Okay finished the game last night and here are my final impressions:
Knowing that this was a Remedy title, I went in expecting an extremely polished game with a compelling narrative and quality storytelling. I was very surprised at just how unpolished Alan Wake turned out, especially when you consider its a Remedy game and they took yonks to produce it. The cut scenes are atrocious and downright jarring. For a game that has such a high focus in immersion, its baffling as to why they chose to use pre-rendered cutscenes with a different aspect ratio to the actual game. Aspect ratio notwithstanding, they just had completely different "feel" compared to in-game. The color timing seemed off making the blacks washed out. Add in some severe compression and they look significantly worse than the in-game visuals. Okay I probably bitched too much about the cutscenes...
The controls are pretty solid and the use of the torch as your crosshair is neat. However, the jumping and dodging mechanic is kinda janky. Several times I was annoyed by the game making me dodge instead of run because I was too close to a Taken. The shooting is satisfying, no doubt from their Max Payne pedigree. More weapon variety would have been nice, but the flare gun is undeniably cool. As someone rightly pointed out previously, the rifle and shotgun were basically the same weapon. As good as the shooting mechanic is, it starts to get stale before the end of the game. Theres just not enough variety between encounters besides the set pieces. Talking of set pieces, I felt they were great and definitely memorable. The one in episode 4 is worth raving about.
The episodic concept was done really well. Every episode ended with you wanting more, and definitely helped with pacing. Voice acting was surprisingly solid, especially after the complaints I had read in this thread prior to playing. Barry is the best comic relief character since Jansen in Lost Odyssey, and Sarah is also cool. The story is intriguing, but I'll refrain from commenting until I read up on it some more. Its a shame it turned out so wildly convoluted and unclear. The horribly rushed final episode didn't help, with you running through the forest for an hour, finally ending with a lacklustre "boss" and a final cutscene that explains absolutely nothing.
On the tech side of things it was a real mixed bag. The volumetric fog and lighting model are absolutely nuts, producing fantastic atmosphere. Some of the night scenes are up there with the best graphics this gen. The sub-HD resolution really shows during the day time scenes as does the tearing, with the beginning of episode 4 being the biggest offender. Player models were just downright ugly, particularly Rose and Alice. The audio they've produced is astonishingly good. Bass is prominent throughout game and the ambiance created through the surrounds complements the atmosphere perfectly. OST fantastic and captures the mood of the game very well. "The Clicker" is probably my favourite track. The songs chosen at end of each episode were amazing too.
All in all I'll give this game an 8. Genuinely unique with some baffling flaws.
