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StarTopic Alan Wake II |ST| Wake In Fright (UP: The Final Draft out now - New Game+, New Ending, Nightmare Difficulty)

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F-HJwKwWkAA_YAH

Shared by Game Director Kyle Rowley on Twitter from their concept deck, as you can see it wears its influences on its sleeve (and interprets them very well)
 
I've beaten like 6 parts as Alan and I'm close to the end of the 3rd on Saga and so far I'm loving AW2. The combat is samey, but it's also very much not the focus, and in an hour or more of playing chapter 3 of Saga I fought like 5 enemies that were actually needed for progress?
While the map is somewhat small, it's very intricately designed, so each corner is interesting to explore, and those rare moments that aren't (I mean, you can't really design a forest to be always unique) look good and provide enough collectibles.

I really like the interactions and the characters, but I can't say the story is very gripping, however. I don't find it interesting to ask myself who killed Nightingale and now that I've gotten some answers to who the members of the cult might be it's like "yeah ok". It's also really hard to connect with Alan's side of the story since none of it is real. I assume his wife's tapes are, but the whole cult in the hotel, for example? We're still in the black lodge type place, so why should I care? I'm playing more for visuals and the game, as the story doesn't provide enough incentive on its own.

That said, it's still one of my favorite games this year. First I typed "horror" before "games", but honestly, not really? It's a pretty light horror and I'd say it has more comedic tone.
 
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Just beat the game. It was good. The vibes are honestly the best part, and the story becomes more and more clearly Twin Peaks inspired the more you play.

Only had two real gripes (outside of a bunch of bugs, which I'll give a pass on as I'm sure those will get fixed). The flashy face jump scares are so obnoxious and overdone, and I'm honestly surprised a game with vibes this good kind of lowers itself to a jump scare tactic that is so lame. Gripe #2 would be the combat just being rather clunky. Add that to some of the enemies, particularly the speedy takens and the wolves, having such high maneuverability and the result if some really frustrating encounters.

Probably like an 8/10, after the first game being a 7. If those two gripes were less of a problem, it could probably be a 9 for me. The highlight of the game was ironically the chapter that was the least scary, which is disappointing in a way. But what a chapter that was. I'm sure anyone who has played knows what I'm referring to.
 
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aus89 said:
F-HJwKwWkAA_YAH

Shared by Game Director Kyle Rowley on Twitter from their concept deck, as you can see it wears its influences on its sleeve (and interprets them very well)
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source link btw: tweet

I find it odd that it has a pic of specifically Twin Peaks season TWO on there when it literally riffs on a million things that are undeniably from The Return (including the title lol).

I have seen all of these except (still ugh) Midsommar and I can't really (where I'm at) see any Fargo or Hannibal in there. It's just all extremely True Detective Season 1 (the cult stuff) and TP The Return mixed with the leftovers from original Alan's original TP inspirations.
 
TheMoon said:
source link btw: tweet

I find it odd that it has a pic of specifically Twin Peaks season TWO on there when it literally riffs on a million things that are undeniably from The Return (including the title lol).

I have seen all of these except (still ugh) Midsommar and I can't really (where I'm at) see any Fargo or Hannibal in there. It's just all extremely True Detective Season 1 (the cult stuff) and TP The Return mixed with the leftovers from original Alan's original TP inspirations.
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Saga's FBI partner is quite Fargo-y in a way but yeah its obv not the biggest reference - there are a few moments that are quite TP S2 (weird townsfolk being a bit more towards the goofy end of Twin Peaks like the Miss Twin Peaks pageant that the whole town gets excited about being a bit Deerfest-y) but yeah obv very influenced by the return and i assume this was just a general "Twin Peaks" reference. Some of the Saga stuff is reminiscent of early S1 of Hannibal (and questioning their sanity etc... I'm guessing Saga's profiling is a bit indebted to Will Graham's in Hannibal) but I'd say environmentally and atmospherically i can see most of these things in there one way or another
 
aus89 said:
I'm guessing Saga's profiling is a bit indebted to Will Graham's in Hannibal)
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oh right, that's a good point!

I'm just getting hung up on this a bit because I find it so fascinating how loud and blatant the Twin Peaks stuff is. Almost more so now than in the original where it was mostly the diner and general location.

Generally it's really funny how you can sort of draw out what TV Sam Lake and his writing collaborators were watching between the games. Like, before Quantum Break, they were very clearly really into Fringe (which is probably how Lance Reddick got in there).

On that note and also tying back to the earlier Hatch/Door mirroring (I don't know if what I'm asking can only be answered with a spoiler since I'm still paused in Alan's second part while I squeeze in Quantum Break now): do we think there's a chance that Warlin Door's role was intended for Reddick but presumably scheduling (he was shooting Wick 4 and that other Wick spin-off) got in the way? David Harewood can bring a similar energy if he wants to and given everything it just feels too close to be purely coincidental.
 
