Alan Wake

Why do I love this game so much? It is at times, unapologetically cliched and cheesy, it's characters are total archetypes with maybe a few exceptions where things get subverted. The gameplay loop is predictable at best and repetitive at worst.

Yet, I've replayed it at least 4 times and I still love it every time I do it. I love the characters, the story, Bright Falls, the art direction and general atmosphere of the world is enough for me to never get tired of the rather basic gameplay formula that it follows from beginning to end. It's self aware but not to the point where everything becomes a joke, it's a story that obviously wants to be taken seriously at times, but it knows what it is and at least to me never comes off as pretentious. There are so many games out there with shit stories that suddenly 6 hours in does a really haphazard attempt at serious drama and it never works because the game has done nothing to convince me I should take it seriously. Alan Wake is consistent in tone, and never goes out of bounds where it feels disingenuous. Going back to the character thing, yeah most of them are total archetypes but god damn if the townsfolk of Bright Falls aren't totally lovable.

I can't get enough of it. It's one of my favorite games from last generation and I say that being perfectly aware of how mediocre the actual gameplay part of it is.

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Cool story faggot no one gives a FUCK

Played it through in one sitting, was really enjoyable. The gameplay loop is a joke, tho.

You love it because its a great game with incredible story telling.

I don't think you quite understand the meaning of "archetype". You also seem to have them confused for something to avoid.

I think it is just extremely well made.

I recently replayed it and came to your conclusion, the gameplay loop got repetitive, but it was still very much a fun game. it had a lot going for it.

>actual frightening situations (hearing the wind come and distorted voice still gives me the feeling of a pit in my stomach)
>good, creative, new story
>great music
>pacing is really well
>setting is perfect
>the gameplay mechanic with the light is fresh
>Sam Lake wrote it

Yet no sequel yet...

I'm desperately hoping that with the sudden rise in popularity for 80s nostalgia as well as mystery stories, like Stranger Things that Microsoft finally give them the all clear to make Alan Wake 2.

It seems like there will never be a more relevant time than now to bring it back. Sadly after the failure of Quantum Break and Remedy splitting off into 2 smaller teams with the intent of making smaller games faster, it seems unlikely.

I hope I live to see a sequel though, I want one so bad.

I liked it, but it has soooo many flaws, most of them from coming out development hell. the game was supposed to be an open world horror game where you could explore the whole are free, but they couldnt make it work in gameplay terms, so they went full rails instead.

the gameplay is pretty boring after a while, having basically only a couple types of enemy doesn't work.

The light mechanic is literally stolen from Obscure.

Most areas look the same, and animations tend to be chunky.

Plot is deliberately stephen kingesque b-movie horror, but its enjoyable and well written. Its honest in his homage to twin peaks(some characters and locations are literally the same)..


Not saying its bad, just pointing out its far from perfect. Its one of these games you either love or leave you indifferent.

I also HATED the Dlcs. Spent a lot of money to see the real ending-and guess what? DLC ADDED NOTHING-NOTHING NEW
FUCK THEM

Oh, and I love dthe Poets of the Fall doing the songs and all. Love these guys. they even did a alan-wakesque skit before singing "war"during their last concert.

>Yet no sequel yet...
Doubt we'll ever see one at this point. They were making the sequel by a web series(which would have been great, the prequels were AMAZING)but it seems they dropped it.
>Stranger Things
Am I the only one who thinks strager things its shit?
Nothing interesting really happens after the second episode, with the expeption of a couple of cool-and short moments. Would have been better as a movie ihmo.

An archetype doesn't necessarily have to be bad, no. But when we're speaking about archetypes in a specific genre, I could understand how someone might leverage that as criticism against the game because many of the characters are incredibly familiar, we've seen it all done before and like I said with the exception of a couple of them, not a lot is done to subvert them and make them feel unique.

But of course not every story needs that, and I don't think Alan Wake is lesser because of it, it's just an acknowledgement of the fact that that is how it is and I still have an unconditioned love for all of them.

