Review – Alan Wake

Survival Horror, Action

You put the lime in the coconut and drink ’em both up.

Colin

Writers eh? Bunch of whiney bastards, sitting around typewriters and laptops alike, punching keys like a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters in the vague hopes that something mildly coherent will be produced. Certainly that’s how this reviewer operates. Despite once thought lost to the annuls of videogame development hell, Alan Wake has finally made it to the consoles (well just the x360) and here’s hoping the experience is anything but nightmarish.

The story goes that Alan Wake (the writer) is on vacation to the sleepy mountain town of Bright Falls with his wife Alice. Despite not having written anything in two years Alice hopes this trip will revitalise the crime novelists creative mind Unfortunately after settling in to their cabin a dark presence seems to take an interest in them and after their initial encounter, Alice goes missing and Alan blacks out whilst chasing after her.

Alan awakes (see what they did there?) to find his wife gone, a week of his wife missing and pages of a manuscript that he has no memory of writing, a manuscript that appears to be predicting (or is that causing) future events and thus the quest begins to find out what exactly is going one, why locals are being possessed by this dark presence, where these manuscript pages come from and what has happened to his wife. Alan sets off trying to make sense of this madness and trying to survive the town citizens that have been ‘taken’ by the darkness.

Oh I see the fog's cleared a bit anyway.

Having ‘light used as a weapon’ as the main focus of the game, Alan is rarely separated from his trusty recharging flashlight thankfully. Without this he is pretty impotent as the Taken can only be killed with conventional weaponry once they have first been weakened by light (either from the flashlight, flares or extra light in the environment). Light alone is not enough to destroy them and as such its time to bring in the big guns – well a few guns anyway.

Despite the fact that Alan Wake is billed as a ‘Psychological Thriller’ there’s a fair amount of combat and ‘in your face’ action involved, at the same time however the game isn’t Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space, so the reduced armoury at Alan’s disposal can be forgiven. Pistol, flare gun, flashbang grenades and handheld flares, with the extra choice of either a shotgun or hunting rifle is your limit.

Combat is basic and added to the fact you will annihilate hundreds of taken throughout the game I can understand the complaints people have had. The generous auto aim, unintelligent enemies and plentiful ammo means you shouldn’t be perishing too frequently, but then again the sheer number of enemies swarming you at times from all directions can give you a run for your money. Add this to Alan’s inability to sprint faster than an asthmatic amputee and you have situations of sheer panic rather than psychological scares.

But ID said this wasn't possible!

The game is split into six chapters each lasting a couple of hours, with each chapter normally involving different styles of gameplay, broken up into part wandering around looking for clues and talking to people, part wandering in the dark where you can be attached at will and normally a driving section thrown in for new measure. The story is obviously key to your playing experience and as such nothing more will be given away. Needless to say, the game makes references and nods to plenty of other sources, be it the lumbering dark smoky presence you could have sworn you last saw in Lost, the hundreds of ‘small town’ references from any number of moves and TV shows i.e. Twin Peaks or even Remedy’s past work – Max Payne. All of these tie together an engaging story that will keep you entertained to the end.

Other positives include the supporting cast. There’s the wise cracking best friend, the unnaturally aggressive FBI agent, the creepy psychiatrist, the ditsy diner waitress, the heavy metal brothers and many more. Although taking up little screen time in the grand scheme of things, the cast are really good editions to the story, even if most of the story does come from Alan’s own inner monologue.

Mark Secondary Review Newton’s palms twitched as his fingers struck the keyboard ‘How did it come to this?’ He wondered. He’d sworn off survival horror games after the twin disappointment of Silent Hill: Homecoming and Resident Evil 5 – Yet here he was having to pony up a couple hundred words on a game so late it made Too Human look like the model of punctuality. His mind reeled at all the things he’d have to describe: the terror inducing shadows that flit through the haunted woods like creatures of pure nightborn malevolence, the deceptively serene province of Bright Falls built with an all too rare eye for detail rather than cut ‘n’ pasted building blocks and identikit streets thankfully populated by memorable characters that linger in the mind like a languid daydream. Best of all he could lay down thick lines of the overly verbose pulp writing stylings all to frequent in the game that easily match and often surpass Wake’s own beloved Steven King while having enough precise detail and obtuse otherworldliness to keep fans of Lovecraft or M. R. James happy. The room suddenly grew cold around him and his lone table lamp begun to flicker as the dark presence approached. “just tell them if it’s a good game, stop fucking around.” growled the darkness that was the dreaded Peoww Ed. “Yes it’s good.” came from the writer’s cracked lips with a hiss. “It’s very good.” Secondary Score: 9/10

The most enjoyable sections of the game for myself involved having an AI companion to travel and co-operate with, not to mention bitch, argue and joke with. At times the game does have a somewhat sandbox like feel to it but if you do divert from the set path then you pretty much just end up wandering aimlessly around empty rooms and dark forest – with the exception of finding the occasional collectable, manuscript or ammo cache. The game does a good job of keeping you in the right direction by directing towards current objectives via the HUD and if you do stray too much from the beaten path, the darkness will begin to envelop you and a constant stream of bad guys will attack you until you get back to where you’re supposed to go. You have the option to go hunting for secrets but other than this there’s a pretty straight clear cut path you’re supposed to follow.

The in-game graphics are decent and the game does a great job of creating the light and shadow effects. Character animations have received some criticism from the press and understandably so. At times things look like a cross between a Gerry Anderson puppet and weird character animation created with Garys-Mod. Not a massive deal and as such shouldn’t really effect your enjoyment or immersion in the game. Aside from the combat, the only other criticism I could think of would be that I was mildly lost on the story on an occasion or two. Despite having played this every night for a week, the “Previously on Alan Wake” segments at the start of each chapter didn’t fully answer all questions I had. Rest assured, these are minor complaints that should not effect overall enjoyment.

Alan Wake is a fine edition to the fledging Adventure Game genre and will keep you playing through to the end. Although a bit hyped up with its Bright Falls live action prequel series, the idea behind the game is impressive and well implemented despite not being as spooky as intended. Characters and story are compelling and even the musical score and licensed tracks should get a positive nod. Frankly, any game with an aging Norse heavy metal band that encourages you to ‘put de lime in de coconut’ gets a thumbs up in my book.

Rating: 8/10