Well, you won't have long to wait for the latter:
Oh. Sweet. Didn't know they had a trailer. No real info so far, but it's nice and dramatic.
Alan Slep
No hype until the gameplay trailer. But at least we know it is a work in progress
Honestly, I was going to say that for this franchise, the gameplay is less important than the story...
...but I thought back to something I was pondering some time ago and had a thought about the original Alan Wake and why it was so good despite the gameplay being relatively simplistic.
It was just after the kerfluffle with that critic arguing with people about whether games could be art- I never got involved, because it's a silly argument, but I did ponder the question.
I concluded that they were both looking at it wrong- games cannot be art in whole, but they can certainly contain it, and even excel above all existing display mediums in one important way.
Putting the appreciator into the state of mind the artist intended.
Getting the player into the head of their character, putting them behind those eyes. Joining them in beholding wonders... or, more frequently, terrors.
Alan Wake wouldn't be the story it is if the player didn't feel
threatened. The enemies bring the fear out of the story and give it to you. They pull you into the story and make you feel the stakes.
But they do it in the most... minimalist way possible. There's just enough combat to keep you invested, to keep your heart racing, without having to slow down the story for gameplay. I'd say it's got a pretty perfect balance, for the kind of game it is.
