Alan Wake: Something Bumping in the Night

As a kid, I would constantly be terrified by the subtle horrors that Stephen King would give to life in his creative wrks, wrestling with nightmares while still utterly compelled in my anxiousness to turn the next page and see what happens next. The same can be said for Alan Wake, which conducts the exact same atmospheric dissonance of a Stephen King novel, thereby compelling gamers to feel seized by similar feelings of dread. Without being grotesquely terrifying as one of the many Silent Hills or Resident Evils, it does possess an innate eeriness that slowly grabs hold of the player. Over the course of the experience, the game never thrusts horror into the narrative. By utilizing Alan Wake as the singularity of light and darkness, players are constantly plagued by a fear of the unknown, which remaining constant throughout continually possesses the potential to make them jump.

For a game that was announced in 2005 and originally slated to be a launch title for the Xbox 360, it would be a slight stretch to argue that Alan Wake is a bit late to the party. However, instead of arriving when everyone has left and things seem to be dying down, the game has come off as appearing fashionably late. After five years of development, it has been refreshing to finally have first-hand experience playing Alan Wake instead of another cavalcade of screen shots and trailers. Moreover, it is exceptional to see that despite the amount of time between announcement and release, Remedy Entertainment maintained the focus to bring an overall exceptional game to the community.

Starting with a nightmare, there is no hesitation on the part of the game for players to immediately get their feet wet. Not only is it a great introduction that immediately starts scratching the surface of what could possibly be something very wrong with the world, it also allows the collusion for players to question the psychological stability of Mr. Wake. Waking from the ill-dreamt slumber, Wake is informed by Alice, his wife, of their impending arrival to Bright Falls via ferry. Surreptitiously filling the novelistic role of the ideal small-town, the additional subconscious weight of isolation that comes with a locale that is only accessible by way of boat is difficult to avoid. It wouldn’t be unflattering to say that the influence of Stephen King becomes more apparent than an evil clown hiding in your bedroom closet.

After brief introductions to various townspeople as well as a few odd occurrences that continue to remind players that things are on the veritable edge of descending into the lower-levels of absolute madness. When things finally do however, very much like the first teenager slaughtered in a horror movie, it isn’t so much of a surprise as it is a relief. Alice has disappeared and the world of Bright Falls has very much toppled so that Alan Wake’s universe is now succinctly upside-down.

Centering itself primarily on the synergistic relationship between light and darkness, Alan Wake quickly finds himself under siege by ‘The Taken’, townspeople who have been seized by the dark, malevolent presence that is slowly ravaging the town like a cancerous infestation. A flashlight, flares and a revolver serve as immediate salvation for the protagonist as he sets out on his journey to locate his missing spouse. Setting down the nearest forest path, it feels like The Taken lurk behind every tree in the dark. This is preferable for inductees to video games as opposed to ‘Nightmare’ difficulty, which finds The Taken sneaking amongst not just every tree, but bush, rock and building possible. While focusing the flashlight on Taken merely eliminates the darkness surrounding them, it then allows them to be harmed by the revolver, and later weapons such as the flare gun, shotgun, hunting rifle as well as flashbangs. Nevertheless, this makes for some extremely tense moments as larger Taken and Poltergeist infested objects can take quite a bit of light before succumbing to vulnerability.

Littered throughout the various episodes are a few collectibles and objects that are a laconic reminder that even when a vacation spot is drifting into abysmal madness in a way that would put Stephen King to shame, it behooves you to stop and smell the proverbial roses. Coffee Thermoses dot the digital landscape and thankfully are discernable as much as any other pertinent items in the game thanks to a minor glowing gleam that makes them remarkably visible amongst the darkness. Additionally, manuscript pages, which initially struck me as a superfluous add-on to the gameplay, actually proved to be intriguing. Providing further backstory as well as foreshadowing of events to come, there were times when the narrative seized the initiative and momentarily stole the thunder from the gameplay. All the while, I kept a lookout for televisions to turn on as they would either play a recording of Wake drifting between sanity and lunacy or a brief episode of Night Springs, a delicious homage to shows such as Night Gallery, The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. Though the manuscripts are the only item gathered that directly contributes to the core experiencing, I found each collectible to be a driving force in enriching Alan Wake overall.

Graphically, the game is especially satisfying on the eyes; however, it’s Remedy’s attention to detail and accomplished mastery of utilizing lighting in the gamespace that sets it apart from other titles. While not attempting to overthrow Uncharted 2, Gears of War 2 or Crysis as the most spectacularly gorgeous game ever created, the visual design is adeptly done and serves to set the fundamental mood with an apposite tone of foreboding creepiness. Where designers of Unreal games aim for games that can find a realistic homonym between a buxom blonde on a sunny day at the beach, Alan Wake is the eerie, dilapidated house at the end of the street that your friends dare you to spend the night in.

Ultimately though, it’s the focused writing behind Alan Wake that makes it such an expertly crafted experience on top of being a genuinely enjoyable game to get lost in for hours on end. Whilst levels are presented in an episodic format, with each ending in the form of a television show and recapping the events of the last level before resuming the game for the player – this not only has served to keep the story tight and concise – but will also give way to further seasons in the form of DLC, which Remedy has already begun development on as it has been promised in the near future as a free pack-in with the limited edition of the game.

Candidly, Alan Wake followed through on the potential promised by Remedy during the early development phases of both the Xbox 360 and the game itself, proving upon release that it wasn’t a rushed product that was better left on the cutting room floor. Not the run-and-gun shooter akin to Modern Warfare 2 or the Sandbox-style romp of Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake doesn’t dither on what it offers gamers – a terse story that will give you goosebumps and chills combined with the potential to continue to do so even after you’ve completed all the content on the disc.

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