Alan Wake

Extremely repetitive gameplay, you fight with the exact same enemy types for the entire duration of the game, the locations are repetitive, pretty much everything repeats itself one way or another. The reason why is not too hard to understand after you look at how this game was developed, the concept was completely different, it was supposed to be an open world game but they couldn't make it work and had to remake the game in a very short amount of time, and this is what we get. Pretty sad. It could have been a really fun game.

Great game, Great story, great characters, Great everything
Sadly the sequel is only on Epic though

A Cult-Classic Masterpiece By Remedy Entertainment. I played if before and thought to experience it all from the start after watching Alan Wake 2. Will be continuing on to Quantum Break and Control Next in line. 100% Recommended Game for Narrative-Driven Game Lovers. Looking Forward to Control 2 and the Max Payne Remakes.

Good dark story bit funny sometimes

I promise you'll enjoy this game more if you pretend that Barry is George Castanza from Seinfield and instead of shouting 'Al!' he's shouting 'Gerry!'

The main story and the atmosphere of the setting is pretty compelling. That said, repetitive gameplay and strange design decisions really get in its way.

Things i did like: The voice performances are all kind of stilted and weird, but I think that adds to the Twin Peaks-y vibe. The PNW setting looks great and scary at night. The central supernatural plot is cool and deals with some themes about artists and the nature of creating that I did enjoy.

For all the interrsting story beats this game has, its a shame that the core gameplay loop is so simple. You've seen everything you're going to do in the game by the first couple hours of the game. It has a problem that I find a lot of games do, especially of this Era: they've got maybe four or five good plot beats to hit but they stretch out the runtime of the game with a bunch of pointless action sections in between. "We need to get from point A to point B but oh no, look! The bridge is out so we have to go around and take twice as long" for no real reason type beat. If the main shooting gameplay was particularly fun I don't think it would be as much of an issue. Unfortunately, there isn't much to the moment to moment gunplay and it wears thin pretty quickly.

And then the final episode or two tries to crank up the difficulty by just hurting a lot more bad guys at you than normal and adding questionable platforming sequences.

There's about 10 to 15 hours of game here but probably only needed about 5 or 6 to really tell its story. I think if you're interested in the story of this game, you wouldn't be missing much to just watch a recap or longplay. By the end, I was frustrated but hungry for more of the story.

The game is short (I finished the whole thing plus DLC in less than 15 hours), but great. The beginning feels slow story-wise, and from there, it ramps up, playing with thriller/horror tropes, having fun putting you in ridiculous and amazing boss arenas, and having fun characters along the way. The gameplay is simple, but engaging throughout. I enjoyed the DLC more than the base game, actually, since the DLC played more into the horror angle of things, while the base game is more of just a thriller story, and I have a preference for psychological horror. Overall, great game with potential for replayability.

Arguably the best story told through video games. Incredible atmosphere and while it's a little bit dated, It holds up when paired against games of today.

Suffers from the classic horror-game dilemma: it's not real horror if you can fight back, but there isn't much of a gameplay if you can't.

Still pretty good as a game/story.

difficult for absolutely no reason, and not even in fun way. like they throw 5 enemies at you at a time who are fast moving, usually dual wielding, or just extremely tanky. everytime i try and play i get frustrated because the enemies are literally faster than me and alan wake feels like he has no stamina. in resident evil or something you can just stealth past or just run but here theres absolutely no avoiding them. im also playing the regular difficulty, so like.. what
story wise, its been interesting so far. alan wake has a unique rude personality but i honestly like it. i'm not sure if its worth it to finish it just for the story.

Holds up better than most games from this era imo

A fine addition to any survival-horror-game-enthusiast's library. Having come fresh off Control, I was pleasantly surprised to find more to like than not in this earlier Remedy installment. The story is just as good as the seminal Silent Hill 2 and the gunplay snappy like Resident Evil 4. While the game feels a tad bloated (do we need to do ANOTHER detour??), ultimately Alan Wake's style wins out. An excellent soundtrack cinches the deal.

his name is alan wake, he is a writer, he loves his wife (maybe), he is epic

most of the game play is in night. Although I dont like horror games, this one is exceptional

I found it very boring. Story and narrative was boring and jumped around too much, gameplay was all right. Struggling to finish stages, reading boring page entries and with little payoff.

