too low, or I never had enough resources to buy them! I never wore any full-chest covering armours for Kratos, because of those reasons! And I should've!
All in all, I'm really really satisfied with this purchase I made like 3 years ago lmao. This was an AMAZING game and it's already going in my books for one of the best stories and performances in a video game. I was SO invested and SO immersed in everything going on, I really didn't expect that!
It was a good choice to set the epilogue "Years Later" in the future, since it's clear that Sunny aged up quite a bit between both games, I expect he'll look a lot older in that same scene, if it's recreated in Ragnarok.
Playing dead by daylight Mobile , I love playing as the Pig and Ghostface.
I recently wrote a list of some games similar to The Walking Dead for anyone who's interested in something new!
currently i am playing Pubg Mobile. this game is very amazing because when i playing this game i never feel bored. i playing this game with my friends and easily can communicate with them.
I am on the road to platinum Dark souls 3. This is so much worse than Dark Souls 2 in terms of 100% completion. If you play this game offline, you will have yourself do SOOOO much grind and that just isn't fun at all.
No matter how much time has passed, I still go back to left 4 dead 2, playing it with friends is still an awesome time.
Playing Dead By Daylight Mobile and having a blast with all the killers I love playing as Ghostface and The shape the pig shouldn’t have gotten nerfed .
Poor Amanda.
Despite I’m playing Dead by daylight Mobile I’m also playing ( Bully anniversary edition) and it’s 16th B day.
I am being held on gunpoint atm so I'll be playing tales ep 5 😂
PRAISE THE SUN! My Platinum Journey for Dark Souls 3 has come to an end.
Long May The Sun Shine!!!!
The past week I've been playing the PS5 version of Resident Evil 7. Just finished it today, and getting into some of the DLCs now. Never played the DLCs in the original.
God, this thing was super freaking scary. I mean, I've played it before many years ago, but that was a long time ago, and I forgot a lot about the game...
So well-made, so claustrophobic, so dark, so spooky, but so good.
Played the Seperate Ways DLC for Resident Evil 4 and really enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun and it was cool seeing Ada's side of the story and all the crazy stuff she went through. I like the addition of the grappling hook, but I do wish there was a bit more of a difference between her and Leon in terms of gameplay. Maybe make her a bit more nimble and faster, or something akin to what Naughty Dog did with TLOU2 with Ellie and Abby, but to be fair, I guess that'd be a bit too much work for a 6 hour DLC.
I also found Lily Gao to be better in terms of voice acting here, since she gets to do a lot more than in the original campaign, though there are still moments where it's clear that voice acting isn't her forte. If Capcom plans to keep her as Ada's voice from now on then I only hope that the more work she gets the more she'll improve. Though we probably won't hear from her again until what I'm assuming is a Resident Evil 6 remake, or possibly Resident Evil 9 if they end up using the dropped storyline from Village.
Finished the main story of Spider-Man 2. Insomniac, thank you for this incredible game. It’s a tall order to balance all of these characters, plot threads, and abilities, but you managed to pull it off without it feeling overly bloated or disappointing. Definitely a worthy successor to the first game…but I’m not sure it’s better.
And I get this is probably the unpopular opinion, but I did find the first game to be superior. There are things greatly improved (they reduced the amount of and improved the quality of the MJ playable sections and gave us more time as Miles/Peter without taking away from her character, the boss fights were challenging and had a lot of heart put into them, the map is larger, and what they do with Martin Li/Mr. Negative was, while not surprising or groundbreaking, very well done). I did find some other things lacking (the final fight should have exclusively been Peter’s to fight considering the emotional impact, not him and Miles, it retreads on some story beats that they used in both SM1 and Miles Morales, and there are some missions and moments where what they’re doing is soooooooooo ham-fisted and in your face that it comes off as annoyingly preachy).
Not willing to go into spoilers, and I’m typing on an iPad and not a computer, but I will say two last things:
1. Just give Yuri Lowenthal his Best Performance award right fucking now.
2. I’m ashamed to say this, but Scream…would.
Anyway, there was no Bully Lowenthal, and no scenes of Peter dancing/threatening to put some dirt in your eye. 2/10.
Do you also find God of War 2018 superior to Ragnarok? I haven't played it yet but I heard that the biggest issue is characters spoiling puzzle solutions.
I would also say 2018 was better, but moreso because I thought the writing was more focused. The story was simple, but they executed it flawlessly. Ragnarok they were doing a few things all at once, and it's done great, but it felt a little less tight.
