Alan Wake II |OT| I'm blinded by the lights.........

Hugare said:
Will there be a message saying that its the end of Saga's missions? 'Cause everywhere on the internet I only found about her "Point of no return" that I have already passed by it.

Alan's bug is about the black and white points that you have to align in Oceanview Hotel's lobby. Its bugged, only the white point appears. The black one is nowhere to be seen, so I cant align them, making progression impossible.
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Once you finish the Dark Ocean Summoning, you'll take control of Alan for a chapter before you switch back to Saga for the last chapter. I had a few bugs here and there in the Hotel as well, and IIRC, the one you're referring to I couldn't align it correctly till I got right up on it.
 
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Just completed the game. I can't really believe I'm saying this but at the end of the day I'd say I prefer part 1. The main reason for this is that the plot written does not support a 20+ hour game, that pacing is horrible (you don't see enemies for what feels like hours and then suddenly get swarmed) and the combat in general is shit.

Real shame. I adored the artistic aspects of game. Some of the setpieces were amazing and the game im general was beautiful from the first to the last minute. Really wish it had a plot to support all this.

I mean…

It's all about Alan Wake escaping the dark place and in the end you still don't know if he did… What the hell?
Also, the entire dancing scene was pure cringe. Holy hell, what was Sam Lake smoking?
 
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Hugare said:
Man, I just found out that somehow I bypassed Saga's point of no return despite still being at Chapter 4 with Alan (due to a hard lock on his campaign)

What the fuck, Remedy

Even with Cyberpunk on PS4 I was able to finish the game

This has been my most bugged experience in a looong time with a game

So I was supposed to be locked out of the endgame until completing Alan's story. But I'm already at the end with Saga.

I'm at the summoning at Cauldron Lake, Chapter 7

And cant finish Alan's part due to a bug that hard locks progression

So my only choices are finishing the game without experiencing Alan's story to completion or waiting until Remedy patches the game

Fuck
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Then I see a post like this and it's back to waiting 😞 Wouldn't be a happy camper if this happened after dropping $70
 
So about that Boss

Cynthia

Fuck this, the game locked my controls twice on this section, and it had so much damned health, beat beat it, I loved the Throwbacks to the first game AND Control, its all coming together now
 
Finished it, sadly didn't like it at all. I feel like I was playing different game. So much meta, so much pseudointellectual bullshit, so much dragging of the story. I hope this series gets an axe and CONTROL will get like 10 sequels, INFINITELY better game, with all the weirdness, but no padding.
 
M1chl said:
Finished it, sadly didn't like it at all. I feel like I was playing different game. So much meta, so much pseudointellectual bullshit, so much dragging of the story. I hope this series gets an axe and CONTROL will get like 10 sequels, INFINITELY better game, with all the weirdness, but no padding.
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I agree with your points

But Control is like the total opposite, and thats not exactly a good thing

The story is way too obtuse, way too much shit to read, way less focus on presentation and setpieces, terrible map layout and horrible pacing. Also really boring characters.

I enjoyed it in terms of gameplay, but I kinda hated everything else in that game. You spend 90% of the game with your map open 'cause you cant locate where you are most of the time. Its a maze.

Hopefuly Remedy will now have a bigger budget for Control 2 so it will focus on some better storytelling and level design
 
JimmyRustler said:
I mean…

It's all about Alan Wake escaping the dark place and in the end you still don't know if he did… What the hell?
Also, the entire dancing scene was pure cringe. Holy hell, what was Sam Lake smoking?
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yep. when even the developer acknowledges that, narratively,
you've been engaged for 20+ hours in an occasionally entertaining but otherwise totally pointless enterprise...
 
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Having a hard time beating Weaver. Also it doesn't help that I get a glitch where I can't shoot after she falls to the ground and the damage animation keeps repeating

Edit: beat it
 
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Just finished a little while ago, man what a wild ride. Clearly they are leaving some story for the dlc, looking forward in particular to learning more about Mr Door, who is clearly
Saga's father.

BG3 is still my GOTY pick but honestly this is a close second.
 
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I should have posted it before but I made the Spoiler topic if anyone is interested:

www.neogaf.com

Spoilers - Alan Wake II | Spoiler Discussion Thread

⚠️ UNMARKED SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD ⚠️ You just finished Alan Wake II and want to talk about the ending? This is the right place. And remember: it's not a Loop, it's a Spiral... Is Mr. Door Saga's father? That would explain why she can get out of The Dark Place. He also wants to help Saga...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com

Mossybrew said:
Just finished a little while ago, man what a wild ride. Clearly they are leaving some story for the dlc, looking forward in particular to learning more about Mr Door, who is clearly
Saga's father.

BG3 is still my GOTY pick but honestly this is a close second.
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This year is packed in term of amazing games. It's hard to choose honestly and I love it haha.
 
