Alan Wake Review

The unexplainable events that occur in the small town of Bright Falls are haunting novelist Alan Wake. After a long writing drought the author decides to go on an inspirational vacation to the tranquil small town on the northern pacific coast of Washington. But things aren’t as peaceful as they would seem when almost after immediately arriving Wake’s wife, Alice, goes missing after he blacks out.  Alan later wakes up in a wrecked car a week later, and what’s even weirder is his discovery of a series of manuscript that he has no recollection of writing. If things couldn’t get any weirder you discover that everything in the manuscript is coming true. During your experience with the game you will learn quickly that the night is your worst enemy and that the darkness surrounding you holds with it what you can only discover in your nightmares. During the daytime you are given mundane tasks to fulfill while you go around town or the woods of Bright Falls but when the sun goes down your only hope is to take cover in the light or go out in the darkness and fight.

~The light side~

Like any survival horror game the number one aspect that attracts its fans are the scarce weaponry and ammunition you are given through your adventure and that is exactly what you can expect of Alan Wake. While your guns and ammo are scant in your surroundings you are also limited to power supply for your flashlight, alkaline energizer batteries.  In Alan Wake your flashlight is the most essential tool you will need to beat the collective dark souls that haunt Bright Falls, The Taken. The level of tension increases significantly when you know you only have two batteries left, four bullets on your revolver, and ten shadow beings staggering towards you. That being said it’s surprisingly satisfying to shoot at the shadow people with your gun and your other weapons that are made available as you progress through the story.  Add to the fact that the environment looks just downright astonishing; from the dark corners of the forests to the gloomy rooms in the abandoned farm houses this game is a definite beauty, and you’re always given something to do on the course of your game so you’re never feeling bored and to top it off there is so much to discover even in this linear title! And it’s always nice to know that you’re listening to great voice acting and well written dialogue of a great narrative.

THE DARK SIDE!

Bright Falls is a beautiful and captivating landscape that flourishes even in the dark, but the visuals fall short when you’re given a close up at a character models during cut-scenes. The models seem antiquated and their lips are totally out of sync with the voiceovers.  Although the combat is engaging and fun the first few hours of the game, the fact is that you’re only given one simple formula to beat all of your enemies — the same exact formula you would use for each and every enemy and obstacle you encounter. In the final hours of the game you will find that your usage of the flashlight is becoming tedious, and you almost feel sad that the shadow beings didn’t some how mutate into a type of shadow creature that is immune to light only to give you a bit of challenge.

The Judgment: Rental

This is just what the survival horror fans are waiting for, and Alan Wake’s strongest suit is most definitely the story. Fans of Stephen King and the television series Lost will most likely be drawn towards the game as it took inspiration from them in both the horror aspect and the suspense written in to create cliffhangers and tense action sequences. The sequence of events unfolds in six self-contained episodes like a television series — including a montage of your previous episode in the beginning of each act. After finding the character models ugly and lip-syncing poorly done I couldn’t help but look beyond this when the environment is so gorgeous and the enticing plot kept me driven to complete the game; in short I needed to know how this tale would end.  It’s rare that I find a game these days that kept me from putting the controller down until the ending credits finally begin to roll. I can’t say that all the questions I had were answered by the end but I can say I was enthralled by the genius plot. I’m pleased to have finally seen this game come into fruition after all these years of development and after playing it to completion it’s safe to say that the wait was worth it, but the only reason why this would land as a rental on RTG is because the story has almost zero to little replay value with the only content adding to the longevity being future DLC to be announced.