@Tjuz Really nice you're sticking with the game. I fell off Alan Wake 2. Not because of any big gripe I had with the game. I can recognize the game is better than Alan Wake 1 in almost every way, but because it lacks that feeling of urgency I felt in the first game, I just didn't feel as compelled to finish it. And because it's longer.
I stopped around the point where you are, so let me know if the game picks up some more after these chapters. Maybe I should return...
Anyway, glad to see you like the game. It is very unique!
@Herculean Yeah, I totally understand the lack of urgency in the story. I feel like it comes a lot from one of my (so far) minor complaints with the game, in that the story is told in a very convoluted and often confusing way. It's hard to pin-point exactly what's going on at any time and why certain events are transpiring. The first game had a lot more of a straight-forward narrative where your goal in each episode was clear, so you always felt like you were getting somewhere and making progress. In this sequel, it feels a lot more like I'm somewhat aimlessly bumbling around hoping to come across any piece of important, let alone digestable, information.
I didn't mention that in my earlier comment, because I still want to give the game some slack for that for now. It'll all depend on how it comes together in the end and whether it makes the overall journey satisfying. More so than with many other games, I feel like this one really needs to stick the landing or risk having me walk away from it with a bad taste in my mouth despite my mostly positive experience playing through it. I'll let you know whether it does that and if it's worth coming back to, though I imagine having been out of the story for a while and coming back to it now might put you at risk of just totally being overwhelmed!
@Tjuz I did things the opposite where I played Control first, along with its Alan Wake related DLC and have yet to play AW or AW2, but definitely planning on it. I absolutely loved Control. One of my favorite games I’ve played on my PS5.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution yeah Control is honestly one of my favourite games from the ps4/xbone era (and there were some absolute bangers). I’m looking forward to returning to it with the ps5 version one day.
… and like you I’m yet to play either Alan Wake. They’re in the backlog and ready to go but… I wanna clear the Resident Evil games (at least up to 6) before I tackle any other horror series. Looking forward to them though.
@graymamba I was actually going to start Alan Wake last week to coincide with Halloween season but I started Man of Medan instead. I’m enjoying it so far though. Might get Alan Wake done after I finish it and before the spooky season is over.
You’re in for a treat with the PS5 improvements for Control. I loved the ray tracing fidelity mode which still had a very stable frame rate but I think you can do performance also. There’s just a lot of glass in the Oldest House which looks so nice with the RT reflections. And the close ups of Jesse were really impressive in 4K on the PS5. Part of what made her my video game crush. One of them, anyway. I’m kinda enamored with Karlach right now in BG3, lol.
Anyway, I’ll post thoughts about AW when I get to it. I know it’s a completely different gameplay experience than Control, which was so fun and kinetic. Excited to see what they’ve cooked up for Control 2.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I did try posting a reply to you earlier but it seems to have totally disappeared 🤷♂️.
Anyway… sounds awesome, the oldest house is such a stellar video game location and I can only imagine how ray-tracing accentuates that. It’s currently scheduled for 2032 (not even lying 😂) but maybe I’ll shift it forwards depending on the urge.
Also, I happened to play Man of Medan a couple of years back and was pleasantly surprised by it. It was never anything I planned on playing but got roped into it as a ‘I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine’ mp trophy deal. It’s another series I need to try and get back to actually 🤔
@ButterySmooth30FPS I did a fair bit of research into Wanted: Dead back a year or so back. It is meant to be notoriously difficult but anyone who’s good at it seems to push the use of hit-cancellation. Can’t remember exactly how it’s achieved but it was something along the lines of melee-strike, then cancel the next melee-strike by… doing something… like drawing your gun maybe… and then melee-striking again. Apparently by doing this, you hit enemies in quick succession even though the explanation seems to suggest the opposite.
Just finished up the campaign for The Last of Us Part II. Man...even with knowing how it all ends up, that last part was just brutal to play through. After the ending scenes, I sat and stared at the credits just trying to comprehend it all.
