Remedy's latest is well worth the wait, but lacks refinement in places.
Alan Wake thrusts you into the role of the title protagonist, a bestselling author, whose struggle with writers' block leads him to a vacation in the sleepy logging town of Bright Falls in America's scenic Pacific Northwest. On his search for inspiration though, Wake gets far more than he bargained for. Within hours of arriving in Bright Falls his wife disappears and it's up to you to guide "Al" on his journey to find his wife and unravel the supernatural mysteries of the town. The premise gives more than a wink and a nod to the work of Stephen King and the classic TV show Twin Peaks and you can expect many of Remedy's trademark twists and turns along the way. The story is presented in episodes that typically take around 2 hours to complete and always end in a thrilling cliff-hanger that leaves you dying to know what happens next. It's a brilliant trick to keep you hooked into Wake's adventure. Each episode even begins with a brief "Previously on Alan Wake" video to really capture the intensity of the best television thrillers.
The game itself plays very much like a traditional third-person shooter, but with a twist. As the town descends into madness some of the locals turn against Wake, possessed by a strange dark presence that dominates the landscape at night. Fighting them off requires you to use light to break their dark defences in whatever way you can. This mostly involves turning a flashlight on them, but as you progress you can get more and more creative using flares, flashbangs and environmental objects such as huge searchlights, industrial lamps and car headlights. It's an ingenious mechanic that keeps the tension high during the night time sequences and presents an entirely new way to approach combat in horror genre.
However, there is still some refinement needed before the inevitable sequel comes along. There are long stretches of the game where your only light source is the flashlight and these can become very tiresome after a while, even if the thrill of the story keeps you going through the night. The shortcomings in the combat are most evident later in the game when you're forced to fight off large groups of enemies, while environmental objects possessed by poltergeists are hurling themselves at you as well. There is a sense of linearity to the levels too that becomes distracting at times and comes off as a little "gamey" in a title that is otherwise very original. Remedy fans will remember that Max Payne's mechanics weren't particularly refined at the first attempt either, but were significantly improved for the sequel. Hopefully an Alan Wake follow up will receive the same careful treatment.
Just like the action and the story, the visuals provide fantastic excitement and tension for most of the game. The lighting and night time settings are brilliantly realised. Condemned is the only game that comes close to creating the same sense of fear. Shadows crawl over surfaces at night, tricking your eyes as your strain to see through the undergrowth. The sense of relief when you reach a brightly lit building or clearing is overwhelming. You'll find yourself desperately hoping to see a glimpse of light through the trees in the game's mostly wooded environments. Unfortunately these wooded areas also reinforce Alan Wake's biggest issue, which is repetition. The game certainly would have benefited from more use of the urban areas of Bright Falls, as stumbling around in the forest does get tiresome by the time you reach the game's conclusion. However, this is a relatively minor issue in the context of the whole game. The dark, oppressive night of Bright Falls takes up most of the game's focus, but there are some story and exploration sequences that take place during the day. These are always a very welcome period of respite out of the pitch dark night, though the focus on the dark sections shows in the slightly less impressive daytime graphics.
What impressed most about the presentation is that Remedy has achieved a stunning sense of place that is second only to Grand Theft Auto IV. During the more relaxed day time sections where you're driving in the mountains around the town or talking to locals in the diner, Bright Falls feels like a real place inhabited by a cast of surprisingly interesting supporting characters. It's a magnificent accomplishment that makes the supernatural story much more acceptable than if it had been set in a more generic video game location.
The soundtrack and voice acting in Alan Wake is just as fantastic as you should expect from a Remedy game. Wake himself is very well acted by Matthew Porretta and the rest of the cast does a great job too. The soundtrack, both the score and the original songs fit the setting perfectly and meet the standards set by Remedy's previous games. "Find the lady of the light" is definitely one of the musical highlights.
Of course it wouldn't be a true Remedy cult-classic without the obligatory in-jokes and black comedy that the developer's fans have come to love and in this regard Alan Wake certainly doesn't disappoint. There are numerous references to Max Payne; some that anyone who played those games will notice and some that are especially for the hardcore Max fan. The famous in-game TV shows are back too. Max Payne had Lords & Ladies, Alan Wake has Night Springs, a creepy Twilight Zone spoof that actually has some of the most bizarre moments of the whole game. It's well worth stopping off on Al's journey to his wife to catch the latest episode!
Alan Wake is a terrific new take on the traditional video game horror genre and is carried off with all the class and trademark Remedy touches that fans will love. It does for thrillers what Max Payne did for noir and it was definitely worth the seven year wait. The fantastic characters and the believable setting work wonders, even if the linearity and repetition occasionally damage the experience. It's a great first chapter for the Alan Wake story and gives a Remedy a terrific platform to build on for the almost inevitable sequel.