Currently playing Spider-Man 2
I am FINALLY done with Spider-Man 2. Here are my spoiler-free thoughts:
I do have a few complaints:
This game is not perfect. What is a perfect game though? I can see why people would prefer the first game, at least storywise but I prefer the sequel because of the gameplay alone. The traversal and combat is just more fun and I loved the villains more. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a 9/10. My opinion might change in the future though depending how much I play the game.
As far as superhero games go, InFamous 2 will always be my favorite and I prefer it over the Arkham games and the Spider-Man ones.
Woooo! Still not done the opening chapter of Alan Wake 2. Just played about 45 minutes, quit out when I got to Bright Falls.
PS5 Activity Card still says I have about 50 mins. Wow this is a big opening chapter.
Ohhh man it feels so good to be back in this world and it's weirdness.
The new detective angle with Saga Anderson is pretty neat so far.
Environments look fantastic.
The cutscenes are as cinematic and spooky as ever. Had me do a few double-takes at the very start, wondering if what I was seeing was live-action or game-engine, until the camera swung behind the prologue character...
I'm hyped AF and falling asleep is gonna be so hard... but omg you can bet I'm HOOKED already!
Let the mystery begin! Wooo this was the best moment so far!
Started playing Alan Wake 2 and I'm enjoying it so far. It's a very pretty game, great atmosphere, the map is huge so there's lots of stuff to look at, and I'm liking Saga and Casey so far. However, I do have one complaint. It has some of the cheapest jumpscares I've ever seen from a AAA horror game. Literally just a jpeg of a creepy face and a scream. I mean, I'm not gonna say they don't get me whenever they pop up (which is a handful of times in the 3 hours I've played) but I feel like there are better ways to brew up some scares than a literal flashing picture of a face lol.
Okay, I gotta talk about Remedy's choice of where to give you the freedom to swap between characters, since it's quite a while in... And I'm pretty sure, it was changed from what was mentioned even a few months ago earlier this year.
As far as I've known, the dual campaign aspect started as a "change nearly anywhere, any time" to "change only at specific Safe Rooms" with the additional caveat that the very beginning and very ending of the game are set in stone and must be completed where they are before/after both campaigns.
But in the game's release as it is right now, the "very beginning" of the game is multiple chapters long.
You have to play through 2 lengthy Saga chapters and 3 slightly shorter Alan chapters before being given the ability to swap campaigns in specific Safe Rooms. And that's like, numerous hours of content. Like 3-5 I'd say, before you're done with those!
And even then -- and I have no idea if they loosen up with repeat playthroughs after finishing the game -- you might have to forcibly play that same sequence of chapters every time you replay the game, and won't have all that much freedom to go Full-throttle through one protag's campaign before swapping to the other one....
I dunno, it feels like I'm definitely a quarter through the game now, maybe even a third? But it struck me as really odd that they restrict this highly-touted feature for so long.
I can see why they might have done that, as Remedy probably wanted to hit you with the setup and hook of "Alan escapes the Dark Place?! (Saga Chp2. End)" --> "Alan Recounts events leading to Scratch/Him returning somehow to the Real World (Alan Pts.1-3)" since those events flow into each other in a very particular, hand-crafted way...
But I just had to mention, that this heavily-marketed feature in interviews this past year, feels like it might be "holding on to the steering wheel" a little too long at the start than some people might want...
I'm really liking the game so far, but I have to agree.
At first I didn't mind it, since it was a great jarring way for me to get into the Spooky vibe, knowing "well shit, something's definitely going wrong now"
But I'm quite a few hours into the game, and they keep using it.
Does it scare me every time? Yeah! It's very creepy and it's because they don't really build up to it.
But still, out of all the scares to make me jump, this is basically the one that's been used the most, and it feels a little cheap, or shallow... they can do more!
Heck, the Game Over loading screen for Alan is freaky!! But because it's on screen for so long.
Give me more things too scary to look at, not full-screen unexpected frights.
I just got to the part where you can swap between the two of them!
So does that mean that you have to play through both sides of the story anyway to finish the campaign?
Yes, even if you main-line one campaign it's been said that you'll get to a point where the game makes you "catch up" with the other character's story to unlock the endgame.
I've heard the campaigns are a pretty even 50/50 split between the two so if you're enjoying both then hopefully you won't feel short-changed in terms of content for either of them!
