"I know everyone says this, but Mr. Wake, I am your biggest fan."
Game: Alan Wake
Developer: Remedy
Rating: Teen
Platform: Xbox 360
M.S.R.P: 19.99
This is another game that I am late to the party on. However I have just recently purchased a 360 and felt compelled to review what is apparently a cult exclusive for the system. Taking the genre of survival horror to a new perspective, Alan Wake promises to be a game you will never forget. Is this game truly something to remember, or is it b rate game with the same gags over and over.
Story:
The story of Alan Wake follows a successful writer who is plunged into these unfortunate circumstances. Times are hard for Mr. Wake as he has had writer's block for several months now and can't seem to even be able to write a page. He then decides to go on vacation with his wife to a quiet little mountain town to recharge his creative chi. Upon traveling to his destination Mr. Wake has a dream that he accidentally hits someone with his car. The person turns out to be a character from his novels and then proceeds to chases him with an axe. A light intervenes telling him that the man is possessed by darkness and only light can save him.
Mr. Wake then wakes up and finds that he had been napping, and he and his wife have arrived. Upon going to their lodge, while Alan is outside during the night he hears a struggle and his wife screaming. He soon cannot find her, and on top of that the power and telephone lines are down. Alan must venture into the forests to reach the town to get help, but in the forest people are waiting, shrouded in darkness to kill him. Alan must brave these people who are possesed by darkness if he has any hope of saving his wife.
This is an interesting story, I will give it that much but it is VERY reminiscent of "Silent hill". Silent hill if you are unfamiliar is a popular game in the survival horror genre, in which an ordinary individual is trapped in a foggy town of sadism, blood and macabre. Alan wake carries that same feel but more....g rated. When enemies are around the world gets dark and hazy, almost fog like, just like in "Silent Hill" and even the set up itself is essentially the same as the first "Silent Hill" as well. A man trying to find his wife yada yada yada. There are many more similarities that I won't go into, but so far nothing feels completely genuine about the game.
Grade: C
Gameplay:
The gameplay, at least to me feels broken to a fault, but is still playable. Alan has a few simple actions, jumping, shooting, and flashing his light from his flashlight at enemies. The game also calls for some quick time event actions when doing things like starting generators and moving objects but that's about it for the controls.There are no health items but Alan can recover health by standing under a street light for a few moments, because he is surrounded by darkness and darkness possessed enemies lights are the only "safe havens" in the game.
The shooting style slightly reminds me of Shadows of the damned, except more annoying. To even do damage to an enemy Alan must flash his flashlight at an enemy for a good couple of seconds until the darkness has completely left their body. Then you have to immediately switch over to your gun to shoot at the enemies a good couple of times before they die. It just strikes me as a really annoying and time consuming way to kill enemies, the flash light idea is cool I will admit, but how long it takes....isnt.
Now the reason I found the gameplay broken is that in every enemy scenario it is either ridiculously easy or obnoxiously hard. In most games a player has the choice to run or fight the enemies head on, yet that is not the case in Alan Wake. When enemies appear the game usually alerts you from afar giving you ample time to get the drop on enemies making them nothing more than a slight inconvenience.There is no challenge because you can do so much damage from so far. And yet, if one wants to conserve their ammo and instead run past them into the light the enemies are relentless. If you have more than one enemy coming for you and you didnt shoot them from far away, and are running from them, consider your ass grass. I died on multiple occasions from waiting too long to fire my gun in the hoops of just running past the combat. If all you are supposed to do is shoot things and run then its not a survival horror, its just an unconventional shooter.
Grade: C-
Graphics and Sound:
Here is where I have to admit Alan Wake does alot of things right. The graphics for the game are beautiful, the landscape is very life like and believable and all the tiny detail in the game's enviornment really shine. There is some oddity with the character models as the faces do look real when still, but when animated such as talking, or walking it is impossible to not be aware that you are playing a game.
The game thrives on the atmosphere it creates of the dark silent mountain town. I found myself turning around with my flashlight and gun ready to what I thought was an enemy, but turns out it was only just a tree. The environment is truly something deserving of praise, its just a shame the rest of the game doesn't live up to it.
Sound is alright, there's nothing to memorable about the music as it is a horror game. The games sound effects while effectively creating the ambience of an evil town, just gets annoying after a while. Hearing the wind blow heavily and almost statically caused me to turn down my speakers after a while because it wasn't luring me in more, just bugging me.
Grade: B
Verdict:
If your a fan of the genre I say check it out. However I'll be honest, I was bored. It didn't engage me for the entire run through, and while it does alot of things right I couldn't help but say, "so....what." Alan Wake does what other games have done before, and doesn't even do them better, it does them slightly worse. The enivornment is the only thing this game has going for it, and its a shame it was wasted on such a poorly executed game such as this.
Final Grade: C
Is it worth your money: Even at 19.99 I feel kinda cheated. I mean if you haven't played survival horror before then you can have a lot of fun with this game. But if you have...your better off just buying one of the new "Silent Hills".
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