Alan Wake 2¶

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template 

Graphics¶

State-of-art graphics. My hardware is NVIDIA RTX 4060 + AMD R5 5600 and it can run high graphics without RT and PT at 2K 80fps. The only pity is that the mirror reflection is extremely rough when RT is not on.

When RT is on, even at the lowest settings, the frame drops drastically and even DLSS pushes the frames to around 60, the latency is unbearable. If you want a "lower than lower" Ray Tracing experience, check out arro9ant's Ray Tracing from Control which transplants the Ray Tracing from Control, a much lighter implementation that saves you frames.

Gameplay¶

The boss fights are actually better than I assume, because they are generic in Control. The dynamic difficulty is effective. The weapon slot pretty much remind me of Resident Evil 4 Remake, though a little bit buggy when dragging.

Compared to Alan Wake 1, less fightings are present and the stress is on story-tellling, which is always the shining point of Remedy Games. Alan Wake 2 has gone beyond the limit of games and is standinig at the edge between a game and a movie. Especially the musical play chapter completely refreshes my definition of a game. If you enjoy Ashtray Maze in Control, you will find even more fun at that chapter.

Story¶

Compared to games like PT (I haven't played much horror games at the time this review is written), Alan Wake 2 is more like a thrilling game instead of "horror". It will not be too horrifying if you have played other horror games before. Some reviews say the jumpscare is too much, but I will say it is fine. Though I have to admit jumpscare is a low-level way of "shocking" players, Alan Wake 2 has made it more than a tool to scare but a crucial part to push the plots. The faces in the jumpscare are inherently the nightmare devils of the heros.

If you really dislike the jumpscares, you can download SilverEzredes's Jumpscare remover.

Speaking of the story itself, though the story telling skills are extraordinary, I feel like the plots are sort of too "bland". How the story is conveyed is innovative but the story itself does not impress me, but it is more of a classic supernatural one, not "profound" and "thought-provoking" enough. I have to admit such requirement is too strict for a game, but we have already had games such as Detroit and Red Dead Redemption 2, so wish Remedy can make breakthroughs in the future.

Others¶

To be honest, I don't like Epic Launcher. There is minimal social features and the interaction logic is broken. Kinda funny that I attach "Steam Review Template" at the top. Were the game released on Steam, the sales could have been much higher, though it is not possible because Epic is the publisher of the game.

Since the discount is really great after years, buy the game when it is on sale.

Conclusion: 10/10¶

The most issues with Alan Wake 2 except minor bugs come from external factors, including hardware configuration and the launcher. If you like story-telling games and enjoy the cinematic scenes, Alan Wake 2 is your choice.

"Show me the champion of light"

"I'll show you the herald of darkness"

TGA Herald of Darkness performance

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