It was objectively not bad, but the Alan Wake hype fooled me into getting this game and it was imo most definitely overhyped.

---{ 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 10% 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 achievements
☐ 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

This game remains broken for me and for many others. It crashes immediately after launching. The community forum is full of people complaining about this, and one account always chimes in with a bunch of suggested fixes that are extremely time-consuming but have apparently helped no one solve this particular issue. Rather, the supposed fixes usually seem to downgrade peoples' PC performance--no one comes back and says yay, that really helped. This game needs to be shelved from the store until this issue is addressed.

What a lovely game! Honestly, the story confused me a bit, but it was definitely enjoyable. The gameplay is straightforward, and the fighting is fairly simple.

Alan Wake for me was really atmospheric, engaging, and interesting with an amazing story and with some pretty cool characters. The game itself takes approx 9-10hrs to beat with only 6 chapters so enjoy it. Essentially Alan Wake is about Alan, who is a famous author who goes on a vacation with his wife and gets possessed to where his writings comes to life. Your objective is to find your wife and figure out how to stop this darkness that has come to life. 9/10 game. Had a really good soundtrack and choices of music. Had some pretty easy boss fights, and was just a nice little adventure.

This game has a very old style and the controls can act a little funny but after a while you get used to it. I personally really love it, the graphics are pretty decent for how old it is and it tells a story, it takes a while to understand it all but once you do - goosebumps. The horror aspects felt a little goofy but in a lovable way, Alan Wake 2 is definitely better in horror and graphics (i played some of it first..oops). I was told a while ago about this game and its franchise, now I understand why the game was talked about so highly (thankfully I wasn't given spoilers).

One of the best games i have ever played its just perfect worth every penny and don't be afraid to take your time in the game
read all the pages collect everything and have fun don't rush worth the 9 hours better then all the garbage shit other sellers be releasing

I really liked the story and the gameplay would 100% recommend this game

The game is very interesting, but I tried to play it three times until the end but gave up halfway through, because there comes a point where it gets very boring.

AMAZING GAME, but the worst keyboard and mouse controls I have ever seen; the negative review is because of them. I tried to use a control but it only recognises Xbox controllers; and there is no way i'm buying another controller just to play a single game.
If they ever fix the keyboard and mouse controls, I'll come back and check it out and hopefully finishing the game and change my review to positive.

FINALLY got through that annoying Hartman fight with those damn birds

I highly recommend playing this game if you haven't. The game did a great job of letting the player piece together the story as you progress through Alan's manifest. This game uses a really unique style of storytelling, combined with engaging gameplay mechanics that really keeps you invested.

This is a really good game with some... interesting easter eggs to say the least (scan the QR codes. Do it trust) The gameplay is really fun, the lore is AMAZING, they made me want to shoot one of the NPCs for calling me schizophrenic (i did get to shoot the man yessssss), and honestly i do intend to try and play through a second time once i beat it. I do have one complaint about it and that is (as far as i can tell) there is no way to tone down screen shake or how wobbly your screen gets when you are in the darkness. It wouldn't be the best for someone with motion sickness which i don't get but it does hurt my eyes from time to time. Anyways i'd say 9/10 it keeps me guessing

This game is like eating macaroni without cheese. It's still pretty decent, but I would rather just eat something else at that point. 6.5/10

great game with an amazing storyline and combat system

Jogo com imersão absurda, tinha ele na conta mas mas demorei um pouco para jogar, com o hype do segundo jogo decidi dar uma chance, tinha zero expectativa.. mas depois de jogar deu para perceber que todo conteúdo dele é bem trabalhado.

"Steven King once wrote that nightmares exist outside of logic and there's little fun to be had in explanations. They're antithetical to the poetry of fear. In a horror story the victim keeps asking why, but there can be no explanation and there shouldn't be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest and is what we'll remember in the end. My name is Alan Wake, I'm a writer."

Cool.
Combat is pretty good and specific to this game. It's not combat that is enjoyable to do casually, but as an obstacle within the world of this game, it's pretty good.

