I LOVED how each and enemies in Alan Wake had professions (like woodsman, or salesman, can't quite remember) and their war quotes during the battle was simply one-liners about their job. Like "Omega 3 fatty acids are good for your heart!" Or "Modern camping equipment is lightweight!". It was creepy as hell.
My only problem with Alan Wake was the dullness of the facial expressions of the characters, it took me a little off from the experience. Great game, none the less.
"Ordinary"..."object of power"..."lightswitch"..."CONTROL night and day"...Sam said everything I want to hear about CONTROL while talking about A. WAKE. Cant wait for CONTROL's second DLC. Love it.
I'm honestly at a loss as to why everyone loves Control so much. I personally think its Remedy's weakest game. The setting and the world building is incredible, but the lack of story, characterization, good voice acting, along with repetitive gameplay and a forgettable protagonist disappointed me immensely. And jeez, that menu map is probably the worst that I've ever seen implemented into any game. I was frustrated and bored by the 2/3rds mark and just wanted it to be over. The ending wasn't even worth the effort at all, but I will say the art direction and graphics were some of the best I have ever seen.
Basically the king of character oriented mystery horror. I would go even so far as to say that it is the only game to ever do lovecraftian horror properly, not just relying on the surface tropes, but actually capturing the deeper meaning of cosmic horror by tapping into that...instinctive fear of the great unknown that we all know is there. While I cannot say that the ending line *"It's not a lake. It's an ocean."* was the best ever, I am confident that it's the best ending that was never followed up with a proper sequel. American Nightmare is great, don't get me wrong, but the ending is just heartbreaking. You finally see Alan reunite with Alice, only for it to dawn on you that this reality is not that reality. Brilliant. Think about it, the first installment was structured as a contemporary tv show, while the "sequel" was not at all subtly similar to The Twilight Zone. It was practically telegraphed from the first moment that Alan's writing has forced him to descend through the different layers of reality, all the way down to fiction. I could go on longer, but the point is that most people really missed the deeper significance and just wrote it off as a second tier horror game. Probably because they didn't play the two DLCs. There's some seriously important information there that probably should have been part of the original game.
The open world change into a more structured form somehow added tremendously to the atmosphere and believability of this game world. You can look off into the distance and see a past objective or a future one all there waiting for you to get there. You can see the fog enveloping it along with the great lighting, with all the great soundscape design happening during the action/scary parts, but as well in the downshift daytime "safe" scenes of serenity. It all culminated in an epic masterpiece of environment and writing and dialogue and characters that remains unforgettable.
This was one of the first games to actually get me insanely interested into the story of a game. I just couldnt wait to see what happened next! And my favourite part is how you can watch the secret "Night Springs" episodes and take a few minutes to chill.
@@tiagometallica007 The lack of standard enemy variety. Can't speak for Max Payne, but Alan Wake and Control, despite both having supernatural stuff going on, mostly stick to the creepy humanoids template. Control has some cool bosses, but normal mobs are still rather dull as Alan Wake's. I love Alan Wake, but that is still a glaring issue.
@@GreedAndSelfishness Remedy to 3rd person shooter what Platinum games is to Character Fighters, I wouldn't categorize their gameplay weak. Not trying to sound rude BTW.
I recently replayed Alan Wake and its DLC's and I'm so happy to see something like this uploaded and share in my love of Alan Wake with fellow fans in the comments here! This game is so underrated. Beautiful setting (I want to move to Washington state because of this game!) and an interesting gameplay mechanic with the light, sure, it isn't the most varied game, doesn't have tons of enemy types or tons of weapons but I think it's better for that, it's a tighter narrative and knows its limits instead of trying to go all out and get lost for it, it's still interesting and honestly a really great fun game. Also I have to say I hope whenever we see Alan Wake 2, they take the mechanics in the first game and not American Nightmare into account when it comes to the enemies darkness shields as I feel like it added a lot of strategy to trying to break their shields with focusing the flashlight, draining your batteries, then not wanting to waste batteries, going back to draining slowly by just pointing and dodging. I feel like it took away from that in AN where you could only break the shields by focused light, and nothing else.
Hey... You Max Payne?? Affraid so! Max! I'm Mike, Vladimir's Frie- Ehhh!, who taught you to shot??? UUUGH! ENOUGH COP! AAAAAAHHHHH!!! "ragdolls out of the window" MAX! DEarEst Of AlL My FrienDs!!! JESUS CHRIST APOCALYPSE NOW!!! WE HAVE SOME HEAVY SHI- PAYNE!! SHOOT TO KILL!!!! *BOOOOOOOOOOOOM* "everyone ragdolls" Neighbor: NO ONE'S DRIVING ME OUT OF MY HOME!!!! Max Payne -> Touches big painting. Neighbor: YOU GIVE ME NO CHOICE!!! *shotgun blast* *shotgun blast* I loooove Max Payne 2 xD
@@Wordplay7891 HEY YA!!! iT'S PAYNE!!! SHOOT SHOOT!!! OH IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS! *dies* -OPEN THE DOOR! SOMEBODY!!! IM GONNA BURN ALIVE IN HERE!!! SOMEBODY GET SOMEBODY,CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, HELP!!! *max shoots the door, it opens* -HEY WHAT THE HELL, WATCH IT ROOKIE!!! THAT DOES IT YOU PSYCHO!!! pew pew pew!! *Max dies, sad violin music plays*
I still dream of an Alan Wake 2! This game is like Bioshock Infinite or reading Lord of the Rings for me: once a year, two years maximum, I'll play it again, because it's so freaking good it must be replayed every opportunity you get!