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MCplayer said:
Saga is a great character
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Is she though, in comparison to other and far better female characters from other Remedy games?

I'd argue that Beth Wilder is far better written and way more interesting as a character in Quantum Break, to the point that you actually care about her and want to save her from what's coming, which we still didn't cuz there's no Quantum Break 2... yet.
7rKoIGo.jpg

Saga is.... fine, but she's far from being the best female character in Remedy games and emotional connection is just not there.... at all.
 
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Agent_4Seven said:
Is she though, in comparison to other and far better female characters from other Remedy games?

I'd argue that Beth Wilder is far better written and way more interesting as a character in Quantum Break, to the point that you actually care about her and want to save her from what's coming, which we still didn't cuz there's no Quantum Break 2... yet.
7rKoIGo.jpg

Saga is.... fine, but it's far from being the best female character in Remedy games and emotional connection is just not there.... at all.
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agree regarding beth, a great secondary character. my first impression of saga

semiconscious said:
'i'm thrilled to be here for this mystery!...'

still very early going, but i basically already despise saga. yet another kidult protagonist (with her own child?!), who responds to investigating the discovery of the mutilated corpse of a fellow agent who disappeared 13 years previously with the enthusiasm of... a happy little puppy playing a video game? trying to keep an open mind, but, damn! what a step down from francis york morgan...
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remained my impression throughout the game. if you're gonna go with an idiot savant, at least make him or her entertaining (as deadly premonition most successfully did)...
 
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Doom85 said:
Mixed people can have the general physical appearance of primarily one race even if it's not common. Hell, take the twin brothers hitmen in the movie Bullet Train from last year:

Looking Aaron Taylor-Johnson GIF by Bullet Train
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You know Bullet Train is not a documentary right? Pretty sure Paper Boi is not biracial.

Finished the game Saturday night, I liked some parts, like the graphics and atmosphere, and how it mixed FMV into the environments, but hated the combat and how fragmented everything is, especially the mind place interruptions. I found it hard to get a flow going.

I also didn't like the lamp puzzles, kept me from trying to get all the items and power ups, which was no problem as almost everything is kinda useless.

I probably like the hotel part best as it reminded me of Silent Hill, but what I like about SH is going around the map, filling it in as you go, trying to open all the doors. This had some of that, but just not enough.
 
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Not really a guy who often goes for 1000/1000 but it still took me 30 hours to finish.

A few notes:

Obviously, the game appealed to me. Otherwise I would not have played the last stretch of the game until 5am. That said, I'm still quite conflicted about it.

While I think the combat is more fun than the repetitious nature of it in the first game, the general clumsiness (in some ways intentional to heighten the tension) can be a bit infuriating, especially during a bit more hectic moments like that attack stand-off at the shore near the end. You end up spamming that dodge button and hope for the best. Other survival games like RE4 or Dead Space this year do have better combat controls while still making you feel claustrophobic and vulnerable. I also get that Alan Wake 2 is not so much a game about combat as it is a pure narrative experience. In this case, it is a bit like Hellblade where the combat and puzzles seems almost like an afterthought.

I liked puzzles in this. Most of them are super easy but there were a few that took me a while. I like that there is no hand holding.

I started to enjoy the game more when I didn't divert too much from the story. All this wondering around the forest looking for lunch boxes hurt the pacing and the propulsion of the story.

The story is, all in all, pretty good. Obviously a lot of thought has been put into it. It's also way up its own ass and I don't mean it as a diss. Actually, it is not often we get games that are self-indulgent ego trips with all the meta layers and what not. This is so much more interesting than your typical hero's journey shit. But I'm still not entirely sure if they managed to nail it. The game tries to balance itself between being a meta piss-take on American crime fiction, a spooky Japanese influenced horror story, almost a Lynchian mystery, a jokey trip into Finnish eccentricity. Usually when an author makes, let's say, a meta movie, it helps to know where he is coming from as an artist. I have no clue who Sam Lake is and what makes him tick other than the fact he likes to put his mug into his game and makes silly constipated faces. So, yeah, the whole theme about artists and the power of their creation is in general told well, but also somehow doesn't feel entirely genuine. It just feels like somebody watched too many obscure films and thought he could make his own version of it. It never really feels entirely personal (Other than all the Finnish stuff).

But as I said it, I would rather play a game like Alan Wake than a more typical fare with nothing interesting to say at all.

It sounds like I complain a lot and make it look like I disliked the game more than I liked it, but it is not entirely true. I think it a very good, sometimes amazing game with noticeable flaws.
 
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Havent finished the game yet, but something that I've noticed was how small Bright Falls seems to be in this game compared to the first

The first game was firstly developed as an open world title, and it showed: it had some huge vistas and you could sometimes get vehicles to go places, which added to the immersion. You could sometimes see long stretches of land, and places that you will get to later on in the chapter

Every chapter had a new place to go, and you rarely went to the same place twice.

