Kolzig

Alan Wake

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I felt it was time to reignite this flame, since the announcement of the PC version and Alan Wake's American Nightmare coming to XBLA this year. I'm replaying the game and the two DLC episodes in preparation! Anyone else psyched for the long-awaited PC release?

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Nah, but I am quite looking forward to this American Nightmare mini-sequel. :woohoo:

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Same! The reason I'm excited for the PC version so much is the mere possibility that there will be some sort of editing/modding package available, whether official Remedy tools or fan-made. I had a blast modding Max Payne and Max Payne 2.

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So American Nightmare is a bit shit... Well, maybe just disappointing. I mean, If you are way into Alan Wake, it is probably a thing you would play and probably like.

I feel like Remedy has been trying to curb expectations by saying for a while now that American Nightmare is really about its dumb arcade survival mode, but they're fooling themselves if they think anybody is really going to play this thing for that.

I mean, i even actually really like the combat in Alan Wake, i find the mechanics interesting and i think it feels very responsive, but the story is always the draw in a Remedy game. Though to be fair, they do try to introduce a lot of new things here. With the purported focus on the survival mode, the game feels somewhat like an experiment to try and address some of the problems people had with the combat in Alan Wake. (Which i say assuming there's going to be an Alan Wake 2.) There's even an enemy for which it is not necessarily advantageous to be shining your light on, which i thought mixed things up in kind of an interesting way. (And it gives you more of a reason to use that trigger half-hold that lets you aim without focusing the light.)

So the story mode, it's three small levels that you are sent through three times. These individual levels are open-ended spaces wherein you are more or less doing just a bunch of fetch quests, with a quest-giver of sorts in each level sending you out to do those things. (The quest givers always have a lot of dialogue, so seek them out even if the objectives don't take you by them.)

Also, every time you initially visit and then revisit a level there's a new video and radio sequence to see and hear. There are also continually more story pages to find as the game draws on. (Ultimately quite a few, actually.)

There's no big set pieces or lengthy cutscenes, it definitely doesn't have the production values Alan Wake had. Still, if you're into the story, there's actually a lot here. It has its own small semi-important arc, but it also goes into the mythology for that series, clears up a lot of details that might have been confused at the end of the first game, tells you what characters have been up to, and it's all very much in Remedy's style. It's good stuff, i like it. It's what kept me going in what is otherwise a disappointingly sparse adventure.

It ends up being about five hours long total, but it also ends up feeling like it's struggling to find things for you to do.

I'm very much :tmeh: on this thing.

Edited by Sno

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I'm getting a fair amount of enjoyment out of the Arcade mode and trying to compete on the Leaderboards with friends, but the thing I most enjoyed was the story mode, as it was the primary reason I wanted/bought the thing in the first place. I'm heavily invested in the story and mythology of Alan Wake so maybe I can't really approach this objectively without sounding like a fanboy, but I would have paid the same price even if the Arcade mode wasn't included.

I'm a huge fan of Remedy's style and the TV monologues were just brilliant and really evocative of their past work, including the Max Payne series. I suppose, if anything, American Nightmare is fan service and a nice filler until a proper sequel to Alan Wake is announced.

[Also]: Started playing the PC version of AW with all settings maxed, and it looks unbelievable. I can't stop taking screenshots and setting them as my desktop wallpaper.

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Alan Wake was an absolutely beautiful game to look at, i imagine it holds up extremely well on the PC.

It bums me out that American Nightmare seems to have abandoned a lot of that game's awesome visual flourishes in order to run at a higher resolution. (You probably wouldn't notice it right away, but any side by side comparisons make it very clear that sacrifices were made.)

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Yeah I noticed a lot of little visual details from Alan Wake were missing, but I'm assuming that this was done in order to keep the file size as small as possible since it's an XBLA title and needs to be downloaded.

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Yeah I noticed a lot of little visual details from Alan Wake were missing, but I'm assuming that this was done in order to keep the file size as small as possible since it's an XBLA title and needs to be downloaded.

Well, as i had commented, I suspect it was probably sacrifices made in order to be running smoothly at a higher resolution. (Alan Wake, i think ridiculously, took a lot of flak for being a sub-720p game on the 360.)

I mean, i'm talking about things like the ghost-image you'd see for a second when you destroyed a poltergeist object, or the much nicer looking shadow effects on the taken. (Which in American Nightmare are just kind of bleeding dark purple sprites all over the place instead.)

All those cool post-processing effects are gone, and they were a big part of the look of Alan Wake.

Also, playing through American Nightmare, i realized that Wake turns his head to look at enemies sneaking up on you from the side. Did the original game do that too? I don't know if i ever realized it.

Edited by Sno

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Well, as i had commented, I suspect it was probably sacrifices made in order to be running smoothly at a higher resolution. (Alan Wake, i think ridiculously, took a lot of flak for being a sub-720p game on the 360.)

I mean, i'm talking about things like the ghost-image you'd see for a second when you destroyed a poltergeist object, or the much nicer looking shadow effects on the taken. (Which in American Nightmare are just kind of bleeding dark purple sprites all over the place instead.)

All those cool post-processing effects are gone, and they were a big part of the look of Alan Wake.

Also, playing through American Nightmare, i realized that Wake turns his head to look at enemies sneaking up on you from the side. Did the original game do that too? I don't know if i ever realized it.

I think the head turning thing is a new addition, and it helps quite a bit in frantic Arcade mode situations when there's so much going on you can't hear footsteps approaching you from off-screen. I think that's why they added it, it'd be too frustrating without it I think.

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Just couldn't resist buying it now. Collector's edition is 15.99€ in Steam right now and in GoG $14.99. GoG version is missing the soundtrack.

I originally wanted to get the retail version with the real Alan Wake files book, but I'll have to settle for the pdf now, that will be nice to read with my tablet anyway.

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I really don't understand music licensing in games.  I just don't see the sense from the music industry side on what kind of possible advantage a 5 or 7 year limited license for soundtrack or background songs are. 

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I rebought this because of the 90% discount and gotta say I still reaaaaally dig this video game.

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