So many things are monotonous by nature.
Max Payne is 99% jumping in slow motion with dual pistols and I love... every... second of it.
Most shooters are monotonous. But you really don't care as long as the gameplay keeps you engaged. Like: hundreds of games have put you in rooms to shoot at nazis, but none have done the shooting so well as say Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Then again, that is a bad example as that game does more to spice things up than Alan Wake...
I can understand if a game is not your cup of tea and that you are still interested in checking out the story. But for me when a game is not fun to play well then the game ends for me there.
Deadly Premonition looks like an interesting game. but if it turns out that it's not fun to play. I'll just leave it at that :P
A game is all about playing. Just like a movie is all about watching and a book is all about reading. If I saw a clip of Alan Wake, it could not be one of my favourite games. If I heard someone just talk about Scarface, it could not be one of my favourite movies.
It wouldn't be the same experience.
So even if you find that they are putting Alan Wake in contrived ways in forests to shoot at stuff, and it's gameplay is monotonous (which I agree with to a certain point), that is still core to what Alan Wake is. And not playing Alan Wake like a game, kinda defeats how the story, experience, everything was made.
And finding the book pages ? I dunno, I really like how Alan Wake was brought to me as a gamer, not as a watcher, not as a reader. I was playing a game. I was playing Alan's story.
In the interview Sam Lake answered which game he was most proud of, and he said Alan Wake. I thought: Damn right !
From this thread I can understand you're an Alan Wake/Remedy apologist but I'm not sure how what I experienced isn't within the realm of possibility. It's really not that far fetched to think about: I thought playing the game was boring, but I thought its story was interesting enough to see how it ends.
The point is, I gave Alan Wake a fair shake: I got to about half way through the game. It was monotonous, and not in the "every game is monotonous way". It was sluggish. Its mental stimulation as a shooter was low. It lost its privilege of my time and my effort by the halfway mark.
I've also noticed you mentioned this twice now, and maybe you're a bit hung up on it. You have insinuated that since I didn't play Alan Wake until the end, I obviously wouldn't have enjoyed it and it can't ever be one of my favourite games. Well, duh. It's definitely not one of my favourite games, and it's definitely something I tell people to avoid unless they like average gameplay or Twin Peaks. And the reason why it could never be one of my favourite games has nothing to do with me seeing it to the end. It's everything about the game failing to satisfy me when I was playing it.
If it really makes you happy, Alan Wake had a "good story" for me to see it through the end by video. Not many games can do that.
You really took my post the wrong way.
I clearly said: "I can understand if a game is not your cup of tea and that you are still interested in checking out the story."
So I don't know what you are going on about now: Alan Wake apologist ? Uhhhhhhh... Alan Wake is a critically acclaimed game. Why would it need me ? More than critical acclaim I love it. It's the reason I made this thread. Is it strange for you to see Remedy fans in a thread about an upcoming game from Remedy ?
"If it really makes you happy" .... Again, you completely mistook what I wrote.
A few things
Complaints are not all created equal, they do not have a universal death killing stance (unless it's a shit ending to a story, that is death killing bullshit, fucking all about the journey garbage). At least not all of them, yes certain games are monotonous, most games are monotonous, one of my personal favorites could be argued as repetitive: Demon's Souls. The thing is that games strengths more than carry it past its repetition. Max Payne's that shooting CLOWNS the shooting in Alan Wake, it's not even close. They get everything right with the mechanics in MP, from a better arsenal, to a more stylish set of combat encounters thanks to bullet time and the game NOT telegraphing where its enemies are, to little audio stuff it does well such as reloading, or the sound of clips hitting the ground, to all that jazz. In the case of Demon's Souls it's far more gratifying as a gameplay experience. Alan Wake in comparison to both lacks any punch and is shallow to boot.
The New Order does a hell of a lot more as a shooter than Alan Wake ever does, in the case of Wake they did a lot of "good enough" gameplay scenarios and banked on the plot and setting. Of which I think works if you've never seen Twin Peaks or having a raging boner for Twin Peaks, but otherwise, eh.
Again if the story interests you, but the gameplay doesn't, why the **** am I going to tolerate the playing it part given it's not a passive thing to do. IF the story is good enough (and in this fucking medium that's rare), and I can get 100% of the story by watching it, I'm gonna watch it. This wasn't a Shadow of the Colossus or even a Witcher scenario where the players involvement is required to make it all work. This was a cinematic action game with all the short comings of a cinematic action game no less.
Because at the end of the day Alan Wake simply doesn't use its interactivity enough to tell a story. Same can be said about Max Payne for that matter, I would argue the same for Telltale styled adventure games. Hell most adventure game, even good ones, you don't like the puzzles of some of them, you don't lose anything in translation by watching it. Journey, Ico, Planescape, and Silent Hill? You actually lose a lot by simply watching. Philosophical difference here or not, he's not out of line or even being absurd for not wanting to play more of the game, but sticking with the story.
As for Sam Lake being proud of Alan Wake, yeah that makes a lot of sense he's a writing writing about a writer, it's a project that took a lot of their time, more importantly it's irrelevant to which one the audience finds more enjoyable, or in my case the one I think is the better work.
Besides Liquid didn't finish the shit, he's the scumbag. Halo campaign loving, GTA 4 defending turd of middle earth. I just think the game is okay.
Twin Peaks is not god tier quality either. It starts really strong, at the end it loses a lot of steam though.
it's the same for Alan Wake imo. At the end of the game you have really seen everything (but you keep playing it for the story). And only the DLC spices the gameplay up.
Still, it never felt as a drag to me, like it felt to you guys.
"why the **** am I going to tolerate the playing it part given it's not a passive thing to do"
The playing it part is not part of what makes a game. Games ARE the playing it part.
And Sam Lake does other things at remedy besides writing.
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