The narrative is so interesting with it's meta qualities about it. I love the little details of Alan Wake is, when shortened, A. Wake. Things like that through the story, slowly answer themselves and make for a story that makes you ask alot of questions and get enough answers to be satisfied, but not so many that the mystery just ends there.

I wish I played this before the rights to the David Bowie song expired, because upon reflection, that song is perfect for the ending. However, the song they made to replace it did the job well enough.

The game shows it's age in facial animations and cut-scenes being 2 pixels when compared to game-play.

Where it's story shines, I can't say the gameplay loop does the same. I hope that in Alan Wake 2, they manage to balance the flow of narrative a bit better with the flow of gameplay so the game doesn't have these long stretches of enemies enemies enemies , turning what are supposed to be obstacles for the character into disruptions to the plot.

The entire coffee thermos collection thing felt so weird. This really surrealist, serious and artistically interesting game... has collectables? Even the Night Spring episodes were less weird than this. Those Night Spring episodes were great btw, loved watching them.

I'm sure the remaster is better so play that, but I'm still glad I played this version. Onto Alan Wake 2

Underrated as hell, the story is genuinely insane and it's themes of creation and how that can be corrupted are genuinely great. Can't wait to see where this series goes from here.

I went into this expecting western Silent Hill and instead I received a trope-ridden Stephen King video game. Alan Wake came out 14 years ago but still suffers from a lot of modern game design choices: poor enemy variety, tedious combat, an obnoxious amount of cutscenes, and of course, yellow paint. There's also issues with the writing, both in the story telling methods and conflicts in writing style, making this feel like it was taken over halfway through by a separate writing team. I had some fun with it and It's not a terrible game, but it feels directionless and intentionally unoriginal. I can understand how someone could like this but it definitely wasn't for me and I don't recommend it.

Getting into mild spoilers, the main issue with the story is how the writing, in terms of tone, style, and direction, takes a hard shift at the halfway point. Episodes 1 through 3 insinuate that everything happening might just be inside Alan's head, smartly utilizing metaphors and implications, with him eventually even ending up in a classy mountaintop mental clinic. Unfortunately Episode 4 takes a hard turn and flat out states that everything happening is literal and all the metaphors are real. Later episodes get more and more on the nose to the point that it feels like a parody; this is probably Remedy's most ridiculous and unhinged game to date. The engaging writing from the beginning is sadly dumped in service of dumber and dumber action sequences for a more bombastic ending.

Combat is repetitive and intentionally slowly-paced thanks to the light combat mechanics. All enemies are shrouded in darkness that needs to be broken with light before you can damage them; flashlights are your bread and butter, but there's also handheld flares, flashbangs, flare guns, and occasional stationary lights too. While there's a decent variety of enemy attacks, there's essentially only four enemy types: small humans, large humans, crows, and inanimate objects. Human enemies require their darkness to be broken before you can damage them with guns (of which you can only hold two), while crows and objects will disappear on darkness break. Townsfolk falling to the darkness introduce new enemy types but they're all handled the same way: small humans will poke from range or try to backstab you while large enemies will almost one-shot you if they land a hit. Endgame combat focuses on constant movement or dodging since small enemies will combo you to death if they group up on you.

Then there's the modern cinematic video game problems, starting off with the overbearing amount of low resolution, console port cutscenes. The early game is especially bad about this, with the so-called gameplay loop going from mild combat, walking to a location, getting interrupted by a cutscene or two, repeat. At the beginning of each episode there's also a recap of the previous episode, which tends to prominently include events that immediately happened. However, the game is only about eight hours long so it just feels like repetitive reiteration for the sake of fitting to the TV series mold. There's also the infamous yellow paint everywhere that's infected most modern survival horror games... The only good thing I can say about it is that at least they were creative with it and it's only visible while your flashlight is over it.

I don't hate Alan Wake but I really had to force myself to finish it after the halfway point. They left room for a sequel, which still isn't available on Steam, but I'd rather consider this part of the Control universe than go through more of this gameplay. The atmosphere, art style, and environment design are all great, but the writing and combat were a big letdown. Not recommended because it's just too safe, too repetitive, too "modern" to be fun for me. The survival horror genre is bigger than you think and there's better games out there to play for spooky season.

