Microsoft first released Alan Wake on May 14th, 2010. From Remedy, the masters of cinematic action, comes a 3rd person action game filled with overwhelming odds and desperate near escapes. Exclusively for the Xbox 360, the game follows a television show style layout where each episode adds to the plot.
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Third-person action-shooter, psychological thriller
Release dates: May 14th 2010 (Europe), May 18th 2010 (USA), May 20th 2010 (AU)
Players: 1
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Origin: Finland
Rating: ESRB: T, PEGI: 16+, BBFC: 15
“In darkness, fight with light.” -Alan Wake
When the wife of the best-selling writer Alan Wake disappears on their vacation, his search turns up pages from a thriller he doesn’t even remember writing. A dark presence stalks the small town of Bright Falls, pushing Wake to the brink of sanity in his fight to unravel the mystery and save his love. With the body of an action game and the mind of a psychological thriller, Alan Wake is a pulse-pounding thrill ride.
Here is my video review of Alan Wake!
Agree/disagree with my thoughts? Please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think!
Music from the game used in the review:
All the tracks in this video are from the Alan Wake soundtrack. Here are the tracks in the order they appear:
1. “Welcome to Bright Falls”
2. “Hunters”
3. “The Clicker”
4. “Departure”
As a conclusion let’s see how much fun the game is on a scale from 1 to 10:
Story
The story of Alan Wake is in episodic form, much like Alone In The Dark or Siren Bloodcurse and it seems to add to the theme the guys at Remedy were trying to create. Stephen King was obviously a huge influence to the story, they also reference to the classic Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds in the raven attack, and they liken the lodge to the hotel in The Shining. Also the TV show Night Springs really resembles the TV show The Twilight Zone.
I like the story a lot, probably because I loves me a Stephen King book. But the story of Alan Wake was solid and executed perfectly.
Gameplay
I think games really rely heavy at the moment on replay value: What is the replay value? How many extras are there? How many trophies can you unlock? Blablabla! And although extras (which are in the game, like the collectible Manuscript Pages that expand the story) do add something extra to the gameplay, I kind of miss the days I would just play a game repeatedly because I enjoyed the experience…
…Alan Wake is one of those games. 🙂
The linear gameplay moves in a swift pace and is nerve-shredding to the max. I’ve played it repeatedly purely for that.
Graphics
In the daytime the environment graphics do what it aims to; it creates a comforting, welcoming place that lulls the player into a false sense of security. By using a palette of autumnal hues it represents this perfectly. The people in the town feel like people you know, it makes it realistic without compromising art style. The same can be said for the Dark-Brightfalls, it has all the textures and colors from the real world yet kind of adds this ghostly ethereal quality. The graphics are like they can capture the realties of a small town in its entirety, but are able to mold it into its own creation.
The character models are good, but I feel if you look at their features that they work separately but not together. But something seemed off. I can’t pinpoint why, so if you feel you know, please comment below.
Overall I love the environments and the characters were good, although they didn’t quite work, not so much so that it threw me out of the moment.
Audio
The soundtrack is wonderful, with each episode beginning and ending in a song piece. They used a wide variety of song choices from different time periods and I thought it was a nice change.
Music plays a strong role in the narrative of Alan Wake. Poets of the Fall actually performed quite a few tracks in-game as fictional group called Old Gods of Asgard, who hide Brightfall’s secrets in their lyrics.
The musical score complemented the story well, it sounds melancholy in parts and then very dangerous, which pretty much sums up Alan Wake. Tracks of note are “Hunters” and “The Departure”.
Here are the artists and their songs heard in every episode:
OVERALL FUN-FACTOR — 9.5
Overall, I love this game! I loved it on my first playthrough and I still love it on my fourth or fifth playthrough. Some of you may disagree with me, you might think it’s too linear or lacking extras, I love it because the experience and the gameplay and the story is enough to keep bringing me back for more, like ICO or Silent Hill.
So I’m going to give it a 9 to 9.5 out of 10.
For help with the game, check out our Alan Wake walkthrough.