And then I went to Google to see what other people thought of it, and was shocked that everyone seemed to hate it, then realized I was on r/TheLastOfUs2
@orvisbean101 Yeah, it’s truly dumbfounding that people were review bombing TLoU2 and giving it 1/10 scores and hating on it so much. The game is spectacular in every aspect. I respect some people didn’t like the story and the narrative choices made, but the quality on display with everything — graphics and performance, gameplay, music, acting, world-building, character development, attention to environmental detail,… everything is so top notch. But I, like you, felt the story and the ending was so emotionally impactful and moving. There are few games that truly affect your whole outlook on life, but TLoU2 is one.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I found a riskier but more lucrative, always the way in Souls ,farming spot in ELDEN RING. The enemies there hit a little harder but there are more of them than in my previous spot, and they yield more runes. Thus, the trusty ol' backstab seems to be the way to go, for the most part.
@Th3solution I think the fun part of this whole Remedyverse is that ultimately it doesn't really matter in which order you play the games. Every game will have connections to whatever you played before and teased for whatever you haven't yet, resulting in it feeling interconnected no matter what so that you get a satisfying pay-off either way. We'll have to check back in when you do finally play Alan Wake and I finally commit to Control, as I'd be very interested to hear your take coming into these games from the opposite perspective. There's a big reveal (as far as I know) in the Control DLC for Alan Wake II in particular that I am sure you would get a hell of a kick out of as a fan of the former!
Anyway, I've finished the game and had a great time with it. I do think it is a little overlong and outstays its welcome at points, but I think a lot of that has to do with the campaigns and how you can play them in any order. The pacing can be a bit all over the place because of that and you're able to give yourself a better or worse experience with it depending on how you approach it. I decided to follow an online order for an ''ideally'' paced narrative, and even then I think the final area you explore with Alan grinding the game's momentum to a halt and felt like a total slog because of it. Probably my least favourite area of the game due to that. Saga's campaign I would say is better overall, but the way Alan's intertwines with hers and being able to see how his writing is affecting reality is a very fun way to fully explore the story beats.
I think that ultimately I was a bit let down by the combat system, which, while an improvement over the first game, still felt somewhat sub-par next to other modern survival horror titles. Some of the levels would bombard you with certain enemies, and I don't think the combat system was really designed to engage with that effectively. Mechanically, there's nothing necessarily wrong with it, but the level design often played into its flaws rather than its weaknesses. When I would die, I often felt like it was less through my own lack of skill and more due to the game. Obviously I need to get good, but I would like to think the developers played at least a small part in that as well! I also have to say that some of the enemy design was also horrendous. I absolutely hated dealing with those teleporting enemies throwing whatever at you or the wolves. It all felt so hyperactive while the actual moment-to-moment combat is a lot slower, making it hard to deal with those types of enemies in a quick manner.
It makes me wonder if slower-paced gameplay is really just their achilles heel, despite their best efforts. As far as I know, Max Payne and Control are lauded for their tight, fast-paced action and the way they make those games feel. Yet on the other side of the coin with these games where they opt for a slower pace in combat, it feels under-baked at best and badly designed at worst. It makes me wonder how good of a job they'll do remaking the Max Payne games next, but if Control is any indication, I suppose it shouldn't be an issue.
I think the story stuck the landing despite ending on a cliffhanger, and I feel satisfied with how at least the main narrative threads of these campaigns were closed up. The storytelling is often convoluted and intentionally confusing, but it all came together satisfyingly in the end, though I won't pretend to fully understand everything that happened in it either. They did a good job giving you enough tidbits throughout to keep you engaged and the cast gives one heck of an ensemble performance. I loved the way they utilised Tor and Odin in this sequel, and the Chapter 7 ''Sumonning'' in particular was a highlight for me on that front. The only character I would say somewhat lacked behind in terms of performance was Kiran Estevez, whose line reading I occasionally felt came across a bit wooden. For some reason, she also seemed to me like the worst mo-capped of the bunch, with some of the facial expressions she was getting being... questionable.
It's graphically a gorgeous game however, and that alone was enough to keep me wanting to play at times where I was totally lost on my place in its world. The environments are genuinely beautiful, and the fact that they went from the more minimalist design of Control's world to this is nothing more than impressive with how well they executed it.
