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Yeah I wasted some resources trying to light him up but once you realize you can just shoot him to incapacitate him for a while, it's probs the easiest boss fight in the game to that point
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Nov 7, 2023 07:01
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Just completed it, I really enjoyed the game all the way through, though I don't quite know what to think about the ending just yet. At least there is DLC and NG+ coming up?
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Nov 7, 2023 08:10
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Malcolm Excellent posted:no, because it sucks, and the dark place only allows rad rear end bad rear end stuff Like Rock and Roll and townies possessed by PURE EVIL The true message of Alan Wake 2: Fanfiction isn't art.
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Nov 7, 2023 10:53
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learning that a) more stuff drops based on what you're carrying, more drops if you use everything and b) you can reload cancel by dodging basically removed all challenge and tension from the combat, as you could happily detonate anything dumb enough to attack you, and it turns out instantly reloaded crossbow is pretty good actually
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Nov 7, 2023 12:10
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Sassy Sasquatch posted:On the other hand I have a lot of problems with Alan’s chapters. They just feel deeply redundant, disconnected almost. He’s been stuck in the dark place for 13 years, 3DLCs and a spin off at this point, someone please let him (us) out! Sorry to tell you but absolutely everyone I've seen anywhere loved the musical sequence in AW2. Including me. I think they overcame the difficult challenge of doing something like the Ashtray Maze but even more ambitious/over-the-top, complete with several fake endings and a proper climax for the finale. I actually love to look up streamer reactions to it on Youtube. No doubt your opinion is genuine but I believe you are in the minority. Zat fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 14:45
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I very much liked the musical number but I think I agree with the sentiment that Alan's segments are the weaker parts of the game overall. They're fine, I enjoy them, they're atmospheric and slick, but I think about how much fun I'm having as Saga — especially in the nursing home — and it's just no contest. Atmosphere, enemy and environment variety, combat, the mind place (when compared to Alan's writing room) ... all of it's just better in her parts of the game.
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Nov 7, 2023 14:50
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saga’s side benefits from variety of pacing. I liked Alan’s sections fine but everything there is out to loving Get You all the time
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Nov 7, 2023 14:54
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I've only played Saga's intro, but having bitten off a bit chunk of Alan's Noir York City I agree completely that it's not as strong. Not only is there the pacing issue of it being an entirely hostile place (it badly needs more interludes like the brief visit with the Sheriff and his little hidey hole, with the white board full of tantalizing easter eggs, but it also has the problem of, unlike Bright Falls, just being a made up dream place. I'm finding I don't care as much what happens there because it's explicitly a place out of time and space, whereas tromping around the woods near Cauldron Lake or seeing a Taken go rampaging through the sheriff station basement has a little more kick to it because it's happening in a "real" place, and to "real" people (within the fiction of course). I've just started Saga's side of the story, no combat yet, so I've switched it to normal and I'm going to figure this out. I'm hoping that, like a lot of survival horror games, the wall I'm feeling is at least half illusory, and if I can just make myself stumble through one or two frustrating encounters with little or no resources, I'll come out the other to the predictable trickle of supplies. I did pick up, both from my Story mode Alan play time and the last few pages of this thread, that I really can Just Run from a lot of enemies. Actually, I ran from the first wolf you encounter when leaving cauldron lake and I'm curious if I missed out on some commentary there from Saga or Alex, because I presume if I'd blasted the thing they might have said "well that's not normal!", whereas I may meet some more subsequently and the game will assume I'm just already on board with gunning 'em down. Edit - The musical put a huge smile on my face, this is a major AAA release happy with doing something genuinely weird and a little goofy. The way they got the real life band members (those are the Poets of the Fall guys, right?) to point where you're going. It's just so...fun. It's fun and novel and inventive in a way that big tent pole games needs more of. I don't think it's there because the dev's "knew people expected another Ash Tray Maze", it's there the same reason the Ash Tray Maze, the concert last stand, and various other set piece events are in every Remedy game, because the devs love them. Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 15:05
