Over the past couple of months, I've been playing through games in the 'Remedy Connected Universe' so I could finally play (and get a better understanding of) Alan Wake II.
(FYI, this started after watching Severance, which I would highly recommend)
I played Control on release in 2019 and absolutely loved it, but I had never returned to it again. This was also the first game from Remedy that I had ever played, having somehow missed out on playing any of the Max Payne games over the years.
So, here's what I've done so far:
Alan Wake Remastered:
I wasn't sure what to expect from Alan Wake because I feel like my impression from seeing passing comments about it over the years was not a positive one. I really enjoyed my time with Alan Wake! Alan himself is a bit of a dipshit, and the gameplay and mood is some real classic PS3-era action game nonsense, but the characters were endearing and the story was really well told throughout. There were some genuine moments of spookiness throughout, too.
I didn't think the combat was worth struggling against, as dying was just an inconvenience when I was playing for the story, so I played through the whole thing on easy, and then did the two extra Episodes as well. The final one, 'The Writer' I think was a very satisfying and fun twist on the gameplay and end to the game .
Playing Alan Wake also started to connect dots for some of the design decisions that I remembered and loved from Control (live action scenes, incredible musical set pieces. Good shit.
And now with the extra context that I had missed out on last time around, it was time to move on to..
Control Ultimate Edition:
Control is so good dude. I adore this game from top to bottom. It's so beautiful - from the brutalist design of the Oldest House to all the iconography throughout the menus. I also own the incredible Art and Making of Control art book, which I have been reading through alongside my playthrough.
Once again (and after having some frustration with the difficulty and checkpointing the first time around) I cranked the difficulty all the way down using the game's excellent built-in Assist Mode features (reducing damage taken, increasing energy limits) so I could just blast through combat like the Director/Superhero/God that Jesse should be.
I really took my time through the story, making sure I was exploring and getting as many of the collectibles as I could find. All the documents and videos throughout are so well written and funny. And it was very satisfying and cool when I started to find documents regarding the Alan Wake / Bright Falls Altered World Event (AWE), and learning how they explain the circumstances of that event through the lens of the Bureau.
So now I've played through the main story and the first expansion (Foundation), picked up the Platinum trophy, and I'm about to dive into the second expansion (AWE) which from what I understand focuses entirely on the Bright Falls event.
and THEN... it will be time to play Alan Wake II.
So: What's your experience with Remedy games? What's your favourite? Should I play the Max Payne series? Did anybody enjoy Quantum Break?
Remedy games
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Fruitality
- FC-ID: FMC-NMJ
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- Location: Brisbane, AUS
- Link: https://whack.zone
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Skellingtor
- FC-ID: NAM-RT-5500
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- Location: Brazil
- Link: https://linktr.ee/skellingtor/
i have played Alan Wake (and the remaster), Control, and both of their Max Payne games.
my story with Max Payne dates all the way back to when i was a child, i picked it up with my dad from a game store after remembering that i read good things about it on a magazine. when i actually started playing it turned out to be way more hardcore than i could handle, but i powered through some of it while my dad assisted with the harder parts. that was until the first nightmare level where the blood trail maze sent me over the edge and caused me some panic attacks that took me years to get over lol. i wouldn't dare touch the game again and just the menu theme was enough to give me heart palpitations. a while later i tried playing Max Payne 2 but the same dread settled in after a while and i gave it up. it took me until i was about 15 and playing the PS3 re-release that i managed to actually play the entire first game start to finish on my own, and felt like i finally conquered one of my childhood's greatest nemeses. i played both Max Payne 1 and 2 a couple years back on PC and they still hold up very well. great gunplay, mostly fluid controls (when you don't have to platform some places), great voice acting, and enjoyable stories. graphically and mechanically i think Max Payne 2 is the best of the two since Remedy only needed to polish a good foundation.
i first played Alan Wake at my cousin's house on his modded Xbox 360 and it grabbed me almost immediately. i recall my media sensibilities at 14 being just classic rock, 80s music, and Pink Floyd - The Wall on repeat, but something else about this game interested me. maybe it was the use of chapters like a TV show, the needle drops at the end of those chapters, or the Twin Peaks pastiches (even if i wouldn't watch that series for more than a decade after this). i was excited for weekends because it meant i would visit my aunt with my mom, so i'd get to play Alan Wake again because i didn't have a 360 and those were the only times i got to play exclusives. i never challenged myself on the game either but i liked the darkness mechanic for defeating enemies. i hadn't seen anything like that before so i thought it was smart at least. the remaster looked pretty nice but my thoughts were mostly unchanged. Alan Wake's American Nightmare was also a cool spin-off and i also recommend it if you'd be into a pseudosequel before Alan Wake II was a thing.
