OK so, Alan Wake 2

it's getting all the ravest of reviews

but my concern is that I bounced fairly quickly off of Alan Wake 1 and don't entirely remember why

and also that the main character has my deadname

I will say that the gunplay in Alan Wake 1 and 2 both can occasionally be described as "cumbersome", in that way that a lot of horror games are where the gunplay is jank to encourage you to not just blast through your problems

Yeah from what I can tell if you weren't fond of Alan Wake 1 it's probably not worth it actually buying Alan Wake 2.

an LP maybe because there's some sickass story beats in both

If you still have Alan Wake 1 on steam or something you might revisit it to see if you can remember why you bounced off it? But I would assume the clunky gameplay was a factor

because that's usually what gets people

Alan Wake 1 holds up alright despite its clunkiness, in my estimations, but it's a game you have to meet halfway

I think the deadname aspect would get you more than anything, they sure do yell it a lot

yeah

like if it was spelled different, or not the main character

maybe