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after having some time to digest the game, I think I've landed on: (endgame spoilers) This is one of the best experiences I've had in gaming in a long time, in a year stuffed with amazing games This game had a very surprisingly clear narrative - I was expecting a lot more confusion and meta fuckery, they were remarkably restrained, if anything, they went out of their way to keep story elements clear. Some of the meta stuff was genuinely funny, and of course, We Sing is an amazing high point. Tons of incredibly good actors, and just a lot of fun scenes and good to great acting throughout. Alan and Tom was a highlight, Door was great, many of the supporting cast were fun. Saga was just ok. I'm not sure if she was intentionally trying to play the straight woman to ground the weirdness, but she didn't stand out. Not bad, just ok. Gameplay wise, it was extremely mid, but intentionally so, which is... odd. But it was late 90s/early 00s Survival Horror to a T, and that's fine. Not standout, not awful, just fine. It had a loving terrible story, as it had no ending. You go through all that bullshit and nothing was fully resolved. It's all DLC and/or sequel bait. Basically everything sucks. Ahti is chillin tho. I hated the FBC intervention. Probably the lowest point in the narrative, just entirely out of place, out of tone. 'Oh yeah cosmic horrors? We store those in boxes. This whole nightmare horror story coming to life? It's whatever, we deal with those every other week. Well gently caress guess that box was too crappy. Lost a few dozen agents and maybe our cosmic horror listening office trying to contain it nbd anyway right?'. Saga falling into the story and Alan's portions trapped in a recurring maze in the Dark Place progressively cranked the screws on the tension, the FBC showing up deflated all of that. Finally, and this only kind of registered while I was playing, but this story was mean. Leaving Alan trapped for the full 13 years because lol Remedy games take place in realtime is just brutal. Oh and gently caress you Alice. And Cynthia. And Casey. And many other residents of the town. It's weird because the actor they had playing Alan was so congenial and the game had him narrating so clearly, he probably should have been even more unhinged than he was shown to be during the various writing sequences. Assuming they bother to wrap stuff up more neatly in the DLC and don't foist it off to Control 2 (yugh, the Remedy Cinematic Universe running right into the same rakes Marvel is), anyone who plays this in a year or two is going to have a far more satisfying conclusion than people who played it this year, which I don't love. Very strange game, because it's not even really 'highs and lows', it's mostly 'highs and stuff I don't like'. Technically the game was nearly flawless for me, looked amazing, played great (high end pc+tv+ps5 haptics). Experientially it was great. It's only really when I sat down to sort through the actual story content afterwards that I was like 'you know, that kinda sucked rear end'. The FBC and RemedyCU is my own personal hangup (at least Remedy is being consistent, I loved Control's aesthetic and hated what the FBC represented), but the ending and the sheer cruelty of the story content didn't go down well.
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Nov 7, 2023 15:26
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the story being “mean” is both true and pretty clever because it’s the product of Mr Scratch basically scrawling gently caress YOU over the names and faces of everyone who helped or endeared themselves to Alan in the first game
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Nov 7, 2023 15:38
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Oxxidation posted:the story being “mean” is both true and pretty clever because it’s the product of Mr Scratch basically scrawling gently caress YOU over the names and faces of everyone who helped or endeared themselves to Alan in the first game Also it really sells the TV clips you can find where Alan is absolutely loving losing it screaming his head off in the Writer’s Room. Those were some of the best performances in the game behind Alice’s monologues
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Nov 7, 2023 15:44
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Zat posted:No doubt your opinion is genuine but I believe you are in the minority. The actual musical in the first half is wonderful. Absolutely a joy, I love the poets of the fall and having them diagetically guide you and dance was awesome and fun, the choreography and lyrics feel fun and potent. Absolutely no issue at all there. Where I think they're drawing comparisons, and I will explicitly is between the sequences of 'Children of the Elder Gods' and 'Dark Ocean Summoning'. Conceptually, it's really cool right, the boys drive in through the forest, everyone's there and we do a big musical number. Functionally? Think about what you're actually doing in game. The exact same thing as Children of the Elder Gods, except with actually less mechanics. You don't have to personally fire the lights off, the NPCs do it for you. Then, you follow it up with an absolutely pathetic boss fight(?) Against a neutered Scratch (I'll follow up on this in another post, but Scratch as a character essentially doesn't exist in this game) where you repeat the exact same shoot to stun mechanics of the already lacklustre boss fight you JUST DID about 10 minutes ago. Dark Ocean Summoning in my opinion is just such a let down retread of Children of the Elder Gods.