Control was on several best of lists at the end of 2019 so i knew it was something i'd eventually get into and that came about midway through 2020. while stuck at home like everyone else, i noticed the ultimate edition was on a pretty sweet discount so i pulled the trigger on it. only the Foundation expansion had come out by that point so i made it a goal to play through all of the game and the extra chapter before AWE came out. i had a lot of fun playing it but i'm not sure my PS4 can say the same lmao. it stuttered every time i unpaused the game, so at least Remedy made it very obvious that they were pushing the consoles to their limits. flying around shooting freaky dudes is an untapped market that more developers should look into, and if they have to copy Control for that i wouldn't mind it one bit. i also enjoyed the brutalism and felt it really made the Oldest House feel that much more isolated from the normal world. i would look up at ceilings at what seemed to be natural light only to remember i was locked in a box inside of a box inside of a box inside of a box. i also picked up the platinum trophy in my playthrough, which i consider to be a great boon to evaluate how much i enjoy a videogame.
i have not yet played Quantum Break, which is gathering dust in my Steam library, nor have i played Death Rally or whatever they did for Crossfire.
my story with Max Payne dates all the way back to when i was a child, i picked it up with my dad from a game store after remembering that i read good things about it on a magazine. when i actually started playing it turned out to be way more hardcore than i could handle, but i powered through some of it while my dad assisted with the harder parts. that was until the first nightmare level where the blood trail maze sent me over the edge and caused me some panic attacks that took me years to get over lol. i wouldn't dare touch the game again and just the menu theme was enough to give me heart palpitations. a while later i tried playing Max Payne 2 but the same dread settled in after a while and i gave it up. it took me until i was about 15 and playing the PS3 re-release that i managed to actually play the entire first game start to finish on my own, and felt like i finally conquered one of my childhood's greatest nemeses. i played both Max Payne 1 and 2 a couple years back on PC and they still hold up very well. great gunplay, mostly fluid controls (when you don't have to platform some places), great voice acting, and enjoyable stories. graphically and mechanically i think Max Payne 2 is the best of the two since Remedy only needed to polish a good foundation.
i first played Alan Wake at my cousin's house on his modded Xbox 360 and it grabbed me almost immediately. i recall my media sensibilities at 14 being just classic rock, 80s music, and Pink Floyd - The Wall on repeat, but something else about this game interested me. maybe it was the use of chapters like a TV show, the needle drops at the end of those chapters, or the Twin Peaks pastiches (even if i wouldn't watch that series for more than a decade after this). i was excited for weekends because it meant i would visit my aunt with my mom, so i'd get to play Alan Wake again because i didn't have a 360 and those were the only times i got to play exclusives. i never challenged myself on the game either but i liked the darkness mechanic for defeating enemies. i hadn't seen anything like that before so i thought it was smart at least. the remaster looked pretty nice but my thoughts were mostly unchanged. Alan Wake's American Nightmare was also a cool spin-off and i also recommend it if you'd be into a pseudosequel before Alan Wake II was a thing.
Control was on several best of lists at the end of 2019 so i knew it was something i'd eventually get into and that came about midway through 2020. while stuck at home like everyone else, i noticed the ultimate edition was on a pretty sweet discount so i pulled the trigger on it. only the Foundation expansion had come out by that point so i made it a goal to play through all of the game and the extra chapter before AWE came out. i had a lot of fun playing it but i'm not sure my PS4 can say the same lmao. it stuttered every time i unpaused the game, so at least Remedy made it very obvious that they were pushing the consoles to their limits. flying around shooting freaky dudes is an untapped market that more developers should look into, and if they have to copy Control for that i wouldn't mind it one bit. i also enjoyed the brutalism and felt it really made the Oldest House feel that much more isolated from the normal world. i would look up at ceilings at what seemed to be natural light only to remember i was locked in a box inside of a box inside of a box inside of a box. i also picked up the platinum trophy in my playthrough, which i consider to be a great boon to evaluate how much i enjoy a videogame.
i have not yet played Quantum Break, which is gathering dust in my Steam library, nor have i played Death Rally or whatever they did for Crossfire.
