jonjohn048
Oct 27, 2023
The first thing I want to say is that if you loved this game, I couldn't be more happy for you, I'm glad you enjoyed it, but the thing is I wanna enjoy the games I play too, and this simply didn't work.I've never heard of this game in even the slightest when I was a kid or even as I grew up but then I heard about the sequel coming up and I decided to play this game to prepare myself for it and after 26 hours, I can say for sure I should've just watched a story analysis on this game instead. Before I talk about why I didn't like this game, the positives I'll say for this is that the game looks decently good for today's standards and dare I say phenomenal for an XBOX 360. The atmosphere is nothing short of breathtaking, this combined with turning off the HUD makes the game unbelievably immersive and something that got me totally lost as I wandered around the game. The guns feel weighty and satisfying with the right amount of bang and impact on the enemies. These collectables called "manuscript pages" I find hilarious as how they literally describe the game as it's going on foreshadowing future events. There was this one particular section of the game where for some reason I went all out guns blazing and admittedly that section was a lot of fun. Now this is unfortunately all the nice things I have to say, because everything else it could've done right is either totally botched up or downright a mess. Firstly, the camera for some reason is further behind Alan than I would personally like but the main problem is that it for some reason shoulder swaps on it's own and I have absolutely no idea how to stop this but it messed up my experience with how I couldn't aim while taking cover with how an object was in the way. The idea of shining a flashlight on enemies and then taking it down with the guns is a great idea, if it wasn't for the fact how the gameplay loop never changes and gets repetitive fast as there's nothing new here to keep the gameplay fresh or exciting to keep you moving forward. The dodge function is one of the most dis-orienting moves I've ever used with how it slows time down and you pretty much have no idea where you are going potentially running into an enemy and considering enemies don't make any sound cues behind you, you'll pretty much get hit from behind with absolutely no way to stop it. Speaking of enemies, there's straight up NO VARIETY to them making the game even more repetitive than it already is AND NO, headshots have no impact to whether they'll drop sooner or not. The presentation may be outstanding, the cutscenes are not with the frame straight up going all over the place during the cutscenes and considering apparently this doesn't happen in 360 version, that's blatantly unacceptable in terms of bringing this game to a new generation of gamers. Now I typically don't have a problem with linear level design, in fact I don't blame Alan Wake being linear considering this is a 360 game at the end of the day, but where I do have a problem with it is that it pretty much makes the UI pointless, the HUD in this game is easily the most "take it or leave, don't really care" with how you don't need the compass to tell you where to go with how linear it is, you'll find it yourself anyways. The characters are boring and are wildly as uninteresting as the story, and I couldn't even tell you how the story ended even if I tried as it felt abrupt, could've been explained better, and the cliffhanger ending didn't make it any better. Then there's the 2 DLC packs which resolve the base game and all I will say is that they are PATHETIC, they don't resolve NOTHING and this remaster may as well should've cut them out of the base game. Overall, while this game gained a cult following and I couldn't be more happy for those people, I have zero doubts if it released today, it would've bombed HARD and the idea of a sequel would've been dead. So overall, thank goodness you don't need to play this game to enjoy the second one because there was absolutely no way I would've recommended you to play that game if playing this game was a requirement.
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PlayStation 5
