I remember when this game was announced. Originally, it was supposed to be a PC game Remedy was making, but it wasn't long before Microsoft partnered with them, announcing it was coming out for the Xbox 360 as well, until finally it had migrated to being a 360 exclusive and released in 2010. It would arrive as a port on PC a few years later. By this time excitement for the game had come and gone, including my own, but my interest was still there to an extent. As such, it became another game to add to the backlog on a sale over the years. But now it has finally become time for the writer's story to shine. But did it? Well, kinda... but it's not that simple.
On the surface, Alan Wake has it all. He is a successful writer with a massively popular series of crime novels to his name and throngs of fans the nation over. He has Alice, his loving wife who will and has stuck with him through the highs and lows of his life and career. He has a high-end apartment they share with a skyline view of the city. And he has his agent Barry who, though he doesn't get along with Alice, is also a good friend who looks out for him. Indeed, he has it made, or so you would think. The truth is, Alan's last book was finished two years ago and writers block has plagued him since, making him feel like a washed up failure at his profession. To get away from it all for a while, he and his wife decided to take a short vacation in the sleepy little town of Bright Falls, Washington.
However, this vacation did not start quite right. He had rented out a cabin on Cauldron Lake discretely from Carl Stucky (the landlord of the place) directly to avoid attention, but the local waitress of the diner they were to meet at was so much of a fan she had his cutout at the door. In addition, he couldn't find Carl. Instead, an old woman dressed in black handed him the keys and instructions to get to the cabin while telling him Carl was sick and couldn't make it. And once there, Alan also found out Alice had a hidden motive to go: she had set him up with a local psychiatrist to assist him getting past his block. Infuriated, Alan stormed out of the cabin, only to hear her scream for help. Alas, his return was too late as she was pulled into the lake by an unknown force. Diving in to save her, he wakes up in a crashed car along the road with no idea how he got from the lake to there, but knowing he needs to save his wife from a fate worse then death, even if no one else believes him about what's going on.
You will actually start playing before Alan and Alice arrive at Bright Falls. Since Alice was the one behind the wheel of their car, Alan got some shut eye, and you will start by playing out Alan's nightmare, letting you get a feel for how Alan moves and combat works. Everything you take down needs to be weakened with light before you can do so, if not outright destroyed by the light itself. Most of the time, this will involve you using a flashlight, but there are other weapons that will help you along the way. You will also get a feel for how long and how much of your flashlight's battery it might take to do this on the weaker things, and begin to understand just how preciously you will treat light and all it's sources.
But the flashlight actually has a double-purpose, as both a means to weaken/eliminate enemies and for general aiming of your whatever gun you have currently equipped. You do not get a crosshair of any kind in this game, but Alan will point his weapon with the flashlight, letting it's center beam fill this roll. It sounds like a small thing, but removing an aiming point in the center of the screen also removes it's incursion on the world and atmosphere around you.
And this is a good thing as atmosphere is definitely one of the strongest points of this game. From the untamed woods to the empty highway to the sleepy diner and more, this game screams out the feel of an old town that would inspire any horror writer for what might happen behind the scenes there, natural or supernatural. It is a little run-down, a bit bleak, and perfect for the story itself. And yet populated with a small cast of characters who stand out in all the right ways. Some are locals like the sheriff or the two retired rockstars, while others are here specifically for the events of this game like Alan and Alice themselves. But they are all fairly well developed and brilliantly played. As such, expect many to stick with you well after the end credits role.
And while we are celebrating what this game did right, I also need to make note of the soundtrack here. It is simply fantastic. While playing the game itself, the music will be used exceptionally well to fit the moment, either of frantic action to escape your unearthly pursuers, to moments of revelation, to even loss and realization of just how bad things have gotten, the background music just excels in this title. However, that is not what you are going to remember. The real musical stars for the most part play outside the action. At the end of each episode (and at various points in the game) licensed music is also used and whoever made these selections absolutely nailed it out of the park! Everything from "Major Tom" to straight up metal and all fitting brilliantly like the TV-mini-series feel this game goes for. Enjoy!
But for all the good on that side of the game, there are other things that will stick with you for the wrong ways as well. While this is a horror game, it plays much more action-based then one would expect, and unfortunately does not do so very well. You will play this from a 3rd person perspective, using the camera to aim Alan at what you want to shoot or interact with, but the feel is pretty clunky. Between Alan needing a second to stop running or start a jump, the game chooses to focus on that animation as the developers saw fit to put it before the control of the game which can make some of the platforming a bit awkward to put it mildly. Add to this an inconsistency in some of the geometry (for example, what holes in the ground are just graphics vs what you can actually fall in) and expect some cheap deaths, especially around some moving platforms late in the game.
But the game makes the choice of being action heavy an off one much earlier then that due to the nature of what you are fighting as well. The game uses the "classic" move of your run button (which you cant do for long anyway) also being the dodge, so it doesn't work as consistently as it could. In addition, you need to dodge in the right direction to evade a hit, making it just about useless most of the time as when you would use it, you would have to stop running and then hit the run AND he direction you want while the system sees fit to animate Alan "stopping." It's awkward as hell. And this would be bad enough, but it becomes even more worthless with this game's penchant for cheap shots with enemies placed behind you.
In essence, when day turns to night, you face a warped version of the people in the town possessed by the dark force Alan is facing off with, and by design, they can be anywhere. Often when these arena-like encounters start, they are placed well and you will be given a slow motion zoom out showing you where your new opponents are coming from before bringing you back into control, making this work. But this is not always the case. There are several times when instead they will just suddenly surround you, making the whole map feel like one giant monster-closet. If you are unfortunate enough to be dealing with something nasty in front of you, you may well not realize someone just appeared 2 feet behind you. And since they often do not even make any noise, you can expect to lose half your life from an enemy you never knew would be there in the first place. And this can include spawning into places where they really couldn't maneuver into. It's simply put, one of the cheapest ways to kill a player I've ever seen. Expect to get frustrated a lot when this happens.
Overall: Honestly, I wish this game either had either been more geared for the action it entails or been less focused on it. It focuses heavily on being assaulted and fighting back the monsters who ambush you when the controls (and sometimes your very supplies) just do not support doing so particularly well. Add to this the game's tendency to use any given space as a monster closet without any real concern about player location or ability to let the player know something just appeared behind them and that same combat is going to be more frustrating then satisfying.
But at the same time, if you can stick with these issues there is something really cool here. And it's a shame that for some horror fans, its not going to be worth dealing with that frustration, as the atmosphere, story, and even the layout to make it feel like a mini-series leads up to something special buried within. It's just buried a little too deep.
Score:
System Requirements:
- 2.0 GHz Dual Core Intel processor or 2.8 Ghz AMD processor
- 2 GB RAM
- Direct X 10 compatible GPU with 512 MB VRAM
- Windows XP SP 2
- 8 GB hard drive space
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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