I have one chapter left to play and I dont want it to end. So I have started playing Tomb Raider (2013) just so I can go back to Alen Wake later.. Brilliant game.
I agree. It was unfortunately released on the same day as Red Dead Redemption in North America, which I think led to it being overlooked. I played both games that year, and I enjoyed A. Wake more, though RDR received far more accolades.
4 года назад
One of my fave games ever. I loved the story and the character
Thanks for the precious memory you gave to us. You won’t believe but even I remind Alan Wake, I can feel the environment and the mood & feeling of the game . I just feel it. Only limited things can do give same impact to my emotions; few games, few books, few songs..
What a wonderful video. Alan Wake was one of my favorites when it was released and as I am now aiming to game design careet myself, it was really great to hear about the story and the progress of the design.
Congrats on 10 years Remedy! Thanks for all the wonderful stories and for keeping narrative at the forefront of all you do! I sincerely hope for more Alan Wake in the future in some form. Wonderful to have Mr Lake on here Ars guys. Thank you for focusing the flashlight on him!
Never played Alan Wake, but after beating and loving Control I went back and watched the story. Really great story! Love the easter eggs and connections they've made between the two games and I'm excited for what the next DLC of Control has in store, further connecting to Alan Wake.
Yes! You interviewed Sam Lake! :D Always loved the stories of Remedy's games. They're not just brainless shooters. I will admit I hadn't seen Max Payne, but my first venture with Remedy was Alan Wake. From the moment I saw that title screen, it just hooked me like no other.
Yup, there's a couple of King novels where the main character is a writer and creates this character that becomes real, and he has the ability to sculpt events through writing. It's funny that I missed that part despite reading a lot of King before playing Alan Wake. But the atmosphere is there. Like he said, King meets Twin Peaks in a sense.
Yuppi yeah, I know which one you’re talking about. And yes I agree the story is somewhat similar. But I’m referring to the style of the writing. To me, it’s definitely more Dean Koontz’ style than Stephen King.
@@ralphengland8559 I do remember one Koontz story about a writer who invent an evil version of himself (more or less like the Stephen King book)... but it turns out its a gouvernement assassin clone... damn, that's a stupid denouement. Younger, I really liked his books. A lot of human darkness in them... The last book of his that I'Ve read was "Breathless" but it was SOOOOO stupid, such a bad twist... It burned me, probably forever....
Remedy are one of my favourite studios, ever since Max Payne back in 2001. I recently replayed Alan Wake after finishing Control (their best work imo) and it really holds up, on PC at least. I'm hoping they are going to use the AWE DLC to setup a sequel to Alan Wake, or perhaps a completely new game in this shared universe. There are so many possibilities!
After playing Control and absolutely loving it, I'm looking forward to playing Alan Wake for the first time, hopefully in time before the new Control DLC, A.W.E. which apparently ties into Alan Wake.
It's so good. The same grounded mysticism from Control in a cozy pacific northwest landscape. They nailed the David Lynch tone without making a nonsensical pile pf symbolism that lacks story. And at the time, the combat was unique for the survival horror genre, lots of tension from juggling flashlight, battery, and firearm. Now I want to play it again myself!
I've been playing it for the first time recently (never owned a 360) and let me tell you, when you come after playing Control a lot of things kinda make sense, the perspective you get makes the experience very especial, highly recommended.
You're in for a good time, just know that the camera controls are thoroughly weird and the cutscenes look way worse than the actual game. Good news is if you've even a fairly modest PC you can probably max it out at 4K.
this man´s a genius. I´m currently playing Control and one of the most intriguing aspects of that game, to me at least, is that, all throughout the game, Jesse, the game´s protagonist, keeps speaking with some kind of voice in her head. What´s amazing about this concept, is that it this serves as a double-edged sword. In another words, it works as narrative tool, inside of the game´s story, and as gameplay tool as well, Jesse, in many situations, starts talking directly to the player.
I loved Alan Wake from the get go. They really “painted the back of the cabinet too” and you can feel it in the world - even if you can set your feet in there. Looking forward to two of my favorite Remedy games colliding in an AWE.