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Nov 7, 2023 16:21
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Wait, actually, didn't Rose's self-insert fanfics come true in spirit when she saved Alan from Scratch? Sure, details are very different, but Rose played pivotal role in getting Alan back into the writer's room to save the day, which is probably all that she really wanted. Ah, also, wasn't the twist that that OG Return was written by Scratch, and Alan was the one who tried to edit it into something less horrible?
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Nov 7, 2023 16:28
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I really wish they'd put American Nightmare into the Alan Wake remaster, as without it I was always admittedly a little lost about this Scratch fellow. Like I get the general gist, he's a lovely rear end in a top hat copy of Alan who goes around killing people and some guy killed him with a nail gun, but it would be nice to have the full context. Ah well, guess I can just look up a walkthrough on Youtube or something.
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Nov 7, 2023 16:32
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Post Game thoughts on Mr. Scratch Man... What a loving pathetic murder of an incredibly interesting character, huh? Looking at the Scratch of Alan Wake's American Nightmare, you can see wow what an incredibly cool and interesting character. A lively, menacing, threatening, and deeply insane antagonist. The dark mirror that is consuming Alan's identity. His whole identity is so strange and menacing that even his name, Mr. Scratch, is an approximation, his name being heard as literal scratches. Compared to Alan Wake 2, does Scratch even exist? I mean that literally, what does Scratch actually DO in the story? It's a boogeyman to make Alan not think too hard, I guess. Scratch shows up in the end game, possessing Alan Wake, and he's... Uh... A Taken, I guess? He charges mindlessly forward, using the same mechanics and animations, slurring out toneless lines that mean nothing. What the hell happened? I was so excited playing through, waiting to see that dark insanity peeking through and then in the end there's nothing until he's shot in the loving face. I think in a better revision of the story, the eternal deerfest made a lot of sense and was a really interesting pay-off to Scratch and his megalomaniac consumption of Alan. Scratch obsessed over him, became him, and now what's the ultimate victory? A world wide festival of adoration for Alan Wake, read Scratch. Instead, it comes out of nowhere. What the gently caress? Huh? The dark horror ending is... An eternal deerfest? What? Why? How is this even a horror ending? I think the story in general kind of ended up being a worse retreading of American Nightmare in general. An expansion of the time loop concept out into an entire game, except with none of the fun intrigue and interaction between protagonist and antagonist. American Nightmare Scratch deserves better smh...
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Nov 7, 2023 16:36
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Alitur posted:Ah, also, wasn't the twist that that OG Return was written by Scratch, and Alan was the one who tried to edit it into something less horrible? I am by far not the definitive source on the Lore but my understanding is that NO! Surprise! Return was neither written NOR EDITED by Scratch! It was Alan, both times! It was him all along! Surprise! Specifically, he at some point goes insane and stops writing, then forgets to stop writing and begins working on Return. Side note, this is the three acts of the hero's journey. Departure, Initation, and Return. Then, in another loop or 'draft' teehee, he finds Return. Forgetting that he wrote it, he scratches out his own name (thereby planting the idea that it is Scratch, so we can run that into the ground later) and begins to edit it. He is however interrupted by a mysterious figure shooting him in the head! This is, uh, also Alan, also from a later loop. Cool!
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Nov 7, 2023 16:42
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Here is where I think I land: (ENDGAME SPOILERS) In short, I pretty much loved everything about the game, gameplay issues and bugs aside, EXCEPT for the ending. I mean, it works as an ending to the story we have, but having a game that was about changing the end of a horror story, giving that horror story the ending that it ultimately wants (a dark ending where it is ambiguous, at best, if the protagonists have won at all) feels unsatisfying to me. That that is before I get into the DLC shaped holes in the plot, like What is Door's deal, Where did Tor and Odin go, etc. That said, part of me is still hopeful. We could get additional elements to the story in those DLC, and the biggest thing I am hoping for is the possibility of additional endings. Like, in the final Plot Board sequence, we only had one selection for the final parts of the game, but between the DLC and the upcoming NG+, we could see additional choices there. I mean, I am not expecting for everything to be resolved, but I feel like there will be something there. Like Alan says, it's not a loop, it's a spiral, and a spiral ends when you get to the center. Maybe I am a sucker, but that is what is keeping me hopeful for the DLC and NG+. So for now, to me the game is extremely good but let down by feeling extremely incomplete. I will revise this once the DLC comes out.
