I’m doing something a little different this week. Instead of reviewing a book, I’m going to review a video game. However, as you’ll see, this one isn’t as big a stretch as you’d think, since this game is Alan Wake by Remedy Entertainment.
Alan Wake, the titular protagonist, is a mystery writer known for the famous Alex Casey series of books. But Alan has been unable to write anything since he killed off Casey in his last book The Sudden Stop two years ago. He knows the name of his next book is Departure, but he has been unable to write it. As a vacation, his wife takes him to the rural forest town of Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest. There they settle into a cabin on the lake. His wife reveals that she brought him to Bright Falls to get him to write again. They have a fight and he walks out. As he idles outside, the power to the cabin is cut and he hears his wife scream. He runs back in to find her and…
Alan wakes up a week later behind the wheel of a crashed car, dangling precariously off a cliff edge. He can’t remember the last week. He tries to find his way through the forest to find help, but he finds himself pursued by darkness. He is attacked by people possessed by this darkness wielding axes who he can only defeat in the light. Along the way he finds the pages from the manuscript of his novel, Departure, which he doesn’t recall writing. But the story the pages are telling is his story. Sometimes they tell what has happened; other times they describe what is going to happen.
In many ways, the game is a great homage to Stephen King. The game beings by a quote from King and along the way, there are many other elements referencing King. It never descends into true fan worship, remaining its own story of Alan’s quest to find out what is going on and rescue his missing wife.
The game itself is an attempt to mimic two different genres: books and television. Its intended pacing is that of a television show. It is told in six episodes. At the end of each episode there’s a piece of licensed music (Bowie, Nick Cave, etc) and the declaration “End of Episode X”. The beginning of the next episode starts with “Previously on Alan Wake” and shows meaningful clips of experiences relevant to the new episode, just like a well done television show.
The book aspirations pervade the game, starting from the fact that Wake is a famous author. But the most significant contribution is the manuscript pages. Each page is full written and voiced. These serve to expand the experience. Some pages give descriptions of what side characters are doing off camera. Other times they serve as back story for events that have just occurred. In the best cases, they are an interesting form of foreshadowing. Sometimes they depict events from future episodes. Other times, they describe something soon to happen. For example, in one early chapter Alan is fumbling through the darkness, besieged by darkness-possessed axe murderers. With a flashlight and revolver, he has been holding his own against them, though with difficulty. Then he finds a page talking about a weary Alan Wake fumbling through the darkness, almost at the end of the journey who hears the noise of a chainsaw. This serves to increase the tension. At some point you realize Alan will have to deal with a chainsaw-wielding maniac, but you don’t know when and where. When you finally hear the buzzing sound of that chainsaw, the event is charged up so much more than if you had just heard it for the first time.
The basic game mechanics have Alan using a flashlight controlled by the left analog stick. Holding down left trigger will cause this to focus on an enemy, but drain the battery. At zero the battery either needs to be replaced or the player will need to wait for it to slowly refill. All the enemies are covered in darkness. Until that darkness is burned off them, they cannot be harmed in any way. For most of the game, the only way to do so is the flashlight, becoming crucial to Wake’s arsenal, especially when being attacked by multiple enemies.
The other trigger controls Alan’s guns, which range from a trusty revolver to shotguns, hunting rifles, and flare guns. There’s never enough ammunition for a guns blazing approach, so players must use it conservatively. In addition, once empty, Alan must take a few moments to reload. This can be interrupted by firing early, so players make the choice between reloading all bullets or loading one and quickly firing.
The light mechanic also works with environmental items. Some generators can be turned on, creating spotlights which help burn darkness off enemies. Alan can drop flares which temporarily cause enemies to reel backwards and retreat. In addition, the game’s checkpoints are safe havens, spotlights of strong light where Alan heals and no enemy may enter.
The pacing of the game is either good or bad, depending on the level you want to judge it from. While it is divided into a few episodes, they dramatically differ in length. The first few episodes range from about forty-five minutes to an hour of playtime, which feels reasonable for an “episode” of a television show. Later episodes increase dramatically, up to two hours. What’s particularly weird with those is that those episodes have a clear break and stopping point halfway through, which the creators seemed to ignore. This makes episodes sometimes feel even more doubly long than if they were just twice the time. Players can of course save after any checkpoint, but there’s something that feels right in playing an episode in one sitting. In addition, some stretches of travelling feel longer than they should. While the gameplay never starts to feel boring or stale, there are a few instances where the player has been travelling a long time and are almost at the end, and it makes Alan fall or otherwise have to take a long wraparound path. While the gameplay set pieces in these areas are fine, it did make me roll my eyes in frustration, since they did not add to the story or experience.
The story is kept fresh by Wake’s frequent narration of the circumstances or his worries. The voice acting is very well done, including side characters. Periodically through the game a radio can be turned on, and players can listen to the folksy radio host talk to local personalities. There are certain sequences that can be viewed on the televisions within the game. These are a surreal element, as each of these sequences were filmed with live action actors and then inserted in the game. The dubbing is never correct, sometimes to just jarring effect, other times to an intended surreal effect where the live action actor stares, mouth not moving, but the voice is overdubbed.
Unfortunately for PC and Playstation owners, this game is only on the Xbox 360. As a Microsoft-funded game, it will never be on Playstation, but unfortunately, the PC plans have been cancelled. The sales of the game were moderate and no sequel has yet been announced. There is an ending, but there clearly could be more, a second season, if there was a chance. There’s two pieces of downloadable content, The Signal and The Writer, but reviews indicate these expand the experience but do not further the story much.
Overall, Alan Wake is an excellent game, especially for those looking for a cinematic or story-oriented experience. Between the manuscript pages, narration, radio, and television elements, there’s an interesting narrative you don’t see in many games. The game is neither overly creepy and strange like a Silent Hill, nor a watered down thriller experience. It keeps a great balance between gameplay, never becoming too mired in cinematics, nor overflowing with gameplay sections, making players wonder what happened to the story. Once you start, you will become engrossed in the game, wanting to know the fate of Alan and how it finally will end.
