Alan Wake 2 is nothing if not distinctive (Picture: Remedy)
A reader explains why they enjoy Alan Wake 2 so much, warts and all, and why Remedy is one of their favourite developers.
Sometimes it seems as if gamers enjoy complaining more than they enjoy playing video games and I don’t want this to come across that way. I do, however, want to give my perspective on why I think there’s been some mixed reviews for Alan Wake 2, as while most scores have been positive I’ve seen a lot of similar complaints crop up about the writing and the script.
I will say, right off the bat, that I am a big fan of Remedy’s games but I feel a lot of people don’t ‘get it’. There’s a campiness and cheesiness to the games that is very unique to them. It’s not as obvious and silly as Resident Evil but it is similar, in that I’m not sure how much of it is intentional. I don’t know if Sam Lake understands his limitations as a writer and I don’t know if Alan Wake, in the fiction of the game, is meant to be a bad writer, but that only adds to the fun – in my opinion.
I’m not trying to be patronising by saying that, because for me Remedy’s tone and approach works perfectly for a video game, where I think far too many take themselves 100% seriously and suffer for it. In any action game you end up killing hundreds of people. If that was real-life you’d be a completely desensitised psychopath if that happened and it’s only really The Last Of Us Part 2 that addresses that – and even then you have to read between the lines, because it’s not actually what the game is about.
Like, in Spider-Man 2, I don’t think you’re supposed to actually be killing anyone but the kind of blunt force trauma the two Spider-Men are causing makes them both mass-murderers. Alan and Saga blast their way through a whole town full of completely innocent people but because the game’s so meta, and not entirely serious, I find it a lot easier to go along with.
The game has a sense of humour too. Everything with Alan in the TV station is hilarious, especially the musical number, and again, just like Resident Evil, it’s hard to tell what’s intentional cheese and what’s not. Which I feel is a very unique tone that only a video game can pull off – because for most games it doesn’t actually matter what the plot is as long as you’re having fun, whereas it’s very rare you can enjoy a movie purely for its action.
There’s no doubting there’s some pretty terrible dialogue in Alan Wake 2 and yet at the same time I like Saga’s character and really felt for her in the final hours of the game. Then again, one of the first lines spoken in the game insists that in horror stories there exist only ‘victims and monsters’, delivered in the corniest, over the top way possible. I mean… what? Since when? What a meaningless phrase, spoken as if it’s some kind of universally accepted truth.
Likewise, some of the boss battles are really annoying, especially the first one with Nightingale, but overall I really like the combat and while it’s certainly not the scariest survival horror I’ve ever played I was definitely spooked out at times, especially in the fairground.
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I think what I liked most about Alan Wake 2, and Remedy’s work in general, is that it feels like it’s been made by individuals, not a committee. Like a distinctive movie director, you can tell a game is made by Remedy without even knowing they were involved. They just have a certainly style to the dialogue, the action, and the tone which I really appreciate.
Could it have been better, sure? But the more those rough edges are sanded off the less interesting and distinctive it would get. Alan Wake 2 is amazing at times and kind of embarrassing at other times, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
By reader Jack Skellington
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A reader explains why they enjoy Alan Wake 2 so much, warts and all, and why Remedy is one of their favourite developers.