Alan Wake

Years ago, when I first heard of Alan Wake, I imagined something Max-Payne-like game...All I read and heard in the computer websites was that the game will have a unique and brand new horror-game mechanic. The whole struggle for light in the entire game sounded very cool and ambitious, but is it really well made...I don't think so. Two years ago I played Alan Wake on Xbox360 and it was my first touch with the game, although the game copy was not mine...a friend of mine showed it to me. Immediately I've understood that there is something missing. In the beginning everything starts smoothly and the game slowly introduces you to the characters and the original way to fight enemies - you have to light them first and than shoot. Well, honestly I had something really different in mind, when I first heard about this new mechanic...I though there will be something like Lovercraft+Stephen King-style, but it wasn't. I imagined that you will have to run just for little light, while being hunted from some scary darkness, that will take your character's life, just like that. Actually the things are not so scary and the game doesn't have that phase of speed in it.

The real struggle to understand what's going on is when Alan's wife mysteriously disappears after a fight between them. The writer starts looking for her, when suddenly he finds himself in a car crash, missing a couple of weeks...so here begins your journey through next 7 hours of gameplay in which you try to understand what is happening, where's the wife and so on. You encounter just a few types of enemies during the game, but they all die the same way - light them up with a flashlight, flashbangs, flares and etc. and then shoot them with something. The main weapon is the revolver, and you can shoot with three kinds of "heavy guns" - an ordinary rifle, a hunting one and a shotgun. My favorite stays the hunting one :) The only thing that changes in the enemies is their quantity. Something that I've found very un-entertaining, because there are only the so called "taken", which is a normal human with a knife or rake in its hand; there is also a giant taken, which is the same thing, but needs more bullets to go down; some very quick guys; crazy birds and heavy machines...yes, there are combine harvesters, bulldozers, cars, flying objects and so on. Everything is very easy to master and after 1-2 chapters, there is nothing that can stop you, except the crappy controlling. Imagine that you stand on a edge of a cliff and you watch the beautiful picture, just for fun...but unexpectedly Alan starts to fall and eventually dies, without any movement from the controller...this is very bad in the late-game moments, because then the jumping feels very slow and lame. The whole story isn't very interesting and I didn't felt something special in it.

But the graphics and the music were great, especially in the Rambo-style moments. There are song for every moment, the sound of the forest is really great and the whole image of the in-game-nature is very cool. I would like very much if there were some animals, that jump in front of you from time to time, I think this will make the horror quality better, because the game isn't scary at all. In fact there aren't any breathtaking moments or something that would really shock you and that's why the atmosphere doesn't feel so deep and after 2-3 hours everything starts to feel repeated and in the last chapters you feel like you want just to finish the game in the quickest possible way. So if you have a time to loose I think this game should serve you well, but if you are expecting something very original and unique, this game will disappoint you.

PS: And the in-game driving REALLY sucks, I don't know why "Remedy" decided to put so much driving in the last chapters, instead of freaky, heartstopping moments