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Nov 7, 2023 16:42
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Prokhor posted:I am by far not the definitive source on the Lore but my understanding is that NO! Surprise! Return was neither written NOR EDITED by Scratch! It was Alan, both times! It was him all along! Surprise! Specifically, he at some point goes insane and stops writing, then forgets to stop writing and begins working on Return. Side note, this is the three acts of the hero's journey. Departure, Initation, and Return. Then, in another loop or 'draft' teehee, he finds Return. Forgetting that he wrote it, he scratches out his own name (thereby planting the idea that it is Scratch, so we can run that into the ground later) and begins to edit it. He is however interrupted by a mysterious figure shooting him in the head! This is, uh, also Alan, also from a later loop. Yup, it rules. A great story all around
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Nov 7, 2023 17:04
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DaysBefore posted:Yup, it rules. A great story all around I feel like it completely neuters and destroys the entire character concept of Mr Scratch as introduced in American Nightmare. (I believe that later, American Nightmare is rewritten to be essentially another draft? A loop that happens, but has no overarching effects beyond giving Barry Wheeler a bad dream? Awful!) For example, consider https://youtu.be/CZgw_XCps6M?si=8rbjq22J3jJw0BTX This, now, Mr Scratch appearing to Alice, categorically does not happen! Surprise! This is ALSO ALAN. Alan is also the one who appears to Alice! Fuckin a.
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Nov 7, 2023 17:11
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that version of scratch sucked. we don’t need any more joker knockoffs
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Nov 7, 2023 17:16
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You wanna know how I got these scratches?
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Nov 7, 2023 17:17
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DaysBefore posted:Yup, it rules. A great story all around Yeah it’s cool. Honestly, I was not a fan of American Nightmare Scratch. Alan Wake But He’s The Joker was just not all that interesting to me. I actually liked the scratch we see in AW2 a lot better. Where scratch doesn’t really exist, it’s just Alan trying to pin the blame on someone else and desperately trying to fill in the gaps from losing his memories for 13 years. Scratch didn’t write Return with Zane, Alan did. Scratch didn’t haunt Alice, Alan did. Scratch didn’t want to make everyone worship Alan as a god, Alan did. When Saga runs into Scratch, it’s not the charismatic psycho we saw in American Nightmare, it’s just a really pissed off Alan who wants his loving clicker back.
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Nov 7, 2023 17:22
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CharlestonJew posted:Yeah it’s cool. I... Can actually start to see the light from this. I was definitely coming in carrying the hope for the version that we see in AN but I do like this version. Much to think about I don't take back what I said about Dark Ocean Summoning though! That sequence was a very disappointing retread in my opinion!
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Nov 7, 2023 17:24
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Prokhor posted:Post Game thoughts on Mr. Scratch Prokhor posted:I... Can actually start to see the light from this. I was definitely coming in carrying the hope for the version that we see in AN but I do like this version. Much to think about Just want to chime in with a counter-point that this is a logical progression for Mr Scratch from American Nightmare. He was riding high on his own self-perceived superiority in that game and got taken down a peg in the most ironic and demeaning way possible (a collection of absurd printed lies being defeated by being exposed to the light of a camera showing what he really was.). Now the angry psychopath that needed constant validation of his existence and loved inflicting it's sadism on others that kept peeking through despite putting on a façade of superficial Joker-esque charm in American Nightmare is all that is left. Scratch is pissed, and even his last lines in this game are ultimately an angry plea that he wants to be Alan and wants Alan to accept his existence even as he's chasing him down and trying to consume him. Archonex fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 17:26
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Ok so I am coming around to this, I am becoming an Alan Wake believer. This also ties in to Saga in a way that is a lot more satisfying I think which is Saga in her mind place faces her fears, and her flaws, and accepts the parts that are true and decides to keep moving anyways. Alan Wake, on the other hand, completely refuses and instead projects them out on to Scratch (here shown to have always been him) and so for that reason he's stuck. Saga shows that to leave the dark place you have to face your fears and accept your flaws. Ultimately, Alan is unable to do this and returns to the dark place, but with the bright note that Alice is there to help him grow, and hopefully someday finally get out. Wait, ending good actually? What the hell?!