Here you can see that they had to divide the budget between Saga and Alan, 'cause you'll see the same 4-5 places over and over again at different times of day

Not only that, but the more narrow camera adds to that, making everything smaller and claustrophobic (works for the survival horror, but makes environments smaller)

There was this one chapter on the original (I think it was named Escape, something like that) where you try to evade cops starting from the trailer park, then going into the woods and you make your way to the radio station where you meet Pat.

I remember seeing the radio station from very far away during the beginning of the chapter, and you end up going there on foot at the end. It gave me such an amazing feeling of immersion, like the whole town was really one big map that Remedy was just cutting pieces to set their missions on them.
 
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Agent_4Seven said:
Is she though, in comparison to other and far better female characters from other Remedy games?

I'd argue that Beth Wilder is far better written and way more interesting as a character in Quantum Break, to the point that you actually care about her and want to save her from what's coming, which we still didn't cuz there's no Quantum Break 2... yet.
7rKoIGo.jpg

Saga is.... fine, but she's far from being the best female character in Remedy games and emotional connection is just not there.... at all.
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No, saga is a great character like all the others in remedy games, I love Courtney Hope in QB and Control but Saga definitely has more of reason to be fighting for survival and end the madness in this game storywise,I was expecting Courtney Hope to appear in AW2 actually as some other character but I guess not.

This is just my opinion of course, yours is valid too
 
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Started playing it last night on PS5 in fidelity mode. I'm finding that some surfaces (metallic ones mostly) are having some weird texture effects. It's like they're covered in glitter or sparkles or something. Anyone else having this issue?
 
Insane Metal said:
I really like the game but sometimes I just have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Should I use the lamp thing? Do I need to go back and forth between realities? It's not very clear at all.
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Yeh it's annoying at first, u have jump between realities go somewhere and that unlocks a light, so u have jump back and use that light to jump again to unlock a parthway.
 
engstra said:
Started playing it last night on PS5 in fidelity mode. I'm finding that some surfaces (metallic ones mostly) are having some weird texture effects. It's like they're covered in glitter or sparkles or something. Anyone else having this issue?
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its the engine that uses software ray tracing, so the noise isn't that well cleaned up and the rays aren't very accurate.
 
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engstra said:
Ah ok, so switching to performance mode should get rid of this issue then? I'm assuming raytracing is not enabled in that mode.
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No it's the same, even worse somehow due to the lower resolution.

It is as it is. The game is beautiful and truly next gen looking but with lots of IQ break ups on console.
 
engstra said:
Ah ok, so switching to performance mode should get rid of this issue then? I'm assuming raytracing is not enabled in that mode.
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Not sure but I think it is, the only differences between the modes are less density of objects and resolution, but Im not sure
 
engstra said:
Started playing it last night on PS5 in fidelity mode. I'm finding that some surfaces (metallic ones mostly) are having some weird texture effects. It's like they're covered in glitter or sparkles or something. Anyone else having this issue?
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Yup, was a bit distracting at times, a shame since it mars an otherwise fantastic visual presentation.
 
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MCplayer said:
Not sure but I think it is, the only differences between the modes are less density of objects and resolution, but Im not sure
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Worse fog, worse lighting too. Performance mode looks much less atmospheric than quality. I tried it, i cant do it in this game even tho the combat feels way better at higher fps
 
JimmyRustler said:
Just completed the game. I can't really believe I'm saying this but at the end of the day I'd say I prefer part 1. The main reason for this is that the plot written does not support a 20+ hour game, that pacing is horrible (you don't see enemies for what feels like hours and then suddenly get swarmed) and the combat in general is shit.
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Agreed 100% which is fucking blasphemous when dealing with a Remedy title. When I think Remedy, I think stylish, gimmicky, ultra cool gunplay and a quirky, cool narrative to support it. Someone at the company lost the memo to include the former.

Hopefully they bounce back with the Payne remakes.
 
The graphics and presentation in this game is amazing but the actual gameplay and pacing is horrible. It's a very hard game to get though because it gets very boring at times.

This game was over scored imo. I would give it a 7.5 at most. If they leaned more into making it an action game and made the story easier to follow it would have been better. But at the same time it's good to have variety and this game is a very unique experience which is why I think the reviewers scored it so high.
 
I enjoyed Alan Wake 2, I said this before the game came out, Remedy games are not perfect and they have flaws but they always make unique experiences that make their games memorable and I can appreciate that.
 
Chuck Berry said:
Agreed 100% which is fucking blasphemous when dealing with a Remedy title. When I think Remedy, I think stylish, gimmicky, ultra cool gunplay and a quirky, cool narrative to support it. Someone at the company lost the memo to include the former.

