The jump scares were only pissed too much in the Old Gods Returns section with Cynthia Weaver. Other than that, no problem. AW2 still stands tall over BG3.

I absolutely hate jump scares in movies. I think it’s a cheap gimmick. However, I guess it’s a testament to how much I love this game and that I really didn’t mind the jump scares and I thought they were kind of fun especially the first Cynthia Weaver one.  But yeah, I could totally understand why people would be turned off by that. For me, the reason why it was almost a perfect game was the boss fights. They were miserable.

It is a good game, it's just hard to get a grasp on because there are so many things shared in the lore that just characterize the world instead of providing information. The player is left with a LOT that keeps them wondering what they are supposed to keep in mind or just accept as characterization lore.  And it might even take a while after playing to figure out what Remedy really likes to do with their games.  That said, Alan Wake 2 is really well put together.

The jumpscare intensity can be turned down in the settings, I have no idea how jarring they could get tbh cause I had it down from the get go, but the word is they’re still as frequent

I also think Alan Wake 2 is one of the best games I've ever played. I actually still prefer Control over Alan Wake 2. Control is one of my all-time favorites, but I really like Alan Wake 2, and I agree that the jump scares were an unnecessary part of the game.

Many people consider constant jump scares a cheap tactic that degrades the quality of a horror game. Honestly, I don't think it's a great design choice either, but maybe because of my bias toward Remedy games, I handled them fine.

For instance, in the section where you enter Cynthia's area, I looked at it as stepping into the enemy's territory, where their influence is stronger. I viewed the jump scares as a manifestation of that presence signaling that you're approaching a showdown, so I just framed them in that context.

Honestly, I even found some of them funny. I'd get startled and immediately laugh, or sometimes I wouldn't even get scared at all, just laugh. It almost felt like a few of them were designed to make you also laugh, which is a bit weird.

I remember AW2 released around Halloween, and I think it was right after Spider-Man 2, right? Or was it GoW Ragnarok? I bought it on day 1 and somehow I just wasn't feeling it at all, it was too jarring going from whatever bombastic frenetic action game I'd just finished to this super duper slow paced thing where I'd be staring at clues on a bulletin board for stretches of time. I thought, "I can't do this right now, I'm just not in the mood. Our two week winter recess is coming up in the middle of December, I think I'll hold off on this until then." Best decision of my life. Two week staycation where every morning I'd get out of bed, put on my robe and jammies, make coffee, and just chill out on the couch playing Alan Wake 2 all day. I think I finished it three times back to back before I had to go back to work.

EDIT after finishing video: I had literally zero recollection of the game having any jump scares until examples were shown here.

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