The multiverse lore thing was actually around almost a decade ago with Alan Wake and also the American Nightmare game. So I wouldn't really call that them hopping on the trend as much as just continuing the original narrative.

On the "Alternate Universe" thing, from what I remember it was in the first game, and a huge part of it. The whole "dark place" and how Alans writing affected the world and stuff. So I wouldn't call it "hopping on a trend" considering its established in the story.

I'm just impressed that this is the first game I've seen with an accurate depiction of reloading a crossbow lol

Funny that as you mentioned everyone in the village looks finnish, the two dudes in the shot are actually modelled after Peter Franzen, a finnish film actor.

Theres a bunch of Finnish stuff because Remedy is a Finnish developer.

Calling the otherworld "The Dark Place" just constantly reminds me of the criminally underrated British comedy Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Expecting Alan to say "You and he were, buddies, weren't you?" at any moment ahaha

Sam Lake in this game really brought back the nostalgia in me. It’s like Remedy knew, that we’ll get all geeky over him being a cop in this game.

(21:43) In case you didn't know - those guys are actually the three leading members of the finnish rock band "Poets of the Fall" whose song "Late Goodbye" appeared back then in Max Payne 2. In that game, the singer Marco also did the voicing for the main antagonist Vladimir Lem.

I love max pain outfit casey wears in dark place. The grizzled edge lord cop. Was expecting him to swallow a bottle of pills and dive through a window

It's kind of a shame that the only time we really get to hear James McAffrey is through Remedy projects, semi-including Max Payne 3. The man has a phenomenal voice.

Glad to see this video getting back up, because UKposts is really getting tiresome with their copyright laws. What's the point of doing a review if you can't review it in the best way possible? It's especially annoying when people try to review movies & TV shows.

Alan Wake is one of my favorite characters in gaming.

I love Alan wake 1 but I’m of the opinion that the first game has the opposite problem, where there was way too much combat. The scares and atmosphere started to wear off about halfway into the game and it basically just became an action shooter with scripted combat sections you could see coming from a mile away. Even when playing on the hardest difficulty, I was running around levels with full ammo in all my guns and this was on top of the fact that the first game had way more combat.

“You spend more time watching the game then actually playing it.” *Metal Gear series left the chat **

I watched this yesterday, but I'll gladly watch it again, especially considering how UKposts screwed you over.

I mean this game was introduced as we're not doing an action horror, this one will be a survival horror. So being able to run past enemies and having a slower pace is expected.

"When I had DLSS frame generation turned off, it halved my framerate" Yes Gman, that is what frame generation is supposed to do. thanks for pointing it out

It's not really a multiverse/alternate universe in the Dark Place, my guy. You should look more into the story/concepts and the first game. The Dark Place is subjective and infinite, ever changing. He's not multiverse hopping, he's in the same place. It's LITERALLY the whole point of the plot lmao he's stuck there.

The fact he thinks half the Shadows in the Dark Place as Alan can be "defeated" with just a flashlight shows a misunderstanding of the mechanic entirely.

No mention of X-Files and Twin Peaks being an inspiration. I guess that's obvious though.

The first couple of chapters where you have to explore the forest around the lake genuinely made me feel terror I haven't felt in a horror game in quite some time. The way the sun is setting in that section yet the forest is so dark and dreary made me feel suspense I haven't felt since I played P.T. back in 2014.

Holy shit its max payne...that columbian job got him hunting ACTUAL demons...good to see hes got himself back to his old NY self

There was an X-Files game in the PS2/GameCube era that this reminds me of. With aspects of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game called Choas Bleeds from that same era. With a bit of N64 Shadowman mixed in.

Everything you said about the writing being purposefully obtuse (and bad) could also be said about every Fromsoft souls type game, yet everyone jizzes their pants and claims everything from them is the best thing ever made. 🙄

Control and Quantum Break were both amazing. I know QB isn't beloved, but i really enjoyed the gameplay and thought the TV series was pretty good.

Huh, was that sheriff Iceman (Shawn Ashmore)? Man, it's kinda nice to see Remedy is fond of a couple of actors and keeps bringing them back.

Another one of these cases where people think they know what the Word Mary sue means and goes on to use it on the most stupid way possible. Saga isn't a Mary sue, she's just a detective with something more on top of that. The story tells you straight on that she's receiving A LOT of help from Alan and even hint on Mr Door making sure she comes out alive of the story.

