gloomcore/horrorcore game recommendations

alan wake remastered/alan wake 2

my rating:

description:

novelist alan wake and his photographer wife alice take a vacation to washington state to stay at a secluded lake cabin. unfortunately for them, paranatural forces are at play as alice soon discovers when she is taken by the lake. despite the danger to himself alan dives in to save her.

waking up having lost a weeks worth of time he finds himself deep in the forest of the pacific northwest and must navigate his way back to the lake, collecting manuscript pages which seem to be describing events from a horrific future he is about to experience.

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13 years after the events of the first game, an FBI agent named saga anderson travels to the small town of bright falls, washington to investigate the bizarre happenings surrounding a ritualistic murder. aided by mysterious manuscript pages she keeps finding, she must piece together the horror story she has been thrust into the middle of.

gameplay:

over-the-shoulder survival horror. both games revolve around navigating fairly on-rails environments while either shooting down or avoiding enemies. enemies can be stunned using a flashlight, which has four charges. weapons include a pistol, pump-action shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, flare gun, rifle, and (in the second game) a crossbow. the combat is fairly slow, requiring tactful thinking to know when to reload both your gun and flashlight to keep enemies at bay. there is also a dodge mechanic i found myself relying on much more in the first game.

the first game is also more combat focused (in the way most early 2010 shooter games are). more than a few times i had to use my surroundings to funnel enemies into a spot where i could take them down one by one. there was also a timed mission where i had to hold off enemies while my NPC companion struggled to open a gate, which i didn't find very enjoyable.

there are several light environmental puzzles in the second game, mostly finding the password combinations to weapons lockers. they didn't really pose me any challenge.

everything about the second game is an upgrade from the first. better gameplay, environment design, writing/lore, etc. it has much more content as well. if i were to choose one to play i'd recommend starting with the second unless you really care about understanding the story chronologically. and if you enjoy it, you can go back to play the first. the only other consideration is that the second game is also much more demanding hardware wise. my PC has a ryzen 5 5600x/gtx 2060 and it struggled to maintain 60FPS at 1080p without FSR3 frame generation.

aesthetics:

the aesthetics of the alan wake games are where they shine the most. having lived in the PNW for almost a decade, i'm qualified in saying that the graphics (in the second game) are almost scarily realistic. other than lots of deciduous tree leaf litter without any of those types of trees around, i can't really find any flaws when it comes to how the area is presented. its so believable i started smelling wet soil and pine needles while playing.

someday you'll return: directors cut

my rating: ★★★★★

description:

gameplay:

aesthetics: