Alan Wake – 4
Playtime: 4.25 hours (14.25 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 9 - Though the last chapter is pure 'go here' travel gameplay, the ending is great, and raises great questions.
Massive spoilers, from the entire game below. Beware.
Alan Wake – 3
Playtime: 3 hours (10 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 9 - Probably the best chapter I've played so far; the standard trudging through the forest was offset by a ton of story reveals, and a very epic ending.
Chapter 4 was pretty great. As always, spoilers on Chapters 1-4 ahead, so beware.
Alan Wake – 2
Playtime: 3 hours (7 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 8 - Continues to be really fun, but I wish there was more on the story and atmosphere and less on the running through the forest
I've decided these write ups for Alan Wake are better focused on the story rather than the gameplay, so there will be spoilers ahead, up till Chapter 3.
Alan Wake
Playtime: 4 hours (4 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 8 - Great atmosphere and interesting story points, awesome little story tidbits make this a great experience
I was interested in Alan Wake when I first heard about it from a friend, described as sort of a Steve King-ish horror game with some LOST mystery thrown in. It sounded absolutely amazing. After watching a gameplay video of it, I couldn't have been more turned off. The main character narrates everything that goes on around him, and it gets very melodramatic very quickly.
"The darkness....it is all around me."
I couldn't take it seriously, so I never picked it up. My interest was piqued recently though, and so I gave it a try.
Bioshock 2 – 5
Playtime: 3.25 hours (15.25 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 7 - The actual ending itself was fine, but the leadup had a number of little things that bothered me.
As a point of warning, I've now finished the game, so this will be littered with spoilers.
Bioshock 2 – 4
Playtime: 2.5 hours (12 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 8 - Levels are still interesting, and the game definitely feels like it's going its own direction. They're starting to get back into the uncomfortable constant references to the first game now that it's in Fontaine Futuristics, but that will hopefully pass.
It's hard to talk about the gameplay of Dionysus Park without putting myself to sleep, much less anyone reading this, so I'm just going to do the sane thing and skip it.
Bioshock 2 – 3
Playtime: 1.5 hours (9.5 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 8 - Some really good level design and sets made this hour go by pretty happily.
So last time I left you, faithful readers, I was staring at the switch that controlled pumping station number 5. During this playthrough, I pulled the hell out of that switch.
Bioshock 2 – 2
Playtime: 3 hours (8 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 7 - Seems to be going in its own direction a little more this session, which is good. I didn't see anything that was directly ripped from Bioshock 1, so that's a plus
I was unsure how my next playthrough of Bioshock 2 would treat me. I had mixed feelings from before; though it was still fun, it felt like such an uninspired job, taking more than a bit of inspiration from the first. It did get a bit better though (or maybe I just got used to it)
Bioshock 2
Playtime: 5 hours (5 hours total)
Personal Rating This Session: 6 - Fun on its own merit, but feels like it is trying too hard to live up to the first game, and suffers for it
It's odd how a game can be so different and yet so much the same as its predecessor. Bioshock was a game that didn't need a sequel, and pretty much cut all possibility from how they ended it. Did that stop them from making one? Hell no!
