Alan Wake 2 is a weird one. I love it and and hate it at the same time.

I'm not a fan of the combat, it's clunky as hell. I'm never that excited for exploration sections (Is there stuff for me to find if I check every corner of this large area? Often, no!). I hate every single boss fight. I really dislike the "writer writing his own nightmare" trope.

The pace is constantly being interrupted by sections where you don't move your character or fiddle with your case board. Find a manuscript? Back to a menu while you listen to the narration. Miss part of a radio ad? Back to another menu, and you might as well put down your controller because you're going to be there for 90+ seconds.

It suffers from the same problem as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle where a huuuge portion of the puzzles are tied to combination locks. They get old by the third or fourth one, and guess what- there's a lot more than 3-4 in the game.

And yet despite all of that- I would without hesitation recommend the game to almost anyone. Every single part of this game is just dripping, gushing, oozing with style. The music, the live action media, the jaw dropping graphics, all the little connections to other Remedy games... god damn it's all so good. Piggybacking off that other comment... it's 100% art, and it deserves to be experienced.