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andrewelmore
- FC-ID: KON-RC821
- Pronouns: he/him/his
- Location: Seattle, WA
- Link: https://www.youtube.com/@mythicresonance
Oh man I have such a weird relationship with Remedy. On the one hand, I am and always have been genuinely rooting for them as hard as I can. On the other hand, I strongly dislike almost everything they've released lol. That having been said, Max Payne 2 is faaaaaantastic, as is Alan Wake II, imo. Good times ahead!
Just don't play the console ports of the Max Payne games, they're VERY, uh, let's call them compromised.
Just don't play the console ports of the Max Payne games, they're VERY, uh, let's call them compromised.
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malyzar
- FC-ID: CAP-EH
- Pronouns: he/him
- Location: Kansas City
- Link: https://mattcolewilson.com/
Oh, man! Good thread!
I also have a complicated relationship with Remedy. Max Payne is a high water mark, but they've had some serious fumbles and have completely lost my interest at this point. Their sense of humor rarely works for me and I have zero interest in a shared universe. So nothing I have heard about Alan Wake 2 has any appeal to me.
But my first experience with them was playing Max Payne as a kid on the PS2 and absolutely loving it. The gameplay is fantastic. And I was also genuinely disturbed by the nightmare sequences. (Disturbing in a positive way. Although those sections are the worst to replay.) And I love that this gritty, noir thriller flirts with the supernatural. (Reminds me of how weird the early Tomb Raider games get. Those big curveballs feel like a lost art.)
I revisited it a couple years ago and also played the sequel for the first time and had a blast. They hold up very well! (Although, I have long been burned out by meta stuff, so those aspects of Max Payne 2 had zero appeal. But maybe it would've been neat back in the day before that stuff had oversaturated pop culture.)
Max Payne is somewhere in my long list of favorites. The tone that game has is miraculous. It should not work as well as it does. It actually sounds bad (to me) on paper. But the execution kicks ass. So much charm. It feels like lightning in a bottle, because some of those same tactics do not work as well in Max Payne 2 (and do not work at all for me in Alan Wake).
Side note — One of my favorite YouTubers (Grim Beard) did an amazing retrospective on the first game. Highly recommended: https://youtu.be/NcQtRyqTjc0?si=XkGGQXswECmZ7UL2
((I also really liked Max Payne 3, but that's another conversation.))
I came to Alan Wake way after its prime. I'm a huge Twin Peaks fan (and a middling Stephen King fan), so I was extremely excited by everything I had heard. But I ended up hating it, almost from top to bottom. A horrible protagonist, annoying combat (after the novelty of the admittedly-neat core concept wears off), a frustrating gameplay loop, and unimaginative enemy design. But the worst sin of all, imo, is the handling of the Twin Peaks pastiche. It felt like a bastardization of everything I love about Twin Peaks. If I had played Alan Wake first and thought it was an accurate representation, I probably would have avoided what I now consider my favorite TV show of all time. Dodged a bullet!
I also disliked the musical section of that game. I'm telling you, Alan Wake puts me in full-on hater mode.
I wrote a little more about why I dislike Alan Wake on Cohost awhile back, if you're craving more negativity: https://cohost.org/mattcolewilson/post/ ... -hot-takes
Control was a step in the right direction for the most part. I love the design of that game. The visuals are incredible. But the combat eventually became annoying and repetitive. (Maybe playing on Easy would have been a better experience.) Although, it also feels like there's an overall lack of imagination. They create these interesting worlds where anything is possible, but you essentially just end up shooting dudes. Not the worst way to spend your time, but I was left wanting a little more.
And then the twist came that Control's universe is shared by Alan Wake — which I considered to be a huge bummer. I don't personally like a shared universe in the best case scenario. But I also never want to hang out with Alan Wake again, so the prospect of a Control sequel has lost its appeal.
But yeah, negativity and personal hangups aside, I'm still rooting for Remedy. And am grateful for Max Payne and all the cool shit in Control. I hope they keep trying to do weird and interesting stuff, even if it's not for me.
I also have a complicated relationship with Remedy. Max Payne is a high water mark, but they've had some serious fumbles and have completely lost my interest at this point. Their sense of humor rarely works for me and I have zero interest in a shared universe. So nothing I have heard about Alan Wake 2 has any appeal to me.
But my first experience with them was playing Max Payne as a kid on the PS2 and absolutely loving it. The gameplay is fantastic. And I was also genuinely disturbed by the nightmare sequences. (Disturbing in a positive way. Although those sections are the worst to replay.) And I love that this gritty, noir thriller flirts with the supernatural. (Reminds me of how weird the early Tomb Raider games get. Those big curveballs feel like a lost art.)
