GotG Round 1: The Walking Dead - Season One vs. Alan Wake

I really wanted to love Alan Wake, I really did. But just too much repetitive combat holds it back. That being said, The Walking Dead is easily at the tippy-top of the pile for me, so it gets my vote after zero deliberation.

The Walking Dead. Done.

Ironically like the entire premise of the gameplay of the walking dead, this was a terrible decision to make. I really enjoyed Alan wake, so it got my vote. I know it'll lose, but I want it to know I cared.

I liked Alan Wake but I loved The Walking Dead.

I loved The Walking Dead, but Alan Wake is my favorite game of forever.

Walking Dead was the first time I considered an indie game as a serious contender for GOTY, no qualifiers, no conditions, no "its good, FOR an indie game".

This one is fucked! I love both of them. Oh man!

Walking Dead

This only reminds me that I need to install Alan Wake and play it one of these days.

Well, Alan Wake got set up to get punched in the mouth.

I loved Alan Wake but it doesn't compare to Walking Dead for me.

I hate the TWD so much. It's a game that rides entirely on the strength of its story, writing and acting and i felt the story was bland and predictable the writing at best average and the acting of the two main protagonist to be poor throughout. Those 3 aspects are entirely subjective of course but the rest of the package is not, so put that in perspective with how piss poor and broken everything else is and while everybody is screaming how amazing this game is all i can see is the worst game i ever bothered completing.

alanwake

@pr1mus: At last, a voice of sanity. Totally forgettable game with an embarassing amount of hype.

Alan Wake for sure.

#ForClementine

Rough matchup. I was always a bit baffled that the general consensus on Alan Wake wasn't more positive. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to vote on this one yet...

TWD. I liked Alan Wake but it wasn't what I wanted it to be, or imagined it to be when they made that first press release. I got way more into TWd's story, so it's definitely that for sure.

That fight on the heavy metal stage was pretty rad, though.

walking dead.

I enjoy much more about the Alan Wake universe. I liked TWD a bunch though.

I waited hours and hours for Alan Wake to get good. Eventually it did for like 10 minutes, and apparently everyone else hates that part.

eh.. I enjoyed walking dead while I was playing it but looking back I don't treasure the memory as much. Felt it was a bit overrated. But then maybe adventure games aren't my thing?

I like Alan Wake, but I feel like it shouldn't even be in this competition.

I know the Walking Dead is going to win this and I am ok with that. I voted Alan Wake because I really loved that game and didn't want to vote for the clear winner.

I enjoyed Alan Wake, never even got tired of the combat and the game's lighting mechanics are way cool. But it's not a complete experience, particularly in the story-telling which should have been the game's selling point. It devolves from Stephen King to Dean Koontz territory by the time the incomprehensible ending rolls around. Missed opportunity all around, though I'd love to see a proper sequel with some better writing.

The Walking Dead is all right, but there's no 70s Viking Metal band in it.

I love Remedy, but I think the combat in Alan Wake was just bad. Flat out. So shallow. And the story was pretty good I guess but not enough in my wheelhouse to carry it or anything. Or even as well executed in what it was trying to do as Max Payne 1 or 2.

Walking Dead speaks for itself. It's awesome.

Curious which part that was? I thought the part where you are in the clinic of sorts was easily the best part of the game if that's what you are referring to.

I'd say it devolves from a beginning of a Stephen King book... to an ending of a Stephen King book. I love a ton of his novels, but some set ups are too good to ever have a satisfying conclusion.

I think The Walking Dead will be a game that is remembered from this generation in many years time.

I really enjoyed Alan Wake. Nifty little game & story.

That said, doesn't even compare to TWD.

The writing in Alan Wake is better than the writing in The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead was amazing. No contest.

Alan Wake tried but wasn't really that great. It was just ok.

I'd be totally OK calling The Walking Dead Season One my most fun & enjoyable experience of the generation.

I don't think either are very good. I chose Alan Wake because I found it more interesting.

Easy win for TWD. Alan Wake shouldn't even be in the running.

Walking Dead is one of my favorite games ever now, so that's a pretty easy vote.

