Alan Wake introduces the unique gameplay element of light as a weapon.
Over the last couple of weeks, I was able to finally check out one of this year’s more prominent Xbox 360 exclusive titles: Alan Wake. I was a big fan of the Max Payne games years ago, as the storyline, presentation, and introduction of bullet time made the series quite enjoyable for its time. How does developer Remedy Entertainment’s next offering stack up after being in development for five years? Hit the jump to find out!
The Details
Alan Wake was originally supposed to be released on both the PC and the 360, but the PC version was canceled due to Microsoft feeling that the game is more suitably played on the couch. The game is presented in a 6 chapter format comprised of about 14 hours of total gameplay and cutscenes. New copies of the game come with a voucher to redeem the first of two DLC chapters, called “The Signal”. Alan Wake currently retails for $29.99, but can be found for $19.99 at times for those that hunt. There is also a substantially large Collector’s Edition that retails for about $60. It is probably among the best collector’s editions released in the last couple of years due to how significant and nice the extras are. (Try to buy a new copy of the game so you have access to the $7 DLC chapter.)
Things start off innocently enough when Alan Wake arrives in Bright Falls…
My Name is Alan Wake, and I’m a writer.
When I first started playing Alan Wake, it seemed to have quite the intriguing tale. After a couple years of writer’s block, Alan Wake and his wife decide to go on vacation in the small town of Bright Falls. Once they arrive, Alan gets keys to the cabin that he and his wife thought they were supposed to be staying at from a mysterious woman. Shortly after arriving at the lakeside cabin and stepping outside, Alan Wake hears his wife screaming from inside the cabin and when he runs in to see what is going on, he spots her being dragged down into the lake. He jumps in after her, but loses consciousness and wakes up in the dark in his crashed car with his wife still missing. What the heck happened to his wife? And why is it one week after he arrived and he doesn’t remember anything in the last seven days? This introduction pretty much sets up the main premise to the story, and I thought it did a great job to draw me right in.
As Alan Wake looks for his wife, he encounters two disturbing things in plentiful number: apparitions that seem like people “engulfed” in a dark mist intent on killing him, and pages that seem like they were written by him and yet tell a story of what is actually happening or about to happen to him and those around him. Is his current situation a story? A story within a story? (Inception joke) Regardless, the pages are one of the collectibles of the game, and finding them add a lot more detail to the story of the game (similar to the stories you can find in another Xbox 360 exclusive game, Lost Odyssey). Each page is read aloud by Alan Wake when accessed from the menu, which I thought was a nice touch.
Unfortunately, while the story started off quite appetizing, it could not hold up as the game went on. Things just started getting more and more hokey – to the point where I just became disinterested in wondering what would happen next. The ending was perhaps the worst ending I’ve seen so far for a game in recent years. It didn’t make any sense, nor was there any sort of closure. So here’s a game with a storyline that started off quite thrilling, then it starts to stumble as the game goes on, and then it pretty much dies in the water when the game is beaten. Considering how important the story is for this game, it ended up becoming a disappointment.
Still, one of the things that Alan Wake had going for it through the entire game is its top notch presentation. The graphics looked great, whether you are in daylight or darkness. I loved the amount of detail I saw when I was getting lost in forests under the moonlight. The fact that every character in the game has speaking roles also makes the game feel very aesthetically pleasing. Sound effects and the musical tracks are top notch. The world of Alan Wake is very well presented. But what about how the game actually plays?
Pointing your flashlight on foes will stagger them and lower their darkness meter.
Trust No One in the Dark
So far, for Alan Wake we have a game that is aesthetically pleasing and a storyline that starts off strong. For me, a game can have a terrible/non-sensical storyline and still be an amazing game if its gameplay is done well. Unfortunately for Alan Wake, its gameplay falls a bit short.
Let’s start with the primary positive gameplay element in this game: the use of light. All of the enemies that you encounter in the game are possessed by “darkness”, so light harms them. Throughout most of the game, Alan Wake traverses at night, when dark beings come after him. Most of the time, he carries a flashlight, and you use the right analog stick to control the direction you wish to shine the flashlight (which I feel is a fantastically designed control mechanism). As enemies come to attack you, when you aim your light on them, they stagger back. The game itself has a strong emphasis on making use of light: getting to large street lamps that are well lit to hit a checkpoint spot, turning on spotlights and your flashlight to stagger enemies, using flares, flareguns, and flashbangs to destroy your foes, etc. The enemies won’t follow you into well lit areas, and therefore during the daytime you are completely safe.
Light as a weapon is the strongest gameplay element in the game. Each enemy has a “darkness meter”. When you shine a light on a typical enemy, a circular light meter decreases to zero, and then you can use a firearm to finish it off. The scary part is when multiple foes attack you at the same time, and you have to keep them back by shining a flashlight on each of them long enough so you can start firing rounds into them to kill them for good. This is often where the crowd-control weapons come into play like flares and flashbangs since they affect multiple enemies at once. Firing a flaregun into a pack of enemies is an instant area effect kill (basically a rocket launcher), while catching any enemies in a flashbang’s flash radius also is an instant area effect kill (basically a grenade). You even find cars to drive and can use your headlights to harm your foes before running them down.
Outside of the light aspect, the gameplay elements are a bit too simple and are therefore unexciting. In addition to your flashlight, the primary weapons you will be using throughout the game are a handgun, a shotgun, and a hunting rifle. Now, this isn’t exactly a military shooter, so I don’t really consider the lack of weapons to be too much of a negative. But then there’s the fact that there are only something like three enemy types in the entire game (which I don’t want to spoil for you). Combine this with the fact that the game itself is very linear (you’re basically on rails through one path the entire game) and you can see how the game itself can become boring to play: running through a path and shooting one of three enemy types with one of three weapons for a dozen or so hours.
Finally, the collectibles…oh, the humanity. Alan Wake has 5 different collectible types (accounting for about 300 things to look for in the game) ranging from retrieving missing pages to picking up coffee thermoses, finding chests, reading obscure signs, listening to radios, and watching televisions. I almost want to start a campaign in real life to stop developers from putting collectibles in video games, but of course, I don’t have that kind of time. My best recommendation is to play the game without worrying about collectibles at all your first time, just so that you can enjoy the game without ruining its mood and pacing. Devote a second playthrough for collectibles later if you are so inclined.
Lighting a flare will keep enemies at bay – until the flare goes out.
Final Thoughts
Due to how simple the gameplay is in Alan Wake, it’s almost more story than game. That could be quite a good experience if the story didn’t just fall apart as the game went on. I really liked the world and characters of Alan Wake and grew attached to them (especially Alan’s best friend, Barry). Unfortunately, the story just became too silly for me and the gameplay grew stale too fast.
I do give some points to the game for some innovative ideas such as the usage of light and the story-like feel of a game revolving around a protagonist who is a writer. Now that I think about it, this game can be quite enjoyable for the right audience: anyone but hardcore gamers. For hardcore gamers, you won’t find much interesting gameplay to be had here as the game is too simple and too on-rails to provide much enjoyment from a gameplay aspect. But for those that want to play a game that comes the closest to feeling like a book (albeit a book that sort of spirals downhill into a stupid ending), it’s worth checking out now that the game is on the cheap.
Final Grade: B
One Response to “Alan Wake – Review”
[...] Alan Wake – Review | Leveling Down [...]