So.
I think this might just be my favorite game yet. I'm not finished yet Looking for the projector... done lots of side stuff so far so that's a big part of why it says 'might' in the previous sentence... but yeah. Wow. I'm a huge Remedy fan, so obviously I like Sam Lake's writing, and their voice cast, and Poets. I'm a Twin Peaks fan, so even going back to Max Payne, I've enjoyed that heavy influence (I was called Address Unknown on a Twin Peaks message board well before Alan Wake was announced).
And yeah. Ray tracing excitement and all that.
So keep that in mind.
But the world building, the art style, the music, the technology. All ridiculously on point.
Finding out the spiral door in the Seaview Motel leads to where Alan Wake is still trapped is the kind of mythology that really gets me.
The gameplay is peak Remedy TPS, with Metroid Prime level boss encounters. I can't praise that enough. The side bosses have been kicking my ass *just* enough.
I found a hidden area in the main research area filled with so many mold enemies I didn't stand a chance.
It's got the *medium* sized world that most of my favorite games tend to have. Large enough that you get a genuine sense of exploration, but small enough that you really start building a mental map of the place.
I'll be playing more again tonight. Had visiting family which prevented me getting heavily into it before this weekend just finished, but. Yup. Wow. Great great game that leans so heavily into my tastes that I can't fight it.