Rambling Review: Alan Wake for the Xbox 360!

ALAN WAKE


(Game Trailer)


Summery: This game was a lot of fun, despite repetitive gameplay.

I was eagerly excited for the release of Alan Wake for the Xbox 360. A video game where you play a best-selling author in a horror story, with inspirations from Twin Peaks? How could I not be excited? I watched all of the promotional material I could find, including the 6-part web series Bright Falls released as a prelude to the game. I was a little upset that I didn't get a copy sent to me right away (which is why this Rambling Review is showing up so late to the game), but that's what happens sometimes with new releases and GameFly.

The Story Behind the Game: Famous writer tries to rescue wife from a supernatural entity.

The main character of the game is, unsurprisingly, Alan Wake, a fictional best-selling author known for his series of crime novels. In his last book Wake killed off the main character of his series so he could move on to something new (Reminds me of ABC's Castle), but is stuck in a rut and hasn't written so much as a page in two years. In fact, he gets furious at anyone who tries to stick him in front of a typewriter. To get away from everyone (including his best friend, and agent, Barry), Alan and his wife, Alice, decide to go on vacation to a secluded town called Bright Falls. They're renting a cabin for a couple of weeks, just in time for Bright Falls' famous "Deer-fest".

Alan and Alice arrive in Bright Falls via ferry and drive out to their cabin on an island in the middle of a prominent local water feature: Cauldron Lake. It seems like things are going to be nice and quiet for the couple. We learn that Alice is terrified of the dark, something Wake seems more than willing to help her out with whenever she freaks out. Unfortunately, Alice had an ulterior motive for getting Alan to Bright Falls; she's hoping the vacation will recharge his creative batteries, and if that fails there happens to be a treatment center for creative artists where she wants Alan to seek treatment.

Alan discovers all of this, and we discover that Alan has a temper. A bad one. He storms out on Alice, but doesn't get very far before all the lights go out in the cabin, and Alice starts screaming for help. Alan races back to help her, only to discover that Alice has somehow been pulled into the lake. Alan leaps in after her...

... and wakes up in his wrecked car, a week later. Now he has to find out what happened to Alice, to his missing week, and why he keeps finding pages of one of his manuscripts that he doesn't remember reading... and that seem disturbingly prophetic.

I like the story for this game. I was excited for the game due to the back story prior to the game's release, and the rest of the story revealed throughout the game continued to interest me the whole time. The game's resolution is satisfyingly ambiguous; you have a good idea of what happened, but there's plenty of room left for a sequel. And I want a sequel, even if Alan Wake isn't actually the main character (though I'm not sure how you'd continue the naming trend for the franchise if the main character isn't Wake).

The game is divided into six easily-digested "episodes" that make it almost feel like a television episode. The beginning of each episode recaps the "game thus far" in a "Last Time, on Alan Wake"-style narration. This makes it very easy to finish an episode, move on to some other task you need to get done in your day, and come back later to pick up where you left off without losing your place in the storyline.

Gameplay: The game is a third-person shooter that focuses on using light to weaken enemies before you finish them off with a weapon.

Alan Wake places a lot of emphasis on light and darkness, particularly since the game's "Big Bad" is called The Dark Presence. Wake needs to make use of a flash light to weaken his enemies so he can the kill them with either a revolver, shotgun, or hunting rifle. Wake can also use a flare gun to take out multiple enemies at once (though stronger enemies will survive this attack), road flares to keep his foes at bay, and flashbang grenades to take care of those pesky mobs that try to overwhelm him.

The controls are set up nicely on the Xbox 360 controller. Movement and camera control are the standard left-stick and right-stick (respectively). You can select different weapons using the direction pad. Shotguns and Hunting Rifles both use the Up button, so you can only carry one of them at a time (nice that they didn't make the writer into Rambo). You shoot any gun-like weapon with the right trigger, and you throw a road flare or flashbang with the right bumper (you select which one using the down button on the direction pad). The player can reload Wake's weapons by pressing the X button (pressing it repeatedly will speed-up the reloading process), jump with the A button, and interact with most things using the B button. Wake's flashlight is always on (when he has one!), so all you need to do is aim it to start weakening your foes, but it works better if you "focus" the beam by holding down the left trigger. Focusing the flashlight drains batteries, however, but they'll slowly recharge over time, or you can put new ones in by pressing the Y button. The left bumper lets Wake run or dodge attacks.

