Alan Wake reminds us Video Games can be intelligent
If there is no other word to accurately describe Alan Wake, it would be overwhelming. Alright, I suppose the word would depend on the person playing, but nevertheless Alan Wake boasts an incredibly atmospheric and absorbing story that sucks you in. It truly does overwhelm you, taking you further into the woods than most gamers would probably ever want to go.
You play Alan Wake; a famous horror novelist cursed with writers block. In order to clear your head you pull a Stephen King and head to Bright Falls, which turns out, oddly enough, to be the scariest place in the world. Shortly after arriving, your wife disappears and you wake up in the middle of the forest. If you’ve spent the time to watch the Bright Falls live action episodes on Xbox Live then you know why it’s probably best not to wake up in the middle of the forest.
The combat is something unexpected. After watching the entire video collection of Deadly Premonition Endurance Runs I began to think Alan Wake would be very similar. Why? Psychotic break, most likely. Instead of the poorly designed mess in Deadly Premonition, Alan Wake boasts combat to admire. At times frantic and at times shocking, there is rarely a point where you feel as though you are safe. One of the best examples of this is fairly early on when you meet a fellow named Carl Stucky. I won’t ruin any of it for you, but me just say the trailer is NOT safe.
While the two games are vastly different in setting and story, I remembered immediately why it was I had fallen in love with Max Payne. Nobody beats Remedy when it comes to story and atmosphere, even if that story is admittedly a bit cheesy and even a little ham-handed.
While the game is absurdly fun, it suffers from the same disease that many do: monotony. The enemies are rarely different and none of them are necessarily shocking or horrifying. Then again, this game doesn’t employ the same sort of monsters you would see in a Resident Evil game. Instead, it replaces the need for the giant monsters with a thick coat of fog and utter darkness. As you may have already heard, light is your ally and will serve to both protect you from the shadows and kill them off as well. The developers put a lot of work in perfecting this; certainly they had the time. From flare guns to spot lights, your ability to take down the hordes of the possessed townsfolk is done with ease so long as you have some light.
One of the many issues that come with this is the marketing done in the game. The batteries you collect throughout the entirety of Alan Wake’s adventure just happen to be Energizer and he sure does love his Verizon cell phone. To some that might be distracting and maybe a bit off-putting, but it’s the cost we live with so that our games don’t suddenly cost a hundred bucks a pop. Granted, I did pay an extra twenty for the collector’s edition of Alan Wake.
The pacing of the game, pairing well with the atmosphere, is brilliantly done. Many of the episodes end in cliffhangers and force you to trudge on. This is good since the guys at Remedy apparently forgot that linear games rarely exist anymore in this form. The lack of an honest side quest, while valid with the story, is also slightly disheartening. Still, Remedy tries their best to cure this by giving you the chance to collect pages from a manuscript you wrote but did not remember writing. By doing this and reading them you learn what might be coming next. While it kind of sounds like a cheat, it makes sure the game is never bogged down because you’re unable to figure out what to do next.
Alan Wake is not my favorite game this year, but it certainly takes it place at a very high spot. Graphically its perfect and the mood it brings with it is incomparable. The combat gets old as the game continues on, but the story brings you back time and again.
