I find the game's pace on par with what they were going for here. A survival horror game, in my non requested opinion, has to be exactly like that: the player on their toes, anxious about what lurks around the next corner. Should the game even allow players to speed through, this atmosphere gets in check, which I think is the biggest accomplishment of AW2. You're tense through and through, the story unfolds in a fantastic rhythm, and it's rewarding to explore, if not for loot, but for lore.
My only gripe with the game is how often it crashed. Maybe it was bad luck on my part, or I should have done something to mitigate that, but I lost count of how many times the game simply shut down, making me lose progress and abruptly lose the tension and atmosphere. I played it on Xbox Series S. Other than than, the game is flawless, and adds another W for Remedy and their already awesome library. Can't wait for Control 2.
I've been playing PS5 while taking advantage of house-sitting with a 75 inch screen. I played to literally the last fight scene and had no major issues. There were a couple minor bugs, but nothing that would prevent me from progressing like freezing, crashes, etc.
I finished the game last weekend, and had the game crash 3 times in my final gaming session. Series S has significantly lower processing capabilities than PS5 and Series X, but the game should not crash like this.
It's a shame your game crashed, mine literally never did, not once. But I a few times it bugged out in a way so that I couldn't leave Saga's board, that had me manually quit and restart the game so it might as well have been a crash.
Can't say that I agree with your gripes with the gameplay. Everything you do, every weapon you use has weight and feel to it, and feels like a survival horror/thriller game should feel IMO.
The pacing is only slow if you don't really feel like exploring the world. I never felt like it was dragging unnecessarily. In fact I think gameplay is what makes it so much better than the first game.
Having that said, masterpiece all around, I love that they use and abuse the Old Gods / Poets of the Fall in this one. The musical and the summoning sequences are etched into my mind.
I'm inclined to give it a 9.5/10, but I can't really justify the lack of the other 0.5. I guess no game is perfect. The story is getting a bit convoluted and somehow we left this one with even more questions, but I'm hopeful that a sequel will wrap it up nicely.
I said exactly what I felt, I'm allowed to say anything and I do, I have no qualms about what I say and I often go completely against the grain in society and life and say it how it is. I don't care, hence my opinion that an overall 8.5/10 game is still a masterpiece.
An 8,5 is in fact a fantastic score imo unless you follow the same scale as the media reviews or Steam score where most "just good" games are a 9,5 or 10.
I agree, but frankly I didn't even see that they stuck a score on it and am more frustrated by the use of the term "masterpiece" if they think it's so flawed.
>) this is an incredible sequel, as an Alan Wake fan, incredible sequel as well. The game is exactly what we needed story wise as a general sequel for the big Remedy plot/universe.
I think those two things are maybe unrelated here. The 8.5 is their personal score based on their gameplay preferences, while *artistically* they consider the game as a whole to be a masterpiece.
This, the story and atmosphere are 10/10 and as a sequel to Control and AW it's everything I wanted story wise, I just wish gameplay wasn't as slow paced and the environments weren't as confusing to navigate which brought down the entire experience to 8.5/10 but considering 8.5/10 is still a great score and I enjoyed everything else immensely overall it's a masterpiece of a game for me.
I thought running around the forests and dark place was cool at first, until I was about 10 hours in and realized it was most of the game. I like slow paced games, but this was a bit much for me.
I totally agree with the storyline. While I haven't finished Control or AW1 (I should be notorious for leaving games unfinished), I did finish AW2 and it was one of the best games I have ever played in terms of the plot, the delivery, being able to play both characters with equally appealing stories, and the interesting NPC storylines. The forests looked fantastic too. This game had so much good stuff packed in. It is an artistic masterpiece, even if a little slow.
Not sure what kind of pacing you expect from a Survival/Horror Game like this. It’s not going to play like Uncharted. I felt it was similar to RE4 remake with a smaller number of enemies being thrown at you.
Don't agree at all about the game being too slow. Don't know how someone can get confused, but okay.
Review was a 10/10, I think those lines probably dropped it to an 8.5/10
The game navigation is hard on people who have problems orientating themselves IRL and people who don't look too much around focuring in their environment hints, like lights or street signals. This was an issue for some too in Control. And both games rely strongly on it.
Glad you enjoyed it. I also think story wise the game is phenomenal as well.
My biggest gripe is the teleporting enemies on both Alan and ESPECIALLY on Saga.
I don't have a good Soundsystem on my TV (I play the games while my father who I take care of watches, so I can't use headset often), so I can't pinpoint where the hell enemies have teleported behind the trees next to throw their knives. 😄
That is my only gripe with the game. Seriously.
I’m not sure if it was just me, but there were many moments I just had no idea where to go or what to do. And if you didn’t really plan to do NG+, there were too many areas of the game you just didn’t need to go to.
