Alan Wake

Mild Spoiler Alert. Read at own risk.

So I've been meaning to play Alan Wake for a while now and it finally got cheap enough where I didn't mind prioritizing it before any other new games I'm pining for comes out. Before I get off topic, Alan Wake is a visually pretty game. It's not the best I've ever seen but it reminded me of watching FF: Spirits within. Great to look at, won't confuse it for live action.  The game controls are simple enough and easy to get the hang of but the game it self I am finding to be a bit tedious and I can't say I have super amounts of sympathy for Alan.  In the first chapter of the game we find out he doesn't like his fans, he doesn't want to write or even try and fix his problem, and he's willing to terrorize his wife for trying to help him. He has an explosive temper and it seems like half his issues would never have happened if he had put his big boy pants on and manned up. Now I know if he did this we wouldn't have a story so I forgive him but they could have given us something to cling to to like this guy other than he is determined to find his wife who get's kidnapped at the end of Ch1.

On a positive note I do like how they end the chapters. It declares it over and you get a song. Then as the next chapter begins you get a mini flash back and over arcing voices of "Last time on Alan Wake...." where we get to see a recap just in case we forgot. It's all skipable if you can't be bothered but it was cute to me. Now by the end of chapter two I think I have a pretty solid idea of how the game is going to play and I must confess a lot of people told me they spent a lot of time hunting for ammo and batteries and I find I'm always just about maxed with both. Unless you waste your ammo shooting into the darkness at random, you'll probably be fine. I'm an awful shot (doesn't auto aim...) and I haven't had a problem. Ditto with batteries. Unless you hold it down in max mode all the time, you're going to do fine. There is no need to overkill that way.

Moving on, I do find the combat gets extraordinarily tedious. There is so much of the plot that could have and should have taken place in a car where your invulnerable or during the daylight hours. So romping through the woods repeatedly, or the train yard, or lumber yard... at night gets to be repetitive. Even when it starts chucking train engines at me I feel as if I just did all this five minutes ago.

The plot itself is interesting just don't say it out loud or it starts to sound silly and childish. Finding the manuscript pages is also a bit of a bummer. I seem to always find them out of order so I know plot spoilers before I get to them if I take the time to actually read the pages. For me this is a downer. Since the manuscript pages are coming true if I read it, it will happen so even the game is spoiling itself.

Overall I am not done yet and will give an update when I do finish/if I do. I'd recommend playing it if you are waiting on another game to be released but it doesn't suit my fancy as much as other games. In the last chapter I beat the plot was picking up tremendously but the fighting was getting to be extraordinarily exhausting in a bad way but yea or nay I am still reserving judgement.

Corset playing games.
Signing off