I just finished Alan Wake Remastered a couple weeks ago. I played it back when it released too, but it didn’t leave a huge impression at the time. My interest revived after Control, which I loved.

I enjoyed Remastered, even completed the DLCs, but I definitely had to push myself through at a lot of parts. The game spends too much time in the forest at nighttime, so the environment feels homogenous very quickly. And I really disliked the enemy’s compulsion to run off screen in different directions and attack you from where you can’t see them. Combat encounters almost always involved running to a corner somewhere and swinging the flashlight just to keep my bearings. Admittedly, the game offers a much greater quantity of tools like flashbangs and flares than I allowed myself to use, but I got irritated from the loop very quickly.

Still, it’s over a decade old and there was a lot otherwise to like. Plus Control was great and Alan Wake 2 is supposed to be top-tier, so I’m glad I refreshed myself on the first one.