An exciting thriller.
Steven Beynon
“In a horror story, the victim keeps asking ‘Why?’, but there can be no explanation, and there shouldn’t be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it’s what we’ll remember in the end.” It's this Stephen King quote that Remedy's Alan Wake lives and dies by.
Alan Wake is a Psychological Thriller upfront, but mechanically is a shooter in every sense of the word. In fact, 90% of the play-time is spend shooting-up Taken. The good thing about this game is that in addition to shooting, you'll have to utilize various light sources to weaken your foes. This adds a much needed layer to the combat. The AI is also aggressive in a way that isn't cheap, but convinces you that these dudes are serious about wanting to kill you.
The combat itself unfortunately grows tiresome about half-way through the game. There came a point were I wish I didn't have to play Alan Wake, but watch. This is mostly due to the lack of variation in enemies you fight and stuff the game tasks you to do. You have a relatively small arsenal, a pistol, shotgun, hunting rifle, and a flare gun that acts as the game's rocket launcher. The game is reliable on giving you what you need before you'll need it. I never found myself in short supply of ammo or weapons.
The driving force for Alan Wake is its plot and expert use of suspense. Famous writer, Alan Wake, goes on vacation in a Pacific Northwest Mountain town with his wife after a long period of writers block, early on his wife mysteriously vanishes. Alan wakes up one week later in a crashed car and he sets off to put together the puzzle of what happened the last week and why he is facing the same type of horror he has been writing about. To add to the mystery, Alan finds manuscripts to a book he doesn't remember writing. This book details the very events he's living through.
In addition to an interesting plot, Remedy crafted an incredible cast. Most characters you run into are memorable and the respective actors perform well, despite the writing itself not being very good. Most notable is a totally over-the-top FBI agent that has a shoot first and ask questions later personality. You'll have to see that for yourself. In all seriousness, your comic-relief best friend and the well-rounded female Sheriff provide an excellent supporting cast.
Without question, Alan Wake's greatest strength is how each episode is structured like a television show. Each of the six Episodes have a beginning, middle and end. Each of them beginning with a recap of the last episode and ending with a twist or a suspenseful plot point. It's very obvious that each episode's end is when the developers intended you to stop playing. However, you'd be hard-pressed to not continue on. I found each individual episode to be too long. It probably would have been better for the game to have more episodes, but maintain the same overall length for all the episodes are a little longer than one-sittings worth of gameplay.
This goes hand and hand with Alan Wake's totally missed opportunity. Why is this game in a box? Couldn't Microsoft sell each episode for $8.00 and release on every week like a real TV Show? I mean, this game is a tough sell. Oh well, we can't get everything we want. The other major complaint I have is how he story raises more questions and answers. The ending is totally silly and is riddled with subjective non-sense. In fact, the final 1-2 hours worth of plot is so bad, it drastically lowers the game's quality.
Alan Wake had a lot of potential, but failed to a masterpiece due to a couple of silly decisions. It does however, deliver an excellent thriller that will keep you hooked until the end. Not only is Remedy's latest one of the best-looking games around and but it contains some of the most well-constructed atmospheres I've ever seen. It's sense of dread and the overall mood and tension mold together to create and experience that shouldn't be missed. This game doesn't have a very attractive destination, but the journey is the tense and thrilling ride Remedy set to create.
