Zero Punctuation: Alan Wake

[sketch_zeppelin]

I actually had alot of fun with this game. I'm not gonna say that Yatzee didn't have some good points. I do think that alerting the player every time the enemies spawn was a bad idea and it would have been nice if you could play in more varied locations. However i liked how Alan narated the story as it happend and the setting and story was at least different.

Now lets be clear, i really liked Max Payne and this game is made by the same people and has a very similar feel to it (hell Max payne's voice actor plays the voice of one of the characters).

so i don't think it's quite as bad Yatzee makes it out, that being said i did enjoy his review.

 

[Silversoul]

There is something a bit off with Yahtzee's eye on 2:28

 

[carpathic]

One word, said in a high pitched voice: Hilarious!

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

For the record, Stephen King is fucking incredible.

 

[Keswick Gallagher]

a Good review. I will say the ending metaphor is probably the best i've herd this whole year

 

[daxterx2005]

I think if I owned a 360, I'd buy this...

 

[Hyperactiveman]

Thankyou so much for hitting that guy with the car.

Hate games that take your camera and show you where the bad guy is.

That takes away the edge of the whole combat with monsters, zombies etc.

 

[antigodoflife]

It was not as fun as I hoped it was. He spent most of his time talking about how he gets stuck in the forest all the time.

How does it come Yahtzee never reviews grand strategy games like Hearts of Iron 3? That would be pretty awesome.

He only get's time to review one game a week, so he uses that time to review AAA Games

 

[St. Neon]

So I originally thought that Alan Wake was going to be an interesting game. You know, creepy atmosphere, maybe good writing, HEAVILY BASED ON STEPHEN KING, but then that is half the game. I kinda over looked that it wanted to be a Psychological Action Game. So while the first aspect was hopefully done somewhat well, I decided to look into the combat. I found it awful. Like it was trying to be scary, but not a challenge (which DOESN'T work.) Then I realized something about the combat. It surprisingly resembles, get this guys, Luigi's Mansion. Yea... think about it, shine the light, absorb the ghost. Same deal, but with bullets. Accept, it isn't as fun! The fights in Luigi's Mansion were MUCH harder than any in Alan Wake. So good job developers, you successfully failed at making Luigi's Mansion.

 

[GuiltBlade]

God's damn it, I was considering buying this, still am if I see it going for about £5.

Please someone tell me the Steven King theme isn't as prevalent as Yahtzee claims as I cannot stand his books.

When stuck in Germany with no source of entertainment save for German medical journals and one of the Dark tower books, I chose Deutsche medizinische Bücher within 2 chapters.

 

[Sprizmo]

I dunno... seems like minor irritations are being amplified for comedic purpose to badmouth what is essentially a really good game.

 

[Quorothorn]

Here's hoping he does a review for Red Dead Remdemption.

http://twitter.com/YahtzeeCroshaw

Red Dead Redemption bugged out and now I can't play any further. Hooray! Next game, please.

Inb4 shitstorm.

Aw. I rebooted and it bugged back in again.
12:09 AM May 28th via Twitterrific

Bugged...in means it got fixed? Damn my southern European ancestry, need to refresh my English.

Not your fault: he was making an unusual play on words there.

 

[Undead_David]

Alan Wake

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Alan Wake.

Be sure to join the Zero Punctuation Facebook Fan Page [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zero-Punctuation/7546255825].

Watch Video

All in all I found this review to be pretty funny and it did hit some of the sticking points I had but you forgot they mentioned HP Lovecraft more than Stephen King who by the way has been basically telling his storied just shy of saying Kthulu. But for someone who loved Silent Hill 2's atmosphere and story enough to overlook some of its glaring flaws Im surprised you didnt give more of a nod to it in this game, perhaps I should just shut my mouth tell your extra punctuation but too late for that

 

[Quorothorn]

Before you plan to not get this game, know that Escapist gave it 10/10.

I use to think that he just doesn't like most games,but now I'm convinced he doesn't care if the game is good or not and always hates on any game.

But if the plot and pacing is half as bad as he says it is then I won't bother.

If you use Yahtzee's reviews as a source of reviewing, you must haven nearly no games at all. That's because HE'S NOT MEANT TO LIKE ANY GAMES, IT'S WHAT HE'S PAYED FOR.

