Welcome to Twin Peaks-- shit, I mean... Welcome to Bright Falls, the quaint Washington mountain town that's home to a deep, dark secret and the setting of Alan Wake, the new action/adventure title from the title-named-after-protagonist-with-word-play-in-his-name guys, Remedy. Wake is a well-known writer who goes to Bright Falls on vacation with his wife after suffering from a severe case of writer's block. As quickly as they arrive, however, Mrs. Wake is mysteriously kidnapped, and Alan is thrust into the world of darkness as he desperately attempts to save his wife.
Pros:
- Atmosphere is absolutely phenomenal, chilling, and grossly immersive. There were numerous times where I'd turn a corner and I'd startle myself because the moonlight would silhouette a bush that I could've sworn was a Taken.
- Great episodic storytelling filled with twists and cliffhangers that get you pumped the next part of the narrative. I tried to limit myself to an episode a night, but the way the story unfolded kept egging me on to continue as soon as the episode was over.
- Looks great, and the lighting is stellar.
- Slick, sharp controls make combat fluid and frenetic.
- Crisp, haunting sound design.
- A slew of memorable characters. My personal favorites are the old Anderson brothers who refuse to move on from their heavy metal pasts and still make their own moonshine.
- Great in-game television shows and winks and nods to Max Payne and Twin Peaks.
Cons:
- Rather short, especially for a game that's been in development for about six years. Granted, it took me about 10-12 hours to complete the game, but that was mainly because I kept going off the critical path to look for collectibles.
- Incredibly linear. There is always a critical path and that's the only way to get from point A to point B. There's also always an objective indicator telling you exactly where you need to go, and you can't turn it off.
- Some of the writing in the manuscript pages is uneven. Most of them are written about Alan Wake in first-person, but a couple of them have Wake referring to himself in third-person; this small note threw me off whenever it came up.
- While I love collectibles as much as Vinny, I felt all the ones here took me away from the story. Most of the narrative has Wake trying to get to someone or somewhere as fast as he can, yet this urgency is constantly be challenged by my desire to look through every square inch of the game looking for collectibles.
- The game often doesn't do a good job of telling you where the enemies are around you. Usually when an enemy springs out of the bushes at you, the camera zooms back to show if they're coming from behind or in front of you or whatever. Many times, however, I found myself looking at the guy who jumped out at me as another guy from somewhere else comes up behind me and stabs me. This is also hampered by the camera, which I occasionally found to be too close to Wake.
- It's kind of expected from the story, but the words "dark(ness)" and "Dark Presence" are used ad nauseam throughout the entire game, and it started to get really annoying around thirty minutes in.
- Blatant advertising that really got on my nerves. Ford, Verizon, and Energizer are all shown extensively and ridiculously throughout the game. In fact, one of the achievements in the game can only be attained by turning on a TV that features a Ford commercial, a Verizon commercial, and that's it. They actually made watching commercials required in order to progress your gamerscore. Jesus Christ.
I thoroughly enjoyed playing Alan Wake. Yeah, it's got some drawbacks, and I was expecting it to be a much more open experience, but the final product is still rich with atmosphere, narrative, and action. If you're a fan of story-driven action/adventure games, then you should seriously consider picking up this game.