"6/10. It's just Silent Hill but with Max Payne. Can't wait to play Robocop next month" - Gman in a nutshell

Remedy games are weird. They rarely do very well with wide audiences and reviewers, even I can admit they’re not spectacular successes, yet as games they’re incredibly intriguing and can draw you in well after you’ve played through them. I’ve already replayed Control several times as well as Quantum Break.

Even if I’m still gonna buy Alan Wake 2 since it seems right up my alley, I still really appreciate your reviews and your honesty. Thank you for reuploading!

"... and Tera Patrick" MANDATORY *I see You're a man of culture as well* GIF

So, it's basically like every other game made by Remedy. As a teenager, I remember being super disappointed at Max Payne 2 while I loved 1. My dad loved part 2, though. Years later, I remember when Alan Wake released, a lot of people disliked it and only saw its flaws. Same with Quantum and Control. All in all, some people love Remedy's games, some don't.

I have loved it so far, it definitely is a sensory overload. If nothing else it does things with it's overlays of different scenes on top of the regular gameplay I have never seen.

This game is great, it’s a slower paced atmospheric story driven game not a shooting gallery and it’s all the better for it.

Not surprised you didn't like it. This game doesn't have tonns of worthless empty planets, heaps of pointless loot and sleep inducing characters & story like Midfield did 💀💀💀💀

Saying the music level is bad or to long is criminal that shit was absolutely amazing to the point until now i havent heard anything but people loving it.

They should’ve stuck with the original idea where you play as Alan hunting down Mr Scratch who had stolen his identity and become a local legend (like Jason from Friday the 13th) Instead they pulled a Deadly Premonition 2, which also sucked. Guess those ESG bucks were too sweet

Before, it was "Can it run Crysis?" and now it's "Can it run Alan Wake 2?".

If it needed to be multi protagonist.... For a game called "Alan Wake 2...." how the hell is it not Alex Casey??? I mean come on....Sam Lake with legendary James McAfee VO? That would have been a cool twist that Alan Wake is wanted and you played as Max Payne looking for him. But we get Saga, featuring Alan Wake.....

be careful my man, don't cut anyone with that edge, smh

Alan looks like John Wick. Someone should add him to the Max Payne remastered as a mod. RIP Mona Sax still hurts to this day

"It's not a multiverse, it's a spiral..."

I can smell the ESG score from this game.

What’s a saga

Remedy really just has to give up the ghost and make TV shows already.

Well, didn’t you expect a survival horror to be a… survival horror?

What was the fps footage of Alan wake from? A mod or just some trailer?

"Put a chick in it and make it lame!"

All reviews: 10/10 GmanLives: eh, it's passable

“It looks on par with the first Alan wake” you are out of your goddamn mind

To be fair though Remedy, with at least Alan Wake 1, and Control has been doing multiverse concepts for a while now. Alan Wake 1 came out in what? 2010?

This "reviewer" promoted cyberpunk at launch lmao

1:18 that’s good horror writing though the fear of the unknown, not the fear of the known