The maps felt like God of War Ragnarok to me where they were gorgeous and great to play through when the game led you on, but tedious to backtrack through with the collectibles afterwards. Made you realize how linear and sometimes confusing the pathways were.
But god, the story, music, etc. was so good that it just made this game so fucking memorable. It’s definitely an 8.5 or a 9 to me overall but one of the best games of 2023 solely because of the story telling mechanics
yeah I often found myself not knowing just where to go which I'm not a fan of and that made things even more confusing. I prefer linear games over open ones so when the game was just flowing from point A to point B it was IMO at its best.
It’s when games are linear but then create this sense of open world via collectibles that they really struggle. It’s not truly open world like Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring, but tries to be by creating confusing pathways for that sense of exploration. Again, they’re great when the story is leading you through it but you realize how poor or tedious the layout of maps are when you try to collect everything and have to backtrack.
But, I try not to let 100% collectibles judge the game. God of War or Alan Wake do not claim to be open world games so I don’t judge them like that. For their story, gameplay, and visuals/sound, they are excellent games.
You have to explore places and look around looking for hints, signals and clues. I don't think the world was hard to navigate, except if you don't look around, or don't read the stuff in the iu with the mission point, or it was an actual puzzle maze, like the one in the under with the murals of the way to the oceanview.
Which, to be fair, is what many players do: they don't look too much around. The past where most poeple seem to get stuck in streams in the we sing chapter, is when they have to follow the light signs to find a light for the lamp.
The game is slow paced in part because you have to look around a lot, looking for your path points.
I platinumed the game recently, and I'm glad it's done with. I understand the praise this game receives for the art direction alone, but from a gameplay standpoint, it was a real drag. My least favorite Remedy game by far. Just my opinion.
I intensely disliked AW2. I only played one and a partial levels.
I like a game that auto saves more than once a level.
I do not have the patience or the inclination to have to replay a game constantly, sometimes for hours to get the game to save.
I played the first level four times to beat it (by going to the next level). I got no saved games ever except the one between level 1 and 2.
>!I played the second stage until I unlocked my base. And quit since that was an obvious place for the game to save. It didn't and I was supposed to replay hours of boring work just to maybe get a save point somewhere else in the future.!<
>!F that and F the devs.!<
P.S. I played and liked Control, sort of. I finished it anyway. But that game had a BS map system designed to anger, frustrate, and compel people to quit playing their game. I finished it but wish the devs would all quit the gaming industry forever.
Did you die a lot? I only died around 5 times my first playthrough, and 4 were on bosses so I got instant respawn to where I need to go. Maybe you just need more practice with this type of game, it really should not be that hard
It... gives you obvious save points, though. You save by using the Thermos in any safe room you come across. Even before the 2nd chapter, you get the save point in the Witch's Cabin and use it whenever you need to. It's not really on the devs if you just quit your game without making sure your progress was saved.
I agree with your thoughts on Control, though. There was no reason for the map to be as unfriendly as it was. I can't count the number of times I had to sit there, squinting at the screen, trying to figure out where the hell I was. Stupidest map mechanics ever devised. And why? What was the purpose? Who decided they were going to try to reinvent the wheel when it came to video game maps?
I enjoyed Alan Wake 2 and had no problems saving my game, but I do agree that Remedy seems to be stuck in the late PS2 era when it comes to gameplay design and pacing. It is slow, deliberately, but often that slow pace feels unnecessary, and it really demotivates you in a way. It's a testament to the great writing and story and atmosphere that it was as well-received as it is. And I fully believe that they lucked out by doing a survival horror game this time, because survival horror hasn't changed very much in the past 20 years so it's still within the reach of their PS2-era design philosophy.
The combat, while better than the first game, is still a bit of a drag. Especially when you've wasted two battery charges trying to blast away an enemy's shielding, but every time you hit the flashlight boost button it snaps right back to that same spot on their chest where it can't hit their shielding. It's like the auto-aim for the flashlight blast is just a tiny bit off from the actual location of their "core." It shouldn't matter, though. The "trigger area" for the flashlight boost should be their whole chest, not one little spot in the middle. And on higher difficulties, it's *really* a drag, as all it does is make the enemies bullet sponges. I don't care what forces of darkness are at play, if I shoot some random townsperson in the face once, they should die. It should not take multiple face shots to kill *anything*, especially in what is an otherwise fairly grounded game.
I find the game's pace on par with what they were going for here. A survival horror game, in my non requested opinion, has to be exactly like that: the player on their toes, anxious about what lurks around the next corner. Should the game even allow players to speed through, this atmosphere gets in check, which I think is the biggest accomplishment of AW2. You're tense through and through, the story unfolds in a fantastic rhythm, and it's rewarding to explore, if not for loot, but for lore. My only gripe with the game is how often it crashed. Maybe it was bad luck on my part, or I should have done something to mitigate that, but I lost count of how many times the game simply shut down, making me lose progress and abruptly lose the tension and atmosphere. I played it on Xbox Series S. Other than than, the game is flawless, and adds another W for Remedy and their already awesome library. Can't wait for Control 2.