Alan wake always had a vastly detailed background world and now it makes perfect sense! And the plot reflecting the group's struggle to find their own identity is just proof of how competent they are in dealing with their hardships. And control was a brilliant game that felt like an open building world with a Castlevania/ Metroid layout. These insights were absolutely priceless wow
@@cooledi9116 Wait, are you serious? Didn't play the game but I know the story of it and the Foundation DLC. The second DLC revolves/ties to the Alan Wake universe?
I actually happened to sit in front of Sami Järvi in a Script Seminar in Helsinki last fall. I thanked him for bringing about these amazing games, and he was humbled. A very cool experience.
It's good to hear Sam Lake confirming in the flesh that awe expansion is actually contributing to Alan Wake. want to know when it's going to be released.
Alan Wake is one of my personal favourites. The music, the atmosphere and the graphics are still beautiful even today. It really is/was a masterpiece. Thank You Mr. Lake :)
I wanna hug Sam Lake so much. I mean, aside from he and his studio's games having such huge amounts of heart and passion put into them, I just look at him and he seems so huggable to me. *cough* I hope he isn't reading this.
This is literally one of the best gaming series out there. I'm talking both about "War Stories" and "Alan Wake", each in their respective category. We need more from both. ps. Dear mr. Lake, give us more "Alan Wake". Open world, linear, both, everything. We will play the sh*t out of it.
I must say that Remedy is my favorite game studio. They might not be as advanced as Rockstar from a technical side but man when you play Remedy games there's always this special vibes you can't feel anywhere else and it's in a lot of ways due to the story writing - the very work of this person. Thank you, Sam Lake for making Remedy special for all of us! 🙏
On the off chance anyone at Remedy reads this. When Sam Lake said the cut bits from the old version provide a sense of realness he is 100% right, it totally adds to it. Also I love the fact that you guys are so open with the development of your games and I hope you continue to do so. Thank you so much for some of the best experiences I've had gaming.
I love how he knew in the back of his mind back then that they were working on Alan Wake 2, and you can just see how excited this guy is talking about the lore.
Love this - always loved “A. Wake” and think about it still. I actually remember a dream I had that took place in that game (with a large bridge and interior corridors within some maintenance access area), and I always wondered if I’d come across the same location (I didn’t finish it because I’m terrible, and so I never found out)!
There is a giant bridge with a control center, the bridge spins around and stuff to connect the two different sides, there’s also one bridge like that that’s filled with stuff. You should try again to beat the game, the end is really good!
One of my all time favourite games was just beautiful the graphics the story the views the sound track. Would love to see a sequel. If not a game I will go back and play for years to come.
What he's describing as the original concept of Alan Wake is what they're now doing with Alan Wake 2. Hopefully, the advancements in technology will make their original vision come to life. After Control, I trust Remedy fully whatever they decide to do. Love ya, Sam, stay safe and keep making masterpieces.
That's makes me so excited that Alan Wake 2 will probably me more open world. I'm so excited to see their original visions come true! Makes me so much more hyped for the game, I can't wait!!! 😁
It's so cool to see what they were aiming for when you've played (or seen other people play) Control, wich may be the kinda full realization of Alan Wake.
Thanks to Sam and everyone at Remedy for making Alan Wake! One of the most full/enjoyable gaming experiences I've ever had. Amazing Story telling and design, I imagine even David Lynch would enjoy this homage. Looking forward to playing Control and seeing the tie-in. Also this series is awesome, thanks Ars!
Holds a special place in my heart, as I was going through a divorce. I was looking for a remedy for my payne. Come to think of it, playing video games might have been the cause. oh well.
Interesting. My wife almost ruined this game for me with her hatred of games. My marriage limps on and my experience of the game at the time was damaged slightly.
Just replayed Alan Wake and beat it yesterday for the first time since it came out when I was 11, there were parts I remembered and parts id completely forgotten about that blew my mind all over again. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it, it’s our for free on the Xbox game pass right now.
Alan Wake is my favorite video game of all time. I'm now 43 and hope a true sequel comes out before I pass. There isn't even a close second game. I've been gaming since the original Nintendo came out. We should be on Alan Wake 3 or 4 by now, hopefully this is a hint that Control's new dlc will tie story wise into the beggining of Alan Wake 2. C'mon Remedy, us fans have waited long enough. WE NEED ALAN WAKE 2!!!
I'm a writer myself so Alan Wake has a special place in my life, it was perfect, it felt like the trials and techniques of writing just surfaced from off the pages and into something more physical, it was beautiful. When I first played it I actually treated it like a TV series and played each level separately every night so after the first ''episode'' I would quit for the night and jump back on the next, it was quite an experience.
A lovely well-spoken gentleman who happens to be a legendary video game writer.I can't wait for this dlc hoping it paves the way for a second installment for Alan Wake.
I've searched everything on you tube about alan wake and its not enough. M I want to know more.. Love it..every single thing about it Sam lake, potf, remedy, all❤️
