Alan Wake has been one of my favorite video games ever since it came out back in 2010. Being a long-time X-Files and Twin Peaks fan, it was right up my alley. I devoured the game and the downloadable content when I finally got the chance to play it. Needless to say, it exceeded my expectations. If you’ve ever played the game, you can probably understand why.
As the years went by, I wasn’t so sure that we would ever see a sequel… until now. I was equal parts ecstatic and skeptical when I heard that a sequel was actually in the works. However, I cannot say that the skepticism was without reason after playing my first few hours of the game. By no means did I devour this game in the same way that I did its predecessor. I haven’t even completed the game yet.
A lot of changes were made with Alan Wake II. You now get to play the game with two main characters, Alan and Saga, each with their own storylines. It also leans further into the survival-horror element. Neither of these elements is the main issue though. The problems lie with the game’s mechanics. The flashlight now feels clunky and makes combat extra difficult, and add in a lack of ease when it comes to navigation, and you have a recipe for disaster. There is no mini-map or objective marker/waypoint to help guide you through the game. This made playing my first 7 hours of the game very cumbersome and feel almost like work—very different from my first experience playing the original game.
To access the map, you have to enter another game mode by pressing a button on your controller (the ‘view’ button on Xbox). This will take you to your character’s ‘mind place’ where you can complete other tasks in the game. When you do this, time does not stop in the actual game, and you can still be killed by enemies. Once you’re in your character’s ‘mind place’, you have to walk to a wall to view and navigate the map. This makes toggling between the map and navigating your way through Bright Falls and surrounding areas very difficult, especially when you’re working your way through dim-lit areas (of which there are many).
When you are playing with Saga, there is also a crime board in her ‘mind place’ where you can sort out your clues that you gather in the game. Sure, this helps with the story, but it isn’t exactly on the same level as LA Noire when it comes to the implementation of the detective aspect of the game.
I am too early on in the game to say that I am disappointed by it, and I am sure that it will wind up being a good game overall. There are a lot of things that I do like about it; the story and live-action cutscenes are very neat. It is also a very pretty game! Bright Falls looks amazing!
The story just didn’t pull me in how it did in the first Alan Wake, and I think that was mainly because of the newly introduced elements of the game. It doesn’t exactly feel like Alan Wake. Sometimes, less is more…