Keep the lights
on, please, because you’ll be wanting out of the shadows in the psychological
horror, third person shooter that is “Alan Wake”, so make sure your flashlights
batteries are change as you set out to fight your way through the darkness.
Bestselling thriller writer Alan Wake, suffering from a two-year stretch of
writer's block, travels with his wife Alice to the small idyllic town of Bright
Falls, Washington, for a short vacation. Alan and Alice arrive at Cauldron
Lake, where their cabin sits on an island within it. As they unpack, Alan
discovers Alice has set up a typewriter, hoping Alan will try writing on the
vacation this angers Alan and sets off for a brief walk alone, but races back
to the cabin when he hears Alice's screams. He arrives too late as some entity
drags Alice into the lake's water, and without a moment's hesitation, jumps in
after her, blacking out upon impact; Alan comes to a week later, crashed after
his car went off the side of the road outside of town. As he travels back to town,
Alan witnesses multiple supernatural events, such as human figures shrouded in
darkness that can only be defeated with light, and an ethereal figure wearing a
deep-sea diving suit. He also finds pages of a manuscript for a book titled
“Departure”, a work Alan recognizes as his own but doesn't remember writing it;
the incoherent pages foretell events that come true as the story progresses.
“Alan Wake” can
best be described as a combination of "the mind of a psychological
thriller", and "the body of a cinematic action game, the main
gameplay happens in various areas of Bright Falls – such as the forest, a
national park, or a farm – during the nighttime; mixed with moments of a calmer
aspect and non-combative sequences that are set during the day. As players take
control of Alan the world around them is quickly overtaken by the
"darkness" that’s taking over humans, animals and objects. These
enemies, dubbed the "Taken", are murderous shadows that attack Alan,
wielding weapons of their own that range from mallets and knives to heavier and
dangerous weapons such as shovels and chainsaws. Also these shadows vary by
speed, size, and the amount of damage they can take, and some can even teleport
between short distances, as if the aspect of killer living shadows wasn’t
messing with your head already. The Taken are protected by a shield of
darkness, initially rendering them impervious to attack; they can only be
injured with a firearm after exposure to light, which burns the darkness away,
this puts significant emphasis on flashlights as well as conventional weapons,
such as a revolver or shotgun. Your arsenal of light weaponry comes with
options as well, while flashlight beams can be focused and used as a reticle,
the handheld lights Alan can carry can be boosted, which destroys the darkness
faster, but also reduces the light's battery level. Besides the conventional
shooter gameplay need for reloading ammunition, the player must also insert
fresh batteries into the flashlight when they run out, or wait for it to recharge
but this occurs very slowly. In certain sections of the game, it is possible to
use a car to traverse between locations in Bright Falls, when in a car, the
player can run down Taken on the road, or boost the vehicle's headlights to
destroy them.
A major element
of gameplay is the optional discovery and collection of manuscript pages from
Alan Wake's latest novel—Departure. Although Alan does not remember writing
this book, its storyline seems to be becoming real around him and these
readable manuscript pages are scattered around the game world, out of
chronological order; they often describe scenes that have yet to occur and act
as warning and instructions for proceeding through upcoming challenges. This
being only one of the in game goodies to be collected however, there are a few
different in game optional collectibles that include coffee thermoses scattered
around the game world, as well as discovering television sets which show
different episodes of the fictional Night Springs series, radios airing talk
and music from Bright Falls' local radio station, and textual signs around the
town.
“Alan Wake”
truly provides for a unique gameplay experience for players, it provides the
thrill of a good mystery/psychological horror book with the aspect of living it
out as it unfolds right before your eyes. As players explore the well designed
and in depth world of Bright Fall, you come across intriguing characters in
this former little slice of heaven as well as dealing with a unique and frankly
terrifying enemy, the dark; which, let’s face it, everyone has a momentary (if not
lifelong) fear of. A problem with the game mainly lies in moving your
character, as the third person camera view is already not something for
everyone; it is sometimes hard to get going in the right way or to see your
enemies which makes things even more frightening. “Alan Wake” however is a hard
game to put down once you pick it up and provides plenty of laughs as well as
chills and scares.
(Game reviewed on Xbox 360)
Good:
-Amazing story
-Well designed
and grounded environment
-A chilling game
that’s just so hard to put down
Bad:
-Not much for a
lasting appeal after you’re done, except to go back for all the in game
collectibles
Scully rating: 9.5 out of 10