I like them both but I look back on Alan Wake more fondly, especially if we're including the DLC episodes.

I don't think you can even compare these two games.

Alan Wake was fine. It had a good story but the gameplay never really clicked with me. I didn't like it when I tried it on XBOX and I didn't like it (though less so) when I played it on my PC. It was a good game that I'm so close to finishing, but I don't want to play it in order to do that.

The Walking Dead, on the other hand, was the best random purchase I've made to date. It wasn't just great to play through, it was even more entertaining to watch a friend play through after you have already done so. The wait for each episode built up the tension and suspense and when each episode came out it was time for celebration.

So I voted Walking Dead, despite not liking the TV show in the slightest. I just have to say that I'm done with Walking Dead, and am not interested in another story based on it. I'm 100% satisfied with where it ended up. I do want another Alan Wake though.

The Walking Dead is an important game. It shows interactivity can have meaning without challenge, something Quantic Dream has been trying to do for the past decade.

(Before someone points that out, I am aware that smaller indie games have been doing this for a very long time, but the fact that TWD was so huge is what makes it potentially important going forward)

The creator of Walking Dead is a scumbag. Fuck that IP. ALLLLAAAANNNNN WAAAAAAAKE ....up.

I think The Walking Dead is mad overrated and I still think it's better than Alan Wake.

I absolutely love Alan Wake, and really enjoyed that combat for most of the game too. The worst of it was just one section where I kept dying but beyond that Alan Wake is one of my personal favorites from this generation in terms of character and story.

With that said, The Walking Dead is one some next level shit that most games this generation have a hard time touching and I can't not say The Walking Dead on this one.

@artisanbreads said:

The part where you're like on a stage at those dudes farm I think. They gave you like infinite ammo and a super flashlight and just let you go to town.

Oh okay. Yeah well many seem to like that part, reading this thread at least.

Absolutely The Walking Dead. I loved Alan Wake's Stephen King-esque story, it's dark world, and for a fair bit of the time it's light and dark mechanics, but I've played few to no other games as emotionally powerful as The Walking Dead. The characters were well-realised, deaths felt like a real loss, the game had you make genuinely really hard decisions, and in the end the whole thing was just heart-breaking.

Well cool. I remember hearing a lot of people say it "undermined the games tension." Back when the game first came out, but maybe that was just in my circles.

Alan Wake, again by a mile. Walking Dead was awful; it had a really really bad story with annoying gameplay elements and mediocre voice acting. I couldn't stand it.

The Walking Dead was Anxiety and Consequences: The Video Game. It was well written, well performed, and showed how far those could take a game. As an adventure game the puzzles are stupid easy, but the puzzles aren't the draw. It's the games often gut-wrenching choices that make for the real meat of the game, which is why the writing and performances are so important. The storytelling was the gameplay, and boy was it good.

More than good, it was affecting. The Walking Dead is memorable not because of any epic plot or amazing twitchy action, it's because I cared about the characters enough that when shit happened to them it was stressful as fuck.

Alan Wake was supernatural melodrama that revelled in its inspirations. Featuring classic Remedy attention to detail and tight gameplay. Hoofing it through the dark woods with a narrow flashlight beam marking your path when you know there are Taken closing in felt right. Turning around at the last second to catch a clearly bothered mad-man lunging at you but quickly dodging his hatchet before burning off the nebulous darkness eneveloping his body with your light and slugging him a few times to bring him down. The gameplay was solid, the atmosphere quintessential.

It's no slouch on the story front either. Learning about the Dark Presense, the history of Barbara Jagger and Zane, the lake, the manuscript, the clicker. No part dragged on, each episode ending with a cliffhanger that had you itching to keep going. The game wraps up most plot points nicely while leaving enough questions to keep the world on your mind.

I dunno. The Walking Dead really got to me, but Alan Wake really got to me too. As well-realized as the characters are in The Walking Dead, I think the story and style of Alan Wake is more my thing.

I picked Alan Wake, but I really love the Walking Dead as well, so it don't bother me none that it wins.