Review: Alan Wake
Reviewed on Xbox 360. Developed by Remedy. Published by Microsoft
Finland-based Remedy have a reputation for taking their time. The original Max Payne has been hyped up for quite a while before it eventually landed in stores. It’s not-as-well selling sequel ditched the padding for a polished improved second outing before Remedy said goodbye to Max Payne (owned by Take 2), and hello to Alan Wake, a 360 exclusive.
Alan Wake is a third person adventure game, but not a shooter per se. Mixing Resident Evil 4 with a western-style shooter and borrow liberally from creepy-horror writers such as Stephen King and you have this game. It’s a much slower game than Max Payne and combat is more deliberate. Each encounter requires some thought since you are not a one-man army, nor do you have unlimited ammo.
In the story, successful novelist Alan Wake and his wife arrive in Bright Falls, a quite little town surrounded by forests- FORESTS WITH MONSTERS IN IT. The townsfolk appear a little eccentric, as is wont in this genre but to cut a long story short- Alan wakes up after a car crash with the last week of his memory gone and his wife missing, believed kidnapped by a nutter who wants the manuscript to Wake’s latest book. So starts a tale that twists and turns many times before the end, leaving your scalp with patches as you continuously scratch your head to try and catch up with what’s happening. But importantly, it’s a game about light and dark.
Of course, the spookiness manifests itself in the form of reincarnated corpses known as the Taken. These seem to be made up of people from the town who’s been overcome by the darkness and who’s main interest now is to kill you. Some are slow, some not so much and generally attacking you in numbers, so it’s easy to be overwhelmed.
You usually do have the means to defend yourself, usually a firearm and a torch/ flashlight. You aim the torch at the approaching bad guys and burn them with it (The lens flare will decrease before flashing, meaning it’s time to stick a fork cause they’re done) before finishing them off with a round or three from a firearm (a revolver, a shotgun or a hunting rifle). You’ll also be able to stave them off when they surround you with a flare. Later in the game, you’ll pick up some other helpful devices for fending off the Taken and in some situations, the environment offers alternative ways to bump off the competition.
While ammo isn’t all that plentiful, you’ll find that there’s always enough (later on in the game, anyway). I found myself wishing I hadn’t saved some of the more powerful weapons at points because of the way the game manages to pull the “take everything you’ve got away from you” so you can start from scratch several times. Sometimes, the best way through is to just run away, or at least run to the next safe haven. Safe havens are usually checkpoints are bright areas (such as under a streetlamp) that will stop the Taken from coming anywhere near you. Handily, they generally offer you a chance to stock up on Energizer brand lithium batteries and revolver bullets. You read that correctly, some subtle product placement is at work in Bright Falls, apart from the fact that the lamps still seem to use ‘AA’ batteries.
Obviously you have your consumables to collect (ammo and Energizer batteries), but there are also pages from Alan’s manuscript laying around. Collect one of these and the game asks you to go to the menu’s to listen to Alan read out the pages, with no option to hear the text whilst you continue to play, which is a little disappointing for a game in 2010 (Doom 3 managed this before this game was even started). The other collectibles include the coffee thermos (don’t ask me), knocking over piled up cans and shooting birds (according to the statistics screen).
The levels are well laid out and though you will revisit some areas, it’s often a substantially different experience that doesn’t feel like back-tracking. Occasionally, the game gives you access to a car to drive around in, and other times you can use powerful searchlights as turrets against oncoming Taken. One or two checkpoints could use better placements but on the whole I felt the game is very well put together. There are three difficulties to choose from Normal, Hard and Nightmare. I normally games on normal or medium and here I played hard without feeling it was too difficult or too easy- just the right amount of challenge without feeling like a chore to play. I figure it’s a good 10-12 hours to finish ( there will be sections you retry several times) and pretty good value for a full price single player only game though your mileage may vary.
The dude on the right is Rusty. Hail Caesar!
The story is so mired in Stephen King-isms (his name is mentioned several times just so we know) that by the end it’ becoming slightly confusing, but whatever the fuck happens in the story, it is rather poetic to watch as it unfolds. The overall presentation is polished shinier than body armour made from mercury. From pretty scenery to nice character models (though some of the faces are a little low-rezzy compared to the supermodel Alan Wake), the graphical star of the show is undoubtedly the lighting. From the chillingly atmospheric night time ambience to the effects used when you fire off a flare to the use of colour and darkness- this game just screams “I am a sexy georgeous video game!” So texture work and poor lipsync in some cutscenes aside, this is a graphical quality bar for this gen.
Voice acting is rather well done with the star of the show being the Chris-Penn-esque voice of Barry, Alan’s agent- also the most colorful and fun character in the game. The performances are just perfect all round, bringing the right balance of creepy and appropriate without descending into parody. Sometimes, Alan Wake’s internal monologue does get a little intense due to the occasionally flowery dialogue, but holds up for the most part. In one later level, the tone of the game goes from one against the horde to almost a single player Left 4 Dead clone. That level brings out the game’s sense of humour to the point where it almost sounds like Nolan North taking over as Wake’s voice.
Overall, this is an impressive game. It doesn’t feel like a clone of anything, it doesn’t go for the lowest common denominator and it effortlessly nails what its trying to be. Recommended.
Controller1.com Rating 3/3
