Alan Wake 2

[AngryGazelle]

Looking awesome. Apparently Lynch and Twin Peaks were a source of inspiration.

[bgmnts]

First one was excellent but that was a hundred years ago, hope it still captures my interest as the interim - bar Max Payne 3 - wasn't that good.

Rather nervous by the fact it's published by Epic.

[oggyraiding]

I recently played Control and its DLCs to prepare for this. I thought the DLC that links it to Alan Wake would be quite subtle, but no, Alan Wake and Control are hugely interlinked. The first Alan Wake game had really shit gameplay I thought (bad exploration, bad combat), but was saved by the writing and atmosphere. This new one looks tons better, and Control proves they can pull off decent gameplay.

First one was excellent but that was a hundred years ago, hope it still captures my interest as the interim - bar Max Payne 3 - wasn't that good.

Rather nervous by the fact it's published by Epic.

As far as I'm aware, Max Payne 3 was done in house by Rockstar - Remedy had minimal input in that entry.

[bgmnts]

Ah fuck it then haven't enjoyed any Remedy stuff since Alan Wake.

[Magnum Valentino]

Tried playing Alan Wake again recently and couldn't because of the gameplay but enjoyed the atmosphere. Found it really funny the way his internal monologue would flit between prose and gameplay hints.

[Thursday]

Seems like the focus will be more on investigating and slower survival horror combat, with fewer but stronger enemies rather than waves of them, so it should suit it much more. Most of their games seem to have good ideas held back by not.

All of their games to me seem to be nearly brilliant but not quite there for various reasons, but the enthusiasm for this I'm hearing in previews is making it sound like they might have done it.

[bgmnts]

Tried playing Alan Wake again recently and couldn't because of the gameplay but enjoyed the atmosphere. Found it really funny the way his internal monologue would flit between prose and gameplay hints.

This is closer to how video games should deal with story.

A games 'story' usually falls by the wayside due to the disconnect between set story pieces and the player controlled action. Anything that bridges that gap is great.

[madhair60]

i loved the gameplay in Alan Wake and think this looks like they've absolutely ruined it, so once again i find myself on the wrong side

[bgmnts]

What was bad about the gameplay in Alan Wake?

[Mister Six]

I liked it a lot but there wasn't a lot of depth to it and I'm not sure I'd want to go through it again (American Nightmare really made that clear, where pretty much every combination of weapons played essentially the same), so I'm fine with a slower, more atmospheric game with more sporadic combat even if it looks a bit more generic.

[falafel]

Acting seems a bit off. Some weird plonking of syllables. Looks interesting, mind you.

[Pink Gregory]

i loved the gameplay in Alan Wake and think this looks like they've absolutely ruined it, so once again i find myself on the wrong side

it wasn't owt special but it was more than serviceable for the purposes of the game, minute to minute it's a fairly satisying torch-stun-shoot loop with an all purpose dodge.  Combine that with fairly well cluttered environments and it's flexible enough to remain interesting.

No upgrade bollocks except 'better torch/gun', no skill trees, nothing but health packs and ENERGIZER batteries to keep track of.

It was cut down in its scope fairly severely but it also turned out an almost perfectly scoped game.

[madhair60]

yeah the simplicity and old school feel of the combat was what I liked about it, the auto aim felt like a PS2 game in the best way. But I do understand people bouncing off it.

[Thursday]

I found it fine, but it soon got very repetitive and felt padded out. Just not fun enough for the amount of time doing it, even within a fairly short game.

The music stage scene was awesome though.

[AngryGazelle]

I've started replaying Control to get ready for this and I forgot how bloody good it is. Gonna do all the DLC, too, as I'm enjoying it so much. Remedy are great.

[Thursday]

I just finished a replay of Control... and somehow I missed this near the end of the game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EJufYOzp8U&ab_channel=SirRodneyProduction

Matthew Porretta goes all out.

[Mister Six]

Oh yeah, absolutely loved how game he was for that. It kind of killed the momentum a bit, even if it's supposed to be a message to Jesse from Darling to gee her up for the final push:

Spoiler alert

Nobody knew her name

But she turned up just the same

There was a knock on the door

A thump on the floor, and the party turned insane

As she called out her name...

And she walked in, looking like dynamite

She said, "Now come along, boogaloo through the night"

And by the way she's moving, well, dynamite

Might she not, with all she's got

She's got the whole town lighting up dynamite

Nobody quite knowing what to do, wrong or right

But they all know Jesse is dynamite

They're right!

[close]

[AngryGazelle]

I only just realised Porretta plays Alan Wake, too! Tbf, I've not played Alan Wake in over a decade.

[Mister Six]

It's odd because he only plays the voice of Wake, and Wake's physical form is played by a Finnish actor. Which I was totally oblivious to - some good lip-syncing going on there!

[AngryGazelle]

I believe his physical form is portrayed by Fake Gyllenhaal.

[AngryGazelle]

Splashed out for the Deluxe Edition - gimme that DLC. Booted it up before work to see the visuals and the opening has you playing as a

Spoiler alert

naked middle aged man.

[close]

not sure the rest of the game will be able to top that.

[chutnut]

Downloading now but I want to finish my replay of Control first. I probably won't as I'm really impatient

[chutnut]

Considering what a fuss people have been making of the system requirements it seems to be running really well for me so far. 4k + ultra settings (with dlss quality mode) on an rtx 3060. I've only played the intro mentioned above though (lol) now I'm going to at least try and wait until I've finished Control

[El Unicornio, mang]

Runs fine on my RTX 2080 laptop on high settings (albeit at 1080p, haven't tried 4k). I guess there's two different storylines to play through, one with the female character (Saga) and one with Alan with different styles/visuals?

Already really loving the atmosphere, definitely feels like I'm in something like True Detective/Twin Peaks/Silence of the Lambs/Se7en etc.

[Thursday]

A woman protagonist? And she's black? What is this, Alan Woke? 🙄🙄🙄

Sorry, just getting that out the way.

[chutnut]

Runs fine on my RTX 2080 laptop on high settings (albeit at 1080p, haven't tried 4k). I guess there's two different storylines to play through, one with the female character (Saga) and one with Alan with different styles/visuals?

yeah tbh I wont be surprised if I have to lower the settings once it gets going proper, it looked amazing though

Spoiler alert

that guys arse I mean

[close]

[oggyraiding]

It's a lot harder than the first one. The first one there was the odd encounter where I was piled on by baddies, but this one, the first boss has killed me like 15 times in a row. At this point I don't know if he's killable or if it's one of those fights I'm meant to avoid.

[Thursday]

I put it down to easy for that, because I was getting confused and feeling like I was missing something obvious.

Absolutely loving the story in this, but if you don't want a game where you mostly just walk through some story and simple puzzles it probably won't be for you. I'm guessing it does get more action packed later, but it's taking a long time to get there if that's the case. 

[Mobius]

Yeah I'm still early in and it's slow and talky but in a cool true detective / twin peaks way so it's not bad. We'll see how it goes. I do like the mind palace and fbi investigation bits

[oggyraiding]

Switched to Easy mode. That first boss was terrible. I don't know if burning him with the torch only reveals weak spots once? First time I burn him it gets exposed, but future burns just stagger him a bit. Also doesn't help that there's like a 5 second cooldown between melee attacks. There seems to be a level of RNG as to what spawns in the boxes you find. One try I'd get a first aid kit and pistol ammo from the first box, the next it'd be batteries and painkillers. Even on Easy, I ran out of torch fuel and ammo and had to finish him off with two melee attacks while I was on critical health.