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TheMoon said:
oh right, that's a good point!

I'm just getting hung up on this a bit because I find it so fascinating how loud and blatant the Twin Peaks stuff is. Almost more so now than in the original where it was mostly the diner and general location.

Generally it's really funny how you can sort of draw out what TV Sam Lake and his writing collaborators were watching between the games. Like, before Quantum Break, they were very clearly really into Fringe (which is probably how Lance Reddick got in there).

On that note and also tying back to the earlier Hatch/Door mirroring (I don't know if what I'm asking can only be answered with a spoiler since I'm still paused in Alan's second part while I squeeze in Quantum Break now): do we think there's a chance that Warlin Door's role was intended for Reddick but presumably scheduling (he was shooting Wick 4 and that other Wick spin-off) got in the way? David Harewood can bring a similar energy if he wants to and given everything it just feels too close to be purely coincidental.
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I think yeah they're fairly clearly trying to draw some comparisons or suggest alternate universe versions of characters (ie: the red headed woman being Beth from Quantum Break and Jesse Faden from Control etc...) so yeah.
 
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Reading these posts about how much this game rules and how much like The Return it is…is unbearable. I don’t think I’m going to be able to play until the holidays…

Mr Scratch is feeding off of my anguish, I’m certain.
 
big lantern ghost said:
Reading these posts about how much this game rules and how much like The Return it is…is unbearable. I don’t think I’m going to be able to play until the holidays…

Mr Scratch is feeding off of my anguish, I’m certain.
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Look at it this way, the longer you wait now the shorter the wait will be between your playthrough and the dlc expansion drops :)

That said I wouldn't really say it's "like" The Return, it just has a lot of mirrored elements from it. As someone who is finally on a fresh watch of The Return, it's not like that at all. Just like how the first one wasn't really anything "like" original Twin Peaks S1&2 on the whole. Just a lot of shoutouts and reused imagery/themes.
 
Finished. I'm delighted to say it was very well worth the 13 year wait, absolutely phenomenal game.


I'm going to be heartbroken if it flops again, hopefully good word of mouth will carry it to success just like it happened with Control...

btw i can't believe they actually shot

a totally optional 20 minute short movie completely in Finnish just for this game

Remedy the GOATs
 
I have also finished the game now and I absolutely loved it.

It was kind interesting to go directly from playing Mario Wonder to Alan Wake 2. Both really good games but also sitting at opposite ends of the spectrum of the medium.

I’m really impressed with the team at Remedy for pushing such a bold vision of what games can be.

sure, as purely a survivor horror and shooting game it’s pretty middle of the road. But I liked this much more than RE4 and Dead Space this year just because of the story, vibes, visual style and the constant surprises in terms of presentation and set piece sequences.

Again I’m just so happy that so many games have been phenomenal this year. What a time to be alive and play video games. People out there in comment sections and on twitter constantly spreading negative discourse are stranger than ever to me when there is so much good stuf to play and just enjoy.
 
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Now that I've finished the first one (for the first time) I'm stuck between getting this on PC or PS5

On the one hand I don't like the Epic Game Store and it would be nice to use my PS5 for once

On the other hand my PC is definitely powerful enough to run this much better than on PS5, and it is a shooter so it should play better on mouse and keyboard

Anyone else have any experiences to share or opinion on best platform?
 
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AngryAlchemist said:
Now that I've finished the first one (for the first time) I'm stuck between getting this on PC or PS5

On the one hand I don't like the Epic Game Store and it would be nice to use my PS5 for once

On the other hand my PC is definitely powerful enough to run this much better than on PS5, and it is a shooter so it should play better on mouse and keyboard

Anyone else have any experiences to share or opinion on best platform?
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I mean, it's not that I particularly like the Epic Game Store but - forgive me for using this tired phrase - I'm clicking "play" in a launcher and the game goes and I'm playing. Once I finally figured out how to disable their horrendous achievement pop-ups (seriously, who designed these) (also, you gotta do it per session -.-"), it really makes no difference. Especially since I personally like playing these kinds of games with kb/m at the desk. If your PC is beefy enough to run this better than PS5 then go nuts, I say. I wish I could turn the RT stuff on, sometimes I stop and toggle it on to compare certain scenes and the vibes it adds with correctly lit and reflected puddles and window reflections and stuff is really cool.

There really is no drawback to PC outside of "it's the epic store". Just remember the screenshot/capture shortcuts for xbox game bar and it really doesn't matter tho imo.
 
