Alan Wake has certainly delivered on all fronts, releasing probably one of the best titles of the year. The gameplay was right on the mark and the story behind it all is probably the best we’ve seen in many years. The game has the titular novelist character, Alan Wake, on holiday in the American northwest town of Bright Falls suffering a really bad case of writer’s block. Upon arriving at a small cabin at Cauldron Lake, a sequence of events occur that leave Alan sitting in his wreaked out car, a week later, with his wife, Alice, missing. What follows from there is a series of twists and turns that propels the game forward, bringing with it plenty of action sequences, mixed in with moments of sheer suspense. The episodic way the game is played out only helps to create the great sense of suspense, but also helps give the game a good consistent pacing that many modern titles simply lack. It helps highlight the innovative delivery of this game.
Be vewy vewy qwiet... I'm hunting a dark presence.
Throughout the game Alan is confronted with an ever-growing dark presence, which seems to have consumed Bright Falls and its citizens. Dark humanoid beings appear from the shadows, consumed by this presence, set out to hunt down the citizens of Bright Falls, including Alan Wake. Since this dark presence is only affect by light, the important role of light is quickly established through the use of a torch and a supply of batteries, flares and flashbangs. The limited supply of these commodities creates a continuing sense of desperation throughout the game. Alan also has access to a variable arsenal of weapons, including revolvers, shotguns and hunting rifles, along with upgrades that give you more powerful torches and weapons. Alan Wake to date is among the few games where (most) quick-time events are given a real sense of meaning; as Alan pulls the ripcord of any number of petrol and diesel generators to get the lights going, a sense of urgency takes hold as Alan often gets surrounded by the dark beings.
What helps contribute to the environment of the game is the non-linear way sections of the game are set out in what is essentially a linear story. Getting from point A to point B will leave an open pathway that'll allow the player to explore any number of corners for collectables (coffee thermoses and can pyramids) and supply caches. There are also pages of a manuscript Alan has no recollection of writing lying about the place, and these pages help establish the story and give a little insight to events that may happen in the future. These manuscript pages aren't scattered in an orderly manner either, which helps create a sense of mystery to the events that are yet to unfold. A little exploration could mean the difference between finding roughly half the manuscripts and all the manuscripts, which can really help make sense of what is in happening in this very chaotic situation.
Flare up!
The length of the game is reasonable, as rushing through the game will clock it in at roughly seven to eight hours, though the real enjoyment comes from stumbling across all the collectables, amusing Steven King-esque television shows and the rather interesting musings of the local radio shows. On average the game will last a respectable good ten to twelve hours (which is what was stated by Remedy), with the promise of add-ons in the form of additional-episodes coming very soon. The ten or so hours of play aren’t just fruitless puzzles, quests or artificial game lengtheners, as the story remains interesting and rich right up until the brilliantly done ending, and remains well paced with plenty of beings to fend off, new twists and turns even after the game is finished.
For what is a very polished game (which was finished almost a year ago), Alan Wake doesn't completely escape various bugs and glitches. There was an instance where Alan had been killed just as a mission had been finished, and after the cutscene had played I was taken back to the last checkpoint. Later in the game Alan comes up against poltergeists which possess various inanimate objects such as train carriages, appliances and tires. While these add an extra element of suspense to the game, their execution wasn't particularly great as they constantly ended up being stuck in corners and against walls. Apparently poltergeists don't understand the concept of a wall. While the majority of the quick-time events in Alan Wake were really brilliant, there was the trademark 'useless' quick-time event here and there which like in many games past, would leave you scratching your head.
I know what you did last summer.
Overall, Alan Wake lives up to five years of suspense and absolutely delivers. A rich, truly brilliant story presented in an innovative and clever fashion with gameplay that accompanies the storyline very well. Alan Wake left the impression that this was a well thought out story, presented as a game that clearly knows what it wants to be and a game that despite a couple of negligible issues was extremely well-polished title for a game of this day and age. Alan Wake is a very strong exclusive horror title for Microsoft that has really set the trend for other games in the genre.
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