@Herculean Giving you a tag regarding my final thoughts on the game! I'd say it's worth going back to it if you were at all invested in the narrative and seeing how it ends. If you were at the same spot I was last week, you really don't have much playtime left. The last few chapters I blasted through in about 2 to 2.5 hours, and if you were exactly at my point, you'd really have only one larger area to go before you reach that. Let me know if you do end up going back to it and what you think!
@Tjuz That’s a great post with some informative thoughts and insights to the Remedy games and especially of AW and AW2. Thanks!
I do think you’ll find Control to be a more satisfying combat experience, from what I gather. It is very kinetic and action-heavy during those moments. Almost chaotic at times. There’s a few scenarios that are actually quite difficult, and only three that come to mind when I was actually frustrated after dying multiple times and was close to a throw-the-controller moment. Each of those involved overwhelming numbers of enemies and I tend to do poorly with that. One of the encounters I ended up cheesing my way out of it by finding a high point on the map where I could kite and funnel enemies in a controlled fashion, while shielding myself from the, yes… teleporting enemies. It was clear the game didn’t intend for the player to get through the encounter that way, but I lacked the skill to survive the battle the traditional way. The other two times I was able to eventually brute force my way through by sheer luck and determination. 😅 And I think two of the three such encounters were in the DLC, which was a cut above in difficulty, if memory serves. But 90% of the game’s combat is very approachable for the average player if you have some experience in third person action. It’s very, very fun. The game has arguably my favorite gaming moment of all time — the Ashtray Maze (I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to say that). Absolutely impeccable and I think the game is basically worth playing just for that section. 😄
Control was a great training ground for Returnal, which I played shortly after and it has a similar style of running, dodging, and gunning with swarms of enemies floating about, albeit Returnal is a much more difficult game, imo. If you’ve played Returnal you’ll have no problem with Control.
I am curious to see how that DLC folds into Alan Wake. Having no experience with AW, the whole sequence just ran off me as merely another group of random people and creatures. It’s a very strange paranormal X-files type of narrative anyways, so random weirdness is just part of its structure.
And yes, definitely we’ll need to compare notes as we each delve into the other half of the Remedyverse. I’ll keep you posted. 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution The dreaded throw-the-controller moments... I call myself a purely serviceable gamer rather than one with impressive skills, so I have no doubt those moments will get to me as well. I'm highly impatient and uncompetitive, especially with single-player games, so if I die more than once, my power fantasy is already ruined and I'm frustrated, haha! It sounds at least like it's a bit more mangeable with the more high-octane combat system of Control. If I get stuck there, you'll have to let me know what the good spot to hide out in is! I have no shame putting myself out of harm's way (whether legitimate or not) to force a victory! I don't think I've ever heard of the Ashtray Maze level you're referring to. I usually consume enough gaming media that I am at least aware of stand-out levels (such as the musical one in Alan Wake II) before getting into a game, but it sounds like that might be one that has so far gone completely unspoiled. I will have to get into the game as soon as possible to preserve that!
I haven't actually played Returnal, but I've heard only good things. I've stayed away from it less so because of the difficulty like you mentioned, but more so because the game I like usually end up being a narrative-first experience. I don't easily get into games that don't grab me with their storytelling, and I'm not sure if this game is necessarily built for that expectation despite it having some sort of narrative at least!
It's funny you mention the AWE DLC in Control felt like just a random group of people to you, because that's the exact same experience I ended up having with The Lake House. Not sure how many of these, if any, are actually important to that game's lore, but I did recognise Dr. Darling at least from my few hours of playtime as well as one particular character I will not spoil for you. There must be enough cross-over there that you'd get more out of it!
Also, wondering if anyone's given the new game from the ex-Telltale developers, Dispatch, a shot so far? I bought it when it came out last week and played through the first two episodes. I think the first episode was a bit slow and felt like mostly uneventful set-up, but I really dug the second episode once we actually got to the part the game advertises. Happy with the decisions I've made thus far and very intrigued where the narrative will go and how it will incorporate the choices it has already highlighted. It's very much inspired by Invincible, so anyone who enjoys that universe will no doubt get a kick out of it. It's a similar style of presentation and dialogue, though feels far lower stakes so far.
