[360] Alan Wake Review

[AgtFox]

The same review can be found on Co-Optimus who was nice enough to share their review.

Alan Wake Review

Title: Alan Wake
Platform: 360
Developer: Remedy Games
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studio
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: $59.99 (Regular), $79.99 (Limited Edition)
Editor: Nicholas 'bapenguin' Puleo

What's Hot: Slick visuals, tight pacing, and well written narrative. Music sets the mood well and the episodic nature of the presentation works well.

What's Not: Some minor control issues with picking up items. Only a few enemy types.

What if you were reading this review, and instead of a review, you were reading about yourself reading this review? Quite the dichotomy, isn't it? Alan Wake by Remedy Entertainment in a way poses the same predicament for the lead character who shares his name with the game's title. Mr. Wake, who is also a bestselling author, seems to have lost a period of time in his life. Unsure of what happened to the past week, he starts stumbling on pieces of a novel which describe the events that are currently unfolding in his life. Is Alan just a pawn in a novel himself? Could some sinister dark force be at work here? Or perhaps Alan is just crazy.

The strength right from the beginning of Alan Wake is the sheer character and emotion that's put into the story. Superb voice acting helps this along as Alan monologues in a tone and pace that only a bestselling author could. The story starts with Alan heading to the town of Bright Falls, Washington on a vacation with his wife Alice. You see, it's been some time since Alan has written a novel, two years to be exact. Alice thinks a vacation could help clear Alan's writer's block, and help him find inspiration for his next great literary piece. The town itself is another major character in the story, a place where everyone knows everyone else and the biggest celebration of the year is something called "Deer Fest." It's the perfect getaway from the big city life of New York. Needless to say, all Alan wants to do is get the keys to the cabin and relax with his gorgeous wife. But it isn't long into his trip before things begin to go awry. The cabin curator doesn't show with the keys, and instead Alan is handed directions and keys to the cabin by a mysterious woman in a dark diner hallway. Something is off.

Upon arriving we learn Alice's fear of the dark, and from this point forward it plays an important role in the story. Alan and Alice's quiet night in the cabin is cut short when a good fight between the two leads to Alan walking out for some air. Soon Alice's screams echo through the night, and suddenly she's gone. Alan finds a broken porch banister overlooking the lake, and jumps in to save her. He suddenly wakes up a week later, behind the wheel of a car that's just been in a crash. Groggy, disoriented and with no way to find his missing wife, Alan sets out to find help.

Armed with a flashlight and a revolver, your first journey takes you through dark and dangerous woods and lumber yards to reach a gas station. You'll soon meet up with "The Taken," corrupt townsfolk who are overcome by the darkness. To dispatch these creeps you'll need to use your flashlight in combination with a weapon (or vehicle) to first break the darkness that shields them and then kill the host. Your flashlight will slowly recharge over time, but during hectic battles you'll want to pump in the limited amount of Energizer batteries you have. And they are Energizer batteries, as there is plenty of product placement throughout Alan Wake. It's one of those things that fits well within the world, and doesn't really feel too forced for with advertising.

Your quest will take you through dark forests, lumber mills, lakesides, tunnels, and farms; all making the area of Bright Falls feels like an eerily realistic setting for the horror that unfolds before you. Each locale seems to present a new danger for you, the corrupt townsfolk aren't the only thing that stand in your way along your journey. Dangerous flocks of birds and poltergeist infected farm equipment that hurl themselves at you are only a small part of the danger that crosses Alan's path. You'll constantly be on the hunt for light, it's the only thing that can defeat the darkness. Conveniently placed generators, workshop lights, and street lamps are all your safe haven; entering them will recharge your health quickly, create a checkpoint and dispense any baddies surrounding you. Sometimes running and dodging the enemies are your only option, so these safe havens are crucial.

All of this chaos of possessed towns folk, flying tires, and poltergeist infected tractors are only part of the story. Alan is not only dealing with them, he is also battling himself, battling his mind. He needs to piece together the missing week of his life, and decide what exactly is real.

Through a series of dreams and flashbacks you slowly begin to understand the relationship Alan has with his wife Alice, his best friend/agent Barry, and the darkness. The episodic format of the game further reinforces the narrative elements presented. Giving each section a beginning, climax, end and cliffhanger not only gives a constant sense of accomplishment, it drives you to the next episode to find out what awaits. Remedy licensed a nice variety of music as well to book end these episodes which helps evoke further emotion to what's going on in the game. Each episode begins with a "previously on Alan Wake" montage to bring you up to speed if you decided to take a break from playing.

I have very few quarrels with Alan Wake, the game play is solid and fun, and for the most part it controls well. You'll never find yourself fighting the camera, there's always something pretty to look at, and the contrast of light and dark from the environments will keep you on the edge of your seat. The game utilizes audio extremely well, you'll quickly become familiar with the audio queues that put you into "battle" mode and the music, both licensed and orchestral, does a great job of setting the mood. The game is a bit too easy on the normal difficulty, so you might want to bump it up if you're looking for more of a traditional survival horror challenge.

I've tried very carefully to avoid any potential plot spoilers for this game, because it truly is the game's greatest strength. It unravels like a TV series, and resembles the likes of the X-Files or Twin Peaks. By the time you reach Episode 6, the final episode of the game, you'll have a pretty good idea of where things are heading - and despite what you feel might happen, what you know is going to happen, it's almost gut wrenching to watch unfold. The unanswered mystery is the one that stays with us the longest, and it's the one we'll remember in the end.

