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Alan Wake

by gamerguy

7 Comments 1 Votes 558 Views 08/06/2010 Back to Reviews

Alan Wake - 8.5 / 10

Intro
Remedy, the makers of Max Payne 1 & 2, has come up with psychological thriller-cum-survival horror, which is quite good. Below are my views:
Story
You play as Alan Wake, suffering from writer’s block, on vacation with wife Alice at Bright Falls. She gets kidnapped, and Alan is after whoever or whatever is responsible.
As this is a psychological thriller-cum-survival horror, nothing is what it seems. Stating any further would spoil for anyone who hasn’t played through it, or still playing it.
Anyway, for Remedy to ‘pull this off’, the game requires solid voice acting along with believable character gestures, with truly creepy environments. They have done just that, for the most part.
The voice work is top notch from every character in the game. It is not very common for minor characters to be of interest, but this game is the exception. The only gripe is that on occasions, the lip-synch doesn’t match the words spoken. If that were corrected, then it would look better.
The developers seem to take ideas and such from Stephen King (referred to at one point in the game), and Alfred Hitchcock, along with Twin Peaks and Twilight Zone. This is done very effectively.

Gameplay
The game is broken down into 6 episodic levels, and put to the gamer as a TV-show. At the start of new episodes, it gives a brief recap of what has happened – ‘previously on Alan Wake’. This is original in gameplay style, and works remarkably well.
Each episode has a short daytime part, but it is mostly set at night. This is when the creepiness and terror takes place. As Bright Falls is a country town, you spend a lot of time in the surrounding areas, with a few times in the town itself.
You are armed with a flashlight and handgun, and need to battle against various versions of ‘the Taken’. There are other light sources such as heavy-duty flashlights, lanterns, flares, and flareguns. For firepower, you pick up shotguns, handguns, and hunting rifle. You also pick up flashbang grenades. You do not keep the weapons and light sources, as each episode starts off with no weapons and flashlight. This can annoy some people, but it’s appropriate for this type of game.
The Taken are townspeople and birds taken over by a dark shadow. You need to take away the darkness first before shooting or burning them. It is a shame the only wildlife in the game is birds. There are not even deer. As Bright Falls have a Deerfest going on, it is very odd. It seems too dear to include deers for the Deerfest.
There are also inanimate objects taken over by the darkness. These range from wooden beams to farm machinery. You need to deal with them differently, or you can just bypass them
Apart from burning and shooting, there are driving sections, platforming parts, and starting generators.
The driving controls are a bit wonky when trying to steer the vehicles. The camera is ‘no help’ when trying to look left and right. You actually ‘fight’ it, but it always wants you to look straight ahead. It is a shame, as you need to look at all directions for enemies, and stuff to pick up.
Starting generators to switch on lights require you to press the ‘A’ button at the required time. There are times when you try to start one up and enemies swarm around you. These can get pretty tense.
Through each episode, you listen to radios (local talk show talking of some things going on), and watch TV. The TV show is ‘Night Springs’, inspired by that-show-of-some-sort-of-zone. There is another TV show that has Alan Wake himself in it.
Also, going through each episode, Alan picks up manuscript pages of the novel he wrote but cannot remember. These give insight of various characters, things yet to come, and things already happened. He also collects coffee thermos, which is an odd collectable item.
To avoid being injured by the Taken, you need to perform a run-dodge manoeuvre. To me, I found it clunky. Alan Wake can only run for a very short time before slowing down, and always when starting to run he does a dodge whether there is an enemy or not. I found the dodge part is hard to do at certain times.

Graphics
The character animations are average, but everything else is very good. During the daytime, I notice the characters have a white hue outlining them. Is it there intentionally?
In the night time, the graphics are much better. The use of dark shadows, lighting effects, and lightning gives a very eerie feeling.
Sound
Overall, it is very good. Thunderstorms, hollowing winds, stuff being thrown and smashing on the ground, gunfire, flashbang grenades going off, birds screeching, etc. are all excellent.
The voice acting by all characters are done very well indeed. Very solid, as you need it for this sort of game. Any less, then wouldn’t have the same impact.
Overall
As a thriller TV-show style, Remedy has done a very good job. They have created a really tense atmospheric game, but with several blemishes that make it from becoming great. If you like this type of game, then it’s recommended. If you don’t then….
Gameplay – 8/10
Story – 9/10
Graphics – 7/10 (daytime), 10/10 (night time)
Sound – 10/10

Alan Wake Review

8.5

Platform: Xbox / PC

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More Info on Alan Wake

Game Profile: Alan Wake

Review: Alan Wake Review
Article: Alan Wake - Thriller or Horror?
Video: ALAN WAKE GAME TRAILER
News: Alan Wake Pushed Back to 2008?

Alan Wake Australian Release: Out Now

Alan Wake Comments

Leave a comment

Kudos: 4,612

gamerguy

I put in survival horror, because it seems like it in the gameplay side on various instances. Comment if you wish. Thanks.

08/06/2010

Melbourne, Victoria

Kudos: 298,457

Tano

Nice work. Cept for the IGN watermarked images :P

09/06/2010

"Niko! Cousin!"

Kudos: 4,612

gamerguy

Thanks. Concerning the IGN pics, are they too blurry, or is it due to the images themselves? If, it is due to using IGN images in reviews, then I'll try to source in future elsewhere.

09/06/2010

Melbourne, Victoria

Kudos: 119,627

Mirage

It's the images themselves as they're watermarked.

09/06/2010

Oppai-suki.

Kudos: 4,612

gamerguy

OK. I apologise. Moderator, you can delete this and Splinter Cell reviews, due to images used.

09/06/2010

Melbourne, Victoria

Kudos: 119,627

Mirage

Nah, it's all cool :). They're good reviews and not something worth deleting for just because of a few watermarked images.

Just for future references, try not to use them :)

09/06/2010

Oppai-suki.

Kudos: 51,430

Milky

Better than that Alan Wake review by that other dude

09/06/2010

come on, i only want a cuddle!

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