Hopefully they bounce back with the Payne remakes.
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I somewhat doubt it. See, back when Remedy made the first two Max Payne, they were trying to be recognised as artists. But by now they are well known and tend to self indulge. Someone already said it here. It becomes obtuse and ridiculous, over the top. Or at least it does for my tastes. Enough people here seem to enjoy it. Same thing happened to Kojima over the years I think btw.

So no, I don't think the Max Payne Remakes will be any more straight forward then Alan Wake 2.
 
DenchDeckard said:
I'm trying to complete spider man 2 before I play this, but you lot are making it far too hard! Ffs
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I finished Spider-Man 2 and then I was determined to play through MGS1 on PS5 before starting AW2. I finally did that a couple of days ago.

After about an hour into AW2, I suddenly found myself playing the Spider-Man 2018 PS5 remaster, which I've never played despite buying Miles Morales at launch. (I think I played through OG SM 2018 at least three times back when it was the only Insomniac SM.)

Pretty sure I'll enjoy AW2, when I'm in the right mood. Though I would note that while I loved AW1 back in 2010, I found it to be pretty ponderous when I played the PS4 remaster. But I guess going from a stealth game straight into a relatively slow "FBI investigation sim" just wasn't the right move at this moment. Need to get some pent up aggression out first.
 
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JimmyRustler said:
I somewhat doubt it. See, back when Remedy made the first two Max Payne, they were trying to be recognised as artists. But by now they are well known and tend to self indulge. Someone already said it here. It becomes obtuse and ridiculous, over the top. Or at least it does for my tastes. Enough people here seem to enjoy it. Same thing happened to Kojima over the years I think btw.

So no, I don't think the Max Payne Remakes will be any more straight forward then Alan Wake 2.
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I mean in terms of fancy, stylish action and gunplay. That's what needs to be resuscitated. Im sure narratively itll be all over the place as expected.
 
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Chuck Berry said:
I mean in terms of fancy, stylish action and gunplay. That's what needs to be resuscitated. Im sure narratively itll be all over the place as expected.
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What makes you think they'll bring that back? Remedy games haven't had any fun gameplay since Max Payne 2. If anything, gameplay became less important with each game and there is, to me, little reason to believe that will change anytime soon.
 
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JimmyRustler said:
What makes you think they'll bring that back? Remedy games haven't had any fun gameplay since Max Payne 2. If anything, gameplay became less important with each game and there is, to me, little reason to believe that will change anytime soon.
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Come On Food GIF by Masterchef


I hated Control for many things, but gameplay isnt one of them

It's very satisfying. And so is the original Alan Wake, imo.

AW 2 is eh, but I've never played a survivor horror game with great gameplay (original RE 4 isnt survivor horror, imo)

Seems like bad gameplay is kinda part of the genre
 
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JimmyRustler said:
What makes you think they'll bring that back? Remedy games haven't had any fun gameplay since Max Payne 2. If anything, gameplay became less important with each game and there is, to me, little reason to believe that will change anytime soon.
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Im not thinking they will. Im hoping lol

Curious at to why you consider MP2 the pinnacle of "fun gameplay" for a Remedy title. Is it because its an extremely cut n dry shooter, with cool physics, perfect pacing and lasts 3 hours?

You didn't think Control had "fun gameplay?" (It was definitely sorely missing any sort of bullet time effect)

And trash me all you want but I still think Quantum Break has the most fun Remedy combat. I just wish there was more of it.
 
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Chuck Berry said:
Im not thinking they will. Im hoping lol

Curious at to why you consider MP2 the pinnacle of "fun gameplay" for a Remedy title. Is it because its an extremely cut n dry shooter, with cool physics, perfect pacing and lasts 3 hours?

You didn't think Control had "fun gameplay?" (It was definitely sorely missing any sort of bullet time effect)

And trash me all you want but I still think Quantum Break has the most fun Remedy combat. I just wish there was more of it.
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MP2 was a product of its time and superb when it released, both in gameplay and story. And yeah, it being so short was surely part of it. AW2 would have also profited from a shorter length.

And no, iI didn't find Control to be a lot of fun. I still dread the thought of the horrible map and the repetitive shootouts.

Remedy should just stop doing these long as games. They make solid gameplay that can keep one entertained for a couple of hours but not 20.
 
Yep, the game is very tedious. I'm nearing the end and I had to lower the difficulty from Hard to Easy because it got too boring fighting bullet sponges and then running around looting containers.

Remedy forgot how to make engaging gameplay after Max Payne 2. Here they constantly break up pacing with mind place(awful, pointless mechanic), manuscript pages that you have to listen in the menu, texts, echoes etc.

It's more like a collection of audio/visual/writing material stitched together by an afterthought of a gameplay.
 
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