Alan Wake is the game that precedes Control by nearly ten years, but to me is the follow up to that much loved game (literally, the #30 on this list is Control!). This seems to be now setting a pattern with Resident Evil 2 - some games are just so good you feel a need to play everything else like it just to keep it going! I'm not sure if Alan Wake is QUITE as good as the Resi games I've gone through so far, but I did genuinely quite like it.
I have actually played the game previously, I believe I rented it many years ago for the 360, I distinctly recall the beginning hour or so where I stopped, I was just a bit too much of a scaredy cat I believe at the time so I stopped. I finished it this time, mainly on my new laptop and despite its age, it looked quite good. A lot of the game however is very "PS360", the colors tend to be fairly muted, gameplay areas try to LOOK expansive but are actually pretty linear, animations are present and improved but nowhere near where we're at now.. that generation (as I suppose all of them do) has a very distinct feel.
To the story, which is the meat of the experience, you are Alan Wake, a writer heading to a small New England town with his wife for a much needed vacation. You've had intense writers block for two years now, and are trying to reset your batteries so to speak. Soon however things turn to the supernatural and to horror as your wife is seemingly kidnapped by a lake, and you wake up having lost a whole week of your memory in a car crash... You later pick up notes throughout each level of Alan's "manuscript", detailing what happened in your missing week, and what events will shortly transpire. The supernatural event seems to be a clash between Alan and a "dark presence", who resides in the area and is able to overwhelm and possess townsfolk into attacking you. Alan's writings seem to come true, and the game is essentially his writing out the events of the game and you going through them. This is a pretty interesting justifcation for the "game-i-ness" and plot contrivances, for instance there are flash grenades in several areas that Alan will specifically say "There's no reason for these to be here, they were just written into the story and now they're here..." which works in both a creepy 'What's going on here??' sort of way, and as a function of being a game. The game's standout character however is Barry Allen, your book agent/friend who comes to the town to rescue you when you go missing for the week. He's a bit of a slimeball goof, but he's got heart and he's very funny. There are some other side characters as well who range from creepy to likeable, but there is one major problem: Alan's wife.
I don't actually recall the name of Alan's wife, and I will pointedly not look it up because of how badly this game handled Alan's motivation. The brass tacks of the plot is"Your wife is kidnapped, get her back", however they do a very poor job of getting you to care about her, or to show her and Alan's relationship. The beginning portion of the game is just the two of them, but her voice acting is Blah at best, and they have basically no chemistry or real "scenes" together at first to show their current relationship, other than Alan being mad at her for wanting him to write on the trip. Then she gets kidnapped and you're off to the races. Now to the games credit, there are a handful of "dream" scenes where he will remember something about her and their life together, which are IN THEORY a great way for us to get to know her and care about her, BUT they are not particularly good and again, there are like 2 or 3 of them. This is pretty much the only major failing, story wise.
Gameplay-wise, the game is solid but not great. Your main weapon is the standard array of guns, pistol/shotgun/rifle, blah. However, the interesting bit is that enemies are shrouded in darkness that prevents damage, so you have to literally 'light them up' first before you can riddle them with bullets. You have a main flashlight for this, but also get flares, flashbangs and flareguns later on to help with this, and those are fun to use. However a big negative comes in terms of enemy variety. Essentially, there are just 4 enemies in the game-
1. Regular shadowy dudes
2. Big Boy shadowy dudes
3. Crows, shadowy
4. Various floaty objects, shadowy
Adding to that, a good 75+% of the game is "You're now in a spooky forest, make your way through the obvious path to get to the well-lit place far away P.S. all your guns are gone", now is that BAD? No, it's just tiresome. There are some notable and wonderful exceptions (heading through the town at night with the sheriff, the mental 'institution', the concert...), but a bit too much of it is just like all the rest of it to be wholly positive.