Aside from that, I'm counting the minutes until The Outer Worlds 2 officially drops. Just four hours and four minutes left at the time of writing! Really excited to get back into this world. Everything I've seen and heard so far seems incredibly promising in terms of the freedom of role-playing as well as the quality of the writing. The first game was the only Fallout/Elder Scrolls-type RPG I've really been able to get into so far, so I'm hoping this continues that particular tradition. I'm sure that it helps that I'm way more of a sci-fi nerd than fantasy and/or post-apocalyptic stories. Anyone else planning to hop on as soon as the game unlocks?
@Tjuz I couldn’t remember, so I just searched and see that Control does have a difficulty options and an easy “assist mode” that should make any difficulty manageable. I don’t remember the game having that option when I played, so it may have been added later. It looks like it can be switched off and on during gameplay so you can switch over to assist mode if you encounter an area you can’t get past.
And another thing came to mind with Control — probably the biggest gripe people have of the game is the poor in-game map. With the levels in the building it’s often hard to read or make sense of the map. I think what I heard was that the game was originally designed to be played without a map and it was added later. It’s really more effect to navigate around the game by reading and following the signs posted in the game. Referring to the map often makes where to go more confusing. So just a head up.
——
I hadn’t played Dispatch but I do want to try Invincible. It’s one of the narrative games that has my eye.
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I hope you enjoy Outer Worlds 2! I never finished the first game. I was liking it well enough but got distracted. Not sure if/when I’ll be able to go back to it at this point.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution It's good to know that it's adaptable in terms of difficulty for when it might really piss me off! High-octane combat is really not my fashion, so I imagine I might make use of that. I'm more of a sneak-in-then-hit-everybody-in-the-face-type gal.
In the little I played, I can definitely see what you mean with the map. I do remember there was one particular area in the first chapter where I had no clue what to do, because the minimap was incredibly confusing in leading me the right way. I got there in the end, but maybe that's a sign I should just turn it off and see how it feels to play without it. I don't have a great memory overall, but my visual memory is luckily better than the rest, so I might just be able to get by with that if I pay attention well enough. I'll try it and let you know how it feels, assuming turning off the map is an option.
Sounds like The Outer Worlds will enter deep into your backlog never to be seen again. Despite having really enjoyed the first, I can't fault you for it either. All these years later I can't say that the game itself was particularly memorable, other than just having a grand time with it. Definitely seems like one of those games that either gels with you or it just doesn't, and there's not much anyone can say to convince you otherwise as it's hard to point at any particular aspect and be like: ''It's worth pushing through it just for that!'' I wonder if this sequel will do a lot to convert the people who felt that way about the original or if it'll go down the same path. I've been surprised to see so many people almost hoping for it to be bad. I guess as some kind of validation on their opinions regarding the first despite, at the time, it being critically well received? I get that it was divisive in how much people felt it lived up to the promise or the calibre of the studio, but it's always struck me as an odd game for people to feel so passionately against. I don't think it does anything that could particularly offend anyone other than, at worst, boredom or disappointment.
@Tjuz Yes, I have a graveyard of games that got started and never completed and Outer Worlds is in that pile. Realistically, you’re correct that it may never get dug out again. Only because so many new games keep pushing those back. Part of my issue with it is the first person perspective. It’s not my preferred point of view and so a game really has to grab me to get over that prejudice.
I recall many people loving Outer Worlds when it released, so as you say it’s strange to have a lot of negativity about the sequel. Gamers are fickle bunch, and so you never know. It’s possible there’s some splash damage from the public opinion of Bethesda and Xbox that has impacted Obsidian. Also Avowed didn’t set the world on fire so maybe that sapped some of the hype. I think it was well received but not on the level of expectations maybe.
Either way, it’s much better to enjoy something that to not, so I sure hope OW2 delivers and surpasses all expectations for you!
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
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