I loathe basically everything about Alan Wake. I played this because the sequel is so critically acclaimed, but after playing this I cannot imagine how. I think this game is a failure in every aspect of design.

First, the graphics. Even with the remaster, these environments are at best passable, while at their worst they definitely show their age. The character designs and animations, however, are truly some of the ugliest I've ever seen in a video game. This is why the developers cunningly made the main enemy force completely concealed in a black shroud - it hides their awful appearance.

The gameplay is atrociously tedious. Every single level the game has to contrive a reason for Alan Wake to leave all his equipment behind but to venture out at night regardless. It became a running joke for me to see just how long the daytime segments were compared to the nighttime ones. I think this town gets about 10 minutes of total daylight every 24 hours based on how the game presents it. The combat system of not being able to shoot the enemies until you have shone a torch on them enough might sound kind of interesting but in practice it just drags the encounters out three times as long as they need to. The enemy variety is tragic; there is only 3. Men with melee weapons, crows and inanimate objects. WOW!

I've seen the story praised by critics, but I couldn't agree any less. It's a very simple story that's told in the most confusing way possible. Don't confuse that with the story having depth - it doesn't - it just makes it even harder to enjoy. The plot sucks, the characters are detestable and everything is padded out.

The only positive I have for this game it that it is playable. I got to the end without many issues. I recently tried my best to play the game Remedy made after this, Quantum Break, and found the worst optimised triple-A release I have ever seen. I could, at least, beat Alan Wake. There was one good section in Alan Wake, the musical number at the end of episode 4. That is 5 minutes of an eight hour game. Everything else in just insufferably standard. Hours and hours of wandering around the same looking dark woodland while shooting the same enemy over and over again, occasionally stopping to feed some awful piece of poorly acted exposition down your throat.

man i was so fucking bored. like the story had some intrigue and the combat was kinda neat at first, but there's so much of it and just wandering around that i got so fucking bored.

looked up the rest of the story and im kinda happy i didn't waste more time on it.

3/10

This might be one of my biggest disappointments in terms of "hyped" games, and this game is from 2010 it's insane to be disappointed by an old piece of shit!

"Play Alan Wake", they said, and since this game is somewhat considered a classic I thought "Sure, I loved Max Payne 2, and storytelling in games can be great! I'm sure I can trust Remedy's new game!" but oh-so-wrong I was!

This is the tale of a little boy saddened to see the state of Alan Wake on his Playstation 5.

Alright so pointing out the obvious, I don't care about pseud stories related to books and whatnot, I'm a gamer! I like Cheetos, I like Gamecubes, I like boxes with Xs on them and stupid shit like Mario! I don't fucking know about books and I'm not a writer either so I surely can't relate to Alan Wake and his stupid issues.
I'm not saying that all video game stories have to be dumb or relatable to the player, I'm just saying that if you give your game to greasy Xbox 360 players, from the Max Payne creators, I'm pretty sure they'd expect something else from the game.

Something that perplexes me is that this game does not seem to know what it wants to be, do you want to be a more story-focused experience like a Telltale game with episodes and such, or do you want to be a "Survival horror" similar to Resident Evil 5 and 6 (oh god)?
The game feels like they only had one idea on the drawing board and it was "Play with light and shadow", then they thought "Let's make it a horror game", but then like all 360era horror games it turned into a more action-focused game which removes any scares and replaces it by long fucking corridors that never ends with the same enemies and gameplay over and over, mixed with some poor metaphorical metastory meta whatever storytelling with a confusing cutscene and a story that writes itself with the most obvious ending possible which only released as DLC, yeah I'm pissed.

I have a fun game in mind, since this game is pretty much a mix of all cliché Xbox 360 games I think it would be fun to list everything you've seen overused in other games from that era!

This game is a third-person shooter
It has forced vehicle sections
it has regenerative HP
It has useless garbage collectibles for "Lore" and a set number of bonus collectibles for a nice "nothing" reward for collecting all 100
It uses a chapter system
Italian new-yorker sidekick

And probably many more that I cannot bring myself to remember, if anything this game is the most 360 of them all!

But is the main gimmick of the game even good? It's cool for 10 minutes, then you realize the "Light to fight monster" gimmick is just a loading bar for enemies, it never gets used in creative ways, you just flash the same enemies over and over till the very end of the game, the game doesn't even have real boss fights they are just copy pasted fast ghost dudes with the model of a relevant character from that chapter.

This game just feels like a time waster, the end twist is obvious, the gameplay isn't fun and it's REALLY repetitive, the characters all suck I don't like any of them other than the Italian sidekick.
I truly do not understand what people find so special about this game, did the people praising it even finish it?
But maybe it's just me, maybe I'm too dumb to understand such a deep and complex story! The boring gameplay just represents the sadness of alan wake! I swear!

Overall rating is a strong 7/10.

Pros:

+Great, chilling atmosphere through its lighting, settings and soundtrack.
+The perfect blend of suspense and supernatural, was fun to go through even as someone who isn't super into Thrillers/Horror.
+Very interesting premise of converging realities. Easy to become invested in, and gets quite thought provoking towards the end.
+Enjoyable characters and worldbuilding; the cast was all unique and all the little details added a lot to the game.
+A lot of unique mechanics and methods when it comes to taking out enemies, could be great fun at times.