Alan Wake is proof that video games can be the complete entertainment package. For fans of Remedy's past work with titles like Max Payne, you won't be disappointed; and keep an eye out for a a few Easter eggs related to their famous franchise. Thought provoking, emotional, and fun, Alan Wake will make you long for more titles like it.

Score: 5 out of 5 CoGs


Nick says, ”Alan Wake definitely surprised me, and I was gripped from beginning to end. There's a lot of collectibles in game to find, and subsequent play throughs are a no brainer for me to find them all. Be on the lookout for some great Max Payne references in Alan's apartment!”

[AgtFox]

OK, please note that I did not write the review. Nick (bapenguin) did. The reason I am the poster is because it was the only way for the timestamp to be after the embargo lift.

With that out of the way, I'm supposedly getting a copy sent to me this week (crossing fingers). I hope to fill out this post with my thoughts on the game before release on the 18th since I was initially the reviewer for this game before we found out early copies went out last week...including one to Co-Optimus, a site that hones in more on co-op games, which Alan Wake is not (but they do short non co-op reviews in a monthly feature).

I'm very happy to see that Alan Wake is a really good game. I've been a supporter of it for a long time, even when people were bashing it for the length of development and feeling it may not be everything they had hoped.

[Disgustipated]

Wow, they sent out review copies for this? I'm going to pick this up for sure, was kind of on the fence.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Disgustipated

Wow, they sent out review copies for this? I'm going to pick this up for sure, was kind of on the fence.

Yes, weeks in advance. They lifted embargo almost 2 weeks in advance of release as well. Usually this means a company feels it will get good reviews.

Writing front page post right now and then I'll fill in that placeholder. As you can see, I did not write the review, but in order to have the correct time be after embargo I had to post the review.

[Hawkzombie]

Wow, that's really surprising...the first 5 star of 2010? Glad I preordered it now.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Hawkzombie

Wow, that's really surprising...the first 5 star of 2010? Glad I preordered it now.

Think I gave Mass Effect 2 5 stars.

[Gwinny]

Originally Posted by Krispy

I'm so glad to see positive reviews of this game. I've been looking forward to it for a long time.

This, this.

[Narradisall]

Hmmm, this really wasn't on my radar, since I usually find these types of games to be poorly executed (and normally up to part 5 of a series).

Bags review seems to heap praise on it though, may be worth a pick up.

[AgtFox]

Yeah, as I said earlier, it is almost unheard of for non-major sites to get copies of a game 3 weeks before release and for said game to have embargo lift almost 2 weeks before release.

Usually the company will send people from the major places out to their location to play the game weeks ahead of time so they can have a review ready for embargo lift.

Generally a move like this one results in a game that has positive reviews. You don't send out an average game or a turd weeks ahead of time and let an embargo lift also weeks ahead of time. They obviously want some buzz generated and it sounds to me like this is going to be a sleeper hit if enough people read reviews.

So far I've seen nothing but positive from those sites that have a review.

[Wolvie]

Awe hell, now I gotta pick up a second game on my birthday(May 18th baby!). My wallet is going to hurt after that day.

[Squidbot]

Wow. Ok, so worth the wait then.

[Kelegacy]

Any word on how long the game is? If it was in the review I missed it.

[Shieldmaiden]

I've been having a poke around the interwebs looking at various reviews of this and it's been quite interesting. Scores in the 7-9 range (nothing lower so far) and an 83 average on Metacritic, but every review I've read so far, with the exception of Nick's, reads lower than they actually score it. It comes across as a game that is more than the sum of it's parts; lots to criticise, but a good game overall.

The weird bit is the lack of consensus on which parts are the good ones. I've read reviews praising the combat, but complaining about the writing and then reviews doing the exact opposite.

We've all seen plenty of divisive games, but in this case, everyone seems to think it's pretty good, they just can't agree on why.

[Shieldmaiden]

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

Any word on how long the game is? If it was in the review I missed it.

One of the reviews I read said about 14 hours.

[Kelegacy]

Originally Posted by BigJonno

One of the reviews I read said about 14 hours.

14 hours is pretty good! If you said 5-7 I would have just rented it.

[menage]

Mmm, this game will still be quite good. But from what I´ve read elsewhere it sure wasn´t worth the wait.

Talk about a crap story, derivative gameplay and dated graphics make me want to wait for a pricedrop first

[Kelegacy]

Originally Posted by menage

... make me want to wait for a pricedrop first

Oh, that's a given for me. I don't spend $60 on games anyway. I'll be playing this within a couple months probably for half the price.

I'm always a few games behind, so I always have something else to occupy me until the shiny new games drop a bit.

[menage]

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

Oh, that's a given for me. I don't spend $60 on games anyway. I'll be playing this within a couple months probably for half the price.

I'm always a few games behind, so I always have something else to occupy me until the shiny new games drop a bit.

I wasn´t like that, but for these types of games (Heavy Rain, Metro 2033), which basically boil down to a sp experience which I play once I'm starting to be like that as well. I've reached a point now where I can't afford everything anyway so I pick the real gems like Uncharted 2, ME2 or Red Dead (I hope) which for me have lot's of mileage and buy the rest on sale.

[Wilkz07]

great review. i've been watching the prequel episodes on live and will be getting this when its released.

[bapenguin]

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

Any word on how long the game is? If it was in the review I missed it.

I'd say it took me about 12. I didn't do too much hunting around for the collectibles though. If someone took their time I could easily seeing it take 16-20.

The collectibles carry through for multiple playthroughs though. So you can just get them then.