Alan Wake

So finally got to making some progress on my backlog of video games and next on the list was the psychological horror Alan Wake. As it draws significantly on sources like Twin Peaks and Silent Hill, I figured it would be my kinda game. And as it turns out, it definitely was.

Gameplay:
While the game does nothing Earth shatteringly innovative with it's gameplay, it was quite enjoyable. It doesn't stray too far from the mould set by games like Silent Hill, it does so in small but effective ways. For a start your character actually responds well to controls instead of the slow moving and turning characters of old Silent Hill games. You can evade enemies fairly easily and fight back effectively without it getting too stressful. Many survival horror games rely on the clumsiness of the controls to evoke a sense of panic and loss of... well, control in the player. But, by not focusing overly much on the survival part of that equation, this game can avoid the trap of awkward controls. Not to say it's a cakewalk - there are times when your survival is very much in doubt as the ambushes the enemy set for you from time to time can be tough.

Alan burns the protective shadow from a Taken.

The other mechanic I quite enjoyed was the light / darkness mechanic. All enemies are protected in a shroud of Darkness that must be burned off them with light before they are vulnerable to your weapons. For the most part this is achieved with a flashlight, but flares and other environmental light sources come into play throughout the game also. Particularly intense light can destroy an enemy outright if his shroud of Darkness is already gone or sometimes even if it's not. So flashbang grenades, flare guns and large fixed spotlights are always handy to find as you explore the town of Bright Falls. This mechanic isn't anything special, but it does add a requirement for thinking through your tactics in a fight a little rather than just wade in firing. As ammo isn't always too plentiful, it can make sense to plan an attack where you remove several enemies protection first, group them up and take more than one out in the same attack. Nothing on the level of a proper tactical combat game but some thought is generally required.

Catching a Taken off guard with a bright torch light.

There's one or two other things I liked too. There's the little touches - such as the ability to stun an enemy for a second if you get a focused light beam in his eyes. Once they recover though they tend to shield their eyes with one arm so it can be hard to stun them a second time until they've been lured into dropping their guard.

And there's the stuff I wish more games got right - escorting NPCs. From time to time you'll have a partner with you. It's either Alan's literary agent Barry, or Bright Falls' Sheriff Breaker. Or both. And unlike most games where you have to babysit the escort character at great pains to yourself or lose the game, neither of these two is much trouble to you in a fight. Barry doesn't help too much, but stays out of harm mostly. Sheriff Breaker, however, is great in a fight. On the regular difficulty, it can be enough to hold back and provide light support for her and she'll clean the floor with a mob of Taken enemies.

Graphics / Audio:

Bright Falls can get pretty creepy at night.

Nothing to special to note here. The game sounds and looks as good as you'd expect any modern video game to. It easily keeps up with the competition but does little to stand apart either. That said, there are some notable things. I do like the effects used to indicate when a part of town is unsafe. Despite a bright moon the area dims, wind rushes in and shadows start to flow unnaturally across the ground. These shadows can leave enemies behind and while the game normally draws your attention to when this happens. it doesn't always so you have to keep on your toes.

Story:
And we come to what generally makes or breaks a horror game. The plot. I really liked it. For a start, it makes sense. Sure, it doesn't explain everything. But it also goes to some effort to make sure you know what's happening, what's at stake and roughly what you need to do next. A lot of horror relies on the unknown - and so do the early stages of Alan Wake - but many of those stories never get around to explaining anything. The unknown can be scary but at some point, I get frustrated with that. I prefer horror that takes the time to explain what the protagonist is up against to some extent. Also, this game stays consistent with the rules it establishes. I liked that a lot. A lot of horror clearly sets up rules for the confrontation with an ancient evil or whatever, and then in the final act breaks those rules for shock value. But no clear justification for the rules changing is given most of the time. Sure, it shocks the viewer but I also feel insulted - almost as if the story is mocking me for having believed the rules it laid down earlier.

The story gets a little meta at times, but I liked it. Given it's nature, it was almost inevitable. This is a horror story about a horror story. Alan Wake - a crime writer - comes to the lake in Bright Falls with his wife for a holiday. His arrival wakes a Dark Presence that has been trapped in the lake. It has, in the past, preyed on other artists and has the power to make their work come true in a twisted fashion that benefits itself - and often at the cost of the artist. Alan rushes to rescue his wife from a perilous night-time situation shortly after arrival, and wakes some time later in a new location with no memory of how he got there. He sets out to find out what's happened and to save his wife. In the process, he finds some pages from a manuscript for a novel. Written in his style, on his typewriter. These pages describe the events happening to him and events that will happen to him, which understandably freaks him out.

It can't help but get a little meta after that as you have a writer who's frightened that he's living inside a story he's written and has to make sense of that. This gives the story a chance to use some of the clichés of the horror story in a fresh way - it doesn't try to subvert them much, but it does have a decent justification to use them. Becoming the protagonist of his own story seems to be Alan's only hope to escape and rescue his wife. But the story must ring true to come true, and the protagonist cannot feel too safe to make a horror story work. In the end the story does a good job of conveying a sense of the author fighting against his own imagination, as well as the Dark Presence which would take advantage of that same imagination if he loses control of the story. I'm worried I've said too much already for those who might want to give the game a try so I'll leave it at that concerning the details.

The story is also broken up into six episodes which include a "Previously On Alan Wake..." section at the start to convey the sense of a TV show's episodic structure. It works well, but there's a slight feel of mixed methods there since the story is based so heavily on literary storytelling and this use of a TV methodology seems at odds with that sometimes. But it's a small detail, only present at the start of each episode. I'm left with the feeling that it's only in there as the writers are huge fans of episodic TV shows like Lost - which they have enthusiastically praised in interviews. There are two DLC episodes available as well - as a sort of epilogue - which are great fun too. They also take advantage of the nature of the supernatural force in the plot and it's interaction with the creative works of artists a lot more than the main game's plot can or does. A download code for the first is included for free with new copies of the game, but it's the second one that is the better of the two really.

Overall:
In the end, this is a pretty good game. For someone who isn't into things like Twin Peaks, Silent Hill or the works of Stephen King, I'd describe it as a fun game and worth a try to see if you like it, assuming you can borrow a copy to try before spending any of your own money on it. You might like it, but there's no guarantees that the story will hook you and draw you in and make the whole thing more than the sum of it's parts.

For those who are fans of Twin Peaks, Silent Hill and/or Mr. King? If you haven't already played this then the only question left is why aren't you playing it right now? :)