Alan Wake had an issue. He’d been teased as being an enormous a part of the ultimate DLC growth of Control, dubbed AWE, and with that got here expectations. Fans of Remedy Entertainment’s 2010 psychological horror/thriller shooter had been ready a couple of decade for the following part of his story. Wake labored furiously to make himself a part of the AWE story, showing in twisted cutscenes that captured his fractured psychological state. But in the long run, it wasn’t sufficient. Though his writing had the ability to change the very nature of actuality, not even Wake may make AWE greater than an unsatisfying addition to each his story and that of the sport he’d invaded.Control’s AWE growth finally is an underwhelming addition and a skinny follow-up to the Remedy cult hit it is invoking. Especially following The Foundation, a DLC drop that added a whole lot of selection to Control with new powers and a brand new location that felt very completely different from the whole lot else within the sport, AWE comes off as extra of a barely tweaked rehash of the vanilla Control. AWE tries to faucet into a few of Alan Wake’s spooky suspense underpinnings, and whereas it generally succeeds, it could actually’t fairly keep them for very lengthy.It’s a little bit of a whimper for an excellent sport to exit on, as AWE feels extra like a teaser for one more sport you may have to purchase at a later date, relatively than a satisfying growth of (or conclusion to) what we have seen in Control up to now.AWE represents Remedy elevating Easter eggs present in Control and its different video games (specifically Quantum Break) to shared-universe territory. Alan Wake is a personality in Control’s universe, and what’s extra, he is now instantly impacting on protagonist Jesse Faden’s story. A spectral Alan guides Jesse to the Investigations part of the Oldest House, the residing workplace constructing the place Control is ready. The Investigations part was sealed two years earlier after an enormous horrific monster rampaged by means of it and killed an entire bunch of individuals. Wake’s messages ship Jesse to research, and unsealing the part provides the monster the chance to escape–so it turns into Jesse’s job to hunt it down and kill it earlier than it could actually get into the remainder of the Federal Bureau of Control and begin munching on the survivors.So most of AWE is about Jesse wandering by means of the Investigations part, looking the creature. The twist is that the monster is Emil Hartman, a personality from Alan Wake (the sport, not the man). The Darkness, the evil drive in that sport, has turned Hartman right into a monster, and the interference of Control’s Hiss has made him even worse. Merging the 2 video games lets Remedy add Alan Wake mechanics to Control’s fight to create a brand new wrinkle: Hartman is invincible at the hours of darkness however afraid of the sunshine.That creates a few of AWE’s finest moments, the place you pursue or are pursued by Hartman in heart-pounding, lethal interactions. Again and once more, you may face Hartman in conditions the place you both need to run from gentle supply to gentle supply to keep away from a distorted, 15-foot-tall, teleporting killing machine, or you must flip switches and maneuver energy sources to blast that killing machine with gentle and drive it away. The total DLC marketing campaign is a collection of encounters with a creature that is genuinely scary, and in its coolest components, AWE faucets into Alan Wake’s horror and filters it by means of Control’s superpowered lens.It would not all the time work, although. All of those encounters with Hartman aren’t actually fights, since you’ll be able to’t harm Hartman whereas he is at the hours of darkness. They’re extra like a collection of fast-paced puzzle encounters, and a few of them–like a chase the place you must blow down partitions as a way to attain the following pool of sunshine earlier than you are snagged within the creature’s big, gnarled arms–are extra thrilling than others.The evil Darkness in AWE mirrors that of Alan Wake: In the 2010 sport, standing in a pool of sunshine would heal you of wounds you obtained out within the black. In AWE, standing at the hours of darkness saps you of your capability power, shortly limiting the superpowers you should utilize, whereas getting beneath a lightweight restores them. That implies that while you’re sprinting from gentle to gentle, you are slowly shedding the power to successfully dash from gentle to gentle.On paper, that feels like it might create a whole lot of rigidity, however in apply it simply provides a limitation to your fight capabilities that may compound frustration. Control already is usually a slog at occasions because of its well being system, which requires you to harm and kill enemies to revive your self. The sport is constructed to offer you powers like super-speedy dodging and telekinetic shields that will help you save your self while you get harm too badly. But preventing enemies at the hours of darkness additionally robs you of your superpowers. It helps create conditions during which you are not solely struggling to maintain your well being up, but additionally scrambling to maneuver to or keep in areas that strengthen your powers. In a number of fights, like one the place you slowly dismantle your gentle sources as a way to energy a a lot larger one, this shortly places you into conditions the place if you happen to take an excessive amount of injury you’ve got just about obtained no likelihood to heal your self, and wish to begin over.The pendulum swings between enjoyable, tense, scary fights and irritating fights can be extra forgivable if AWE felt prefer it delivered on the promise of its title, although. In Control, AWEs are Altered World Events, conditions during which the supernatural bleeds into the actual world. Exploring the realm the place the Bureau investigates these occasions feels prefer it ought to imply this DLC is overflowing with bizarre, creative stuff–but it is not. There are solely a small handful of side-quests and Control’s extra-cool altered objects to come across, and so they’re extraordinarily underwhelming, largely consisting of momentary busywork. One is a practice automotive the place it is advisable work together with objects in a sure order to piece collectively the story of the way it derailed, which reveals subsequent to nothing. The different is an encounter with a sentient NASA house go well with that you simply solely work together with by means of a door and by no means really see in individual. As a follow-up to encounters with objects like a sentient rubber ducky and a fridge that murders individuals in the primary sport, or a film digicam that places you in a Hollywood-style chase scene in The Foundation DLC, these AWE concepts are fairly lackluster.The extra fascinating half is all of the story AWE teases, though most of it presents cool potentialities for issues that do not really seem within the sport. Wake himself is round, and we get somewhat information on what is going on on with him, which suggests there’s extra to search out. There are different threads with Alan Wake characters, together with his spouse, Alice. And we study a really probably cool side of the FBC’s mandate: coping with “paracriminals,” individuals who attempt to use supernatural Altered Items and Objects of Power for crimes, or who attempt to really create Altered World Events. A sport about coping with these individuals sounds prefer it’d be fairly compelling, and AWE provides the sense that that may be the course Control goes, as a franchise, sooner or later.But for now, you are largely simply fixing puzzles in Investigations so you’ll be able to activate lights to chase Hartman. You proceed to battle the Hiss, however even with the introduction of a brand new flying enemy, it is just about enterprise as ordinary. There are some new energy upgrades for Jesse’s arsenal–specifically, the power to telekinetically throw three objects at a time as a substitute of one–and the brand new Surge grenade launcher gun, which fires sticky bombs you’ll be able to remotely detonate, provide you with alternatives to create new fight methods. They mix effectively with what’s already on supply in Control, however none supply creative new methods to deal with fight conditions or exploration the way in which The Foundation’s additions do.AWE is the story of expectations not fairly assembly actuality. It’s thrilling to see Alan Wake develop into a full-fledged addition to the Control universe and to make amends for completely different features of Remedy’s rising universe. But this feels way more like a style of what would possibly are available in future video games than a robust addition to what’s been in-built Control. AWE is a missed alternative for Remedy to actually embrace Control’s deep weirdness, and it is a missed alternative for it to actually develop on the story of Alan Wake after a lot ready. It’s the unlucky facet impact of the thought of a shared universe–in teasing the following installment within the rising story, AWE would not do a lot to serve the story it is already in.
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