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Nov 7, 2023 17:30
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I am rapidly becoming a Mr. Scratch truther. The issue that I had was that I felt that Scratch as a character didn't exist! Which, of course, he doesn't! Mr. Scratch isn't real, it's a projection of all of Alan's flaws outside of himself so that he doesn't have to face the truth of who he is. Nobody scratched out his work except him. Ahh! It's so much more satisfying in this light.
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Nov 7, 2023 17:35
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So... does Scratch manifest as a result of the manuscript of Return? Even though Alan Wake is trying to save everything (alice/bright falls/everyone), he unfortunately wrote Scratch into Return during his insanity so they have to deal with it? Or I guess technically if Alan Wake was able to put Scratch down for good, then it's really the Dark Presence we'll face in the future? The Dark Presence is actually a separate entity right? Am I on the general right track? also for the ending, what was Saga's hero's sacrifice exactly? For Alan Wake I assume it's to take a bullet to the head (sacrifice) in order to end Scratch/The Dark Presence? Revitalized fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 17:37
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Prokhor posted:Ok so I am coming around to this, I am becoming an Alan Wake believer. This also ties in to Saga in a way that is a lot more satisfying I think which is Saga in her mind place faces her fears, and her flaws, and accepts the parts that are true and decides to keep moving anyways. Alan Wake, on the other hand, completely refuses and instead projects them out on to Scratch (here shown to have always been him) and so for that reason he's stuck. Saga shows that to leave the dark place you have to face your fears and accept your flaws. Ultimately, Alan is unable to do this and returns to the dark place, but with the bright note that Alice is there to help him grow, and hopefully someday finally get out. I forget where it was mentioned in American Nightmare but there's also the fact that according to Alan Scratch is at least partially derived from a bunch of tabloid and Fox News tier "reporters" that made up lurid bullshit about him to attract views. Obviously Alan would reject that since he isn't a psychopathic murderer putting his exploits to text and Scratch is basically the Dark Presence taking a bunch of printed bullshit (or to put it another way: A malicious story. See the themes in how he acts in this game, screaming about how this is a horror story and what not? Yeah, there's a reason behind why he's so much of a one track mind in being a bastard.) to try and create a new avatar after it's prior one was lost in Alan Wake 1. In a way, I suspect all this may tie into the ending of this game and a possible conclusion to Alan Wake's story. At the end of 2, Alan's wife talks about ascension or destruction being the way out. Becoming Scratch would be a version of that "destruction". The nature of Deerfest and the ending of 2 changes a lot in that respect in that it possibly shows a version of the "what if" ending if Alan Wake surrendered to outside pressure (both in the respect of why he wanted to escape the pressure of being in the spotlight before 1 and what others want to make of him.) and chose that path to get out. This puts Scratch's deranged screaming at the end about wanting to become one with Alan in a better perspective. That is probably ultimately the Dark Presence's escape plan. Break Alan down until Scratch is all that's left. Archonex fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 17:37
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I loved how Saga saw right past the dark presence's bullshit and broke it down methodically with her seer and deductive abilities. Her hearing that first intrusive thought and immediately attributing it to something external to her was a perfect contrast to Wake that made clear how emotionally resilient she is. What a fantastic bit of characterization. Made me think that if she had Alan's role, it would be a much shorter game. That whole bit in her mind place was a beautifully satisfying payoff that the story and her gameplay had built up to.
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Nov 7, 2023 17:46
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So a thing I'm still trying to focus on in the ending is Casey. Alan sad he was a real person he twisted into a character but what does that mean? Were Alan's novels all based on the exploits of the actual Alex Casey this entire time and he never said anything? The game ends with almost everyone in the Dark Place, will Casey get murdered in an ally multiple times going forward? Can he shoot people in slow motion? And what the gently caress was going on in Nightless Night and why Ahti like the movie?
Caidin fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 17:50
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Revitalized posted:also for the ending, what was Saga's hero's sacrifice exactly? For Alan Wake I assume it's to take a bullet to the head (sacrifice) in order to end Scratch/The Dark Presence? Rewatch the conversation where they write the ending. At a certain point they realize that Alan is also a hero in the story, and therefore he can pay all the price that the genre demands. His taking the bullet is supposed to be what allows a happy ending for everyone else. That's why Saga is expectantly calling Logan -- the ending leaves unclear whether it's actually the case, but the intention is that she pays no price.
