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Alan Wake 2 Pacing and Story Discussion

SteadyEvo

Member
Just wrapped up the story and wanted to share my thoughts and hear the opinions of others.

The game starts out slow, which I don’t mind at first since this is an FBI agent conducting an investigation. I’m not expecting non stop action so the early pace doesn’t bother me. Tension builds as more information comes to light. Then shit gets crazy at the police station. I’m thinking to myself at that moment this is pretty good.

Fast forward to Wakes section. First impressions are positive. Stuck in a strange place with the ability to alter the world through writing ✍️. All good so far. Not a fan of the shadow people enemies but it’s early and I’m expecting enemy variety. Sadly this never happens 😔😣

What I realize after a couple of hours is the pace remains the same throughout the entire game. Plodding along solving puzzles, painful backtracking, and monotonous enemy encounters. Wake’s sections become increasingly more painful with each passing hour. I found no joy in fighting the shadow people.

Then there’s the story. Simply put there’s way too much shit going on for me. Definitely preferred playing as Saga since her story is a bit more grounded in reality. Overall it basically lost my interest. I never skip cutscenes as I feel story is a key component in games. Towards the end I could care less, just wanted to see how things ended. The amount of story progression that occurs in the Mind Place and Wake’s story board was despicable.

Sucks cause there’s a great foundation here for an excellent game 🤷‍♂️. Enemy variety, better combat and a straightforward story would’ve worked wonders. Story went bat shit crazy imo.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.
 
I've ranted about it enough but it really is the epitome of style over substance Experience Game. Remedy went so far up their own asses with this game that they lost any thread to a good game completely to me.

Absolutely fucking stinker after Control. That game had some issues but the gameplay and level design were the focus and legitimately good. It's like watching a junkie in rehab backslide to their old ways.
 

hinch7

Member
Didn't like Saga's story and the mind place made the experience a complete slog to play through. Even the combat is dumbed down and kept to a minimum.

Really dissapointing considering how much I enjoyed the first game. Even Control was a considerable better game and actually something I'd want to play.
 
Agreed 100%. Its awful. It never gets going. Fuck the mind place stuff.
Mind Place is comical because they showed it off as some sort of alternative to everything being shooty bang bang. In reality, Mind Place is barely interactive nonsense that's more braindead and unengaging than combat.

I was excited for it too. I thought we'd get robust case solving and Adventure game style puzzles. Nah. That would've gotten in the way of their Oscar-worthy story we are clearly only playing the game for.
 

mrqs

Member
At the start, the story is simple and really well told. But then Remedy remembers it's Remedy, and of course it becomes a mess in no time.

It's really frustrating. The game has such a dope style, great way of telling a narrative.

BUT THOSE PEOPLE ARE NUTS if they think they told a concise and well-established story. The game is absolutely INSANE and at the end I was just "what.".
 
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analog_future

Resident Crybaby
It's a masterpiece IMO.

It's definitely a game that's not concerned with pleasing or appealing to everyone. The story is intentionally obtuse and impenetrable. The pacing is purposefully deliberate. The themes are strange and oftentimes unpleasant.


Because of this, some people say it's "shit". But that's okay, it's not intended to be for everyone.


Still arguably the best looking game ever made as well:

53305285538_21b2716aab_o.png


53299559032_3fe6c1e5e0_o.png


53295779578_d5c4867e2c_o.png



53292435895_c93f650040_o.png
 
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I still havent bought this game yet. I havent even finished the first game, but they should have released a physical version.

Remedy would actually be a great studio to make a video game with the Sin City movie license. Fits well in their narritive storytelling style like in Max Payne.

sin city car GIF by Leroy Patterson
sin city film GIF by hoppip
 
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Eiknarf

Banned
Just wrapped up the story and wanted to share my thoughts and hear the opinions of others.

The game starts out slow, which I don’t mind at first since this is an FBI agent conducting an investigation. I’m not expecting non stop action so the early pace doesn’t bother me. Tension builds as more information comes to light. Then shit gets crazy at the police station. I’m thinking to myself at that moment this is pretty good.

