Alan Wake??

Just finished this, liked it for the most part. When the combat worked, it was pretty damn tense. Throwing down a flare, focusing your light on one of the enemies, firing off a few rounds, flash bang... it's very intense, effective combat. The setting may be derivative of countless others from other mediums, but it's a pleasant change of pace for gaming. I liked the manuscript pages idea, as I said elsewhere turning a dark corner is just as creepy when you know what might be around it! Story had loads of interesting ideas, the delivery may have been weird on occasion (the lip synching is crazy bad) but there's some thought in it about issues of art, creativity and personal demons. Just kind of stops though at the end (a sudden stop ), although I'm sure DLC and a second 'season' will continue the story on. Loved the episodic structure actually, makes a lot of sense in a game that takes a good few sessions to play through, like a DVD boxset. Most episodes were a bit too long however, although I may just have been OCD with the manuscript pages. There definitely were breaks in episodes 3-5 that could have been split into two seperate hour episodes rather than the 2-2.5 hours it took me to complete them.

The only major issue I had with the game was repetition, particularly in episode six. There is too much of the game just devoted to walking through dark forests. Granted, there are often surprises, but the core of the gameplay barely advances after episode two or three. Luckily, there are set pieces that are exciting and scary enough to pull you back in, but it is a repetitive game.

Overall, definitely liked it, and am delighted Remedy created something different to the norm. The flaws are obvious, but with DLC and a sequel actually working and warranted by the structure of the game, I'm curious to see how the story will progress, and if Remedy have a few more gameplay tricks up there sleeves. Something other than forests though please!