So, I was planning on staying far away from this game, as I posted angrily earlier in the thread due to no physical edition. I ended up getting a pretty bad case of covid unfortunately, and was completely miserable, so I thought maybe a horror game would make me feel better. Much like how sad music makes me feel better when I'm depressed, horror games can also help me during tough times. So I ended up downloading this to kill time and revel in some darkness and despair. I never played Allen Wake, but I did play and absolutely LOVE Control.

First of all I just have to say I love how bold and uncompromising this game is. This is something that was made with a vision, and it shows. They absolutely made the exact game they wanted to make without worrying too much about how it would be received. It oozes personality, atmosphere, and the vibes... the vibes! Initially I was a bit offput that Sam Lake himself is in the game, as this sort of thing usually kills my suspension of disbelief (not a fan celebrity likenesses being featured in games), but he did an absolutely outstanding job for what he was going for.

The world and story of this game are absolutely the highlights of this game, and they did not disappoint. I love never knowing what was going to happen next, and just the game constantly fucking with my mind and expectations. I absolutely loved the mind place for Saga and scene board for Allen and having to change scenes and plot points to progress. The soundtrack was also very strong, with a lot of the lyrics and songs actually doing a lot of the storytelling. I didn't notice this when I played, but apparently some of the songs in between chapters start pretty much the same as others, but they're actually different if you let them play out a bit. I love little touches like that.

I do have to criticize the combat and enemy variety though. With just a few enemy types appearing over and over and over throughout the game, it does get old. The shooting mechanics are serviceable, but that's about it. The boss encounters weren't particularly strong either, but at least they mixed up the action a bit and were welcome whenever they came about. I feel like they could have used a few more of them
I don't think there were any bossfights as Allen, only Saga, which seemed weird
.

Overall this is a strong contender for my GOTY, certainly in my top 5, maybe even top 3. I'm still pissed there is no physical edition, as something as artsy fartsy as this would be perfect for some kind of physical component.
 
TheSpaceBetween said:
Initially I was a bit offput that Sam Lake himself is in the game, as this sort of thing usually kills my suspension of disbelief (not a fan celebrity likenesses being featured in games), but he did an absolutely outstanding job for what he was going for.
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key thing is that it's not just a joke-gimmick, it's really deeply entangled into all the themes and meta-textual weirdness with its very clear inspirations.

besides, at this point there's no such thing as celebrity likenesses. it's all just actors. just that you've seen some of them on TV or online and others you only know from their polygonal appearance :D
 
I'm finally planning to start this later today. Finished up my replay of Control last night, and man, the AWE DLC makes way more sense after playing Alan Wake, lol. Very excited to fire up AW2.
 
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TheMoon said:
key thing is that it's not just a joke-gimmick, it's really deeply entangled into all the themes and meta-textual weirdness with its very clear inspirations.

besides, at this point there's no such thing as celebrity likenesses. it's all just actors. just that you've seen some of them on TV or online and others you only know from their polygonal appearance :D
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I think for new games this is true, and its definitely something that annoys me if I've seen them in other media... it kills my suspension of disbelief. But obviously for established fictional characters like Kratos, Nathan Drake, Snake, Leon, etc etc the voice actor is not the same as the in game model.

One thing I really hate is how they changed Isaac from Dead Space in the remake to match the look of his voice actor instead of using an updated version of his original design. I'm literally playing as a different character.
 
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Coming up on four hours in and I'm absolutely in love with this game. It's just so confident in what it wants to be that it really draws me in, sinks its claws into me. I had to force myself to stop because it was getting late, and I just can't stay up like I used to anymore.
 
Just finished
Wow

Even if...that ending...I just hope to not being forced to wait other 13 years for some answers
 
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I told myself I wasn’t going to buy any more games this year.

Then I saw that music video upload on the Old Gods of Asgard channel 😭 😭

Gotta stay strong…
 
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I think I'm near the end, and I'm just completely obsessed with this game. It's got one of the best sequences I've played in any game ever, and it's just been an absolute joy to play. If a fancy physical collector's edition is made, I will be all over that.
 
KilgoreWolfe said:
I think I'm near the end, and I'm just completely obsessed with this game. It's got one of the best sequences I've played in any game ever, and it's just been an absolute joy to play. If a fancy physical collector's edition is made, I will be all over that.
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will definitely buy a physical edition - just at the last saga and alan missions before it heads into the endgame (yes i take a long time to play horror games okkkkk haha) and loving it - I think it would have to be my personal GOTY - much as I love TOTK, a great game with a compelling story driving me forward is always more exciting to me over a great game thats more of a sandbox play environment with less story bc i lose focus and drift off to something else.
 
I'm avoiding anything related to AW 2 to avoid spoilers, I've been waiting for this sequel forever BUT... I haven't bought it yet.

Financial problems aside, I'm not sure the game will please me. From the few I saw, it is very similar to AW 1 in terms of gameplay and I'm not in the same appreciation of the genre as I was back when AW 1 released (still own the Collectors edition for X360 with the book).

The thing is, scary games and me don't work anymore. I did RE 4 remake with a smile on my face (while still getting scared with powerful ennemies when I had very few ammo & herbs left) but RE 4 is RE 4 (aka a silly game that never takes itself too seriously). I loved Dead Space 1 back then and now I can't manage to play the remake.

I don't know when I'll play AW 2... I want to but I'm not sure I'll enjoy the gameplay.

Is there any accessibility feature like Remedy had in CONTROL ?
 
Koren Lesthe said:
I'm avoiding anything related to AW 2 to avoid spoilers, I've been waiting for this sequel forever BUT... I haven't bought it yet.

Financial problems aside, I'm not sure the game will please me. From the few I saw, it is very similar to AW 1 in terms of gameplay and I'm not in the same appreciation of the genre as I was back when AW 1 released (still own the Collectors edition for X360 with the book).

The thing is, scary games and me don't work anymore. I did RE 4 remake with a smile on my face (while still getting scared with powerful ennemies when I had very few ammo & herbs left) but RE 4 is RE 4 (aka a silly game that never takes itself too seriously). I loved Dead Space 1 back then and now I can't manage to play the remake.

I don't know when I'll play AW 2... I want to but I'm not sure I'll enjoy the gameplay.

Is there any accessibility feature like Remedy had in CONTROL ?
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There aren't any sliders like Control, but there is a story difficulty, and you can freely switch to it at any time.

And I actually feel the gameplay is way, way better than the first game. Combat is much less frequent, with the emphasis being more on exploration and atmosphere.

As for how scary it is... in my opinion it's not as bad as something like, RE7, but it definitely has its moments. It does use jumpscares somewhat regularly though (although not nearly as much as some people have complained, apart from one particular part), so if those give you an issue it may not be for you.
 
Approaching the end game now and wow, what a ride this has been. I'm really excited to finish it tonight, and barring a massively terrible ending, this will likely end up my GotY.
 
KilgoreWolfe said:
Approaching the end game now and wow, what a ride this has been. I'm really excited to finish it tonight, and barring a massively terrible ending, this will likely end up my GotY.
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yeah I'm not entirely surprised with the Twin Peaks-ery going on that I love it, but I couldn't really call myself a devotee of survival horror games - really enjoying it. I think it is my GOTY at this point.
 
So I did in fact finish the game last night, and goddamn, it's absolutely my game of the year. I can't wait for the NG+ update and the DLCs!
 
It's been three days or so, and I'm still thinking about this game. Remedy I need that NG+ mode, please. 😭
 
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I feel bad for anyone who was gonna play it who got spoiled and the impact of We Sing won't be the same now.

But that is also your fault for not starting the game at midnight on release day, unfortunately.
 
The performance was the highlight of the show, and I'm glad the game got so much love and exposure throughout.
 
JorgenRaft said:
I feel bad for anyone who was gonna play it who got spoiled and the impact of We Sing won't be the same now.

But that is also your fault for not starting the game at midnight on release day, unfortunately.
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My friends were watching it with me and I kind of hope they just won't be thinking about where the song will be when they get to it. It's just too good in its original context.
 
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JorgenRaft said:
I feel bad for anyone who was gonna play it who got spoiled and the impact of We Sing won't be the same now.

But that is also your fault for not starting the game at midnight on release day, unfortunately.
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To be fair, that was a super cut down version, so I think the full game experience is still impactful.

And NG+ on Monday, woo!
 
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Remedy posted a few more details on the New Game+ update. 50/50 if I’ll go for it, but I loved the game so I’m tempted!

www.alanwake.com

Unveiling "The Final Draft" - New Game Plus for Alan Wake 2 — Alan Wake

Greetings, Alan Wake 2 Community! Prepare for an enhanced adventure as we introduce “The Final Draft,” providing you with another compelling reason to dive back into the immersive world of Alan Wake. The Final Draft unveils a new ending to the layered story of Alan Wake, sure to spark...
www.alanwake.com www.alanwake.com
 
Awesome to hear about that update! I can't imagine doing anything else but immediately starting in on a second playthrough after this one. And after that...well, this is how my Series S is looking these days:
Z4rvljS.png
 
Sort of been putting off finishing the game, sweeping up as Saga etc... and finally finished today (in time for NG+?), might go back and play AW Remastered next, feel like staying in the mood etc... I thought the ending was good, but not the best part of the game... felt like it was building to something and didn't quite do that in the end, but ultimately a fantastic game and experience - probably my GOTY and looking forward to the DLC
 
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