I revisited it a couple years ago and also played the sequel for the first time and had a blast. They hold up very well! (Although, I have long been burned out by meta stuff, so those aspects of Max Payne 2 had zero appeal. But maybe it would've been neat back in the day before that stuff had oversaturated pop culture.)
Max Payne is somewhere in my long list of favorites. The tone that game has is miraculous. It should not work as well as it does. It actually sounds bad (to me) on paper. But the execution kicks ass. So much charm. It feels like lightning in a bottle, because some of those same tactics do not work as well in Max Payne 2 (and do not work at all for me in Alan Wake).
Side note — One of my favorite YouTubers (Grim Beard) did an amazing retrospective on the first game. Highly recommended: https://youtu.be/NcQtRyqTjc0?si=XkGGQXswECmZ7UL2
((I also really liked Max Payne 3, but that's another conversation.))
I came to Alan Wake way after its prime. I'm a huge Twin Peaks fan (and a middling Stephen King fan), so I was extremely excited by everything I had heard. But I ended up hating it, almost from top to bottom. A horrible protagonist, annoying combat (after the novelty of the admittedly-neat core concept wears off), a frustrating gameplay loop, and unimaginative enemy design. But the worst sin of all, imo, is the handling of the Twin Peaks pastiche. It felt like a bastardization of everything I love about Twin Peaks. If I had played Alan Wake first and thought it was an accurate representation, I probably would have avoided what I now consider my favorite TV show of all time. Dodged a bullet!
I also disliked the musical section of that game. I'm telling you, Alan Wake puts me in full-on hater mode.
I wrote a little more about why I dislike Alan Wake on Cohost awhile back, if you're craving more negativity: https://cohost.org/mattcolewilson/post/ ... -hot-takes
Control was a step in the right direction for the most part. I love the design of that game. The visuals are incredible. But the combat eventually became annoying and repetitive. (Maybe playing on Easy would have been a better experience.) Although, it also feels like there's an overall lack of imagination. They create these interesting worlds where anything is possible, but you essentially just end up shooting dudes. Not the worst way to spend your time, but I was left wanting a little more.
And then the twist came that Control's universe is shared by Alan Wake — which I considered to be a huge bummer. I don't personally like a shared universe in the best case scenario. But I also never want to hang out with Alan Wake again, so the prospect of a Control sequel has lost its appeal.
But yeah, negativity and personal hangups aside, I'm still rooting for Remedy. And am grateful for Max Payne and all the cool shit in Control. I hope they keep trying to do weird and interesting stuff, even if it's not for me.
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Dan
- FC-ID: DFC-HE
- Pronouns: he/him
- Location: Seattle, WA
- Link: https://www.ingman.work/
As a person of Finnish descent living in the PNW, it really does feel like Alan Wake 2 was made specifically for me.
That being said, I think that it's Remedy's strongest offering to date. I empathize with the hangups some folks have about shared universes but I'm hoping that this could set off a sort of anthology style series, where we explore different AWEs and their impacts from the perspectives of different protagonists. I'm definitely not hoping for an Alan Wake 3.
At the very least it seems like Remedy is having a great time making games and telling their strange stories and that's enough for me to want to see what else they put out.
That being said, I think that it's Remedy's strongest offering to date. I empathize with the hangups some folks have about shared universes but I'm hoping that this could set off a sort of anthology style series, where we explore different AWEs and their impacts from the perspectives of different protagonists. I'm definitely not hoping for an Alan Wake 3.
At the very least it seems like Remedy is having a great time making games and telling their strange stories and that's enough for me to want to see what else they put out.
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andrewelmore
- FC-ID: KON-RC821
- Pronouns: he/him/his
- Location: Seattle, WA
- Link: https://www.youtube.com/@mythicresonance
lol it reminded me _so_ much of Old BallardDan wrote: ↑27 Apr 2024, 03:01 As a person of Finnish descent living in the PNW, it really does feel like Alan Wake 2 was made specifically for me.
That being said, I think that it's Remedy's strongest offering to date. I empathize with the hangups some folks have about shared universes but I'm hoping that this could set off a sort of anthology style series, where we explore different AWEs and their impacts from the perspectives of different protagonists. I'm definitely not hoping for an Alan Wake 3.
At the very least it seems like Remedy is having a great time making games and telling their strange stories and that's enough for me to want to see what else they put out.
