Spoilers only discussed at the very bottom

Supernatural mysteries have never been my cup of tea for one reason and one reason only: they rarely set-up consistent rules. When you introduce something as unearthly as magick or spirits, you need consistency in the way your world operates, otherwise anything can go; and if anything can go, what conflicts are your protagonists actually overcoming? What’s to stop them from doing X to subvert Y? Heck, on the flipside, what’s preventing the antagonist from axing them from the get-go? Out of all the fictional media I’ve engaged with, only one work succeeded in being cogent, that being Death Note, though even then it had to fall back on the age-old trope of an almighty god self-handicapped by amusement/boredom/insert emote of your choice.

Yeah, it goes without saying Alan Wake is another one of those occult stories riddled with inconsistencies. It was released in 2010, yet feels like it should’ve come out in the late-90s given the Twin Peaks/X-Files vibes and reliance on adumbral entities (seriously what was with that trope in the 90s? See OoT, Shadow Man, and of course Silent Hill). That’s not to say it’s outdated by any means, but I can definitely see why it failed to reach broader audiences back then- it was tapping into a cultural geist that simply wasn’t relevant at the time. Combine this with an overly-cinematic structure and repetitive gameplay, and you get the perfect skeleton for a cult classic.

That said, I did enjoy parts of the game, albeit with limitations. The premise is you’re a writer named Alan Wake who, along with his wife, heads to the sleepy town of Bright Falls for a long-overdue vacation. Unfortunately, fate has other plans in mind as strange things occur, culminating in Alan awakening one week later with no memory of what transpired and shadow demons everywhere. Amnesiacs having to retrace their footsteps has always been a pretty interesting concept, however, I was admittedly unable to get into the storyline for reasons I’m not too sure of. There are a number of smaller defects, from Wake being a bit of a pr!ck to the grand villain ending up a joke+ (more on both later), but if I had to pinpoint the biggest drawback, it would probably be that AW fails to handle its preternatural elements realistically. Like most urban fantasies, AW is set in a version of our world which happens to contain a paranormal underbelly, yet only one character in the entire cast reacts to this revelation naturally. Everyone else, most notably Wake, treats it as just another Tuesday (in spite of the story emphasizing his knack for skepticism!)

This lack of groundedness is prevalent in other smaller facets that, on their own, don’t mean much, but together add up to several ancillary incongruities: Alan is capable of perfectly using firearms despite never shooting before; random honchos are aware they’re in a pre-scripted narrative, yet conveniently forget that in favor of acting independent; munitions are stored in locations they have no business being located in; and day/night cycles haphazardly swap as the story demands it (seriously, 80% of the game is at night irrespective of a day having 12 hours of sunlight). Some of these complaints are touched upon, but it’s more in a Fourth Wall-esque self-awareness way than genuine explanation (i.e., Alan commenting about grenades being out-of-place in a construction yard).

With all due respect to Remedy, it also seems like they either didn’t plan things well or were shortchanged on dev time. For starters, a large chunk of AW’s explanations and backstory are relegated to a manuscript Alan scribed during his blackout, of which you’ll have to find the (many) pages during your travels. Optional lore being relegated to collectibles has never been an issue, but to do so with important narratorial information is bizarre, especially when you consider you cannot find all of the sheets unless you replay the game on the highest difficulty. To clarify, the plot isn’t confusing if you don’t acquire these notes (I didn’t bother reading most of them after finding out the aforementioned fact); however it does lack information that would otherwise better inform its occurrences.

Secondly are a couple of other story elements that don’t go anywhere- one, much is made about an annual festival called Deerfest, only for it to not play a part down-the-line; and two, you’ll infrequently encounter TVs broadcasting a Twilight Zone-parody called Night Falls that, despite being referenced by NPCs, exists for the sake of existence’s sake (it also doesn’t make sense why Alan would stop to view these episodes when he’s often in a hurry, though more on that later).

Thirdly, Alan’s character arc is inherently flawed. As stated earlier, he comes across as a haughty writer with explicit disdain towards his peers, and while this was clearly intended to be a jumping-off point for him learning self-lessness, the problem is selfishness was never an issue. Like, he genuinely cares for his wife and best friend from the get-go, so why the devs thought he needed to exhibit strong acts of valor down-the-stretch is beyond me. Wake isn’t a bad protagonist by any means (I certainly had no qualms following him), but he’s definitely more forgettable than his fans would have you to believe. The supporting cast doesn’t fare much better, with them often unconditionally doing Wake’s bidding instead of maintaining autonomy. His wife Alice, in particular, is especially bland, which doesn’t bode well considering a large part of the game’s impetus is trying to ensure her safety.

