Yet another (short) review for the game (Mild Spoilers)

[Scorcher24]

So, this is my highly subjective opinion about Alan Wake, after playing it on Hard on the first Playthrough. Please note that english is not my first language. So please keep your inner grammar n.azi at bay .

Story

Alan Wake begins confusing. You don't really know where you are, who you are and what this is all about. But, it is kinda to be expected since you get Stephen King shoved in your face the moment you start to play the game . Some people say this is a bad thing, I say it is okay, but I am a big SK/RB Fan anyway. The story has SK all over it. But, the story managed to keep me playing and to keep me interested in how it continues.

Characters

I really liked them all. May it be Barry or Alans Wife or the Sherrif. I really like how they are done and how they act. I disliked Agent Nightingale, but more for how he acted lol. What I disliked is that I did not find out yet why he was there. What was his purpose? But maybe that is gonna be solved when I play the game in nightmare mode.

Gameplay and atmosphere

The Gameplay is interesting. It is not a straight shooter, but not a plain horror game either. But, the atmosphere is one of the most dense I ever experienced in a game. Really well done. What hurt the atmosphere a bit, are the mass amounts of ammo you could find in some places and the amount of collectibles. Seriously, Remedy, you overshot any tolerance towards that here. 106 Thermos, plus the manuscripts, tin can pyramids and other things like TV and Radio Stations? The TV's and the Radio's really added to the game and felt natural, the Thermos really don't. Not to mention that looking for them is just stretching the playtime. I am trying to 100% Games, but I have really no incentive to get all thermos. And as I said, for me the thermos hurt the atmosphere a bit since they have no purpose at all.


Manuscripts

I think the idea is nice, but you kinda force the player to replay the game to get them all in order to read them and to understand the story fully. I missed about 6 in my first playthrough. It is highly debatable if this approach is wise or not, but I say a story should not rely on collectibles.


Soundtrack from the DLC

It is incomplete. It misses a lot of Songs from the game and I still have to start the game to listen to all songs. Really a bummer.


Is Alan Wake worth the money?

Yes of course. Despite the little problem with the mass amount of collectibles, which is subjective, the game is easy worth the 30 Euro Steam charges for it. And it is a game you will remember quite a while. Did I mention the really great visuals? No? But who cares about visuals anyway .
First playthrough was done on Hard and took me 15 hours including one replay of one part in episode 5 to get an achievement, excluding the specials and nightmare mode.