Review: Alan Wake

I got Alan Wake and Alan Wake: American Nightmare from g2a.com and decided to give them a try.  I have heard a lot of good things about the game and I enjoy thrillers.  Also, it gave me a good game to start my streaming endeavor with.

Storyline.  The story for Alan Wake was very captivating.  I would describe it as like Stephen King / Shutter Island type story.  The game blends in the line between dreams and reality.  It starts off as you and your girlfriend, Alice, are going on a little vacation.  You get to the cabin when all of a sudden Alice gets taken and you jump into the water to save her and then pass out.  The story focuses on the main question of, What happened to Alice?  I won’t spoil the story but it was very well written and left a lot of questions to be answered at the end.  Many twists and turns came up and Alan is even forced to determine if he is just crazy and imagining the entire thing.

Gameplay.  The gameplay was unique.  It had the standard light vs. dark but brought some new ideas also.  You use flashlights to sort of “purge” the darkness from the enemies before you can actually shoot them.  You are given a wide range of weapons to deal with the enemies, from a simple pistol to rifles and flash bang grenades.  Also, when you dodged and incoming projectile or took out a bunch of enemies quickly the game would give you this cinematic type view where it would temporarily slow down (think matrix like).  This gave the gameplay a unique flavor.

Looks.  Alan Wake is a few years old now but it looks great.  I was able to max out the game and get 60fps throughout.  The game takes place in the same general area but in many different parts of the area.  The scenes in the wilderness were spectacular and the attention to detail in the buildings in the city was great.

Overall I would give Alan Wake a 8/10.  It was a great experience but it felt like it lacked something.  The ending was good, yet I wanted a little more closure.  I expect more to be revealed in American Nightmare.  I really enjoyed the game and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story and a unique gameplay experience.

Stay Safe,

Jahrew

My Review of DotA 2

So I’ve finally gotten around to writing a review of DotA 2.  Let’s begin.

Intro:  As I’ve mentioned I began playing DotA 2 in late ’11 and haven’t stopped since.  I have played both LoL and HoN, as well as a few console MOBAs. I began playing DotA 2 on my ’09 Macbook on which I bootcamped Vista.

Gameplay:  Playing DotA 2 is very simple yet very complicated.  Your goal is to destroy the other team’s towers and eventually their Ancient (hence Defense of the Ancients).  That’s the easy part.  The complicated part is everything in between.  From understanding last-hitting to stacking neutrals.  From support to off-lane to mid to hard carry, it can very incredibly difficult to understand your role in your team.  It is incredibly difficult to get a hang of the game.  I would encourage all new players to play MANY games against bots.  Unless you want to be flamed beyond all recognition by other players for screwing up a pull, or blowing an ult, or not warding.  It gets intense.  The learning curve is one of the steepest in any game I’ve ever played, on PC or console.  In the end it is all worth it though.  What sets DotA 2 apart from LoL, in my opinion, is how dynamic each heroe’s build is every game.  One game I might build Stygian Desolater to eat through the other teams tanky carry, while the next I might build Lothar’s Shadow Blade to get in and initiate a team fight.  One game I might rush a Hand of Midas on Naix while the next game I might build Poor Man’s Shield into Drums to get early game survivability and the ability to fight early.

Graphics:  DotA 2 is by no means the most beautiful game out there.  Hell I managed to play it on my Macbook with 2GB of RAM and 2.0 GHz dual core processor.  Yet at the highest settings it does look “nice.”  At times I have found myself enjoying the graphics.  However the point of the game is not to enjoy the scenery, its to win.

Matchmaking:  DotA 2 is a simple game.  There’s no Campaign mode or special game modes like Zombies or Horde.  It’s a multiplayer game with one map and one objective.  The matchmaking system in DotA 2 may seem utterly broken at times, and I try to never play completely random games.  I recommend adding players that were good or you enjoyed playing with.  There’s nothing better than getting a 5 stack and playing some good DotA.  The feeling after hitting a Dark Seer Vacum into an Enigma Black Hole is amazing.  From chaining stuns to split pushing like a boss then having a KotL bring you right back into the team fight.  It’s quite an amazing experience.

Conclusion:  Overall DotA 2 is honestly the best game I have ever played.  I hated it the first couple times I played.  There is an insane amount of things to learn before the game starts to make sense.  I remember only being able to play 5 heroes, now I know every hero in the pool and how to build them and adapt my build according to how the game is going or who the other team has for heroes.  I honestly give DotA 2 10/10 at this time.  Being the type of game it is things may get patched and things may change so who knows what the game will look like in 3 months, 6 months, a year even.  That’s why I love the game so much, everything changes but it all stays the same.