In terms of the cinematic structure, I think it works quite well. Remedy have proven themselves to be less-pretentious/more-competent versions of David Cage, and that’s exhibited beautifully in the myriad of cutscenes you’ll have to watch over the course of your playtime. They’re tautly-scripted, flawlessly edited, and showcase a clear knack for cinematography from the game’s artisans. There’s also not a huge disparity between their composition and the in-game engine, a trait which works wonders considering how well AW holds up. I obviously had issues with Remedy’s proprietary software in Max Payne, but the nine years since then have been very kind as the studio has significantly amped-up their asset creation. Character models, for instance, are refined and lifelike in every aspect of their form, with close examinations disclosing skin pores, fabric lines, and facial strands. Urban interiors, though lesser in quantity, hold a lot more personalized detail than Max Payne ever did- an FBI agent’s hotel room chockful of strewn papers indicates the occupant’s increased obsession; a rock duo’s shed ripe with a longboat and Viking paraphernalia highlights their enthusiasm for all things Norse. It’s a shame you don’t spend much time in any of them as even a few seconds of observation discloses the sheer effort that went into their assemblage.

Outside, things are obviously less quantified given the open spaces and emphasis on forestry, and while you’ll still find a slew of decently-decorated locales (like the aforestated construction yard), it’s clear Remedy was banking on atmosphere more than anything else. I noted the comparisons to Twin Peaks and X-Files earlier, and those vibes definitely come into play during these sections when you’re wandering through this creepy wilderness that’s suffocating Bright Falls. Thanks to a dimly-baked overlay, environments are never obnoxiously dark, and combined with some good wind effects, traversal can be a vivid experience.

Unfortunately, aspects of the graphics haven’t aged all that well (aspects I’ve heard were addressed in the Remaster). To begin with, AW has a big problem with texture streaming, particularly as it pertains to wood-based surfaces, which yes, is a big problem considering the plethora of trees around you. However, it certainly isn’t restricted to bark, and I intermittently caught lapses with metal and boulders.

More jarring, still, are the countenances- outside of Alan and of course cutscenes, no effort was put into giving any NPCs’ face motion, leading to puppet-esque mouth flaps that feel like some demented ventriloquist act. Then again, it’s not like accurate lip syncing was warranted considering the rank mediocrity of the voice acting. Matthew Porretta is your eponymous hero, and it’s clear he was cast more-so for his audiobook proficiencies than anything else as, while his in-game narration and manuscript readings are superb, he stumbles greatly in every other emotional category. Others, including Al’s BFF Barry, a hermit named Cynthia, and an assortment of random NPCs sound downright shrill, with Barry, in particular, coming across like a bad Joe Pesci impersonator. Even the better VAs (the Sheriff, the Doctor, the FBI Agent, Barbara Jagger) simply aren’t given enough material to work with -- in some cases, the longer the game runs, the worse they end up sounding (the Sheriff).

However, none of these qualms come close to the atrocity that is the audio blending as Alan Wake might genuinely have the worst mix I have ever heard in a video game. You guys know how background noise/music in movies sounds louder than dialogue when broadcast from a TV? Well, take just the noise facet, then further take only a few beats from said noise principle and boost it up several decibels and you’ll hear the problem with Alan Wake- gunshots, monster screams, and collisions involving Alan’s avatar are upscaled to annoying degrees whilst everything else is strongly softened. I get they wanted the game to be reminiscent of a film, but to copy/paste a similar dynamic range is ridiculous, especially since the noises they chose aren’t particularly great- weapons are weak, punches sound like Saturday-morning cartoon thuds, and enemies have the stupidest dialogue imaginable. As a result of this system, I genuinely cannot tell you guys anything about the SFX because it was extremely hard to discern dins outside of that trifecta.

The same criticisms apply to the music- outside of cinematic tracks, you’ll be hard-pressed to catch any tunes thanks to the overarching aural diminishment. Now thankfully, the score by Petri Alanko is available on Spotify to be listened to separately, and hearing it while writing this review, I can definitely say it’s solid, though suffers from the same problem Virginia’s OST had in that it’s more befitting for a motion picture than video game….an issue that’s worse here considering AW actually has gameplay. The loop involves you wandering from place-to-place, triggering an emergence of wraiths, shining your flashlight on them to drain their shield, before popping them into oblivion. It definitely does get repetitive, but I will say it’s not as bad as some of the harsher reviews have made it out to be, primarily thanks to a pristine auto-aim which outweighs any frustrations you’d normally get from a half-baked third-person shooter. There were some attempts at introducing variation- you get enemies with different attack patterns for example- but there was undeniably so much more they could have done: maybe introduce different colored lights with their own effects or have a more zestful interface for certain archetypes ala Luigi’s Mansion, I don’t know, I’m just spitballing.