After playing the game, this review doesn't make much sense in a lot of aspects, while on others I agree. 1) "This is supposed to be a fictional American town and half the population seems to be Finnish". You just contradicted yourself there (emphasis on fictional). Plus, if you listened to the story carefully, they say Watery was founded by Finnish immigrants. Bright Falls still seems very American. I did like the ABK sketch because at times it felt a bit like that, but in a fun way. 2) The Silent Hill comparison is perhaps warranted in a few places, but I think the game is ultimately doing its own thing. 3) "And on some levels is on par with that decade old first game". Are you serious? There's clearly a huge difference in engine work and details. Having played the originals I know they are clearly different in detail. The first game was ahead of its time in terms of graphics, and this one is on another league of detail. 4) "The environments are just all forests, beaches and more forests". You forgot that these are self contained areas in a fictional rural Washington. Watery is about 35% forest and has a habitated area, the Coffee World fair, the Lighthouse area and the trailer park, while Cauldron Lake is about 95% forest but then Bright Falls is about 45% forest. So saying it's all forest and beaches is off by a few hectars at least. 5) "Most areas are just dark and not all that impressive". You do realize you're playing a survival horror based in a rural town, right? I personally thought being stuck in a forest at night with wolves and all sorts of Taken got my heart pumping a little. And not every town with fog is a Silent Hill tribute now. In fact, the fog in the town that inspired Silent Hill was not created by weather patterns, while forests like in Watery and Finnish towns usually have dense natural fog and the easiest explanation is often the correct one. 6) I was actually worried about the specs and that's a good point. I think the game isn't polished to the point where scenes and gameplay stall without being pre-processed. It's weird since the original never stalled on me and modern SSDs and GPUs have a hard time with the game as I've been told. It still plays smooth most of the time and I haven't encountered any major issues. I also found a few bugs like weird light sources and shadows. 7) Facial expressions are really polished. I remember the original being so good for the time that now I feel old. 8) The gameplay was fun, but some creative choices could've been better - The detective work felt like a placeholder at times, but it was nice to have a sequence of events to trace back to. Doing actual deductions would've been nice, but I can see why Remedy wanted to make this a linear experience. You're still rewarded for extra clues you find like the nursery rhymes and the cult stashes (the lunchboxes not as much). The padlocks are fairly easy to unlock, at least for me, but there are a couple of hard ones that require lateral thinking or observation (there are also some that require some mathematical magic, but they are fairly easy). The writing board could've been better by establishing a relation of cause and effect between characters and scenes, but if you want to focus on action, you should thank this gimmick. 9) We all know the Remedy Multiverse is a thing, but it has been a thing long before Alan Wake 2 and Marvel. Fans always acknowledged that there was a link between the original and the world of Max Payne (or Alex Casey). Yes, the multiverse thing can be a huge rabbit hole, but Alan Wake was innevitably going to clash with Alex Casey and Thomas Zane. Doing it through Control's premise was not bad, but I wonder why the Oceanview Hotel event looks so different between games. 10) "You're watching more of the game than playing it". The original was also like this and being immersed is a big part of the story. Did they sacrifice the pacing a little? Maybe, but they always compensated it with decent chunks of actual gameplay. I would say resource management can be clunky if you're paranoid about it like me, but it's actually a bit tough to get the perfect balance between weapons, healings and throwables and the Taken are so much faster and unpredictable, feels like the original RE3 again. 11) Quantum Break was still more cutscenes than gameplay in comparison with AW2. I rarely felt that way with this game, just like I did with the original. I still got to explore and collect things before moving on with the story. And even when you move on, they made sure to keep a lot of well spaced gameplay sections. You can bypass most enemies, but some areas can be a nuisance if you don't take care of them. However, it is slower than the original because it's a survival horror trope. Back in the original you could run, now you can only jog. I guess it's one of those things they should've kept from the original's action horror experience, but AW1 and AW2 are completely different genres of gameplay. I also miss the driving sections a little, even though they were a bit clunky. 12) "On some levels this is a horror game if you want to fall asleep". For someone who played survival horror before, that's a pretty big claim. Survival horror is usually a slow burner and when you kill the enemies it's typically a breeze walk (unless it's a game like Code Veronica). In this game, there are a few tense unexpected moments in the story paths alone but if you plan on doing exploration for resources, that's when you rarely feel safe due to the atmosphere and the enemies that keep respawning randomly. You don't notice it as much in the earlier parts of the game (apart from the Dark Place stuff). The original also did the jumpscare imagery thing a lot (but they weren't as reliant on it back then). 13) Again, action horror is not survival horror. If you expect this game to be the original, it's not. Remedy made that clear. But there's still plenty of the original in this one. Also, I saw that you were using keyboard and mouse: One thing I can say is that guns feel better on the mouse, but inventory management on the run feels better overall on the controller. 14) Yes, I agree that the hand flare tactic is similar to RE's counter mechanic. I think it's a good way not to get beaten every time and actually helps you stay in the fight with the hand flare radius, so it's actually a creative improvement on the counter that wasn't discussed here. 15) I don't think it was discussed this, but there's different animations and timings for different healing items. I thought that was good, it makes you over reliant on painkillers and trauma packs, but the medkits are too cumbersome to use in battle and they advise you against using them. 16) "It was a misfire to not let you acquire those bigger and better flashlights". I guess it's a valid point, but the biggest problem with the game is how easy it is to waste multiple charges when aiming at a Taken. And if they're powerful Taken, you can waste more if you're not aiming correctly at the hit box. I prefer the original mechanic because it felt dynamic and you never felt completely naked when you lost all the batteries, making sure you can always fight back. I guess it's realistic to have no power left, but losing ammo is bad enough, losing the flashlight focus is worse when you're ambushed. Thankfully, I never had that problem. 17) The axe throwing guys are really toxic, but I agree the poltergeists in AW1 are just as bad. 18) "They forgot about that [haven] mechanic entirely". No they didn't. Don't forget it behaves like a survival horror trope, so the experience is less linear and you're forced to go to specific areas to save and get your inventory sorted, meaning you have to save often. There's no point for each haven to be a checkpoint because of those reasons and makes you rely more on small haven spots for temporary survival. There are also upgrades to slightly improve these havens, but I was hoping they would heal a percentage of my health, not just in critical situations (although it's kind of fair since you have a huge variety of healing items and healing upgrades). Additionally, there are also plenty of checkpoints throughout the entire story that are not necessarily havens making this criticism completely unjustifiable. 19) Wait, actually story that progress plot is now exposition too? Most of the story was actual plot, the only exposition comes in the form of the usual manuscripts you find and the mind place board which made previous information obvious. I think I didn't find more infodumps in the game other than those. Most of it was actual writing work and it even made me question about obvious stuff and character intentions. Many of them become obvious to fans after a while, but not to Saga because she's just finding this stuff along the way. 20) I agree that the balance needs to be tweaked on some elements but I never felt they screwed up the formula and Max Payne is being developed alongside Rockstar, so it's not just Remedy involved. Remedy did the survival horror tropes justice imo, it's just that Alan Wake never needed some of these changes because the action horror side of its gameplay was already brilliant and tense in the first place. I still think it's a brilliant game and very much on par with the original, though I hope the next installment will take notes from what went right with both games because there's a lot of stuff in the original that worked (like pacing, dynamic atmosphere and some fighting elements that made it smoother) and there's plenty of new survival horror stuff that was well cooked (tense exploration, inventory, upgrades, puzzles and a feeling of dread/horror).

