I understand where you’re coming from 100%, and I agree with you somewhat. While I personally enjoyed the gameplay in Alan Wake (nothing like landing a perfect headshot for a 1 hit kill with the rifle), I understand why some will be turned off by it.

On the other hand, I think of Control. Very solid gameplay and mechanics, but the story in my opinion was lackluster, and I think it might be because they were scared to go all out on a mind bending storyline. They wanted to sell games, and you sell them with good shooter mechanics to cast a wide net over the audience, at the expense of creative identity.

I feel like for Alan Wake 2 they went all out to make sure they follow Sam Lakes and the team’s creative direction. And that’s why I love it. You can feel the work that went into this to make sure it’s exactly what they wanted to create, instead of what they needed to.