Tons of chill co-op and strategic fun with friends.

A charming and fun little mashup of a cooking co-op game like Overcooked and a a fantasy game like Skyrim or Oblivion, though very simplistic and it lets you take things at your own pace.

Starting on PS4 and Xbox One, I've enjoyed 10 years of action shooting, wandering around sci-fi worlds and fighting cool enemies, but the grind has worn thin. Paying and playing most weeks just to see what happens next is no longer worth it, and the writing was on the wall when I started really being more excited for the seasonal downtime when there was no more story to release via drip-feed, and I could enjoy other games without feeling guilty of falling behind in Destiny 2.

The action shooting and abilities are fun, if not simple. But everything surrounding that fun is meant to psychologically manipulate you into keep coming back for hopes of scraps. I will forever appreciate this game, as it helped me meet and connect with some of the best friends I've ever had and still have. My decision in the last year and half, leading up to Final Shape, to ignore the grind for power levels, and just accept whatever light level I happen to be at, was the first step in letting go of this game. After I beat Final Shape, and the immediate season that followed with Lakshmi, I decided to dip after taking one look at the potion brewing mechanic and thinking "I don't want to deal with this crap anymore."

Letting go of Destiny 2 is so freeing, so liberating. And I really don't want a game that formulates itself like Destiny 2 to replace it. I'm sick and tired of live-service treadmills. Thank you for all the good you've done, Destiny + Destiny 2. But it's time to move onto to other games. 10 years is enough.

TL;DR at the bottom.

So I finally finished this game on my third attempt, and did the two bonus chapters. I quit this game back on Xbox 360 over a decade ago because the gameplay was so boring on account of it being too simple and repetitive, and I still stand by that. The gameplay and combat is the textbook definition of repetitive, but I can normally handle repetitive, and often throw myself into the same gamplay loops in other games for hours on end and have a blast. Where Alan Wake truly fails is its lack of depth to it's combat. It's always some form of use flashlight and flares, then shoot weapon. The flare gun and flash bangs also exist as quick aces up your sleeve, and there's a few driving sections where you can run over The Taken. (Side note, I wonder if Bungie grabbed that enemy idea of shadowy stolen people called The Taken being used by The Darkness to attack the player. If not, it's a funny coincidence.)

The reason I'm giving this game a positive review is for it's story. Something that was intriguing to me as a college student, but I couldn't get past the gameplay back then. And the only real reason I even bothered returning to this game to finally finish it, was because of Remedy Entertainment's other game in the same universe: Control.

Knowing this game takes place in the same continuity as Control, and having had a much more fun time with Control's gameplay, and I mean that by miles and miles, I was finally interested to see what Alan Wake's story was, and it is a VERY interesting story having come from the context of Control first.

I have no earthly idea if Alan Wake 2 will be enjoyable from my perspective, of greatly disliking Alan Wake 1's gameplay, and absolutely LOVING Control's, but I expect I will be waiting a while, since Epic plans to keep it as a PC exclusive. My only hope is that Remedy's other projects earn them enough money for them to buy out their contract with Epic and finally get Alan Wake 2 on Steam.

TL;DR: If you can stomach extremely repetitive gameplay with almost non-existent depth or complexity, then you will be treated to a fascinating supernatural horror story that fits in nicely with the game Control. If you can't stomach that, just watch a playthrough on YouTube, but with all the licensed music muted due to copyright claims.

Also, play Control.

A short and cute little playable promo for Boltgun 2. I played on easy and it was over in 20 minutes and it really highlighted that I'm not 100% used to my year-and-a-half old keyboard, as compared to my previous keyboard of close to 10 years. But that's a "me" issue.

This game feels like the fun and silly result of, presumably, one developer cracking a joke like "Wouldn't it be funny if we made a Boltgun typing game?" and someone higher up the company chain said "Yeah! Go for it!" and then it became someone's pet project for a few weeks. Which isn't a bad thing, and the whole experience was quite refreshing.

If you want to spend around a half hour, or probably less, playing a self-parody typing game based on a fun boomer shooter, just go ahead and click "Install". The game is free, after all.