>That stage shootout
>Children Of The Elder Gods blasting while blasting fuckers with the shotgun

Sam Lake has said that there will be an Alan Wake sequel, I believe him.

It may be smaller in terms of game today, but its definitely doable, the rise of episodic games shows that, and was Quantum Break a failure? I heard it did well, one of the best for Xbox one.

The game really kept on getting better and better as it went along. Episode 4 and 5 were so fucking good.

>Sam Lake has said that there will be an Alan Wake sequel, I believe him.
When?
It would be so great.
Im replaying it now for my gf and god, I want to see the end so bad.

Unless....unless they do what they did to Prey.
Ill never forgive them.
Id rather have a dead franchise.

QB did pretty well sales wise but alot of people shit on it and it took forever for them to make.

excellent atmosphere, pretty repetetive and boring gameplay. amazing style.

one of those games I remember very fondly but don't plan on replaying at least before I'm senile and have forgotten it all

Alan Wake has some of the most gorgeous locations I've ever seen in a game.

I've been """blessed""" with an utter shit memory and ADD so while I remember the broad strokes of the story, I can revisit it every other year and not be totally unengaged because I can recall every single event in linear order in my head.

youtube.com/watch?v=Un-9b9HguPk

In one of the questions he is asked if there will be an Alan Wake 2, and he said straight up "yes"

recently he has said that they are developing two games, but neither are Alan Wake, so still a time to wait.

interesting story, good atmospere, nice soundtrack, cool wtf moment in the beginning when you realize the pages tell the future (right before the first boss i think)
also i dont have a problem with the gameplay its repetitive sure, but just horror-esque enough to be intresting keep you interested

OH BOY
Lets hope it stays true to the first game and i won't need anything else.
Hell, even a webseries like they speculated would be great.

A great thing the story in this game did was acknowledge the meme that it might all be in his head right from the get go, and then directly confronted that in episode 4 where they for a minute make you actually question whether or not that is the direction the story is going on. Thankfully it wasn't and quickly concerns itself with other issues, it reminds you that whatever is going on is very real and is leaving an impact on people besides Wake himself.

They could have easily tried to make that a bigger deal than it was, make a whole twist out of it but instead the craziness is filtered through Wake looking at it from a logical point of view, even if he can't make sense of things at all times. It's that self awareness I love from Sam Lake, he treads that line very well, his games break the fourth wall quite a bit but he doesn't shy away from taking the subject matter serious even though it is still poking fun at itself in self indulgence.

Very few video game writers seem to have the ability to do this, the other obvious example would be Hideo Kojima.

Anybody here see that 13 minute gameplay demo they release of the prototype of Alan Wake 2?

youtu.be/OQRUx-w6t4s

AND NOW TO SEE YOUR LOVE SET FREE
YOU WILL NEED THE WITCH'S CABIN KEY

I love it when games do this.

Definitely. Aside from a couple of pretty low res textures the graphics hold up to this date, the lighting is amazing and the art direction is seriously fantastic. Remedy Games must have some brilliant art designers because all their games are very eye grabbing.

What was the comfiest location?

Yeah, I thought it had a lot of fun ideas and atmospheric moments, but it was held back by constantly throwing you back into the forest for shoot-outs.

Would have really liked to see them improve on the formula in a sequel though and change up the locations and story more.

bump

What would be great for the sequel is if they figured out how to make the day-time parts more engaging, those were some of the most memorable parts of the original in terms of the atmosphere. It's where you really got to know people of the town.

It's a fantastic game. I can't believe it hasn't gotten a sequel yet.

I love how cohesive the world of Bright Falls. You can tell that the game originally was meant to be an open world because of how intricately designed it has been, it doesn't feel like a series of strung together levels, everything is very interconnected.

i dunno i liked it too, QB was pretty fun too.

is QB playable on PC now that is has been updated and had dx 11 enabled?

it was playable for me before the steam launch.

bought the key and had to use the windows store to play it.

and i didn't have the most powerful computer. FX 8320 and a 7950 when I beat it.

I seriously loved finding the radios with him on and the tvs with the Twilight Zone like show.
>MFW that one cabin with a tv and as you are watching you can occasionally see shadows pass by the windows.
One of the creepiest moments in any game I ever played. Loved the atmosphere.

Why was it never ported to PS3?

I had to use my brother's 360 to play it.

because microsoft

I agree its such a interesting and gripping game with a great setting. I can see how some people could get tired of the same mechanic over and over but i'm not one of those people

neat

CHILDREN OF THE ELDER GOD

youtube.com/watch?v=7M1k1tgq87g

What do you guys think of Quantum Break?

>Im replaying it now for my gf

I was just planning to do this with my gf. she was always interested in it and i just like it a lot. now you got me wanting to play it sooner than planned....

Wish they went through with their plan on releasing dlcs till the sequel came.

The atmosphere and setting is amazing but the rest is not so great, the story is pretentious, Alan is boring. Even a walking simulator would've been better than the corridor shooter we got, with a simple plot like some detective investigating stuff in a small town and you're set.

>the story is pretentious
Elaborate? Because I feel the opposite.

I'd like to see nightmare sequences receive more emphasis as well.

The axe-men in the woods got repetitive, but the times where the darkness really starts screwing with everything and starts playing with illusions was what I remember.

One of my favorite games. Everything about it is just incredible to me. The gameplay loop, and campy homages it's built on definitely can be an understandable turn off. But I've played it half a dozen times and love it every time.

Even American Nightmare is pretty great. While not the sequel we deserve. It shows they know exactly what to do with the gameplay to mix it up and that they have the ideas to make sure that part gets mixed up. And the ending there at least is better than nothing if we do never end up getting that sequel..

I wish I lived in Bright Falls

>you will never fall asleep to Pat Maine describing the placid nightlife of Bright Falls

Forces of darkness that use writer's scripts to manifests it's powers. The events of the game and Alan's mumbling are intended to make the player think it's something amazing but it just comes off as tryhard.

>you will never fall asleep to the sounds of the encroaching darkness dragging your home away to the depths of the lake

It really isn't and it really doesn't. Game treats the concept with a good deal of self awareness and levity. It doesn't come off as pretentious in the slighest to me.

>Protagonist is an author
>His only influence is Stephen King
>Not even a Richard Mattheson reference

I'm pretty sure the FBI guy calls him Mattheson once

>no one talks about video games here

I wish I could live in one of those cozy american mountain towns.

It was a really fun and well crafted game with a extremelly immersive atmosphereand great original soundtrack.

the one playthrought I did of it sucked me right into the world of the game for weeks.

the only other game that did this to me was Morrowind.

the combat was ok, and kinda fun albeit repetitive, but the world was 11/10

is QB anywhere near as good as AW?

didn´t play it yet.

I loved it. I only have 3 special editions and AW is one of them, the mini OST makes it worthy immediately.

The game is flawed but I really enjoyed it. I beat it in three sittings. The music is god tier and the landscapes are beautiful. The gameplay is kinda meh and the game is repetitive, but I everything else compensates for that.

I bought Deadly Premonition in the holidays sale. How does it compare with AW? I've heard mixed opinions about it.
I'm a Twin Peaks fag and I was gonna buy it anyway

I know he calls him Stephen King at some point. So he's a distinct person in this universe.

>Alan Wake Sequel
Whats this? Bad

I love it too.
I've played it enough times to get all the achievements for it.

I think the great thing about it is that it perfectly captures some of the most iconic things about the Pacific Northwest (and North America in general).

Playing it feels like taking a virtual vacation, albeit one that goes wrong.

And yea, American Nightmare was pretty bad, even though it had some great setpieces.


Another thing to pay attention to if you ever decide to replay it again, is this map of Bright Falls. Alan Wake was initially conceived to be an open world game, and while that never came to be, the layout of the levels are still completely faithful to this map (most apparent in the final chapters when you are driving along the stretches of road).

fun