Regardless, even such theoretical changes wouldn’t have absolved the game from three major issues that genuinely made me want to avoid the majority of fights. The first is the spawning- enemies will literally appear behind you without notice, leading to numerous aggravating “sucker punch” moments that could’ve been alleviated had Remedy done the normal thing and simply pulled the camera back just a little. The second is Alan’s dodge: it is atrocious, at least on controller where it is bound to the same button as your sprint, meaning half-the-time it won’t register due to the game believing you want to dash away instead of simply sidestep. The third is the fact that, between chapters and even parts of chapters, Alan will always lose his entire arsenal, forcing you to restock via finding caches and emergency kits. It’s an unfortunate consequence of episodic releases, and one that will bother those of you who purchase the entire bundle- every second you wasted arming yourself is thrown out the window, increasingly killing your motivation to repeat the same process ad nauseam. All three of these in conjunction are the real downsides to the combat, and subsequently convinced me to bypass most encounters via dropping a flair and bolting (note- you’ll have to repeat this a couple of times per/fight as, perhaps anticipating this, the devs made Alan a horribly unfit @sshole capable of running a whole 12-15 seconds before tiring out).

The confusing thing is why Remedy opted to stick solely to combat instead of introducing stealth or even puzzle elements. In one of the last sections of the game, Alan has to create light constructs via enhancing specific sigils, and that honestly could’ve been the template for something more expansive had the developers considered it.

There’s honestly not much else in the way of gameplay. Yeah, you’re technically allowed to explore areas, but there ain’t anything worthwhile in them besides more supplies, the abovementioned papers the majority of gamers aren’t going to read, oh and coffee thermoses! (might seriously be the lamest collectible I have witnessed in a game, and I grew up in the RARE era). Opting to go for these also results in TLOU problem of it not making sense for Alan to waste time scavenging around when the narrative is impelling him towards an imperative objective (cue NPCs awkwardly waiting for you to finish your looting before continuing with their speech). If those weren’t hampering enough, AW suffers from a degenerative camera that auto-clips to Alan’s right no matter how many F&CKING TIMES you manually swap it to the other side. Other nitpicks with the gameplay involve the constant slo-mo whenever enemies initially manifest/you perform a perfect dodge (you know, the thing that was wisely-dropped halfway through Max Payne), Alan having no melee push for enemies that come close, and ranged specters being able to nail you with pinpoint accuracy.

So yeah, in conclusion, Alan Wake is a frustrating endeavor. It has a cool atmosphere, great visuals, and an interesting story, but squanders most of that on unstable concepts and flawed game design. You’ll probably find some enjoyment like I did, but given the moviemaking aesthetic, you could arguably get the same entertainment value from watching a YouTube playthrough

Notes
-Wake’s flashlight is very well-done and arguably the best torch in video game history. I don’t know if its beam is realistic, but it’s functional and useful, which is all that matters.

-Occasionally, the volumetric fog won’t probably render, resulting in those square clusters from seeping light.

-There was something very luscious about Alan’s hair. I know it’s a stationary prop, but the shine made it look well-textured.

-No effort was put into providing bullet impacts for non-enemy surfaces.

-They could’ve eased up on explicitly stating their pop culture references as there are plenty of times where it’s obvious what the writers are alluding to, yet you still get an explanation ala Ready Player One.

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+So the game’s honestly a bit confusing on this front. The idea is there’s this entity literally called the Dark Presence who wants Alan to write a story freeing it from its entombment. Alan managed to get conscious enough during his brainwashing ordeal to escape it, resulting in it attempting to bring him back to complete the story. Except, if it wants Alan to do this, why is it constantly striving to kill him? Whether via the possessed townsfolk or throwing giant pieces of machinery at him, it’s most definitely attempting to end his life, which ironically brings me to the crux of my post- the Dark Presence is completely pathetic. Seriously, you’ve got this all-mighty force equipped with all kinds of black magic and you’re telling me it can’t stop a single regular human being? The writers don’t even try to put the usual impediments you see with this trope, like the Malevolence holding back for sh!ts and giggles. No, it truly is incompetent and consequently takes you out of the story.
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I wanted to play this game because many people said that it's good but I'm VERY disappointed and annoyed!!
this game has ordinary story so far except that ghosts and they're boring and not scary at all, it's just annoying.

game's mechanic is like a nightmare rather than story; I go straight he goes right or left (depending on the camera angle you chose), I wanna dodge but he can't do it because in 2 steps he's out of breath like he runs for miles (oh, and he can't run properly either).

I collect every gun, flare-gun, bullet etc. but after a cutscene everything goes empty! and expect me to deal with his ghosts with empty handed and can't dodge!! he has stupid nightmares when he's awake?! "oh, I'm just going crazy"

I know that they made it like a tv show so he narrates them but it's another thing that makes me annoyed about it because since he can't run and dodge he dies and I have to listen his mumbling over and over again. exhausting!!

I don't wanna spend any more of my time for this thing, so deleting it for good and don't think I'll finish it ever. the only good thing is that I get it from discount so didn't paid much, otherwise it would have bothered me more.