Alan Wake: Shooting Your Fear of the Dark Away

As someone who really liked Twin Peaks, Alan Wake was something of a pleasant surprise for me, as it essentially had the same atmosphere and (some) elements of the story present.Though not perfect, it did have several notable successes in my eyes, namely in its atmosphere, unique gameplay, and characters. However, at the same time was held back by some gameplay elements and pretty mediocre visuals which made it an occasionally frustrating and unappealing experience.

Barry (right) acts as Wake's (left) voice of reason and the comedic relief, and was my highlight of the story as he moved from snarky New Yorker to badass New Yorker.

Taken from an overview, the story itself is incredibly linear and basic: Alan Wake, a writer, has to rescue his wife. That's the basic premise, but there's all sorts of twists and turns throughout. Similarities to Twin Peaks run really deep in this game, though fortunately it takes great pains to subvert these easy tropes. For example, there's an FBI agent by the name of Agent Nightingale. I expected him to just be a stand-in for Agent Cooper, but fortunately he's no friend (though honestly his motivation is never really explained), and he serves as one of the three initial antagonists before being unceremoniously axed. These subversions also extend to the atmosphere/setting itself. Where Twin Peaks largely was set during the day, Alan Wake takes place almost entirely at night, with a few interludes during the day. The characters themselves are a bit of a mixed bag though, for while they're all quite distinct they're given almost no depth. Wake himself, though the most developed (I should hope so given he's the main character) is without a doubt the most unlikable fellow I've encountered in a game for a very long time. He's rude, abrasive, demanding, and he's really no fun at all, but he's the main character. You're just going to have to get used to him being a curmudgeon for about elevenish hours, and before the third chapter I was about ready to quit this, but fortunately he gets his act together (eventually). Hell, his friend, a discount Joe Pesci, is far more likable than him, and I think I'd have enjoyed myself more if I played the game through his eyes, though that would make no sense. The special episodes are essentially a separate story that shares the same setting and characters while also introducing a new antagonist (with a welcome spike in difficulty).

While ammo is somewhat rare for your secondary weapon, when you have it you feel like quite the hazard.

In terms of gameplay, Alan Wake straddles the like between innovative and serviceable. The most notable thing about it is how you dispatch enemies, who are made of darkness. You have to use your trusty flashlight to dispel the darkness (after which they're just lumberjacks and miners that you can unload your weapon into), which doubles also as a way to kill some enemies. You can also use the flashlight as crowd control to blind enemies and get them to leave you alone for a bit, though this is somewhat finicky after the first time you blind them. In the bonus chapters (which act as an epilogue) the flashlight also triples as a way to dispel obstacles and bring forth objects into being. The combat though, it's pretty damn bare-bones and frustrating. The gunplay is your basic third-person shooting, with the most notable feature being that you can mash reload to reload faster (which does match the feeling you have when you have to reload). Enemies are basic too, from standard guys that can throw weapons as they meander toward you (scarily accurate too), to squishy fast boys, speedy spongy guys, and slow spongy guys, to possessed furniture. In addition to differing health pools each also has a differing amount of light that needs to be shone on them to dispel their darkness. It lacks variation, but with how hard they hit it makes at least half of the encounters tense (you'll die a lot, sorry) and at least somewhat different. There's no manual saving, but the checkpoints are largely frequent, with some problematic or shitty ones (looking at you the one where you have to hold out with just some flares). At it's core the gameplay is interesting mixed with boring, which while something of a letdown it does make the game unique from a lot of third-person shooters.

The driving sections, while pretty at times, also showcase the terrible handling of the vehicles. I had no idea that they didn't put tread on their tires in the Pacific Northwest.

Technically there's really almost nothing much to say about this game. The characters are pretty unexpressive and of varying degrees of ugly. I honestly could have gone without seeing Wake's wife in her underwear being dragged into the lake about twenty times. The saving grace are the light effects, which are all quite beautiful/serene as well as reactive to the environment. The soundtrack is basic eerie music that gets somewhat interesting in the final chapter. All the cinematics are framed like a movie, and despite seeming prerendered I think they were in-engine, so at least there's that. That's really all there is to it, really nothing to note here.

The special episodes are longer than normal and also really go wild with the surreal environments and act as a nice challenge to those who've completed the game.

Alan Wake was a game that I found pretty hard to get into at first, but on the plus side it's a shorter game than I expected. It also offers a real challenge, though a large part of it comes from the gameplay itself. Once you finish the game there's a nightmare difficulty for those who want an extra challenge with more collectables to find, but this for now one playthrough was enough for me. If you want to try a survival horror game that isn't a gorefest (nor very scary) and empowers you, I'd say it's a pretty good game to add to your library.