Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth the wait"

Alan Wake is a psychological action game created by Remedy. Announced as an open world game in 2005, it was going to push the PC platform to extremes. Instead it launched only on the Xbox 360 in May 2010 thanks to an exclusive deal with Microsoft. It morphed into a linear experience back when Remedy had trouble with pacing and storytelling years before release. After pleading with Microsoft, they were able to self publish a PC port. Alan Wake was coming home. That port hit Steam less than two years after it landed on Microsoft's console. You'll want to savour every minute as you step into the role of novelist, Alan Wake.

Alan is a bestselling author who is having trouble writing. He and his wife, Alice, decide to take a holiday in Bright Falls, located in the American Pacific North West. Bright Falls is surrounded by the beautiful Elderwood National Park and the town is preparing for their annual Deerfest celebrations. A strange lady in the local diner gives Alan a key to his holiday cabin on Cauldron Lake. After reaching the cabin, the married couple share a disagreement and Alan gets some fresh air. Screams from the cabin draw him back. Alice is gone. Has she been kidnapped, did she drown in the lake or was she even alive to begin with? Alan will battle humans imbued with darkness as he tries to find the answers.

Much of Alan Wake is set during the night when the local population is far from normal. Darkness has taken over Bright Falls and people in the area have turned into psychotic killers. These unstable humanoids, called Taken, wield axes, chainsaws, sickles and knives. Protected by the dark they harness unnatural speed and strength. Only light can stop them. Alan Wake has combat that differs slightly from standard third person shooters. Remedy has opted to use light for protection and harm.

Combat in Alan Wake feels unique, which helps it remains satisfying for much of the game. The basic principle is to use light to burn the darkness from enemies and use conventional weapons to finish them off. You typically have a flashlight in hand, serving as your crosshair and main light source. This flashlight can be focused, draining battery power and providing damaging light. Not only does light burn the darkness, making enemies vulnerable, it slows their progress. You'll have to focus on multiple Taken to keep them from getting close.

What makes the combat interesting is how there are moments of vulnerability and great strength during each battle. If you run low on batteries or ammo you will need to manually reload as Taken close in. Alan has the ability to dodge attacks, producing some cool slow motion sequences. Although dodging is hard to perfect, it helps avoid several fatal blows. He's certainly not nimble, unable to run far or break from multiple attacks. Should a few Taken corner you, it's lights out for Alan.

Once you burn away the darkness, you turn enemies into sparks with standard weapons. The revolver, shotgun and hunting rifle are well balanced and feel great to use. Ammo can be limited early but there were only a few spots where it dropped to worrisome levels. You'll have access to a flare gun, which behaves more like a rocket launcher than a tool of safety. Hand-held flares provide seconds of protection for reloading or running to a nearby light source. Flashbangs emit powerful light that can disintegrate multiple enemies at once.

Light plays an important role outside immediate combat. Light heals Alan and any Taken chasing you will disappear back into the forest when you reach a well lit area. Lamp posts also mark the point for checkpoint saves. You will feel like you have achieved something each time you get to one after tough battles. Your flashlight, or car headlights, will also reveal luminescent graffiti pointing you to hidden stashes. These stashes, located in side areas, spawn enemies to keep you on edge as you acquire more supplies.

Most enemies are deranged humans who run at you with a variety of melee weapons. They speak with a devil voice, "have you called 911 yet," and hurl objects in your direction. There are a few basic varieties, ranging from the quick to the heavy. You also have to deal with Ravens attacking in large groups from the air. The Ravens make good use of the flare gun although battling them is not as fun as the humanoid enemies. Possessed objects fling themselves at you with force, so standing behind cover is often your best defence. Perhaps more types of enemies could have been used from the wonderful environment.

The real star of the show is the Elderwood National Park and its surrounds. Mist settles around the base of trees as light tries to pierce the darkness creating a fantastic atmosphere. Cabins, ranger outlooks, farms, mines and even the town of Bright Falls all make effective appearances. You aren't scared to go forward because you will be searching for more combat, locations and story. You will be uneasy about darkness, looking for the next light source and scanning the forest. You'll know when danger is close: the wind picks up, the forest gets blurry and darkness swirls. It's an effect mix of survival horror and action adventure.

The engine powering Alan Wake holds up very well on the PC platform. Although there is low resolution textures and simplistic geometry, most of it looks wonderful. The lighting effects are incredible, from the flashlight shadows to flares. Enemies react well to light, holding their arms up and creeping forward. What's most impressive is the lack of loading times, as starting a new game has you playing in seconds. Levels twist and curve around themselves, so you will see your destination in the distance across a chasm or valley.

The story in Alan Wake features a lot of exposition. It's an attempt to narrate the game so you feel connected with the story. It works but the dialogue can be bland and reveals little of strange happenings. Rather than giving you glowing objects or a huge arrow, you get a voice over telling you about a simple objective. Fewer words could have said a lot more. Still it's not bad, the weirdness and exaggerated characters fit perfectly with the world.

There are a several key characters that continue through the six episodes much like TV characters. Many of them are first seen in the Bright Falls diner at the start of the game. There's a pair of aging rockers and the waitress, Rose, is mildly obsessed with Alan. Sarah Breaker, the sheriff, is probably the most normal of the entire cast. Barry Wheeler, Wake's agent, will give the most laughs. He's also voiced by the same man who brought Vinnie Gognitti to life in Max Payne 2. It's an interesting selection of characters.

The story is presented via six distinct episodes over about 10 hours. This makes it feel like a TV show, each episode has an objective and climax. It breaks the narrative into separate chunks, giving you a summary of events between each episode. It's also the perfect time to take a break and come back to the game the following night. The middle episodes are exquisite in terms of presentation and length. They offer great pacing, interesting locations and the motivation to find out more. The game stumbles on the final episode because it's repetitive, has little story and most characters are absent.

The two DLC episodes, The Signal and The Writer, are included with the PC version. They produce an additional three hours of gameplay and are presented in dream like sequences. The combat can be harder, as you deal with more Taken in close quarters, but ample supplies level the playing field. The DLCs revisit areas, with The Signal feeling lazy by design. The voice of Max Payne (James McCaffrey) is most prominent in both episodes, serving as a beacon of light. The Writer DLC is particularly good toward the end with a great final battle. These episodes won't give you answers to story questions you may have, but are definitely worth playing if you enjoyed the original experience.

The flaws in Alan Wake are subjective as to the quality of the overall experience. The lip syncing and facial animation systems are sub standard. Improving them would have enhanced character likeability when watching the pre-rendered cut scenes. The cut scenes themselves are lower resolution and look different from the game, sometimes jarringly so. The collectibles are useless and silly additions to the world, demonstrating Remedy's infancy with achievement systems. Still it would be remiss if I claimed I didn't enjoy Alan Wake very much.

Alan Wake arrived on PC seven years after it was announced. The saying, better late than never, certainly applies here. Technically it stands up very well despite the loss of the original open world vision. It excels in areas of atmosphere, combat and pacing. Remedy has created a combat system that remained engaging from start to finish. The intriguing story ensures the desire to continue forward is strong. The biggest downside to playing Alan Wake: knowing that it ends.