As recently as yesterday, I finished my first play through of Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake. For those who may not be familiar with the game, it’s a psychological thriller with elements of horror that place it in the same arena as the works of Stephen King (who is referenced more than once in the game). It follows Alan, a writer, and his wife, Alice, who arrive on vacation in the small town of Bright Falls, Washington, and suddenly find themselves trapped in the middle of a decades-old struggle between light and darkness. You play exclusively as Alan as he fights to save his wife for the dark presence that has begun consuming the entire town.
Being trapped in a conflict between light and dark, you learn quickly that you need to use any and all light to your advantage. Flashlights, flares, fireworks and the like are all tools mandatory to your survival. Each enemy that appears in your path is shrouded in a darkness that must be burned away with light before they can be dispatched. The lighting effects are one of the high points of the game as your flashlight pierces through the darkness to illuminate your way in addition to being a source of defense. As you progress, you will find upgrades to both your flashlight and firepower in the form of industrial strength lanterns and pump-action shotguns. The villains that chase you in the darkness, the “Taken,” also gain strength, speed and weapon upgrades that start out as axes and thrown knives, before advancing to things like chainsaws.
Something can be said for the physics in this game as well, as the game unfolds, the Dark Presence begins getting stronger and is able to throw things at you. These start small, barrels, crates, wheelbarrows and so on, but then as the “Dark Presence grows stronger” it takes over heavy machinery and tries to run you over as well as dropping things like trees, train cars, and boats in your path. One particularly memorable example of this in the game was when you had to combat the Dark Presence throwing a full-size tractor and some mine cars at you repeatedly.
Read the rest and check out one of the weirder examples of product placement in recent memory after the break.
The story is a tale that takes many twists and turns along the way as Alan struggles to save Alice. It is broken up into episodes and each ends in much the same way as an episode of a TV show would end. A big reveal or twist happens and the camera pulls out as a rock song plays (artists include David Bowie, Roy Orbison and Depeche Mode among others). Additionally, when you would start each new episode, it includes a “Previously on Alan Wake” cutscene that would lead you back into the gameplay. There are six main episodes to the story followed by two special episodes that set the game up for a sequel and take an entirely different path than the regular storyline. These special episodes featured some of the more interesting moments of the game and really played with your perception and the physics of the world. A particularly interesting set piece involved you running through a series of rooms and offices that were situated on a ferris wheel.
Alan Wake does have a small number of drawbacks, however. One of the more frustrating happened at the beginning of each episode where, no matter what your situation leading up to it, all your weapons, ammo, and flashlight upgrades get reset. This is done a couple times on purpose, leaving you defenseless and surrounded gives you no choice but to run as fast as you can to the nearest light source. The rest of the time, it is kind of annoying. The weapon selection is a little light as well. Only 5 recurring guns to speak of with no melee option, so if you’re out of bullets… run. In future Alan Wake titles, I would like to see more diversity in your offensive options or maybe the option to actually destroy the enemies with your flashlight (it removes their “darkness,” but only gunfire can finish the job).
My last complaint is a very small one, but it stands mentioning because I found it to be one of the weirdest uses of product placement in any game that I’ve played. Throughout the game, Alan uses his cell phone with no real trouble losing signal as he runs through woods and over mountains. It’s never given a second thought until the game places this right at the beginning of the final, main-story episode.
Alan Wake offers up plenty of thrills and an engrossing storyline, and while it does have its flaws, they don’t take much away from your overall experience.
RATING: 8.5 out of 10
Check out Alan Wake on the PC or for the XBox 360. All the screenshots were taken by me in-game. See more here.
///Rick