Just finished Return 3 myself! I've been finding Saga's chapters to be way longer with way more complex (and disorienting) Forest maps that I enjoy exploring. For now at least!
I think I'll keep going for another half/full chapter until I get to a point where I can swap to Alan again.
It was at this moment in Alan Wake 2 where the game might actually be my GOTY. Remedy went fucking nuts with this. (Initiation 4 Spoiler)
Finished 5 chapters for Saga and I just jumped back into Alan's story to continue with Initiation 4 -- yeah, wow, Remedy went crazy with this!
It's so weird, but so fun?
I've been loving all the weird live-action bits in the Dark Place and this is a fantastic culmination to that. A whole song and choreography too!
I finished Alan Wake 2. What a helluva game
I'm surprised to say I think this is actually my GOTY of 2023. This game was fresh, unique and it lived up to its survival horror marketing. It does play like a Resident Evil game but still keeps some of the Alan Wake elements, like having to use the flashlight to weaken the enemies.
I didn't understand what the hell was going on through the story but it didn't ruin my experience at all. Alan Wake's voice acting is just as iconic as you remember from the first game. Saga Anderson was a great addition to the story. Her gameplay was very detective-based and I was oddly addicted to her collecting and placing clues and evidence on a Case Board. Something I have never experienced before.
I feel like the ending is gonna piss off some people due to vagueness but then again, so did the first one. They are either setting up a third game or will conclude the whole story with future DLC. Only time will tell.
I don't think there has ever been a recent game sequel that jumped the quality as high as this one. Weren't a fan of the first one but Alan Wake 2 is a HUGE improvement. Reminded me a lot of Uncharted 2.
I haven't finished the game yet, but will tomorrow (I've just finished all of Alan's Initiation chapters and am in the final endgame!) and hooooo boy I've got a lot to say about this game, it's really complex and multi-layered. Sam Lake and the team pulled out all the stops for this title, for writing, music, visuals, claustrophobic combat, it's insane.
Now that you mention it, it really does. Much like Uncharted, the first game had way too much focus on travelling from Shooting Gallery A to Shooting Gallery B, etc. etc. and while it's the mysterious and engaging story that keeps you interested in continuing, overall the game hasn't really aged all that well and is a little basic overall.
One thing that made me forgive it more than Alan Wake 1 is that it only takes 6 hours to complete the whole thing. AW1 didn't really justify its 15 hour runtime.
Well, shit. That's the end of Alan Wake 2 for me.
At least until New Game Plus comes out.
Tons of lingering questions, tons of answers and continuations from the original game, so much interpretive writing, music, and characters.
But I enjoyed every second of this game.
This is such a cool merging of video games and artistic vision!!
It took 13 years (well, for me only 8-9 years since I first played) but damn did they finally deliver on a worthy sequel.
The first game was a good cult-classic. Very far from perfect, as the main gameplay loop was extremely shallow, long, and repetitive. But was held up by a fairly engaging supernatural mystery and a tease of greater surreal ambitions, should a sequel ever come...
And that sequel has delivered on that surrealism in ways I could not have ever expected.
The writing for the main plot in AW2 is wonderfully cyclical. There are so many connecting pieces to this story that reference, reflect, echo, repeat themselves and offer many different interpretations of events, due to their vagueness.
This can either be a good thing or a bad thing for some people, but as an artist I am blown away.
All of the strange live-action pieces in the game were so strangely captivating and only added to the weird mystery, deciding what could be trusted as Fact vs. Fiction...
And for fans of Finland, they put a lot of their own culture in this too, which I find pretty cool for a developer team to do.
Saga Anderson, introduced as the newcomer's insert to this tale, is a cool, mysterious protagonist, who seems unaffected and unsurprised by the really weird supernatural happenings of the town, as she pushes forward into the mystery.
Her gameplay is very claustrophobic as the forest environments can get a little confusing, but that adds to the spooks. Enemies often hang around different areas during/after missions while exploring, makes for tense encounters.
She also has a really engaging Case Board that we don't see enough of in detective games.
Sure, some of it can be pretty basic "question and answer" linking, but it's a very fun way to piece together the weird elements to the plot, act as a way to recap yourself, and see what conclusions come from it.
There are also a lot of side-collectibles that were fun to hunt down, and I found abiut 60% of each, I decided to follow a guide to get the rest before jumping into Saga's ending 😅 so, I got the platinum trophy already too! Cool!