Most of the gameplay is exploration mixed with combat. There's a little bit of platforming in the game, and some instances where Wake is driving a vehicle. To my surprise, the driving sections are fun, rather than the usual torture I find most driving sections in games where the driving isn't the main focus.

When Wake isn't fighting his enemies he'll want to keep an eye out for manuscript pages. These pages gives the player a "sneak preview" of either an upcoming event, or gives further insight into a character's motives. The pages are presented as type-written pages from a manuscript (you know, the exact things they're supposed to be), but Wake will read them out loud for those players who don't like reading during their games. Personally, I read faster than the audio, so I normally read them really quick and exited from them before the audio was done playing. They aren't long at all (in fact, I would hazard to say that NO ONE would actually write a story in that kind of format, but their purpose is to be self-contained, not a continuous document).

Wake can also find coffee thermoses hidden all over the place (finding them helps unlock achievements, but have no effect on gameplay), radios that let you listen in on the local radio station (providing you with some more of that lovely "local flavor" in Bright Falls), and find televisions that play episodes of "Night Springs", a Twilight Zone-esque short film with HORRID video-audio synch that are amusing when you want to take a break. Secret caches of supplies are hidden throughout the game, revealed only by the photosensitive paint that leads Wake to them.

Combat: You're going to do this OVER and OVER and OVER, but it's fun, so you won't complain!

The basic enemy of the game is called The Taken; a citizen of Bright Falls who has been possessed by the Dark Presence, and is now covered in Darkness to make him invulnerable. Wake can weaken The Taken by using his flashlight to dispel the Darkness protecting them, but they're still under the mental domination of the Dark Presence and need to be put down with a weapon. You will fight hundreds, if not thousands, of these enemies, with the same basic formula: 1. Focus the flashlight beam on The Taken until the Darkness is dispelled, 2. Blow it away with a weapon! It could get boring, but the game manages to keep it fresh. Some of The Taken are stronger than others and can survive multiple shots, and some can move with supernatural speed so you can barely see them as they move. The game likes to swarm you with Taken, providing higher-powered lamps to help you deal with them, or gas tanks to explode. Large areas of light (like under a lamp post) can be safe havens from your enemies.

Alan Wake also pits you against flocks of possessed birds that you fight primarily with your flash light (they're weak enough that you don't need the guns, but the flare gun can normally kill almost the whole flock). If the birds and The Taken aren't enough for you, the Dark Presence can also possess physical objects (like oil barrels) and throw them at Wake, or even vehicles (like bulldozers!) to try and flatten Wake. Like the birds, Wake just needs to use his flashlight against these possessed objects, but the game will throw in some Taken from time to time to keep things from being too easy!

Weaknesses: Not everything is perfect.

Sometimes the game throws some problems. The character animations aren't the best, with facial expressions seeming flat at times. As mentioned before, the video-audio synch on the Night Springs episodes are HORRIBLE, but I suspect this was on purpose. The most annoying part of the game, for me, was that there were times when Wake decides to ditch his gear for NO GOOD REASON. I lose my gear in a car wreck? No problem. I switch to a new episode with just the basic flashlight and now weapons? KEEP THE HEAVY-DUTY LAMP AND THE SHOTGUN YOU MORON!!!!

Seriously, for a character who KNOWS that supernatural entities are going to try to kill him as soon as the lights go out, Wake is oddly idiotic at times.

Conclusion: It's good!

In conclusion, Alan Wake was a LOT of fun. I enjoyed the storyline to the very end, and I'm looking forward to a sequel without feeling cheated by not having a clean "ending" to the game's story. The combat is repetitive, but still fun so I can forgive it, and the various little bits like the Night Springs episodes hidden throughout the game give the whole thing great flavor. Rating this game I give the story a 4/5 and the gameplay a 3/5 (lower only because of all the repetition).

End of Demented Rambling.