When i first played Alan Wake on console I just couldn't get into the game at all. I'm guessing I wasn't in the mood at the time because after playing it again on PC I thoroughly enjoyed it. A great story, good David Lynchian-style atmosphere and some cilling combat encounters makes for a fun overall experience.

man this game is so good im just now fishing chapter 1 and im having a blast the worldbuilding is so good and i love the storytelling

as of writing this game is $3 please do yourself a favor and play it

I found it pretty cringe at times but that's the best part. I wouldn't have it any other way... I'm gonna brainrot over this for a long time

I finally played this after years of having it in the backlog. This game holds up today and is an amazing game. Story was GREAT, visuals were good for the time and the game play was fun and easy to get the hang of. Gonna hit this with an 8.5/10 Solid game, huge recommend.

The story is cheesy as hell and doesn't make any sense. But the combat is solid and fun, plus the game still looks great after 12 years.

didn't expect anything from this game, and even didn't hook me up after completing the game fot the first time, i was actually to play this game just to beat all the achivements, so i decided to watch some videos about the game and even recaps about the game but still i wasn't interested in it, but then i watched recap of Alan Wake II and holy moly, it was so good in every aspect, it got me hooked instantly after learning the context, it also kinda reminds me of True Detective and Hannibal in one, while the first game only feels lowkey Twin Peaks. now after beating the game to 100% i got so much pleasure of doing that, except collecting thermoses and character's movement, i mean it was so hard not to fall from the platforms in special two, this inertia still keeps me mad.

in conclusion i want to say that the game has damn good plot, but everything else quite mid. anyone who loved this game i highly recommend to watch those 3 shows, i'm pretty sure you will like Twin Peaks.
P.S: looking forward of release of Alan Wake II !!!

Definitely worth a playthrough for the story and atmosphere, as long as you don’t get burned out by the monotonous and padded gameplay

The first Alan Wake is one of those games that you hear about as this cult classic from the 360 era. One of those games that you would see in way too many YouTube "top 10" list back in the 2010's. So after hearing about it for so long, and also with the sequel now being out for almost a year, I decided to finally check out Alan Wake.

The thing that sticks out the most with people who've played the first Alan Wake is the games story, and yeah it's a very cool premise. Without giving too much away, the concept of someone's writings coming to life is very neat! I enjoyed the twist and turns this narrative had to offer also. The pacing was solid too, as I wasn't bored throughout the adventure. You can also tell that Lynch and Stephen King were major inspirations for this games narrative, as there were quite a few nods to their work sprinkled throughout. There is some corny writing here and there, and admittedly some subpar voice acting, but I personally don't think it hampered the games story as much as I thought it would.

The games gameplay is the make it or break it for most people. I've seen people describe it as clunky and aggravating. I personally found it alright? It's pretty simple, you point your flashlight at a enemy possessed by the dark, wait until the dark fully dissipates, then fire away! The game is also very generous with its battery and ammo drops for your flashlight and guns. Now my problem stems from that simplicity of the gameplay loop. It doesn't really evolve past flashing your light and shooting. The lack of unique enemy types does not help with that, as there seemed to be only two major types of enemies; medium sized guys and big buffed guys. Their weapons might change depending on the area, but the general gist to dealing with them stays the same throughout the adventure. It made combat feel... kinda shallow at points, especially near the end of this romp. I appreciated the unique areas you travel to when fighting these dark infested enemies, like at one point you go this concert stage which was very fun, but I think the game could've benefited from more unique enemy types and a bit more depth towards the general combat. In short: combat is a cool idea, but does start to feel shallow as the game progresses.

Even with some of Alan Wakes flaws, I do recommend this game. It's only 15 dollars, and goes down to 5 dollars during sales, and can be beaten in a comfy 9 to 10 hours. It's a quirky and unique title to spawn out of the 360 era and I'm excited to play Alan Wake 2 and see if it improves upon the problems I have with the first game.

