Alan wake 1 or 2? which is better?

I think 2 is the better game overall, my main complaint though is it's too cinematic.

I actually like Alan Wake 2 mainly just for Saga Anderson gameplay segments more so as she has way more stuff to do and has better weapons than Alan's gameplay segments and my issue with playing Alan is the fact it's hard to tell which shadows are fake or real till they start moving odly. The combat was drastically better in Saga's parts, and she had better-level design and free roam. Alan felt like a side character for 90% of the game. But overall, I enjoy Alan Wake 2 more as that game has more stuff to do than the first game. While playing it in high settings, Alan Wake 2 on PC was really icing on the cake.

Hey Ghost, did you by any chance play Alan Wake: American Nightmare? I think you should have added to this since it was a nice spin-off.

Ghost was shaking everytime he had to play as Saga

have not played American nightmare.

@davillain: Alan part have better atmosphere, the dark place plus you playing as iconic and poetic character instead of saga Anderson who is boring nobody.

they should have made alex casey as second playable character if they want to. that would be much better. playing as max payne in real world and alan in dark world. huge missed opportunity.

AW1 felt like a psychological thriller game. This felt more like Sam Lake jerking himself off. Not a bad game at all. I just don't care for modern day sam lake writing.

I think the franchise in general is fairly overrated.

Both have neat ideas but poorly paced and repetitive, just in differing areas. Making Alan Wake a flawed franchise, that has potential for growth.

Alan Wake 1 is an extremely repetitive Action game with repeated dull scenarios and poorly paced segments, offering some great atmosphere and storytelling aside the gameplay is kinda trash. Overall a one-trick pony that outweighs its welcome quickly. I'm not a fan of AW1, however wanted to give it a chance to grow with a sequel.

Alan Wake 2 is three games thrown together and that makes it a slog to finish. Gives off very Resident Evil 6 vibes but catering to actual Survival Horror fans. If you like The Last of Us but wanted more Survival Horror in it? you'll have a good time with AW2, walking and talking is a large chunk of AW2. Unlike AW1 which was a glorified and poorly managed Action game, AW2 can confidently say it's a Survival Horror. When it comes to gameplay its very solid, just wish it offered more of it, and less chit-chatting. Didn't care for the detective aspect either but it's a neat, if clunky idea.

Overall would state AW2 is the superior game. I'm just curious what an AW3 would look like? are they going to shake it up again or refine what they have into a better experience.

Never played the second one, despite loving the first one! But simply refuse to support that exclusive crap they are doing with the epic launcher… if it comes to steam at some point I’ll probably buy it

Ghosts:

Alan Wake 2 by far. The first one has almost nothing going for it. There's an interesting concept there and some interesting inspiration. But even if you like those, the acting is terrible and the characters are poorly animated when delivering. As mentioned the gameplay is extremely repetitive, often they just spawn in enemy after enemy. Something about the flashlight aiming feels odd too.

Alan Wake 2 gets my vote.

I see Alan wake 2 is mad max fury road of games in sense that Titular character is secondary character replace by strong female character.

Fury road was as Max movie as AW2 is Alan game.

I played AW2 at launch so maybe they touched on this but I found ammo and supply drops very sparse for what it gave you, I figured out as long as you travel lean and run anything you pick up back to the shoe box storage you can get more that way, you have to keep what you carry below certain thresholds or loot pickups become more rare and give you less overall.

I prefer original as far as gameplay, American Nightmare is more combat focused of them all.

This. The first Alan Wake was a very very mediocre game. At least the gameplay in Alan Wake 2 is noticeably better and improved.

This too. In the same vain as Fable.

lol TC was pissed he had to play a non white male protagonist

Alan Wake was a more game'y game. Alan Wake 2 was more story focused. I like Alan Wake 2 reflecting more of that broader world that Control is attached to though. Can't wait for another one of those. Too bad Remedy couldn't explicitly bring in their other IPs but they tried their best with sort-of-ish equivalents to Max Payne and Quantum Break.

AW1 had a really fun idea for a combat encounter, and then just repeated that over and over for 10+ hours. I enjoyed the game, but it didn't leave much of an impression.

Meanwhile, I loved AW2. Saga Anderson was a great foil to Alan, and her unique mechanics helped prevent the game just being a repeat of the first one. The core gameplay was solid. The horror atmosphere was very well done. And some of the set pieces were absolutely masterful - everyone should play the game for that musical sequence alone.

So yeah, AW2 easily gets my vote. I wasn't expecting anything from it, and it won me over.

Bonus comparisons with the Deadly Premonition series: DP1 is better than AW1, but AW2 is better than DP2.

It is time to calling the alt accounts to save this poll.😏

What I take away from this is that AW2 has been cracked.

Let's discuss.

No idea, but does remind me I need to go back and play AW2 to completion (didn't get far). Been looking for a filler before Rebirth comes out on PC this Thursday.

TC finally got around to pirating Alan Wake 2 and was clenching his fist every time he had to play the the chick lol

Never tried either of those. Am I missing anything special? Was one of the games I was thinking about getting but didn’t know enough about it. I ended up pre-ordering Civilization 8 instead.

Alan Wake 1 and by a landslide. AW1 = 10/10. AW2 = 3/10

Skip AW2. It's pure trash.

@R4gn4r0k said:

@howmakewood said:

Ghost was shaking everytime he had to play as Saga

Ghosts:

lol

Yet to play 2 , hearing only good things about it:)

The first game? Not really. It's an Xbox 360 era horror shooter in the vein of RE4. It had good shooting (because it's Remedy) and a trippy Twin Peaks meets Stephen King-style plot, but I remember it being quite repetitive.

The second game is great. If you look at the best horror-shooters of the last few years, then Alan Wake 2 stands out as the best of them, and fares well against the rerelease of all-time classics like the RE4 remake, the Dead Space remake, and the Silent Hill 2 remake.

Fair warning: the second game embraces the vibe of Twin Peaks: The Return with gusto. Half of the game takes place in a nightmare world, with all of the dream logic that entails. Then again, that leads to one of my favourite levels of any shooter I can think of. Plus I enjoyed seeing not-Max-Payne lax lyrical again.

*edit* Some of the naysayers are saying no because one of the protagonists is black and female. So that tells you everything you need to know about their posts.

It's weird, because despite capturing some of the spirit of Silence of the Lambs, this game barely has any of that film's gender politics.

I had no idea it's already been cracked when its still EGS only. Makes sense now to hearing he's finally played it after all this time lol.

Says you.

Do you have a problem with that SIR?!?!?

@kvallyx: What kind of problems?

I don't know, it's all I could come up with. You win.

Winner, winner chicken dinner😏

Now I really want some KFC!!

A2 hasn't come to GamePass yet so I haven't tried it. ;o

So A1, the Jacket King wins by default. lolol :P

@indy_2024 said:

@R4gn4r0k said:

@howmakewood said:

Ghost was shaking everytime he had to play as Saga

Ghosts:

lol

It's strange he even likes the first one.

The main protagonist is pure soy.

Wears a cuck tweed top and talks about his feelings constantly.

@uninspiredcup: I just play it to hear McCaffrey's voice

Should I play American Nightmare?

@kvallyx: I had KFC last night, didn't regret it

American Nightmare was great too.

both of them for me