I'm finding it very hard to enjoy this game with all the collectibles about, whether they are in the form of thermoses, TV shows, to manuscript pages, because, well, they don't do squat other than reward you with an achievement. I'd like to say I'm a gamer who loves to look in every nook and cranny of any environment to get as much as I can through littered signs and the like but with the Shadows, or whatever they're called, spawning wherever because I'm walking off the beaten path just makes it annoying. I don't think this game's strong suit is its combat nor the story. Hell, I don't even read the manuscript pages when I grab them since I don't think they're particularly well-written. Sometimes I even wish this game were more like Deadly Premonition with how you have an open-world environment to explore and only encounter enemies during a mission or at night because I really enjoyed the intermissions before/between/after the Episodes (I'm in the middle of Episode Two) and how Alan Wake straight-up dismisses the people who seem to fawn over him or be an asshole to some guy who knows his wife, which was awesome.

I'm not saying that this is a bad game, it's just that how collecting these, well, collectibles gives no effort on the potential of improving your character, Wake, in the form of increased health, longer sprint, or even a wider flashlight light so I can light up more than just one enemy at a time other than giving me a glimpse on how the game will play out for me in the long run, seemingly encounter-wise I hear. Even if I've been spoiled about this game, numerous times even (and have fortunately forgotten, this game is over a year old now), I've been finding the story leaving me with a sort of intrigue but not enough to keep playing this game in longer bursts than an hour. It's certainly going to take me awhile at the rate I'm going. But with these collectibles, I think I'm just going to ignore them for now knowing that I'll never collect all the manuscript pages in one playthrough (the ones in the Normal difficulty, at least) or what have you because I don't want to watch videos on YouTube or look at some iamge guide to aid me with their locations and ruin my experience with the game because of it.

Sure, I can replay the game to get them but with games like these, story is probably the sole reason why you would want to play this game. Like I've mentioned before, I'm not a fan of the combat and the story hasn't grabbed me just yet, or maybe it won't I don't know. Other than these collectibles kinda taking away the mystique and well-realized environment in the game, they don't provide a decent enough incentive for me, rjayb89, to collect them.

I like the TV shows and the manuscripts because they add to the plot, but the coffee flasks are a bit irritating as they literally add nothing.

I really wish I still had this game. Really want to play through it again on Hard.

Ye I just picked it up for a dime and am playing through it for the first time, gotta say its pretty fun.

One thing that turned me off from this game was the collectibles. I fucking hate collectibles, and in this game they had way too many. I personally can't play through a game more then once, so if I want the achievements for the collectibles I have to play the game the first time through looking at my computer every five seconds. That said, I loved the T.V. shows and radio shows because those added something. I'm pissed though because I'm pretty sure I missed one of each of those so I didn't get the achievement for them.