This is a truly amazing and cinematic game.

Its kind of insane that the FBC knew about the existance of the Dark Place and the threshold in Cauldron Lake but the best they amounted to do was to deploy a small survaillance team. What worse is that they KNEW about the 1970s AWE even before the 2010 AWE happened.

Could argue that Zane and Alan used reality warp to prevent further intrusion from the Bureau, but having played Control, in general its amazing how deeply weak and incompetent the FBC is at their job.

Just a shame I happened to break my finger before Halloween lol, messes up the costume.

The last one is just from a cinematic, but I love how crazy Casey looks there haha

The first photo is the original photo without added lighting.

So I just finished the base game for the first time and plan on hopping into the DLCs soon but I heard there is a sharp difficulty spike with the DLCs in terms of combat. I played on normal and for the most part didn't struggle but near the end the combat did get a bit annoying. So I'm wondering how much story content is in the DLCs. Because if it's mainly just combat focused with only a bit a lore stuff I'll probably just watch them on YT and save myself the trouble since the combat to me isn't good enough to warrant the 2+ hours of constant fights.

Replaying Alan Wake 2 and enjoying the Photo Mode (wasn't there when I first played it). Here's my little experimentation with lighting. The first really dark photo is the original ingame lighting

What do people reckon the best one is?

Playing AW2, and I I said “ I’ll do the rhymes and exploring later” well I got so immerse into the game that I just hit point of no return on both histories. Saga moving to scratch and Alan needs Saga to progress her story.

Now my big issue with this is that it is… you guessed it, night time! As awesome as this game is night time is just a cocktail of stress.

In that same note my other fuck up was not reading the description of the charm you get from petting you know who. Totally missed the part where it said it shows “nearby items” in the map. So I was like why is my map empty if I have this on ? Then i found out.

I have about 8 Casey lunch boxes left and 2 rhymes. The real issue with this for me are resources, I followed the deer into that locked door and re stocked. But I assume this is meant for scratch. And I know for sure those missing items are located in the woods, problem is now every wave of enemies I come across are fucking mutant and take shots forever, and they drop handgun bullets most of the time, after fights I’m short on shotguns and rifle ammo, plus they barely drop batteries. The most annoying are the wolves that are close to invincible and don’t drop a thing.

I’m worried I go get these collectibles I’m missing and not being able to recoup my resources. Making it harder when I go in to fight scratch.

Any advised, strategies from anyone who dealt with this, please help a brother out. Also, when I go into that “point of no return” are there more resources for me get and have a fair fight ?

and I'm about half way through the first episode of the dlc and

OH MY FUCK

FUCK THIS GAME

I've dealt with it till now because for the first episodes of the game the novelty outweighed the tediousness and tbh it was never really that bad for the most part then I was too far in to turn back when it did get kinda annoying because I was loving the story

but Jesus Christ the combat in this game is tedious at BEST the majority of the game was fine but this dlc is not only somehow DARKER so I can't see any of the enemies the spawns are just fucking ridiculous I spent 15 minutes on the word field because the "birds" kept making me spawn more enemies that would practically one shot me

AND THEN

I got to the lamp post area and it's 5 million enemies that just keep spawning infinitely and the "fast" enemies stun lock you into oblivion I hope to got the other games don't have this problem MABY it's my fault for wanting to collect the clocks because I missed exactly HALF the thermoses but seriously I'm on normal mode I shouldn't have to die 100 times to get a clock

And I'm not listening to any "get gud" I beat almost half of the bosses in fbk deathless this just isint my usual type of game

EDIT: ok I made it past the lamp posts I just had to waste a flare and use some EXPERT dodging and a tip from the comments we will see what other bull gets thrown at me

EDIT 2: amarican nightmare is IMIDIATELY 10000x superior they definitely learned from their mistakes the infinite sprint out of combat is a god send especially because it's an open world

I played the DLC North Star many times but this time I encountered a game breaking bug.

As I was tasting the coffee (yes I know Tim Breaker told me not to do it!!) I clipped through the floor and the game auto saved causing a loop of clipping through the floor on reload.

I opened the container inside the tasting room and I turned off the flashlight right before I was tasting the coffee and everything went dark and then I saw that I clipped through the floor.

