CODEx

"Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations"

• Game Title: Alan Wake   
•  Format: XBOX360 exclusive      
• Genre: Action/Adventure
• Publisher: Microsoft and Remedy Games Studios  
•   PEGI: 15
• Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-xaiMaru64&feature=relmfu
  

Told in six TV-Pulp style episodes, Alan Wake is a psychological thriller set in the American Mid-West, focused on an inspiration-starved author suffering from writer’s block.  On paper, if that were all there was to this title, it would never have been given the green light at all, but thankfully, Microsoft and Remedy teamed up to produce one of the most enthralling narratives woven in recent gaming memory.

The premise is simple.  Alan Wake holidays in an island town retreat that may as well be called “America-ville”, where the celebrity writer is trying to shake himself free of his lack of motivation to produce another besteller.  What transpires on the island is horror 101: wife is kidnapped and all manner of paranoid locals think Alan is responsible while he hunts for the real culprit against the clock.  Alan’s efforts are made all the more difficult thanks to an evil presence that seeks him from the darkness – the darkness in fact grants shape and  power to agents in the thrall of this evil entity and may be the cause of the disappearence of Alan’s wife among other townfolk.

The story is textbook, but what impresses is the execution.  You take on the role of Wake as he pursues his missing wife, along the way fighting enemies not with a gun (after all, Alan is a writer, not Master Chief) but with light, the one weapon that holds back the darkness.  Keeping the electricity going and the lights on in the game comprise a big part of survival here.  Add in some fantastic voice acting and facial texturing (not on a par, but close enough to Heavy Rain and LA Noire), a gripping score with contemporary soundtrack and you have a feast of an experience that you may not want to put down in a hurry…and definitely play with your own lights on!  Alan narrates as you progress through the game, as if his story is unwinding while you keep him alive, but he also finds pages of a manuscript that are strangely familiar – a book written clearly in his style about his life but something he has not written yet.  The whole nature or dream vs. reality is explored and tested time and time again.  Just when you think you can trust Alan or an NPC, something else throws doubt into the tale.  Now and again you catch glimpses of yourself as another Alan on  live cctv monitors in a different location doing something entirely different or eerie…which can be disconcerting.  If you like watching TV in the game, you can catch “Bright Falls”, a real life webisode series made for the game in the style of “Twilight Zone” (Trailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DSR45ZF0r8) .  This really is a game that feels like a riveting story and that is both its glory and its most serious flaw.

You see, I loved this game, and the DLC …but it does feel like a game you watch more than play sometimes.  The elusive and tempting evil that lures Alan in, forcing him to follow rules he does not agree to is a fantastic concept and well told, but you often feel like you’re waiting for the story to stop to play for ten more minutes until the story begins somewhere else.  It reminds me of the Metal Gear Solid and FF series in this way, and that isn’t a positive aspect of those games.  The positive element of the game is that while you are forced to sit and wait out these sequences, they are enjoyable and done really well.  They are impressively atmospheric and tense, with great comic relief from the pushy hollywood agent that just wants your next paycheck asap.  They have amazing emersive visuals and you truly feel for the characters as you would in a good book..and like in any decent horror, you will miss some of them when they…well, you’ll see.

My recommendation of this game is pretty easy.  As an old title now, you can grab it for about €5 in Gamestop and Xtravision etc, and were it twice that – it’d still be worth the price of admission.  It is definitely worth a Halloween playthrough, and one that you could easily get out in nine or ten hours over a holiday period (if you were to simply go from start to finish without the various sidequests or worthwhile DLC).  Is it a game you would replay often?  Probably not, but the story is one of those experiences that are well worth having.  It is different to the typical mainstream releases, and that is always a good thing for the gamer hungry for broadening their horizons without breaking the bank.  This is a solid story told expertly in a way that leaves you glued to the screen and hungry for more clues, more information and in the end, more Alan Wake.

cypher

Have any of you played Alan Wake?  What was your opinion?  What was the best survival horror game you have played and why?  Comments below!

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