I was actually looking to write an article on game series that were cut short and when researching the first game on my list though (Alan Wake), I soon discovered that Remedy had gone on record on the topic of Alan Wake saying that – “Definitely we are looking for opportunities to do more, someday, when the time is right.”
This news made me extremely happy as Alan Wake was an immensely enjoyable game and a treat to sit down and play.
For the people reading this who have not had the pleasure of playing Alan Wake I would highly recommend purchasing the game. To hopefully wet your appetite here is a short history of Alan Wake and what the game is actually about.
An extremely atmospheric game where the light is your only ally, darkness will consume you if you cannot reach the light. Alan must take up arms and defend himself against the darkness and fight to survive and remember what has passed, to recover what is precious to him and to rewrite his fate.
Alan Wake is the story of a best selling author who is suffering from writers block, Alan and his wife Alice take a vacation to a small mountain village in the state of Washington called Bright Falls. Here is where his wife Alice has taken Alan to escape city life and try to clear his head, the opening section of the game is filled with beautiful landscape shots and relaxing vistas.Then it is a short stop into the town where you arrive at the local diner to pick up the keys to the accommodation that Alice booked, the diner is a small social hub where you meet some characters that will have appearances later on in the game.
Soon enough you arrive at the cabin at Cauldron Lake which Alice believes is the cabin she booked for the couple. After exploring the quaint cabin and engaging Alice in some dialogue the truth comes out, Alice has planned for Alan to meet a Dr who lives in the village and specializes in helping artists with creative blockage. When Alan finds out he storms out the cabin in a fit of rage and goes for a walk as night falls. When Alan hears the screams of his wife he quickly runs back to the cabin only to find her missing, you quickly and frantically searches the cabin and soon finds that Alice is being dragged into the lake, Alan without any hesitation dives into the lake to rescue her.
Alan wakes up in a car wreckage and with no recollection of how he even got there, this is where the game really starts.
The narrative is read by Alan himself in a noir style fashion as the game plays on, where he creates his own commentary of the events and allows the player a special insight into the mind of the character. This is an approach you do not get to see too often in modern games as a decent story is becoming extremely hard to come by. The dialogue when interacting with other characters is very well written, characters such as Alan’s friend/agent Barry open the game up to witty banter and allows the game a little comic relief from darkness and evil that shrouds the horizon.
Enemies in the game come in a few shapes and forms, though the most common would be the taken. The taken are normal people who have been possessed by the darkness, these enemies will plague and haunt Alan when he is out in the dark. Taken will come out of the trees or shadows and attack you and will sometimes wield weapons such as axes or chainsaws . Poltergeists are inanimate objects which the darkness takes control of to hurt or attempt to kill Alan, the darkness uses some big objects throughout the game (one of which being a train). The only way to stop a poltergeist is to keep a light trained on the object till it is destroyed. Flocks of birds are also a danger in the game when crossing bridges, the camera will pan out and show in slow motion the birds swooping towards you. The only way to damage the flocks is just light, no firearms needed unless you use the flare gun. Alan’s best bet is to fight his way through the night and survive until the dawn when light is everywhere again.
Combat in the game is also interesting as you need to use light to break and enemies shield before firearms can take and effect. So your most powerful weapons are not your pistol, shotgun or hunting rifle but rather your torch, flares and flare gun. The torch is the most common and is used by holding in the left trigger to focus your beam of light, but by focusing the beam you drain the battery on the torch. Batteries can recharged or be swapped depending on what your situation is at the time. Once a torch has burned away the darkness armour from an enemy you are free to shoot your firearms and destroy the enemy.
Flares are great when used for crowd control situations and you find yourself being overrun by enemies. Lighting a flare can damage some enemies but will more than likely make enemies retreat to a safe distance and give you breathing room.
Flare guns are the big weapons in the game though, the weapon is fired at enemies and is usually an instant kill on normal enemies. The weapon is the balance of firearm and light source and can be very helpful if kept as a last resort.
The game is broken into episodes presenting itself almost as a TV program, when you start a new episode you have a short recap of what happened previously and a little voice over by Alan. This episodic style works extremely well in the game and also aids the replay value of the game. Throughout the game there are collectables, these can be manuscript pages, Thermos flasks and even pyramids of cans. When looking over level stats you can find out what you missed and then replay that specific episode to try and find what was previously missed.
At this point I would like to mention the DLC which adds two extra episodes to the game and furthers Alan’s journey after the normal game ends. I can not got into too much detail without giving away any spoilers of the game. The two episodes of DLC add more questions and a few answers into why Alan is having to put himself through the hell to help his wife and why the Darkness wants to use him.
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare was originally an XBLA title and was a nice welcome addition, taking players back into Alan’s adventure further down the line. Alan is chasing down the mysterious man known as Mr Scratch and has to try and do battle with a man who appears to be a servant of Darkness. Alan has learned how to fight the darkness more in American Nightmare and creates new and interesting techniques to overcome obstacles.
American Nightmare is set in Arizona which is a big jump from the forest scenery of the original and puts you into the desert which is another area with not a great deal of light. The landscapes are once again cleverly designed and enhances the game making the experience richer. Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is a satisfying gameplay experience for those who loved the original, where gameplay mechanics wear slightly tweaked and new ideas were introduced to prove it was not a glorified expansion of the original game. This titles also allows arcade style survival modes and allows some more fun and freedom to be introduced to the game allowing you to do constant battle with enemies until morning.
So in conclusion, you can tell I am a passionate about Alan Wake and am hopeful that a sequel comes out as some point. I just want to experience more of the gripping action and noir style dialogue from this series. I have deliberately tried to avoid talking too much about the plot in both the previous games as I want people who have never played the game to have a fresh and unspoilt experience, Alan Wake is a game I would happily place on my top 10 of Xbox 360 titles.
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