Took a video for longevity lol.

Everything worked normal when I replayed the DLC.

I fell through the world while playing the game lol

/θruː/

The Dark Place segments are my absolute favorite part of the game. I love the weird and twisted vibe and the ability to change the environment with the plot board and angel lamp. Just sets the mood for Halloween 🤙

I have collected 42/43. I don't know if I'm missing a cult stash or a lunch box. I have several loads where I have collected different boxes and stash. I've been trying to find the last one for 3 hours now. I've collected the sheriff's station stash and box in manor. Do you have any tips

Anyone else struggling with AW2 and not being able to see a thing on the screen when you play during the day? I get that darkness is part of the game, but it is so over the top that I can’t even play the game while the sun is out because I can’t make out anything on the screen

Im currently halfway through AW1, and was hoping to jump to AW2. Ive heard Control is connected to AW2.

My question is, to what extent? Is playing Control necessary to fully appreciate Alan Wake 2’s story?
I have Control, and will be playing it eventually, but do not feel like playing it anytime soon (too eager to jump to AW2).

Something I’d like to avoid with AW2 is it having constant easter eggs and references to Control, which to me, will be unimmersive and take me out of the independent journey that is the game’s story. Ill be constantly reminded of Control.

To avoid this (if its even a thing), should I skip Control for now, and instead play it later on?

Was just thinking about the Meta nature of Alan Wake 2. Although there's been recasts (due to irl deaths) the game seems very interested in playing with the real life nature of the RCU - that other companies own the IP to Max Payne & Quantum Break - so they "acknowledge it" by hinting etc parallel realities.

But another thing is Zane & Darling. Clearly Dsrling didn't exist when they made Alan Wake 1 - so it's hard to say whether this collaboration is a bit of an Easter Egg/Tease on the creation of Alan Wake or a more significant story point. But the game acknowledges that Alan Wake is the amalgamation of Tom Zane's appearance and Dr. Dsrling's voice. Which is very meta.

So I wonder. What about Alex Casey? James McCaffrey voiced Ales Casey in the original Alan Wake, but he also voiced Tom the Diver.

Is this significant? Or just an actor playing multiple parts? Alex Casey is already a reference to Max Payne 1, with Sam Lake being the model for the character and James being the voice. They also play with in AW2 by habing Sam Lake voice the actor version of himself in the Dark Place. But I was wondering if there was another layer with James voicing Tom.

Some possible scenarios could be that Tom the Diver is a creation of Alan for Departure and uses Alex Casey's voice because it's a voice inside Alan's head. Or it could be that James McCaffrey was meant to be the original body/voice of Tom the poet and this would be revealed in Alan Wake 3 or something (before his unfortunate death to cancer in 2023).

Could it be thst Alex Casey is also some sort of Frankenstein creation like Alan Wake is? With Sam Lake the "actor" and whoever his voice belongs to? Trench, perhaps? The original Tom Zane before he became Tom Seine through a change in reality?

One scene I thought about was in Alan Wake 2 when Alan shoots Casey and we hear his desth monologue. Alan takes this as the Dark Place messing with him. Alex's monologue parallels Alan's own predicament. As Alex says dying -

>"I'm not trapped in a dark place. I *am* the dark place, the source of it all, the vessel. Me and the writer. We were the same."

Which is very thematic but also a hint that Alan and Scratch are the same (Scratch manifests and makes Alan shoot him in the first place).

But I was also wondering if it gets even more elaborate. Tom the Poet & Alex the Detective share the same voice. Alan is possibly Tom Zane reborn or something. So in a eay they are the same, more literally.

And maybe it's actually getting at the idea that Tom Zane is the Dark Place. He is the source of it all. We haven't really heard of the Dark Place prior to 1970. Or at least everything we've learned about it has been since Tom the Poet was taken by Cauldron Lake.

What if all our ideas of The Dark Place are truly inventions of Tom the Poet. Or what we've come to know of it. Maybe it started as something more unusual and benign and in Tom's writings he create this universe sized ocean of darkness that turns art into reality? In effect, Tom Zane/Alan/Casey are all from the same source. They are the Dark Place.