Cons:

-Gameplay got a bit repetitive/linear.
-Audio mixing was quite poor.
-The controls haven't aged too well.

Excited to see how American Nightmare, Control and Alan Wake 2 expand upon this universe.

A candy-colored clown they call the sandman
Tiptoes to my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper
Go to sleep, everything is alright

Alan Wake is a game unlike any I’ve played before, not that I’ve played a lot but I seriously think it’s unique anyway! You can tell there’s a lot of love put into making this, i love all the lynchian influences that goes beyond the atmosphere of Twin Peaks, i see some Blue Velvet and Lost Highway elements too ;) and ofc Stephen King😂 I love seeing creations from the mind of a very cultured and inspired person, Sam Lake, the guy my boyfriend has a crush on…🙄 seriously though, it’s kind of inspiring to see these influences come into play into something that is very much its own thing. The story of Alan Wake was my favourite part of this, Alan as a character was very likeable and Jesus what a loyal man, to go through what he does for his wife and calling her his muse is real as fuck! Respect. And he’s just funny at random times.

I loved the combat sometimes, it could be pretty addicting, and using the flashlight along with the gun was a cool addition. The thing I did not like is how hard it was to dodge, like I swear I’d dodge as much as I could and I’d still get hit, plus it was nearly impossible to not get hit by the floating objects because my flashlight wasn’t powerful enough to get rid of it before it just throws itself at me. Also I played this on easy mode and it was not easy, might be a me problem though. ‘The Writer’ DLC chapter was the most fun and innovative, instead of having to walk on and on in some chapters I felt like I was actually doing a lot of different stuff throughout every checkpoint. Unlike in Chapter 3 where it took nearly 2hrs and I felt like I walked on forever doing repetitive combat, it could’ve been cut to an hour and I might’ve enjoyed that chapter more. So yh I think besides the pacing in ‘exploring’ some areas, it would’ve been perfect.

I’m very excited to play Alan Wake 2 and Control!

(2/26/24 - before AW2)

Overall, I did not like this game very much. It had its moments, but man, was it rough to get through. The combat feels very stiff and outdated, and that's even by 2010's standards.

The story had so much potential that was left unfulfilled - multiple times through the game, I thought the story would go one way or another, progressing in some strange way, when really it just wouldn't go anywhere. It relied too much on the "unknown staying unknown" premise for me to work, as I felt like the story had not enough payoff for the experience to be worth it. However, I did really like the Stephen King quote Alan used - "the unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and its what we'll remember in the end" - and that helped smooth out some of the story's edges for me.

The music was amazing though, both the original score and the soundtrack of other artists. I am now a diehard Old Gods of Asgard fan.

realmente os jogos da remedy tem um toque único, principalmente por causa da escrita e alan wake não foge disso.
o enredo é bem interessante, começa bem morno mas depois da metade eu fui fisgado completamente e o final achei fenomenal. Meu único porém é q não consegui simpatizar tanto com o personagem alan wake e nem com a esposa dele, eu estava é mais curioso pra saber sobre o universo e o plot da historia do que esses personagens, algo q aconteceu comigo em control também.
Sobre o combate e puzzle é só apontar a lanterninha e pou pou nos inimigos, nada inovador mas é bacana, achei q seria pior, problema é q se vc jogar varias horas seguidas certamente vai enjoar muito rápido por causa desse combate.

Off the back of Alan Wake II being released I thought I’d give the first game a go to see what all the fuss was about. If I could sum it up it would be: If Alan Wake was a real author this would be his version of Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room”.

Alan Wake contains all the ingredients of a Stephen King book with the seasoning of a David Lynch film. The game’s plot revolves around a writer who travels to a lake with his wife Alice to try and help with his writer's block. She gifts him a typewriter and Alan ungratefully throws his dummy out the pram, storming out of the cabin. Shortly after he hears her screams and finds out she has fallen into the lake. Sam then wakes up a week later in a car crash and bumps into these dark shadowy humans (called the Taken) which he must defeat with the help of light.

The game takes its inspiration from Stephen King, David Lynch and The Twilight Zone. Each section of the game is split down into episodes as if you’re playing a TV show with credits and a “Previously on…” title before each episode. As someone who is not a fan of TV shows I found this to be irritating. Thankfully you can slip each of these title cards.

I played the remastered version and the graphics look great. The game runs at a buttery smooth 60fps on Xbox Series X with remastered 4k graphics. Other improvements include: redone cinematic cutscenes with improved facial animation and lip sync, richer environmental details, improved lighting and character models. Shame they couldn’t fix the cutscenes entirely. They look pre-rendered but the animation and FPS is really choppy which is a jarring contrast to the actual gameplay. The bad writing and voice acting don’t help the cutscenes either.

I really like the gameplay mechanics of Alan Wake. Using your torch to weaken enemies and the light from the torch acting like a crosshair is very smart. Reloading your guns which can be quickened by tapping the reload button is a nice touch. Other games that don’t have this feature have gamers panicking and rapidly tapping a reload button in hopes that it will help the character reload faster. Much like people who tip the controllers in racing games hoping it improves their turning ability.