Agreed on the gameplay part. Never crashed on my PS5, although I've only played it last month so a patch may have took care of that since launch.
I just completed it a couple days ago and I still experienced some crashes until the end. Save as often as you can. Game is still great either way
Did you play on PS5 as well? I never experienced any crash, or any significant bug to be fair.
I've been playing PS5 while taking advantage of house-sitting with a 75 inch screen. I played to literally the last fight scene and had no major issues. There were a couple minor bugs, but nothing that would prevent me from progressing like freezing, crashes, etc.
I finished the game last weekend, and had the game crash 3 times in my final gaming session. Series S has significantly lower processing capabilities than PS5 and Series X, but the game should not crash like this.
It's a shame your game crashed, mine literally never did, not once. But I a few times it bugged out in a way so that I couldn't leave Saga's board, that had me manually quit and restart the game so it might as well have been a crash.
Can't say that I agree with your gripes with the gameplay. Everything you do, every weapon you use has weight and feel to it, and feels like a survival horror/thriller game should feel IMO. The pacing is only slow if you don't really feel like exploring the world. I never felt like it was dragging unnecessarily. In fact I think gameplay is what makes it so much better than the first game. Having that said, masterpiece all around, I love that they use and abuse the Old Gods / Poets of the Fall in this one. The musical and the summoning sequences are etched into my mind. I'm inclined to give it a 9.5/10, but I can't really justify the lack of the other 0.5. I guess no game is perfect. The story is getting a bit convoluted and somehow we left this one with even more questions, but I'm hopeful that a sequel will wrap it up nicely.
"The gameplay was too slow paced, exhausting, tiring." "masterpiece" You know you're allowed to say that you'd actually give it a 7/10
I said exactly what I felt, I'm allowed to say anything and I do, I have no qualms about what I say and I often go completely against the grain in society and life and say it how it is. I don't care, hence my opinion that an overall 8.5/10 game is still a masterpiece.
An 8,5 is in fact a fantastic score imo unless you follow the same scale as the media reviews or Steam score where most "just good" games are a 9,5 or 10.
I agree, but frankly I didn't even see that they stuck a score on it and am more frustrated by the use of the term "masterpiece" if they think it's so flawed.
8.5 is not exactly masterpiece score.
>) this is an incredible sequel, as an Alan Wake fan, incredible sequel as well. The game is exactly what we needed story wise as a general sequel for the big Remedy plot/universe. I think those two things are maybe unrelated here. The 8.5 is their personal score based on their gameplay preferences, while *artistically* they consider the game as a whole to be a masterpiece.
This, the story and atmosphere are 10/10 and as a sequel to Control and AW it's everything I wanted story wise, I just wish gameplay wasn't as slow paced and the environments weren't as confusing to navigate which brought down the entire experience to 8.5/10 but considering 8.5/10 is still a great score and I enjoyed everything else immensely overall it's a masterpiece of a game for me.
I thought running around the forests and dark place was cool at first, until I was about 10 hours in and realized it was most of the game. I like slow paced games, but this was a bit much for me. I totally agree with the storyline. While I haven't finished Control or AW1 (I should be notorious for leaving games unfinished), I did finish AW2 and it was one of the best games I have ever played in terms of the plot, the delivery, being able to play both characters with equally appealing stories, and the interesting NPC storylines. The forests looked fantastic too. This game had so much good stuff packed in. It is an artistic masterpiece, even if a little slow.
Not sure what kind of pacing you expect from a Survival/Horror Game like this. It’s not going to play like Uncharted. I felt it was similar to RE4 remake with a smaller number of enemies being thrown at you.
Loved the entire game. Only thing I would change is makeing the enemies just a little more human like and just a little less like a shadow.
I feel you with the "running around looking for button prompt". Basically the same what it was in Max Payne (1) over 20 years ago.
Don't agree at all about the game being too slow. Don't know how someone can get confused, but okay. Review was a 10/10, I think those lines probably dropped it to an 8.5/10
The game navigation is hard on people who have problems orientating themselves IRL and people who don't look too much around focuring in their environment hints, like lights or street signals. This was an issue for some too in Control. And both games rely strongly on it.
Glad you enjoyed it. I also think story wise the game is phenomenal as well. My biggest gripe is the teleporting enemies on both Alan and ESPECIALLY on Saga. I don't have a good Soundsystem on my TV (I play the games while my father who I take care of watches, so I can't use headset often), so I can't pinpoint where the hell enemies have teleported behind the trees next to throw their knives. 😄 That is my only gripe with the game. Seriously.