Masterful Remedy storytelling, unfortunately dragged down by repetitive gameplay.

absolutely incredible story, surreal and perfectly weird so you never feel like you have the big picture until youre near the end. the characters are all surprisingly likable, I LOVE BARRY, and the night springs collectibles are like the best collectibles in a video game ever. theyre SO good.

the music is also great, and the spectacle of some of those cutscenes is best in class. theres so many incredible and memorable moments,. like even the establishing shots are iconic. im sad i missed playing this back in the 360 days

the game definitely has some issues because its old, compatibility isnt great and the aiming feels WEIRD (turn on direct aiming in the controls menu, this game was made for console and it kind of shows. its AWESOME on controller tho). the combat is pretty boring, frustrating, and not fun, so you should probably play on easy like I did so it goes by a bit faster,, and the story sometimes kind of meanders in circles without developing much. the whole first half is kind of iffy but it gets carried by the concept and mystery alone, which is so strong that even the bad combat and messy narrative cant bring it down

its worth playing if youre interested in the story or just the remedy universe, but be aware it can definitely be a bit of a slog. way too much gunplay for how rough the gunplay is. it might be better to watch a playthrough if you only care about the story, but i like to experience games myself so i made sure to play all the way through,, but there was a lot of filler in there

ALSO be careful if you have epilepsy, or even if you dont, all the flashing lights gave me a few headaches. keep a bottle of advil close by and youll be fine

i am now a HUGE alan wake fan even though this game wasnt very fun and i dont want to play american nightmare. that should tell you how good the story is

Slept on this game for years. Finally gave it a chance and it was fantastic. Combat is simple is a great way. Still fun but won't make you pull your hair out. One of the most unique stories for a video game ever. I can see how it influenced so much. Go in blind if possible and enjoy!

پێدەچێت یارییەکی نایاب بێت دەزانم، بەڵام دەزانم سوێند دەخۆم تا ئێستا نازانم مەسەلە چییە بۆ تەواوکردنی ئەم یارییە، یارییەکە لە خەمۆکی دەچێت، و ئەم جۆرە یارییە هی من نییە. بەڵام بەهەر حاڵ من خاڵێکی باشی پێدەدەم، چونکە من فانبۆیەکان دەناسم ئەوان لێم توڕە دەبن. (5/10)

This is a game in which I truly don't understand where all the hype has come from. In lieu of a "meh" vote option, I will (just barely) give a thumbs up solely for the story. But a hard thumbs down for the gameplay.

I fully understand that this is a narrative-centric game and while it does have an intriguing story which is well-told, the actual gameplay falls flat on it's face. There is no progression, no weapon variety, no upgradeability, nor anything which even remotely attempts to keep the gameplay feeling fresh. Instead, you walk around wielding a flashlight, while utilizing only 2 different weapon types to gun down the same enemies over and over. It's a shame because the actual gunplay and physics system is both heavy and impactful - very reminiscent of neighboring survival horror titles. The developers just didn't offer any sort of variety to keep engagement up.

Quite nice game. No big challanges when related to puzzles, weapons or enemies. Their are quite easy to master and easy learning curve. Also, it is a short game if you are playing in 2024. But it's nice to get a better understanding of what is happening in AW2. It will surelly keep you planing due the excellent story. You will be playing just to check how it unfolds.

Id recommend the game, when on sale.
For me it was ok, found the gameplay a bit generic, story was good but some parts were very predictable and cheesy. I absolutely hated the sholder change mechanic where it would change what sholder you were looking over all the time with the way you walk and it became a pain in the rear in fights, having to constantly press right analogue stick to change the sholder back so the character isn't in the way of an enemy.
Id recommend the game on sale.

Alan Wake is a masterfully crafted experience that combines a unique and engaging plotline with innovative combat mechanics. Its atmospheric storytelling and compelling characters ensure it remains a memorable entry in the horror genre, and its satisfying ending makes the journey worthwhile. If you're looking for a game that expertly balances narrative depth with gameplay innovation, Alan Wake is definitely worth your time.

7.5/10

Wake up, Alan, nightmares come knockin’ on your door. Cinematic action-adventure with its ups and downs, def. worth the buy when heavily discounted. Prob more for the patient player, admittedly I lost patience at certain sequences, but it would be unfair to say it lacks quality.