There’s not a lot of variety to the “Taken”. You get your standard guys, fast ones and the heavys. Eventually you’ll come across inanimate objects to your surprise. You’ll be standing taking damage wondering where it’s coming from before you look down and see a wheelbarrow kicking your shins.

The areas are big enough that they have little side areas to explore and find extra weapons and ammunition, however sometimes leaving those areas you will get attacked and use up the ammo you just collected. The one big collectible in this game is Thermos flasks which give you absolutely no benefit to gameplay; they are all just for a trophy which only appeals to certain gamers. Alan Wake seems like the type of game that would spawn unlimited enemies as you explore each area but luckily it doesn’t.

The downsides to the gameplay are all to do with Alan’s Movement. He can take heavy damage or even die from falling from relatively small heights. He cannot run faster than the Taken, which means if you run out of ammo and try to run away, you’ll likely die quite quickly. The game takes place over 6 chapters and most of those take place in the woods. After 2-3 chapters this can get quite repetitive and lacks any surprise. It reminded me of the E.T. ride at Universal Studios, YouTube it if you’re unsure what I’m on about. Between chapters Alan will constantly lose his flashlight and weapons making you think just proving he has the same careless approach to his belongings than he does his wife.

Alan Wake is a decent enough game which has had it’s gameplay and graphics improved with newer consoles in a remaster. Unfortunately though, remasters don’t tend to fix poor writing and woeful cutscenes. The gameplay is what kept me going through this game albeit a bit repetitive. Thankfully coming in at around 22 hours in length Alan Wake doesn’t overstay its welcome and it’s unlikely you will regret playing the game. If you’re a seasoned gamer like me who likes to explore every franchise then I recommend this game. If you’re a part-time gamer who is looking for something entertaining I'd say give this one a miss as there are better games out there.

Un ejemplo perfecto de que intención y ejecución deben ir de la mano para crear una gran obra. 'Alan Wake' no es solo que sea tremendamente irregular, es que es que ambas cuestiones van por caminos totalmente diferentes. Por la manera en la que está planteado, esto hubiera funcionado mucho mejor como serie o incluso novela, pero no han sabido aprovechar las características del videojuego para hacer algo realmente consistente. En su favor, cabe decir que trata de hacer cosas originales, especialmente si tenemos en cuenta su contexto histórico, pero ni la trama es realmente buena (copia descaradamente a 'Twin Peaks, pero haciéndolo todo peor), ni sus personajes pasan del arquetipo y, lo peor, sus mecánicas ya nacieron anticuadas.

Así que al final te quedas con un título curioso, un cóctel que bebe de aquí y de allá, pero que en su esqueleto no hay nada nuevo y, peor, es tedioso, repetitivo y cansino en sus propuestas.

Un quiero y no puedo.

An intriguing story can only get you so far, and for Alan Wake 1 I feel like it's far too flawed for me to really wanna go back to. I felt like I fought the camera more than enemies, being jumped from offscreen never felt fair, the level design and overall gameplay feels aged compared to something like RE4. It's probably good for it's time but playing it now without ever experiencing it's first release I feel like it's taken the worst aspects of games from that era. It looks like AW2 has fixed these aspects tho, I'm excited to give that a try eventually.

I guess I just don't "get" Alan Wake. I bought Alan Wake 2 on high praise from some content creators whose opinion's I respect, and Epic Games gave me 1 for free, so I felt obliged to play it. I had played Control and its AWE DLC previously, but of course I didn't really understand the Alan Wake part of that story at the time.

The story in Alan Wake is pretty good, I enjoy the writing aspect tying in with the events and supernatural parts of the plot, although I do feel that they could have done more with it, such as having Wake react to the pages he finds during exploration. This all being said I don't think the story lived up to the hype that fans of the game give it.

Past the story this game just does not do it for me. In a lot of ways it feels like a resident evil clone that does not prioritize "fun." The levels are all huge sprawling linear paths that drag on for far too long. It also doesn't help that Wake feels terrible to control, and can sprint for a whole 10 seconds before getting tired.

The atmosphere of the world is nice overall, however it is all thrown away when enemies spawn, accompanied by a shock violin stinger and slow motion, with enemies saying nonsensical random lines.

The combat in this game has potential, however it just does not cut it. Having to shine your light at enemies for several seconds before you can damage them does not work for the most part, and just makes the core of combat dodging around until you can unload and kill an enemy. This is not helped by the "deemphasized aiming" as I like to describe it. You don't actually need to aim your shots, they'll just land if you're pointing in the general direction, taking all strategy out of the combat. The game seems to pretend it's "survival horror" but not once did I have to worry about my ammo consumption.

On top of the lackluster gameplay the enemy variety is also terrible, as it just consists of small medium and large dudes with melee weapons, inanimate objects, and birds.

When comparing this game to its kind of sequel, Control, it is clear that the devs really improved the gameplay aspect of their projects, so I am hopeful that I will enjoy Alan Wake 2 much more than I enjoyed 1.