Hey gmanlives whats the song at the start of the video

First video where I feel like Gman didn't understand the game at all. He didn't get it.

No problem watching this video again, but I have to say I wasn't expecting such a deviation from the general consensus that this is a mid/underwhelming game. People are calling it a GOTY contender and you're basically saying it's not even close lol. I'll have to try it out for myself and see

I love all the comments screaming “Bait and Switch.” They have said she’s one of the protagonists since as long as they’ve marketed this game.

Played AW a couple years back and was impressed at how well it holds up. Also liked QB and Ctrl. Will certainly pick up this one down the road.

I love the memes referenced in the recent videos’ thumbnails

I just came off of beating this game myself and watched this. This was definitely a FAR slower experience compared to Alan wake or control. Especially in the combat department. But I got to say, I really enjoyed the puzzles this game had, while there solutions were very similar, finding a code or key etc. The different ways you had to solve them was surprisingly varied and at time challenging. It really spoke to me as someone who loves puzzles. Speaking of, I do also wish the case board was done differently it definitely needed to be engaging if they wanted us to use it as much as they did. Maybe provide some kind of reward for getting pieces of evidence correct 1st try or solving the case path below x amount of errors. I don't know give a skin for guns or some extra items. Really enjoyed the story personally. But the big issue I have personally, is to who ever decided to put the final chance. The bit before the penultimate act. Whoever decided to set it to nighttime! Messed up cause it makes finding things much harder on Saga's side. Personal critique aside. loved the video G! Looking forward to more videos. Also, thought you'd be happy to know because of you I bought Return to castle Wolfenstein and I have been having a blast with it. Especially with the Real RTCW mod. EDIT: Fixed spellings/ spacing and also sentencing. Have beaten RTCW on Death incarnate with vanilla weapons. Was a fun challenge!

Less enemy variety? As if the first had any. Lol

They should have called this game The Independent Black Woman Cop Saves the Crazy White Man

Alan “trying to stay” wake 2

Love this game reminds me of true detective

Dare i say, the last good Remedy game was Max Payne 2. Since then, Remedy has embraced the "Interactive movie" path, since Sam Lake wanted to be a director. i really wish i could enjoy Alan Wake and Quantum Break. Alan is kinda of an asshole on 1, and Quantum Break is a full show with some playable parts.

