Man, I really didn't expect this, but I think Chapter 13 was ok?
I mean, from what I was reading, I thought it would either be one of the highlights of the game or a complete disaster, one of the worst moments in gaming. It was fine. I liked it a lot from a narrative perspective, and it was ok from a gameplay one. Not my favorite chapter, but not awful either. ¯\_(ツ
_/¯
Could be a little shorter, but after 11 was weirdly short, it kinda balanced it out.
Maybe people get to this part of the game and they just want to binge to the end, so they feel like it never ends and it sours their experience? I stopped playing yesterday on the first time you save the game on Chapter 13, and did the rest today. It was fine.
Not a fan of this "removing your weapons to add tension" thing at all, but Alan Wake does it all the time and it's one of my favorite games from last gen. I can overlook it.
Forced slow walking is complete shit, but in this level it wasn't that slow. I'd compare it more to The Last of Us walking parts, where you can't sprint, but you can still move at a decent enough speed.
If they patch it to allow normal movement during the chapter, that would probably solve the issue of it feeling too long without having to actually restructure the level.