Darkness Hasn't been Brighter
Remedy (the developers of Max Payne and Max Payne 2) have been working on Alan Wake since early 2000. That may seem like a long time, and that is because it is. Alan Wake has gone through many changes over the ten year development cycle. The final product was well worth the wait for people wanting to control horror novel author, Alan Wake. To be honest I was not really interested in this game until it came out and I started seeing more about it. In the game you play as a writer aptly named Alan Wake. You are quick to learn that Alan is having a textbook case of writers block. The twist is he over comes his writers block with out even knowing it. This twist is revealed pretty early in the story but the writers at Remedy build on it throughout the games six episodes.
The story in Alan Wake is interesting to say the least. Alan takes a vacation to a sleepy pacific-northwestern town called Bright Falls. This vacation is to try and cure Alan’s writers block. The story of the game is told through manuscript pages found throughout the game. These pages were written by Alan in a week that he does not seem to remember slightly. The pages tell about things that have yet to happen and give a sense of foreshadowing. Even if you were to not collect the manuscript pages you are not missing out on the meat of the story but it is to you benefit to collect all 107 pages(yeah 107 manuscript pages). Town of Bright Falls starts to be taken over by a dark presence which just happens to follow in line with the manuscript that Alan wrote in the week he can not remember. He ends up working with his manager Barry to stop the dark presence and save his wife Alice. Alice has gone missing shortly after the Wakes arrive in bright falls. Alan must fight the dark presence and find out the secret of it to save himself, his wife, and the town of Bright Falls.
The gameplay in Alan Wake is similar to other games because of the fact that you have to take an enemy’s shield down and then kill them. The difference in Alan Wake is that the shield is darkness and the darkness can only be taken down with light. Throughout most of the game you are equipped with a flashlight which you shine on enemy’s so you will be able to kill them with an assortment of firearms When you are not armed with a flashlight you will have flares which are used to hold the Taken, the name of the enemy’s in the game, back. When you drop a flare all the Taken will back off and give you some breathing room. If you hold on to a flare you can walk with it am make your way to a checkpoint or save area. Checkpoints in Alan Wake come in the form of over head street lamps. When you step foot into on of them your health will start to recharge and you will get a checkpoint. When not in the “save havens” your health slowly recharges. For the majority of the game you will be using a six-shot revolver, with the option to pick up a shotgun or hunting rifle. While there can be a shotgun and hunting rifle in a level you can only hold one “heavy” weapon at a time. In addition to the flares to take down and instantly kill the taken there are flashbangs and a flare gun. Both the flashbangs and flare guns are kind of rare but kill most of the Taken in one hit. The shooting in Alan Wake is entirely competent for a third-person shooter using the flash light focal point as a reticule. The majority of the game takes place in dark woods or abandoned factories. That being said the levels are really linear except for the occasional path that will lead you to a hidden chest or other collectable.
The quality of Alan Wake come from a combination of writing and gameplay. That being said the story in Alan Wake is the best part of the game. If you are tempted to read about the ending or any element of the story you should hold off until you have played and beaten the game. The gameplay is perfectly fine and interesting for a third-person shooter but things can be fixed. The graphics are fantastic but not perfect. The length is the normal length of games these days taking about 10-12 hours to beat on Normal and even longer on the harder difficulties Remedy has announced two DLCs for Alan Wake thus far. The first one is free and comes with all new copies of Alan Wake and the second is slated for a release shortly after the first one which comes out in July. Both DLCs continue the story of Alan Wake and I for one can not wait to get back and kill more Taken. This game is a great play and can be beaten in a weekend if you are short on cash.
