I’ve been thinking Alan Wake 2 is just a better version of The Last of Us 2’s general template.
I feel pulled to do The Last of Us search for things around every environment a bit too much. I get this is a common aspect of a lot of survival horror, but it felt like the most AAA aspect of the whole experience for some reason. This led to other (mostly) superficial comparisons.
- You alternately play as two characters: The two characters have a bossfight against each other at one point. In TLOU2 this feels uncanny and contrived. In AW2 it makes sense in context why the player can control one but not the other
- Looting every drawer. Laps around every room.
- Both are character cutscene dense but I think FMV > CG. I think we’re gonna start seeing more of this in certain AAA/AA budgets since it’s surely cheaper and arguably more effective for direct character stuff.
- Both longer 3PS going into 20+ hours depending on how much you do in AW2. AW2 feels a good length as long as you don’t do too much sidestuff. TLOU2 feels like it will never end.
- Characters upgrade one of a small number of weapons at a desk.
- Zombies are there but not the main problem.
- Forests, lodges, and abandoned cities
AW2 handles the chronological disconnect between its characters in a more interesting way than TLOU2 does. Hatred/justifying [mass] murder as a theme feels stretched across 25 hours. Wake has a lot more for me to eat. TLOU2 feels like a really laboured Rashomon which contributes to its horrible length. AW2 gives the player a lot more agency and more interesting ways to think about the connections between the character’s chronology and actions. I felt TLOU2 was too long and blunt but there are decent bits. It’s just so gaudy and expensive that it collapses in on itself. It would probably be perfect if Neil Druckmann’s name was Neil Revenge.
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