Alan Wake

Forcing myself to get through this bc I do like the pulpy writing and am excited to play the sequel based on its reception but the actual core gameplay here is so atrocious it's unbelievable this is by the same studio that did Max Payne. Obviously 2 games with very different goals but even just walking around in this game feels awful, it's unreal

I genuinely don't understand why people say the gameplay in this is "awful" or "atrocious" or any other harsh adjective like that.

Feels like i played a different game than everyone else here. It's a fun crowd control challenge. A different kind of TPS, where the focus is on positioning and movement, rather than the aiming itself - all of which is complemented by the generous auto-aim, the consistent weapon damage, and the various crowd-control mechanics (enemy stun on flashlight boost, area denial with the flares, rewards for grouping up enemies if you have a flaregun or flashbangs).

The only issue gameplay-wise I'd argue is a level design one. The second half of Episode 3, and the entirety of Episode 6 drag on for waaaay too long, but that's not the combat system's fault.

Gameplay is confused whether it wants to be a survival horror or an action game but because of this it's kind of unique. It gets boring towards the end but the story is really fun so I kept going.

I really wish the game was only the day-time sections or at least remove 75% of the "traversing the woods at night" parts, otherwise it is a nice game for David Lynch and Stephen King fans.

I want my 4 hours wasted on this shit back ASAP. Fuck the movement, fuck the weapon reload, fuck this useless dodge mechanic, and fuck the way they swarm you with enemies which combined with all of the above make this the most miserable gameplay experience I've had the unpleasure of experiencing. I wanted to play Control only for the PS5 ver to not be in the Essential subscription. So I opted for this, and I think I have to postpone an attempt at Control for like a year at least.

i cant tell if the writing sucks because alan wake is a hack writer and it was intentional or the writers themselves are just not good

john carpenter's alan wake