Fast forward to Wakes section. First impressions are positive. Stuck in a strange place with the ability to alter the world through writing ✍️. All good so far. Not a fan of the shadow people enemies but it’s early and I’m expecting enemy variety. Sadly this never happens 😔😣

What I realize after a couple of hours is the pace remains the same throughout the entire game. Plodding along solving puzzles, painful backtracking, and monotonous enemy encounters. Wake’s sections become increasingly more painful with each passing hour. I found no joy in fighting the shadow people.

Then there’s the story. Simply put there’s way too much shit going on for me. Definitely preferred playing as Saga since her story is a bit more grounded in reality. Overall it basically lost my interest. I never skip cutscenes as I feel story is a key component in games. Towards the end I could care less, just wanted to see how things ended. The amount of story progression that occurs in the Mind Place and Wake’s story board was despicable.

Sucks cause there’s a great foundation here for an excellent game 🤷‍♂️. Enemy variety, better combat and a straightforward story would’ve worked wonders. Story went bat shit crazy imo.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.
Who are you? Me?!
Cuz every word you wrote is exactly my sentiment!

OMG everybody raving about the graphics!
Graphics shmaphics!!
It’s easy to make insane graphics when it’s either a walking sim like Hellblade 2 or an investigative heavy game like this Alan Wake 2.
The mechanics and animations of the one main enemy, the shadow people, don’t even respond with how you hit or shoot them the way enemies respond in games like The Last of Us Part 2 or even Part 1!!

Plus, too much board reading

It’s my first PS5 purchase regret. Yes, I’ve purchased other games that I’ve disliked, but I was able to return them for full refund. This crap was digital-only so it’s sitting there stuck in my cloud like garbage.
 
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mrMUR_96

Member
I still havent bought this game yet. I havent even finished the first game, but they should have released a physical version.

Remedy would actually be a great studio to make a video game with the Sin City movie license. Fits well in their narritive storytelling style like in Max Payne.

sin city car GIF by Leroy Patterson
sin city film GIF by hoppip
Hell yeah, that would be slick
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Its horrible. Its full of meta and self-reference, especially the Wake side. The investigation is obnoxious and completely throws some pacing out of the window. It feels like story in one of those DLCs for first one, which were sort of bad, so this is that bad, but like 12 hours long...
 

MrRenegade

Banned
Have you considered that gaf is not one single entity, but a bunch of people in a forum.
Each with it's own experiences, opinions and thoughts.
If you would've seen the sophistication of bots... even 10 years ago. It's entirely possible that 3 gimp midgets control 70% of the accounts here.
 

fatmarco

Member
My biggest issue outside the characters and the story was that the "Metroidvania" approach was more of a chore than anything fun, essentially because the enemy variety was poor (those shadow enemies were probably the worst enemy I've seen in a videogame in about 10 years just for how boring and unfun they were), the mechanics of the combat were poor, and it got to the point where you were more annoyed an enemy showed up than excited by the challenge. I should be running away from enemies because they're a challenge not because engaging with them just sucks.

Part of the issue is the way enemies respawn (in combination with finite ammo), but it just doesn't play as well as it needs to make being a completionist an enjoyable experience. Compared to its inspiration in Resident Evil 2 where the enemies, while scary, were fun to encounter with the variety of how you could deal with them.

And finally the backtracking destroys the games pacing, especially compared to Alan Wake 1 where it had a sense of continuous and controlled momentum.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
It was disappointing for a game I waited a long time for. I found Saga a very uninteresting and annoying character. The game has many long and boring sections and turns very repetitive at times.

The we sing chapter was probably my favorite gaming moment last year tho.
 

SimTourist

Member
The problem with long gaps between works of art is that even the creator doesn't remember the original plan for the story and keeps changing it over the years. The first draft, the first spark of imagination is usually the best, the more you overwork the script the worse it becomes. Plus they have the same problem as Yu Suzuki with Shenmue, instead of finishing a story that might not get another entry they leave the ending open. At least with the first game they were taking it seriously, but this one is too meta and 4th wall breaks bring it down.
 
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