Alan Wake Review

“Wake up, Alan.”

As children, many of us have had a fear of the dark; the night would twist the flickering shadows and ominous silence of an unlit room into visions of horror and untamed malice. Not without reason, for since ancient times, darkness has intuitively symbolized death and a fear of the unknown. In the Xbox 360 exclusive, Alan Wake, a psychological thriller writer of the same name faces crazed beings of the night hellbent on murdering him as he discovers pieces of a prophetic manuscript he supposedly wrote, but can’t remember. The game is a deeply atmospheric third person shooter that puts you in the shoes of Alan Wake as he braves the dark forests, abandoned mines, and ghost towns of idyllic Bright Falls at night in an attempt to uncover the mystery of his forgotten memories and to save his wife, Alice, from the clutches of darkness. Armed with naught but a flashlight and a handgun, the only defense against Wake’s assailants is to burn away the darkness that fills their hearts before replacing it with lead.

The hallmark of a suspenseful game is its ability to make your heart falter with a sense of growing dread when you realize you’re surrounded, or the ability to make you question every rustle of the wind, every falling rock, every snap of a twig.

“See the shadow with the axe and the crouched guy with shivs? Oh wait, no, they spawned behind you, my bad.”

Though the game is forgiving in its supply of munitions, I frequently found myself checking over my shoulder for any signs of movement among the brush. The combat mechanics are smooth, and the transition between shining a flashlight in an enemy’s face and blasting it away with (very accurate) pistol rounds can hardly even be noticed; the ability to dodge enemy attacks is allocated to the same button as the sprint button, which works great in a rushed situation where you need to make distance from a wild, 6 foot murderer taking a swing at you.

“Heeeeeeere’s Stucky!”

The selection of weapons is fittingly story-oriented, but at the same time, each weapon you find is most appropriate in a different situation to maximize survivability against the enemy. Immersion into this game is practically inevitable: you can sprint, but after a short time, Alan’s running speed and his ability to dodge will take a huge hit, leaving him incredibly vulnerable to sneak attacks and group assaults until he catches his breath; forests are typically so dark and expansive that, even though the bush off to your left may look completely inconspicuous, there is no way of knowing whether an enemy will emerge as you walk past; the spawning of enemies is natural (though, by nature, unnatural) and cinematically abrupt as a quick slow-motion zoom-out can quickly reveal you’re surrounded.

“Now hold on, this isn’t what’s supposed to happen...”

The lampposts used as the safe havens of the game where you can recuperate, heal, and reload all your weapons before diving back into the night are truly beacons of hope in the game. It is difficult to put into words just how relieving it can be to spot a light in the distance as the fog thickens and the wind moans ominously around you with squealing gibberish behind you growing louder with every step.

Narration in video games often, and unfortunately, take a backseat to gameplay, music, and, potentially, consistency, but that is, in no way, represented in Alan Wake. Starting the game off with unexplained events and a blank in part of Alan’s memory, the story starts out full of questions, unexplained delusions, and events that force the gamer to question Wake’s sanity. Driven to kill these shadowy axe-men in a bid of self-defense, Wake is told by a floating light reminiscient of God that there is no saving them, that they MUST be erased, and that they are just shadows of their former selves.

“And Alan said, Let there be light: and there was light." -Genesis, 1:3

Impossible, nightmarish fantasies coming to life, a manuscript that dictates the flow of order and reality, and conspiracies to trick and capture him all convince Wake that he is either losing his mind or the world is quickly spiraling into an abyss of unexplainable terror that only he can prevent. As the story proceeds, the gamer begins to question every person, every event, every line, and every cinematic as he tries to understand just what is unraveling before him, making Alan Wake a memorable, fun, and suspenseful experience that is sure to stay in the forefront of gamers’ minds as a defining psychological thriller.

Despite the smooth gameplay and enveloping atmosphere developed in the game, however, there are some problems that stood out while I played through. The first was difficulty. When playing through the game on Hard mode, I found myself constantly checking over my shoulder early game because enemies could approach from all sides and do a number on your health. As the game progressed, though, I found it easier and easier to take on the hordes of enemies that set out to kill Alan due to the increasing likelihood of finding ammunition and methods of controlling the crowds to reduce the tension and difficulty of otherwise powerful enemies. The game changed from a thriller into an action game with a large surplus of, essentially, bazooka ammo.

“Boosh"

The slow motion, while exceedingly helpful and integrated cinematically, tended to drag on a bit too long for the situation to register as a grave threat to Alan’s well-being. Even on Nightmare (Very Hard) mode, it doesn’t seem like the game would be that difficult for the most part because of the number of safety nets that the game gives you. If you’re a gamer who enjoys the challenge of a high-paced game, this game will be a cakewalk.

An aspect of the game that I appreciate artistically is the idea of an epilogue that can be downloaded via the Microsoft Xbox Live Marketplace to explain questions remaining at the end of the game, but the fact that it could potentially cost a player extra money to gain concrete closure on the storyline is a downer. On a lesser note, there were times when a few of the character models seemed a bit...odd -- Alice’s smile will haunt my nightmares -- and the cars sometimes had some notable issues with driving smoothly in cutscenes.

“Why. So. Serious?”

It also seems that when you use a *spoiler* flare *end spoiler* to drive away enemies, if they’re close enough to you and there are enough of them, the camera will spiral around you in slow motion to give you a moment to gather your bearings. However, my friend encountered a bit of a bug where that slow motion went on for a good 10 to 15 seconds because there were enough powerful people around, and the camera doesn’t reset as quickly behind Alan as would be appreciated, so it can be rather disorienting if you happen to get the short end of the stick on the slow-mo gambit and you can’t tell where two of the enemies stumbled off to. Lastly, there are a lot of collectables in the game (Over 250), and while the manuscript outline helps you understand which pages you missed so you can track them down, if you miss a coffee thermos, good luck ever finding it. There’s also no benefit, aside from the achievement, for finding the collectables, so while it does add content to the game, if you’re not one to rush out into the dark wilderness to look for a warm cup of joe, then there’s no incentive to rush off into the more intimidating parts of the forest where there’s a higher chance of actually dying.

“Don't give me that look."

Overall, I’d definitely recommend Alan Wake. The music was a 4 out of 5, with some very appropriate gameplay music and catchy intermission music. The graphics were a 4 out of 5, with graphics grabbing a 3.5 and the atmosphere warranting a 4.5. Some of the character models looked a bit odd, but the environment was very fine-tuned and the quality of the graphics was average for the current generation of game consoles. The narration was a 5 out of 5. Compared to a lot of games out there, the story for Alan Wake was highly developed. The characters were easily memorable, the main character’s hardships and personality were clearly defined and flowed throughout the whole game, and there were few to no parts that come to mind where I questioned the validity or appropriateness of an event in the context of the story. The gameplay was a 4.5 out of 5, with smooth gunplay, several guns that are each useful for different situations, challenging enough enemies, good enemy/item placement, and an easy learning curve. I give the game an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5.