Man, the feature that doubles my FPS, half's my FPS when it's turned off! It really shouldn't do that! 🙃

Oh, let's give props to Alan's voice actor: Will Scarlett O'Hara!

I can't be the only one who thinks there are a lot of people trying to convince themselves they like this game.

Saga sure got a mighty tan since 2015

Tera Patrick, that brings back memories

I just got to Alan's first segment, and I gotta say that Saga is such a ridiculous character. She acts like a teenager sometimes with corny jokes. Like she witnesses a reanimated corpse, and people disappearing in front of her. But she shrugs it off and later says this case is exciting. And the morgue scene in general was absolutely baffling. 2 officers dead. 2 FBI agents only ones left alive. Dead body is gone. Saga, in 10 seconds, explains this supernatural shit that took place and the officers are like, "oh really? Oh well. Good luck on your case". Like frig man, why isn't anyone in the police station the least bit suspicious of the outsiders?

@GmanLives just a heads up DLSS quality largely depends on how it is implemented in-engine and probably contributed to your blurriness. If you use dsr and upscale passed 1920x1080 this blurriness is often mitigated and very minimal frame loss in most games. Test it yourself!

I thought the subway level was an hommage for Max Payne 1

What got cut from the original review upload?

so... is this the game people called "BEST HORROR GAME IN 2023"?

Alan Wake: "It's not a lake, it's an ocean" Alan Wake 2: "It's not a loop, it's a spiral" Alan Wake 3: "It's not a game, it's a movie"

If Bethesda made this game he would have been kissing this game's ass

That room where Alan sits with type machine looks like room from movie Knowing with N. Cage

Saga Anderson's face looks like Giancarlo Esposito did the motion capture. Lol, anyone else think that?

Having to dumb down the title too. No longer a fever dream....just a kick in the balls

People said a lot about the alternate universe thing in the comments. What i'd like to add is that it's a part of Remedy's bigger picture with the game Control and has been for a long time before it became a fad. But i have to STRONGLY disagree about the narrative being confusing and the pacing being off. First of all if you've really played Control and AW1 then it all makes sense, also every little bit of information is there in the game but it clicks in place after the credits roll (it actually took me some time to figure some details after i finished the game but that in itself was pretty satisfying for me). And about the pacing: it's a horror game, it should have off beat moments to throw you off. The pacing is perfect and creates great atmosphere of uneasiness that leads to some of the best jumpscares in gaming history. But i have to agree on the technical side, the game would benefit greatly from better optimization.

I think Bright falls is in game referred to as "America's little Finland".

The game looked blurry, but I had DLSS turned on....no shit Sherlock

Remedy is one of my favourite developers, loved Alan Wake and Control and looking forward to this.

Do you delete or hide your older reviews? I was sure you had reviewed Deep Rock Galactic but now I can't find it. Same for a few other reviews like Arkham Knight.

The Mind Place 🫣 The Dark Place 😰 Coffee World 😵🫠☕️

Remember when Saga was a white woman in Quantum Break? Weird huh?

What made eveyone so hyped for this? I don't remember there being any buzz about the first Alan Wake. Am i misremembering?

Gman, did you encounter any bugs or glitches? Read the Digital Trends review last night and they said their team experienced some game-breaking stuff in the pre-day-one build they played. Gonna get this today but wonder if I should wait a bit for patches..

to be very fair i don't think we're actually dealing with a multiverse in alan wake 2. all you do is just change the reality in front of you with alan's writing. after all, it is not the real reality so he could do anything. maybe you got so tired of it that you're seeing it in places you probably shouldn't

but I thought it was a fever dream...

Not had many problems with the PS5 version just 2 glitches where a deer and a scaffold unit were stuck in place and I can just walk through them but apart from that so far I'm really loving the game

welp, time to rewatch it

I didn't get to watch the yesterdays review. Is there any major difference?

Seems like they made the plot convoluted for the sake of it.

Cool looking game, but there's no physical disc version, so I'm skipping this one.

"Suomi hall" with "karaoke" sign right beneath. You weren't kidding about half the town being finnish for some reason.

would rather play as Alex Casey instead since he was literally written in to try and save Alan Wake but whatever i guess

Devs these days are just like please buy a new computer to make up for us not putting in the time to optimize our games.