Let your light shine

Review: Alan Wake

Game publishers should take notice of what happens when you give a game all the time it needs to be produced.  Blizzard does it.  Valve does it.  When you give a developer the time to get something right, rather than rushing to market, you get exactly what Remedy's shadowy, horror/thriller Alan Wake delivers: One of the best games of the year.

I'd call that six years well spent.

Alan Wake is a perfect example of taking something familiar and comfortable, the third-person shooter, and twisting in a way that feels entirely unique across the board.  At its core, Alan Wake is just a strong, story driven shooter, but ever piece of the game's design feels fresh and new.  Sure they just replace my gun with flashlight, but that change is implemented so well, it feels like something you've never seen before. 

The game takes place in my back yard, the majestic yet forbidding woods of the Pacific Northwest, and you play as the mystery novelist Alan Wake, seeking refuge from stress and writer's block...in a creepy, demon-possessed cabin in middle of Cauldron Lake.  Seriously, he needs to fire his travel agent.  Predictably, the world turns into a shadowy nightmare, and the beautiful woods become quite possibly the most unnerving environment I've ever played in, complete with a cadre of possessed lumber jacks.

For those of you who would shy away at "scary games," I should be clear that the world never feels oppressive.  In a game like Dead Space or even Doom 3, the creep factor & constant "jump scares" made me want to just put the game down after a few hours of play.  Even Fallout 3's dreary and depressing landscape had the same effect.  Alan Wake rarely gets to that point, and with "light" as your primary weapon, a reassuring glow is literally always at your finger tips.  It also doesn't hurt that this game has the most impressive lighting engine to date.  When you light a flare, a brilliant red glow bathes the landscapes, pushing back any oppressor and giving you a chance to reload and breath.

Though you will hear many people buzz about the stunning graphics and solid gameplay of Alan Wake, it's the games magnificent mystery story that seals the deal.  Taking more than few leaves from psycho-thrillers like Twin Peaks or Lost, the story playfully teases you with mystery and horror, and despites it's last second WTF ending, follows a complete and rewarding plot arch.  One of the key elements to the story is the series of manuscript pages you find in the woods describing the events you are currently experiencing or about to.  Oh yeah, and they are written by you (/twilight zone theme).  This leads brilliant "ah-ha" moments when you realize 10 minutes ago that you just read the exact thing that is happening now.  Even better, often you will realize something is about to happen right before it does.  There's a particularly great moment near the end of the first chapter, where after having fought your way through dozens baddies, you pick up a page that reads, "...and that's when I heard the chainsaw."

Fittingly enough, Alan Wake isn't without its dark spots.  I sometimes found myself slightly overwhelmed by the shadowy "taken," especially toward the end of the game.  There's nothing like dying several times in row, because you can't reload your gun fast enough, to pull you out of an immersive experience.  This is amplified by the fact that the game will often "Metroid" you by removing your hard fought stash of weapons, and replacing them with previous, crappier versions for no apparent reason.  And why the game insists on pinning a huge, non-immersive UI element in the left hand corner which does not blend with the game's theme, cannot be turned off, and never goes away, seems like a slow ball Remedy could have easily knocked out of the park.

Yeah, and while the end mostly makes sense, and is all-in-all satisfying, literally the last second of the game is confusing as hell. 

Nitpicks aside, Alan Wake is one of the strongest, story driven singleplayer experiences I have played since last year's Uncharted 2 or even the original Bioshock.  Back that up with strong, intuitive gameplay, a bar-setting lighting engine, all of which takes place in an environment that I don't think has ever been used for a game, and you have one of the best games on the market, and one of the best of game of year.

Seriously, Red Dead Redemption will take you forever to finish.  Put it down, play through Alan Wake, then you can go back to cowboying.

Comments

[Chris B.]

I wish I had more free time to play a few of these. I haven't even started Final Fantasy 13 yet... So many great games to play, so little time. :(