okay! i beat alan wake 2! twice!! i finished the new game+. here are some final(?) scattered thoughts, including spoilers for the whole game (including the final draft)
the final draft
so, the final draft ending isn't HUGELY different from the original ending... but it's different enough. it hits different. but i don't think it would've hit the way it did if it had been the ending you get just for beating the game once, and it DEFINITELY wouldn't have hit the same if i'd just gone and looked it up on youtube right after beating the game the first time
for one thing, i think you need to sit with the tension of the original cliffhanger horror ending (which evokes the abrupt, unsettling ending of twin peaks: the return) in order for this presumably "true" ending to feel cathartic. you also need the tension of going through the canonical time loop another time and worrying about if things are actually going to turn out better, only to get that last second relief. AND you need to go through the twisty, complicated story a second time and understand everything better this time through, to better put yourself in the shoes of alan, who feels a sense of clarity in the new ending that he didn't before. i cannot believe they pulled off making me play the game twice in a row, but the narrative framework supports that loop, and it felt rewarding to get a better grasp of the story
(it also helped that i was able to ignore almost all of the collectibles this time and use the overpowered hunting rifle throughout saga's story, which cut my second playthrough in half)
i don't entirely know what to make of alan seemingly attaining nirvana or going homestuck god tier or whatever at the end though lol. i guess this is remedy connected universe stuff. idk. i have a hard time believing they'd be eager to set up an alan wake 3 when this one took 13 years to make, but maybe sam lake is just that crazy
anyway the real most important thing added in the final draft is the pair of dr. darling videos. i can't believe he's off sleeping with thomas zane in the dark place. i can't believe alan has a new stepdad now. i guess that explains thomas zane writing alan into existence as a person with his face and darling's voice? is that literally canon now???
saga's story
having now completed the game, i definitely maintain my earlier criticism that saga's side of the story isn't as interesting as alan's. i do think saga's story goes some fun places, and the climax in the mind place is one of those game design moments that makes me go "man, i love game design." using the mechanics to tell the story! it's great!
but i think what lets it down is just that... saga isn't all that interesting? at least not compared to how much alan has going on
i like saga, don't get me wrong, but i think she's more of a character who has interesting things happen around her, whereas alan being a tortured celebrity novelist is what drives almost everything interesting about both games. a straightforwardly competent FBI agent investigating a small town mystery just isn't going to be as unique as that, even if they do reveal that she's a little psychic and also that she's related to everyone's favorite elderly metal band. it almost feels like they intentionally made her much more straightforward and reactive as a character so as to not overwhelm the player. she's the breather you get between alan's repeated timey wimey mental breakdowns where he reshapes reality around him. she's a vehicle for the stuff about the cult and the old gods of asgard and the FBC, and an excuse to revisit bright falls while alan is still stuck in the dark place. but she doesn't have a particularly rich inner life. (while i love the dark place mind place scene on a mechanical level, it's kind of hilarious how easily she shuts down her doubts by going "oh that's right, my life is actually fine. this is all made up.") in just about any other game she'd be a solid protagonist, but here she's got some stiff competition
i think the other thing that kind of lets saga's side of the story down is hinging everything on whether her daughter lives or dies, when we don't actually see or interact with logan. saga's daughter is just a voice on the phone in a few scenes. otherwise she exists entirely off-screen. but i also have to wonder if this is intentional? like... logan is, quite literally, not a direct part of this story, but alan drags her in anyway. the question becomes if alan can truly change events outside of the view of The Story (ie: the game). this is kind of interesting on a metanarrative level, but idk, it still made the stakes of saga's story feel lower
but again, these critiques aren't enough to stop me from loving the game overall. i beat it twice in a row. i never do that!
misc.
- i would've liked to see barry, but i don't think the story needed him. the lovable goober quota is sufficiently filled here between the old gods, ahti, and the koskela brothers' tim & eric-ass commercials
- somehow sam lake managed to insert himself all over this damn game without it being cringe. maybe it's the precedent set by max payne, which is the whole thing they're riffing on. or maybe it's the fact that he wrote himself into a whole elaborate song and dance routine that he had to learn the choreography for. that's dedication. (also the part where you almost have to murder sam lake is so goddamn funny)
- i don't think anything in this game is quite as scary as the body horror shit they pulled with hartman in control but i'm fine with that because i probably would have shit my pants
- can't wait for the dlc