Alan Wake: The Signal Review
This was the first of the two downloadable expansions for the XBOX 360, Alan Wake. I have to say that after one hell of a rollercoaster ride with the actual game, I was pumped to continue on and see if I couldn't get to the bottom of what happened as the game ended. What I found was a sloppy addition. It wasn't bad, it was still Alan Wake, but I was left with the feeling that the expansion changed the game too much. It began to feel arcadey right off the bat, and though I wanted to play through it, when I finally got to the end I was left wanting.
First off this is not a very long expansion, give yourself about 2 hours and you can rip right through it while out even thinking. You're trapped in your own nightmares this time around, and you have to follow the light before you completely lose it. You'll be once again armed with your trusty flashlight, and your assortment of weapons.
You're going to see wave after wave of enemies, and you're going to find that Bright Falls keeps changing in both relative location, and in appearance. One thing I did like about the expansion was the fact that they basically gave you a feel of the end gameplay, that being words that if you shone your flashlight on them long enough they would occur. Now at first you're probably thinking I need to do that to every word, but as you go through the game, there are definitely words that you're going to want to avoid or suffer the onslaught of enemies, like you've never seen before.
Overall this expansion really feels like a filler, kind of a piece to try to hold gamers over until the actual ending can be released for the game. The next expansion The Writer just came out, and I'll be picking that up quickly, but for the time I spent with The Signal I do have to say that I felt a bit cheated, but at the same time I was glad that I got to go back into that world. This DLC gets a 7.3 out of 10.
