Review | Alan Wake

The star of Alan Wake suffers from a state that many a games reviewer  has experienced before – writer’s block. Alan is a top selling author loved by critics and readers alike and he’s been stuck in this state for years. In an effort to jump start a new book Alan’s wife Alice takes him on a holiday to a small rural town ironically named Bright Falls. There away from the public eye and the pressures of his editor some peace and quiet will surely lead to a new masterpiece. Or not…

Shortly after the beginning of the game Alice goes missing setting Alan off on a thrilling adventure where he must survive the ‘darkness’ that has overtaken the Twin Peaks inspired town and corrupted many of its inhabitants into weapon wielding maniacs. To make things creepier Alan continues to find manuscripts from a novel – a novel he appears to have written and is somehow living through.

Alan Wake is set in episodic format not unlike the recent, but much inferior, Alone in the Dark reboot. Clocking in at about an hour each they seem the perfect fit for a decent gaming session and conveniently the beginning of each chapter starts off with a “previously on” style intro. The action is a combination of survival horror and third person action. The taken – feeding off the darkness are unbeatable alone. But with the aid of a handy torch (along with batteries that run out of juice shockingly quickly) and a handful of guns, which include an amazingly powerful flare gun,  Alan can give as good as he gets…or in some cases at least, barely survive.

The action is decent although perhaps not as good as one would have expected from the makers of Max Payne. There are only a tiny handful of different enemies to deal with and the shine torch and shoot method applies to pretty much all of them. I also found myself getting a touch annoyed at the fact that the sprint and dodge controls use the same button, which constantly lead to my character making a weird little skip before setting off on a run.

Still these are minor issues in the overall scheme of things. Alan Wake makes up for these flaws with some amazing set pieces. The true winner of the game however is Remedy’s perfect use of atmosphere with an all engrossing darkness (except for the beginning of each episode which is set in full sunlight and shows a completely different town). The sound effect and spook value are priceless and show that Remedy’s 5 year plus development of this game has gone a long way. Small things such as an occasional late night talk back show caught on radio or twilight zone type T.V shows just add loads to this production value.

I was amused to read online countless people complaining on forums about the graphical resolution of this game. Really? They need to find a new hobby. Alan Wake looks absolutely stunning, hands down, no debate – it is one of the best looking games on the Xbox, or any platform for that measure and unless you’re playing this on a screen bigger than your average house there is nothing to complain about. The one downside – far too much of the game takes place in the forest than in the much more detailed town itself!

Plot-wise the Alan Wake’s strong emphasis on narrative pays off. Mostly. About three quarters of the way through the game the story gets a bit cliché and loses some of its luster. The ending too really isn’t one…more of a typical final episode type situation. That said Remedy have a raft of downloadable episodes on the way which should hopefully add some satisfaction and sequels are to follow should the first game end up a financial success.

Do you enjoy thrillers or horrors? Enjoy a strong plot in a game? If so then Alan Wake is likely the game for you. Interesting it’s also one of the few games you can play that will generally engross an audience so make you grab your other half, turn out the lights and have a great time.  [8.5]