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Nov 7, 2023 17:52
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acksplode posted:I loved how Saga saw right past the dark presence's bullshit and broke it down methodically with her seer and deductive abilities. Her hearing that first intrusive thought and immediately attributing it to something external to her was a perfect contrast to Wake that made clear how emotionally resilient she is. What a fantastic bit of characterization. Made me think that if she had Alan's role, it would be a much shorter game. That whole bit in her mind place was a beautifully satisfying payoff that the story and her gameplay had built up to. It was very satisfying to have all these negative thoughts about Saga to pop up and have her immediately go “What? No I’m not, gently caress off”
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Nov 7, 2023 17:52
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FBC collectible-rear end page lolCharlestonJew posted:Yeah it’s cool. I think it works well on a larger level too, it felt pretty deliberate that a lot of Alan's dialogue about Scratch and the Dark Place etc. could very easily just be about a person struggling with issues that make them hard to be around. 'I'm in a dark place, I'm being mean, I'm making my wife miserable'. You replace Mr Scratch with, like, alcoholism and most of Alan's dialogue wouldn't really need to be changed. I think it goes without saying Alan is supposed to parrallel Stephen King in a lot of ways, and King iirc had major substance use issues in the 80s. Even in the brief time before Alice gets taken in the first game he's moody and bitter, freaking on her because she's trying to help him. It's also mentioned that Alan was quite the party boy and always getting into stupid tabloid-worthy situations before his trip to Bright Falls. So all the stuff with Scratch also being Wake, and Wake sabatoging himself but forgetting, combined with how the Dark Place gets it's opening to take people by preying on their fears and self-doubt which is extremely front and centre when Saga goes in, it all works well for me. Anyway that's my Game Theory
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Nov 7, 2023 17:55
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Yeah honestly I was very down on the ending and overall experience because I was, it turns out, like Alan, clinging to Mr. Scratch, looking for this antagonist that makes everything make sense. But really absorbing and accepting how, yeah, this is Alan, makes it much more satisfying. I have come around.
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Nov 7, 2023 17:58
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I think the fact that it's not a loop, it's a spiral is also important. We aren't seeing an Alan endlessly looping. The Dark Place doesn't actually work in loops. It's all spirals, going tighter and tighter and deeper and deeper - 'diving deep to the surface', possibly. But the final revelation from Alice is that this is not the whole story. There is a way out of this that ends with Alan's ascension and apotheosis - probably into a being more like Door, a 'shifter' in the parlance of Quantum Break - but he's got to keep following the spiral to get there, and Alice and Rose and everyone else are the people Door mentioned, "so many people" helping him. But he can't escape. Escape isn't possible because the only endings are apotheosis or destruction. There isn't an ending to this that lets Alan walk away as Alan, but Alice has consiously decided to weave herself into his spiral and help him - and possibly her, jointly, I hope - into that ascension. That's possibly also what happened to the original, Thomas Zane, the poet (not the filmmaker, who is clearly more fake somehow). It didn't answer everything and I want to see what the NG+ and DLC bring but I was happy with it. One other thought I had: arguably the final scene reveals that this whole game has just been Initiation, after all, as AW1 was Departure. Return, the true Return, in the hero's journey sense, is yet to come...
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Nov 7, 2023 18:04
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I liked the ending well enough with the mid credits thing and didn't have an issue with how they handled Scratch but I couldn't help but feel like, Alan Wake 2 feels good as a standalone game but as a sequel to Alan Wake, I wanted something a bit different. Especially after 13 years, just a little bit more of that small town/rust belt adventure stuff. Like one chapter as Saga travelling across a long distance through the woods and through various bits in a semi scripted/linear fashion rather than a small chunk of a larger semi open world location maybe (no driving though, I was glad they didn't try and do that again) or a bit with Alan having to get back to Bright Falls after he comes back. Maybe I just miss Barry too much and wanted a scene with him, Alan, Saga and Casey holding out against the Taken or something. Gotta save something for the sequel I guess. I'd also hoped they'd finally have us fight the big mammoth skeleton that animated via the darkness early in AW1, smashes through the wall of a museum you go through and then is NEVER SEEN AGAIN, like it'd have been roaming the woods for 13 years and you'd have to kill it as Saga or something.
