Alan Wake

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Platform: 360

Genre: Third person action psychological thriller

Alan Wake is a third person shooter action game that is highly narrative-driven. The game is primarily set in the fictional idyllic small town of Bright Falls, Washington. The main gameplay happens in various areas of Bright Falls – such as the forest, a national park, or a farm – during the nighttime; these are punctuated by calmer, non-combative sequences set during the daytime. While controlling the protagonist, Alan Wake in the dark, light plays a significant role in gameplay. For example, the human enemies in the game, called “the Taken”, can only be shot with a firearm when light has been shone on them, therefore there is significant emphasis on hand-held lights – such as flashlights and lanterns – being used in conjunction with conventional weapons, such as a revolver. Such hand-held lights can be boosted, which burns the darkness away faster, but also reduces the battery level of the light. Therefore, besides the conventional shooter gameplay need for reloading ammunition, the player also has to insert fresh batteries into the flashlight when it runs out, or wait for it to recharge slowly. Moreover, players are often encouraged to take advantage of environmental light sources and placing, and to use other light-based weapons and accessories, such as flare guns, hand-held flares and flashbang grenades. The character’s health regenerates slowly with time, and very rapidly if he stands in heavy light, such as that coming from a lamppost.

A major element of gameplay is the optional discovery and collection of manuscript pages from Alan Wake’s latest novel, Departure. Wake does not remember writing this book, but it seems that its storyline is coming to life around him. These readable manuscript pages are scattered around the game world, out of chronological order; therefore, they often describe scenes that have yet to occur and act as warning and instructions for proceeding through the episodes. Other optional collectibles include collection of coffee thermoses scattered around the game world, as well as discovering television sets which show different episodes of the fictional Night Springs series, radios airing talk and music from Bright Falls’ local radio station, and textual signs around the town. The radio shows and signs provide a deeper understanding of the town’s history and culture. The game’s downloadable content episodes introduce other collectibles, such as alarm clocks, and video game boxes.

Storyline

Bestselling thriller writer Alan Wake suffers from a two-year long stretch of writer’s block. He and his wife Alice travel to the small rural town of Bright Falls, Washington for a short vacation, hoping to recover his creative flow. Alan retrieves keys and map to their rented cabin from a veiled woman in black standing in for the cabin’s sick owner at their scheduled meeting. The couple drives to the cabin which sits on an island in Cauldron Lake. As they unpack their supplies, Alan discovers that Alice has set up a typewriter for Alan in the cabin’s study, hoping that he would be able to start on his new work. Angered by her persistence, Alan steps outside for a walk, only to hear Alice’s screams moments later. He finds something has dragged Alice from the cabin into the lake waters, and he dives in after her, and soon loses consciousness.

Alan wakes alone in their car having run off the road from an accident. He starts to make his way back to town, encountering grotesque images of the Bright Falls townsfolk covered in darkness that try to kill him; Alan finds that light is the only weapon to work against the dark figures. He also comes across a ghostly apparition of a deep sea diver, who drops pages of a manuscript for Alan to recover. Alan recognizes them as his own writing but does not recall writing them before, but the prose foreshadows his encounters with the dark figures and allows him to escape safely. In town, Alan finds a week has passed since they arrived at the cabin, but is further confused when Sheriff Sarah Breaker shows him that no island or cabin has existed on the lake for nearly 30 years. Barry, Alan’s friend and agent, soon arrives in town to help Alan cope with Alice’s disappearance, and the case has attracted the attention of FBI Agent Robert Nightingale who believes Alan is behind Alice’s disappearance.

A man claiming to be Alice’s kidnapper lures Alan away from the FBI; both are pursued by the dark figures. Alan catches up to the man, who reveals he did not take Alice but instead needed to tell Alan about the Dark Presence that inhabits Cauldron Lake and what is controlling the dark figures, the Taken, that follow them. The man explains that the Dark Presence has the ability to turn fiction into reality, and has used Alan to create a means to escape the lake and Alan must stop it. The Dark Presence, taking the form of a black vortex, appears and consumes the man; Alan is able to escape but is thrown a distance and blacks out. Alan awakes in Cauldron Lake Lodge, a mental hospital. He meets two old rock musicians, the Anderson brothers, that have a clue to defeating the Dark Presence at their farm. The Dark Presence appears at the Lodge, but Alan is able to escape in time with Barry’s help, and they make their way to the Andersons’ farm. There, they discover that the woman, Cynthia Weaver, has the weapon that can defeat the Dark Presence. The two spend the night at the Anderson farm drinking moonshine. In his stupor, Alan recalls the events of the missing week, being forced by the Dark Presence to write for her escape. However, Alan’s subconscious, guided by the spirit of Thomas Zane who was another author that succumbed to the Dark Presence, inserted elements to allow him to escape the lake, including creating the spirit of Zane in the form of the ethereal diver. The car crash Alan woke up to was a result of the fracass of his escape.

The two are caught by Agent Nightingale the next morning, but the Dark Presence attacks the group. Alan, Barry, and Sarah escape and make their way to an abandoned hydroelectric plant where Cynthia has been known to hide. Cynthia greets the group and takes Alan to the “Well-Lit Room” where he finds the weapon that can defeat the Dark Presence, a light clicker switch that Zane has written into Alan’s story. Alan returns to the Lake, and faces off against the Dark Presence, using the clicker to defeat it. However, Alice remains in the lake, and Alan realizes that for balance to be maintained, he will have to return into the lake to allow Alice to escape. After Alan jumps in, Alice emerges from the lake, making her way safely to shore. In the final scenes, Alan is seen at the typewriter in the cabin, starting to write a new work. Alan’s last words to the game are, “It’s not a lake; it’s an ocean…”

I give this game a 6 out of 10. Now remember to use the star bar below to give your own opinion on the rating of the game. Also leave a comment on what you think about the game.