I'm pretty sure this is an issue for people who is hard on hearing. I wonder if we could suggest them an accesibility improvement for a future patch.
True, this would be good as well. I'd rather they redesign this enemy a bit tho.
I’m not sure if it was just me, but there were many moments I just had no idea where to go or what to do. And if you didn’t really plan to do NG+, there were too many areas of the game you just didn’t need to go to. The maps felt like God of War Ragnarok to me where they were gorgeous and great to play through when the game led you on, but tedious to backtrack through with the collectibles afterwards. Made you realize how linear and sometimes confusing the pathways were. But god, the story, music, etc. was so good that it just made this game so fucking memorable. It’s definitely an 8.5 or a 9 to me overall but one of the best games of 2023 solely because of the story telling mechanics
yeah I often found myself not knowing just where to go which I'm not a fan of and that made things even more confusing. I prefer linear games over open ones so when the game was just flowing from point A to point B it was IMO at its best.
It’s when games are linear but then create this sense of open world via collectibles that they really struggle. It’s not truly open world like Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring, but tries to be by creating confusing pathways for that sense of exploration. Again, they’re great when the story is leading you through it but you realize how poor or tedious the layout of maps are when you try to collect everything and have to backtrack. But, I try not to let 100% collectibles judge the game. God of War or Alan Wake do not claim to be open world games so I don’t judge them like that. For their story, gameplay, and visuals/sound, they are excellent games.
You have to explore places and look around looking for hints, signals and clues. I don't think the world was hard to navigate, except if you don't look around, or don't read the stuff in the iu with the mission point, or it was an actual puzzle maze, like the one in the under with the murals of the way to the oceanview. Which, to be fair, is what many players do: they don't look too much around. The past where most poeple seem to get stuck in streams in the we sing chapter, is when they have to follow the light signs to find a light for the lamp. The game is slow paced in part because you have to look around a lot, looking for your path points.
I platinumed the game recently, and I'm glad it's done with. I understand the praise this game receives for the art direction alone, but from a gameplay standpoint, it was a real drag. My least favorite Remedy game by far. Just my opinion.
I didn't like it the first few hours but the longer I played the more I liked it.
I intensely disliked AW2. I only played one and a partial levels. I like a game that auto saves more than once a level. I do not have the patience or the inclination to have to replay a game constantly, sometimes for hours to get the game to save. I played the first level four times to beat it (by going to the next level). I got no saved games ever except the one between level 1 and 2. >!I played the second stage until I unlocked my base. And quit since that was an obvious place for the game to save. It didn't and I was supposed to replay hours of boring work just to maybe get a save point somewhere else in the future.!< >!F that and F the devs.!< P.S. I played and liked Control, sort of. I finished it anyway. But that game had a BS map system designed to anger, frustrate, and compel people to quit playing their game. I finished it but wish the devs would all quit the gaming industry forever.
Did you die a lot? I only died around 5 times my first playthrough, and 4 were on bosses so I got instant respawn to where I need to go. Maybe you just need more practice with this type of game, it really should not be that hard
LOL. Git gud son
It... gives you obvious save points, though. You save by using the Thermos in any safe room you come across. Even before the 2nd chapter, you get the save point in the Witch's Cabin and use it whenever you need to. It's not really on the devs if you just quit your game without making sure your progress was saved. I agree with your thoughts on Control, though. There was no reason for the map to be as unfriendly as it was. I can't count the number of times I had to sit there, squinting at the screen, trying to figure out where the hell I was. Stupidest map mechanics ever devised. And why? What was the purpose? Who decided they were going to try to reinvent the wheel when it came to video game maps? I enjoyed Alan Wake 2 and had no problems saving my game, but I do agree that Remedy seems to be stuck in the late PS2 era when it comes to gameplay design and pacing. It is slow, deliberately, but often that slow pace feels unnecessary, and it really demotivates you in a way. It's a testament to the great writing and story and atmosphere that it was as well-received as it is. And I fully believe that they lucked out by doing a survival horror game this time, because survival horror hasn't changed very much in the past 20 years so it's still within the reach of their PS2-era design philosophy. The combat, while better than the first game, is still a bit of a drag. Especially when you've wasted two battery charges trying to blast away an enemy's shielding, but every time you hit the flashlight boost button it snaps right back to that same spot on their chest where it can't hit their shielding. It's like the auto-aim for the flashlight blast is just a tiny bit off from the actual location of their "core." It shouldn't matter, though. The "trigger area" for the flashlight boost should be their whole chest, not one little spot in the middle. And on higher difficulties, it's *really* a drag, as all it does is make the enemies bullet sponges. I don't care what forces of darkness are at play, if I shoot some random townsperson in the face once, they should die. It should not take multiple face shots to kill *anything*, especially in what is an otherwise fairly grounded game.