Alan Wake Review

Alan Wake was first announced in year 2005 for Xbox 360 and PC  but later released for Xbox 360 in 2010 and for PC in 2012. The PC version did recieved some graphic enhancements. Alan Wake is a psychological thriller as described by developer.

Alan Wake is a story of a successful writer, called Alan Wake (duh), who has not been able to write any book from past few years, goes to Brightfalls for a small vacation with his wife on the advice of his wife Alice and his friend cum agent Barry. Events from his novels start coming true and his wife goes missing. The search for his wife begins. The story is a rollercoaster ride from start to the end. To be honest story in the game was the biggest factor which made me played the game, after playing for a few hours I was always left with the desire to know more about story. The unpredictability in the story is what makes it a great game, you will always want to discover what is next and when you thought the story was going in right direction it suddenly takes a turn. The story in the game is delivered in an episodic manner and I have no problems saying it is one of the few games which actually deliver the episodic format in video game in the correct manner.

The desire to know more in the game is something what I truely loved but that desire also left me with questions, at the end of the game I was still left with questions in mind but that might have been done for expanding the game’s universe. Throughout the game you find manuscripts, TV and radio boxes which give you more detail about the events and the town and is actually a nice way of describing the backstory to the players as these little things make the game’s environment more immersive and add to the experience.

When talking about story how can I forget to tell you about the environment and setting of the game. Everytime you reach a new place the environment adds more depth to it. The way it adds more horror and thrill to the game is great. Though most of the game takes place during the night but still entering a new area is always different.

Gameplay

Besides bringing such a great story to the table, Alan Wake tries to innovate with the gameplay and succeeds. The gameplay is simple, your objective is to fight the darkness but what makes it different is light. Light is your key weapon and you cannot survive the enemies without light. Killing an enemy in this game is little bit different from all others rather than shooting the enemy you need to first eliminate the ‘darkness’ in that enemy (with a flashlight) and than fire bullets on him. The problem with the enemy is lack of variety, though the game also changes the environment to your enemy but there was hardly any difference between enemies. Alan Wake comes from the creators of bullet time (Max Payne) so a quality combat is expected from their game and Remedy delivers. If you were expecting bullet time in this game you will be disappointed because their is simply no bullet time but you can still slow the time, when an enemy attacks you and if you dodge him at the right moment game slows down for that moment  giving you an advantage over the enemy sometimes.

Gunplay in Alan Wake is solid and varied. You can carry three different weapons and flashbangs and flares. I enjoyed the gameplay most of the time but sometimes it felt a little bit repetitive as you were doing the same things i.e. destroy the darkness with light and kill the enemy with the gun. New locations make an attempt to keep things fresh, and they do succeed, only up to a point.

What’s iLL

Alan Wake has a memorable story which fits well in the episodic format. Story progression and unpredictability of the game make it great. While story being a bar raising factor, the gameplay is nice too, its varied and comes with solid gunplay. The combat can be repetitive due to lesser enemy variety. The music in the game is phenomenal and voice acting is just perfect with each voice being a perfect fit for the character. The game released in 2010 for Xbox 360 but in 2014 it still feels pretty.