While there are many issues to list with this game, it is ultimately more than held up by good characters, interesting theme and storytelling, solid gameplay, and a creepy yet mysterious atmosphere. When the Control DLC was announced a few days ago confirming Alan Wake would be a part of it, I squawked with joy. I'm delighted to go back and get more of this story. Also, it has one of the best ending lines I have ever seen!
I have actually played the game previously, I believe I rented it many years ago for the 360, I distinctly recall the beginning hour or so where I stopped, I was just a bit too much of a scaredy cat I believe at the time so I stopped. I finished it this time, mainly on my new laptop and despite its age, it looked quite good. A lot of the game however is very "PS360", the colors tend to be fairly muted, gameplay areas try to LOOK expansive but are actually pretty linear, animations are present and improved but nowhere near where we're at now.. that generation (as I suppose all of them do) has a very distinct feel.
To the story, which is the meat of the experience, you are Alan Wake, a writer heading to a small New England town with his wife for a much needed vacation. You've had intense writers block for two years now, and are trying to reset your batteries so to speak. Soon however things turn to the supernatural and to horror as your wife is seemingly kidnapped by a lake, and you wake up having lost a whole week of your memory in a car crash... You later pick up notes throughout each level of Alan's "manuscript", detailing what happened in your missing week, and what events will shortly transpire. The supernatural event seems to be a clash between Alan and a "dark presence", who resides in the area and is able to overwhelm and possess townsfolk into attacking you. Alan's writings seem to come true, and the game is essentially his writing out the events of the game and you going through them. This is a pretty interesting justifcation for the "game-i-ness" and plot contrivances, for instance there are flash grenades in several areas that Alan will specifically say "There's no reason for these to be here, they were just written into the story and now they're here..." which works in both a creepy 'What's going on here??' sort of way, and as a function of being a game. The game's standout character however is Barry Allen, your book agent/friend who comes to the town to rescue you when you go missing for the week. He's a bit of a slimeball goof, but he's got heart and he's very funny. There are some other side characters as well who range from creepy to likeable, but there is one major problem: Alan's wife.
I don't actually recall the name of Alan's wife, and I will pointedly not look it up because of how badly this game handled Alan's motivation. The brass tacks of the plot is"Your wife is kidnapped, get her back", however they do a very poor job of getting you to care about her, or to show her and Alan's relationship. The beginning portion of the game is just the two of them, but her voice acting is Blah at best, and they have basically no chemistry or real "scenes" together at first to show their current relationship, other than Alan being mad at her for wanting him to write on the trip. Then she gets kidnapped and you're off to the races. Now to the games credit, there are a handful of "dream" scenes where he will remember something about her and their life together, which are IN THEORY a great way for us to get to know her and care about her, BUT they are not particularly good and again, there are like 2 or 3 of them. This is pretty much the only major failing, story wise.
Gameplay-wise, the game is solid but not great. Your main weapon is the standard array of guns, pistol/shotgun/rifle, blah. However, the interesting bit is that enemies are shrouded in darkness that prevents damage, so you have to literally 'light them up' first before you can riddle them with bullets. You have a main flashlight for this, but also get flares, flashbangs and flareguns later on to help with this, and those are fun to use. However a big negative comes in terms of enemy variety. Essentially, there are just 4 enemies in the game-
1. Regular shadowy dudes
2. Big Boy shadowy dudes
3. Crows, shadowy
4. Various floaty objects, shadowy
Adding to that, a good 75+% of the game is "You're now in a spooky forest, make your way through the obvious path to get to the well-lit place far away P.S. all your guns are gone", now is that BAD? No, it's just tiresome. There are some notable and wonderful exceptions (heading through the town at night with the sheriff, the mental 'institution', the concert...), but a bit too much of it is just like all the rest of it to be wholly positive.
While there are many issues to list with this game, it is ultimately more than held up by good characters, interesting theme and storytelling, solid gameplay, and a creepy yet mysterious atmosphere. When the Control DLC was announced a few days ago confirming Alan Wake would be a part of it, I squawked with joy. I'm delighted to go back and get more of this story. Also, it has one of the best ending lines I have ever seen!