Here is a sample list of games that Yahtzee likes:

Prototype, Infamous, Resident Evil 4, Thief 2, Fallout 3, Psychonauts, Saint's Row 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Orange Box (Portal especially), Half-Life 2, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Silent Hill 2, Left for Dead, LEGO Indiana Jones, Painkiller, No More Heroes, Killer 7, Condemned, Gears of War 2, Monkey Island, God of War, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed 2, Guitar Hero franchise (to a point), Spiderman 2, Grim Fandango, Manhunt.

You might take issue with one or two of those getting that classification, but I think a list of two dozen-odd games makes it pretty clear that Yahtzee does not, in fact, just hate everything. It's just that he is never 100% positive (or even 95% positive) about anything. There is a substantial difference between those two things.

 

[Undead_David]

This game is really good, and its more HP Lovecraft than Stephen King. Because if it was just like Stephen King novel we would have to play through half of the game before anything abnormal happens lol. If you liked some of the Silent Hill games than you will probably love this

 

[Undead_David]

So I originally thought that Alan Wake was going to be an interesting game. You know, creepy atmosphere, maybe good writing, HEAVILY BASED ON STEPHEN KING, but then that is half the game. I kinda over looked that it wanted to be a Psychological Action Game. So while the first aspect was hopefully done somewhat well, I decided to look into the combat. I found it awful. Like it was trying to be scary, but not a challenge (which DOESN'T work.) Then I realized something about the combat. It surprisingly resembles, get this guys, Luigi's Mansion. Yea... think about it, shine the light, absorb the ghost. Same deal, but with bullets. Accept, it isn't as fun! The fights in Luigi's Mansion were MUCH harder than any in Alan Wake. So good job developers, you successfully failed at making Luigi's Mansion.

have you tried the higher difficulty settings? like hard or nightmare mode could make all the difference in being challenged lol

 

[Undead_David]

I actually had alot of fun with this game. I'm not gonna say that Yatzee didn't have some good points. I do think that alerting the player every time the enemies spawn was a bad idea and it would have been nice if you could play in more varied locations. However i liked how Alan narated the story as it happend and the setting and story was at least different.

Now lets be clear, i really liked Max Payne and this game is made by the same people and has a very similar feel to it (hell Max payne's voice actor plays the voice of one of the characters).

so i don't think it's quite as bad Yatzee makes it out, that being said i did enjoy his review.

when your in the past at his apartment, did you notice that when he read the manuscript for ihs other novel it was from max payne 2, and some of the books were "alex casey" and "Fall of Casey" and next to it were gold replicas of Paynes twin barrettas lol

 

[Michael Dagastino]

I liked the game. I liked the writing, and the atmosphere. Character design needed work. I agree with most of the complaints. One thing they should have changed is the health of the enemies, and work more on scaring the shit out of the player. If enemies had vastly varying amounts of health, even within the 3 or 4 classes of enemies they had, it would make it a lot more hectic.

 

[DukeOfNYaNumba1]

A little harsh a times. I actually liked Alan Wake... then again Yahtzee wouldn't be as entertaining if he didn't stick to his schtick. But at least he picked a worthy game to review this week. It's still fun to watch Yahtzee bash the good games I like, rather than watching a game that looked horrible before, during, and after its release, like Monster Hunter Tri or Dead To Rights Retribution, bashing games like those is like kicking someone in the balls after 40 reviewers already did the same.

 

[ResiEvalJohn]

As much as I loved your review Yatzee, I can't help but notice some hypocrisy here. We all know that Silent Hill 2 is one of your favorite games because of its atmosphere and story, even though the gameplay is average at best. It seems to me that Alan Wake is very similar to SH2, yet you bashed it into bits today.

I haven't played the game yet, but I can't understand - how can you love a game like Silent Hill 2 and not appreciate a game like Alan Wake? In Silent Hill 2 you also just fight the same 4 enemies over and over with the same weapons, as if there's an assembly line churning them out repeatedly. Yet, you loved SH2 didn't you? I also loved SH2 btw. Alan Wake sounds like a similar situtation - Average Gameplay, but a Killer Story - so that's fine with me. I understand your criticisms, but I'm still getting the game because I love survival horror and I mainly play for the story anyway. At least your review was really funny ;-)