Alan Wake's side of the story is for the Remedy die-hards. He's inhabiting a nightmarish, noir-styled New York, and things get WEIRD. Paths to your objective don't follow logic, as you'll find doorways on top of roofs that open to the ground floor. You're constantly haunted by groups of shadows, taunting you and making you question which ones are hostile and which are simple illusions. (There's a minor bit of stealth you can do by turning off your flashlight, but it can make running into one all too easy...)
He is my favourite part of this sequel going full M-rated survival horror. He can finally drop F-bombs! And ohhh boy does he deserve it. Trapped in a nightmare, full of relentless torture from his own mind and the darkness around him, it was great to hear him and other characters swear in fear when the tension gets to be too much.
I will say, that the game relies on full-screen unavoidable jumpscares too much. It always gets me. Sure, that means it works, and it can tie into the game's psychological themes, but I think it's used too much for what the game's horror hook already works without, or much less...
You feel constantly under threat when you come across shadows. The environment is gorgeously dark, with neon and light echoing off of the environment.
You meet strange characters like Alex Casey, his legally-distinct Max Payne, engage with strange but neat Live-action cutscenes that further the plot, but can also confuse you even more... it is a place of dreams, nightmares, and illusions.
I'm going to be very interested in seeing what other fans have theorized so far.
There are also plenty of other connections to Control's FBC, plus some sneaky "Not-Quantum-Break" connections using some similar actors/characters. I loved Mr. Door's mysterious nature, and David Harewood echoed the really great late Lance Reddick -- though his portrayal was still all his own.
Overall, this was a great purchase. A game that truly looks Next-Gen, with a production that far outshines what Remedy did back in the first Alan Wake. It's impressive, and I can't wait to see what comes next with its expansions. Didn’t get the Deluxe version, but I sure will now.
Oh yeah, and one last thing:
Where the fuck is Barry Wheeler, my comic relief, Remedy??! How could they make a sequel without him, even a little? He was so fun in the original!
MEGA SPOILERS TO NOTE:
Alan's story revolving around loops, repetition, and a never-ending self-torture was fun in a twisted way. Yes, I get that we kinda already had this in AW:AN but due to this darker sequel it brought some great, sad mind-fucks to this one.
I had called it after the 2/3rds of the game that he'd loop in and shoot himself trying to fix the story in the writers room, and I'm glad to have been unfortunately right.
The side-story involving revisiting Alice was very sad, though I'm glad there seems to be a silver lining in that she's willingly trapped herself into the Dark Place to help Alan. Hopefully this means in DLC, NG+, or a sequel, we'll see more of her have some agency in helping Alan find the right art to escape?
a whole lot of lingering questions about who Zane is, what's with the possible retcons about him being a director instead of a poet, and how he looks just like Alan, or Scratch.
I'm betting that he's some dark reflection of Alan, Scratch in disguise, trying to get Alan to work together if his plan of "take over Alan's mind" doesn't. He behaves in a similar laid-back way to Scratch from American Nightmare... Or, its another case of "history repeats itself, and Alan must not become Zane".
There's just so many layers to cut into here. I love it SO much. I really hope it gets recognized this year for some very bold writing and artistic presentation.
Now to get into Spider-Man 2, in another dark-ish streak...
But man, it's going to be really hard to find another game that can give me the same vibes and presentation as Alan Wake 2 though... this game, for good and bad reasons, is one of a kind. Great job Remedy. More people need to make games as weird and experimental as you...
Lmao did my comment's length just break the site hahaha
Hope this bump fixes it... lmao nope, not on my phone... not on my computer either, sorry guys...
EDIT: Oh wait, got it, (previously, the last paragraph would spill off the edge of the page, breaking the formatting...)
I'm still enjoying Alan Wake 2, but I really do have to complain about the jumpscares again. They are so incredibly cheap it's ridiculous, especially considering how overly reliant the game is with them at times. The atmosphere, lighting, and sound design are more than enough to have my heart racing, but the face.jpeg + scream.mp3 dollar store indie horror game level jumpscares absolutely kill these moments for me.
It's especially bad in the
Valhalla Nursery with Cynthia Weaver. Holy shit there are so many jumpscares here what the fuck.
At least they were done much better in Alan Wake 2 than in Callisto Protocol. If you think Alan Wake 2's jumpscares are bad, Callisto Protocol is much worse and cheaper. That game did NOT scare me in the slightest cause I saw pretty much all jumpscares coming.