Remedy's Greatest Hits

Extremely ambitious. A ton of mechanics thrown into 1 game, so anybody talking about it has plenty to cover. I just finished it, so this is a bit of a stream of consciousness when there is so much to cover it really should be outlined. For the first 10 or so hours, it felt like like one of the best games in years. I personally love Remedy so I was loving the weirdness and the abstract storyline and how it was tying in 2 decades of Remedy's work. Their use of FMV within the game has really become effective as the graphics of their games have improved. I enjoyed the gunplay, although the handguns basically felt useless, almost like RE2 Remake bulletsponge enemies, which got a bit old.

The Saga chapters are much stronger than the Alan chapters imo. I was actually getting impatient with Alan's repetitive 'trapped in a cycle' gameplay. As for the 2 main mechanics of Alan's chapters - both are cool in theory, the light mechanic that changes environments and the actual plot charts for Alan that could be changed felt tedious and confusing at times.

The game gives you the choice to jump back and forth between character chapters or just go straight through one and then the other. I just went through all of Saga's and then when I hit her stopping point I went over to Alan's.. I'm curious as to how many people jumped back and forth. I don't know if this much player autonomy hurts the narrative, but for me, things felt really bloated and convoluted. There are also a million collectibles, which I get is also tied to player agency, but a lot of them are tied to additional story beats. I get that part of the storyline is repetition, but the game definitely felt as though I was going through the same things multiple times.

Also, the game doesn't hold your hand at all, which is fine, but there were times I had to look up where I was supposed to go or what to do. Moreso with Alan than Sage - though there is a mechanic within Saga's chapters, her 'Mind Place' that I am sure will turn a lot of players off. They allow you to visit this place at any time, when I think it should've been limited to certain times in the narrative. Again, it's the question of 'when is too much player autonomy hurting the overall experience?' Generally with Saga if you don't know what to do next, you need to go to the Mind Place and update your evidence.

Getting confused or lost ties in with bugs as well. It's a large game and there are bugs and some QoL issues. Example - Like most sandbox style games, you explore. You might go somewhere before the narrative wants you to be there. Instead of locking you out, the game let me down there, and it bugged out the place (basement) later when the narrative needed me down there. If you aren't a huge Remedy / Alan Wake fan, I would definitely hold off on this one for a few months.

Edit: I think I have a bad taste in my mouth as I finish a game I looked forward to as much as any for over a decade, it's because not only was the story completely convoluted when it really didn't need to be, but in the end, we are left without any real conclusion and plot threads are unresolved all over the place. I know David Lynch is a huge inspiration and they seem to be really inspired by TP: The Return and it's abstract storytelling and mixed in some True Detective S.1, but is this one of those situations where DLC will help answer some things?