Oh god, the combat in Alan Wake 2 is appalling

And I say this as a certified Alan Wake 1 Combat Enjoyer.

It's crazy, because Remedy is usually so great at combat, but I think they really didn't know how to adapt their instincts to survival horror, and whenever they had a choice between two ways to make it more challenging, they chose both.

Make the protagonists squishy or the enemies bullet sponges? Both.

Make the protagonists slower or the enemies faster? Both.

Make the enemies overpowering in number or harder to avoid individually? Both.

Have health deplete fast or make it slow to use healing items? Both.

Have enemies that overwhelm at close range or blast you from a distance? Both, simultaneously.

Add to that stuff like slow and easily interrupted reload animations, removing a dedicated throw button in favour of a cumbersome quick access menu, and an aiming camera angle that destroys your peripheral vision, and it feels like the gaming equivalent of trying to make a race last longer by tripping up the runners rather than just crafting a longer track.

Also, because fights in this are more sporadic, you don't really get the opportunity to practise, so while I was dodging attacks so well by the end of AW1 that the enemies rarely even hit me, I never managed to find a lasting rhythm in AW2.

Remedy needs to learn that the secret to survival horror is to not kill the player that much. The threat of death is frightening, but if a player actually dies over and over, the fear is quickly replaced by annoyance.

The >!fight on the beach!< at the end of AW2 is obviously supposed to be one of those fun, iconic gaming moments, but on Normal difficulty it's just such a chaotic clusterfuck of bad design decisions and overwhelming odds that I got sick of hearing the chords kick off, and turned on one-shot kills just to get past it.

I really shouldn't be doing that. There's challenge, and then there's bullshit. And the combat in Alan Wake 2 is far too often on the side of bullshit.