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Nov 7, 2023 18:15
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Yeah, this page is actually making me come around on the ending as well. Still holding out on my theory that the DLC and NG+ will help Alan get to the end of the spiral, so to speak, but at least I won’t be disappointed when it almost certainly does not happen Game good
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Nov 7, 2023 18:21
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Caidin posted:So a thing I'm still trying to focus on is Casey. Alan sad he was a real person he twisted into a character but what does that mean? Were Alan's novels all based on the exploits of the actual Alex Casey this entire time and he never said anything? The game ends with almost everyone in the Dark Place, will Casey get murdered in an ally multiple times going forward? Can he shoot people in slow motion? And what the gently caress was going on in Nightless Night and why Ahti like the movie? Casey is in a weird place. Hear this out, because it's a lot of words but it might explain what he really is. There's a reason why the FBC treats him like a walking talking AWE tier anomaly and have to resist the impulse to lock him up. He's simultaneously Casey the FBI Agent the real person, but also Casey the hard boiled fictional detective and much more besides due to fuckery on the Dark Presence's part that took place early on in 2 due to the increasingly out of his mind Alan Wake. In addition to that, it's complicated further by many possible hints that some alternate reality where he's Max Payne is bleeding through as part of the likely upcoming Max Payne remake/reboot. The presence of Mr. Door who is Mr. Hatch from Quantum Break is proof that this is a possibility. Hints of this can be seen early on in the talk show segment. Aside from the hilarious moment where he does the Max Payne face it should be obvious if you think about it this guy (as in Casey the FBI agent) shouldn't even be able to be in the Dark Place in the first place. The funny part hides the fact that this guy isn't supposed to be there. But why is this? Well, it has to do with how the Dark Presence works to alter reality. This whole segment with the talk show happens because the Dark Presence is loving up reality outside the Dark Place in ever greater amounts. This is also why Alan thinks he stopped writing. Control and things within 2 proves that that is...arguable. But in the meantime Alex Casey is occupying some sort of weird multi-reality liminal space where he's simultaneously a real person whose existence is being altered similar to Jessie Faden from Control (only by the Dark Presence mostly), a fictional character in Alan Wake's novels in the "edited" reality* and a real person from another reality that is technically also a fictional character, and possibly a pseudo-avatar of the Dark Presence due to Alan's novels and a mix of his gently caress up during the chat with Door. * If it wasn't "canon" before then the talk show segment probably canonized this given that Alan was so out of it that he didn't realize he was giving authorial intent to the Presence to make changes by canonizing Alex Casey as his character's likeness in an "adaptation" before he realized he was still in the Dark Place. If Wake had just gotten up and left the interview immediately Casey would probably be fine. Keep in mind that this is referenced by the prior avatar, as Zane bringing back his lover without being very specific of the details of how it was done is what let the Dark Presence "fill in the gaps" to make the changes it wanted. And these changes can be retroactive. This is also probably why Scratch hopped into him so easily. If he could just possess people off the cuff that easily then he'd have done it to Saga and the others. Presumably we'll get more of him at some point in the DLC since his story seems pretty tied to 2. Archonex fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 18:21
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Revitalized posted:Interesting, I felt the Mind Place increased my immersion because it was sort of like taking the role of a detective doing the analytical parts. To each their own of course. Overall I like it well enough, and when I'm putting the pieces in place it can feel good. However a bunch of spots it's easy to figure out what you're meant to do but you're not allowed to do it or ask about it until you've put up the right evidence and headings and that gets annoying at times. Before I figured out that you have to fill the mind place I got stuck wandering maps trying to figure out what I'm supposed to find, only to later realize I had everything and I just had to put it in the mind place before the game let me move on. Also doing the checkbox-type stuff like putting up rhyme or lunchbox or cache locations feels like busywork, just mildly annoying stuff I have to do to make the "new item" dots disappear from the interface.
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Nov 7, 2023 18:23
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I just realized that (more ending stuff) after the discussion of that there was never Scratch, only Wake, it makes the ending make even more sense thematically. He is simultaneously the hero that must pay the price AND the monster to be slain. gently caress, even the end credits song hammers this home. This game man.
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Nov 7, 2023 18:28
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