A Nightmare to Remember…

by AXIS of Reality

©2010 Alex Baldwin

So. Alan Wake. The story of the game’s development is almost as interesting as the game itself – a twisting tale of extended production, major design changes, exclusivity deals, removal of the PC version and numerous E3 showings that each displayed a seemingly different game.

Developer Remedy has certainly been through the wringer in bring their ambitious vision to our screens, from being one of the first games announced for the 360 to releasing when most other games are already on their second or third iteration on the current generation.

In a way it’s similar to Splinter Cell Conviction’s development tale in switching from sandbox to linear when so many franchises are heading the other way.

But does it pay off? Have we been handed a disjointed, confused mess of a game or a diamond in the desert?

The context: you’re Alan Wake (A. Wake, har har), famous crime and thriller author taking some time out with his wife in the picturesque town of Bright Falls after some nasty writers’ block. While his fame can’t escape him, Alan and his wife rent out a little cottage on an island in the middle of a lake formed in a volcano’s crater.

• Alan Wake Trailer

Everyone has their fears and flaws, and unfortunately for wife Alice she has an acute phobia of darkness. I won’t reveal anything more about the story, but rest assured it is definitely a big step above what most games feed us.

There’s no superpowers here, no rocket launchers, not even a crosshair on the screen. Alan Wake is an amazingly grounded experience that forgoes most ‘gamey’ elements to the point that even the titular protagonist himself isn’t particularly interesting to look at.

He’s no 7 foot soldier. He’s a writer, and just as flawed as the rest of us. So we have the beginning of a journey that builds itself around the fear of the dark, instilling it in the player to the point where you will be genuinely thankful to spot a lonely lamp hundred of metres ahead, for it will mean safety.

Yes, this is a game that takes the light equals good, dark equal bad quite literally. The darkness is corrupting normal people, making the night filled with danger and changing the beautiful sun-drenched open forests into suffocating claustrophobic deathtraps.

With little but a flashlight and a pistol (although hunting rifles and shotguns can be found sometimes) you’ll be tackling all sorts of darkness-drenched hillbillies wielding guns, axes, machetes and other assorted objects you won’t want pointed at you. The difficulty is, guns don’t affect them as the flickering, distorting shadows wrapped around their bodies protect them from physical harm.

But what’s a shadow’s worst enemy? Light of course. Focus your torch on them to force the shadow off before unloading your bullets. This is a fantastic combat mechanic, making fights tense and frightening against multiple foes.

It all works on the delicate balance of trying to bathe each in light and try to stop their advanced before blowing them away, a tricky job when you’re surrounded and the light does little to slow their advance. Thankfully an effective dodge button lets you duck out of the way of swung or even thrown objects and provides a few seconds of slow-motion as the action is happening to let you quickly take in the situation.

This is compounded by the intelligent AI of the enemies that aren’t prepared to slowly shamble towards you or wait until you’ve finished off their friends. They’re all too happy to run around behind you while you’re not looking or pursue you if you run away away. A few environmental objects can help such as battery-powered spotlights or electric fences, but for the most part you’ll be all alone with your flashlight an a dwindling supply of rounds.

It all flows beautifully, thanks to the steller level design as well. Few games manage to make a linear corridor feel so open and free. It’s not so much that you’re following the game’s path, but that somehow the direction you always go is the ‘right’ one. The environments in particular are stunning in their organic feel and appearance.

The ground is always uneven, rocky and covered in foliage that lacks any form of ’tiled’ look. It’s stunning to see and contributes to the less ‘gamey’ feel resonating throughout Alan Wake. While a large portion of the first episodes (more on that later) of the game take place in the pine forests that surround Bright Falls, no area feels recycled and indeed the setting is a stroke of genius that you will not realise until you play.

Most horror or thriller games prefer to go with silent, small and constrained environments to heighten the feeling of being trapped. Alan Wake is almost completely the opposite. Maps are large and wide, set outside for the vast majority with many chances to stray off the beaten path. So how can that be scary?

It’s all about movement. Instead of stillness, tension is built through the constant movement of the trees and grass, the constantly shifting shadows cast as light filters through the branches, fog rolls in and the deafening wind that does all it can to disorient you.

It’s not that you don’t know if enemies are there or not – you know they’re there, but amongst the chaotic movement and sound of a forest suffering gale-force winds it’s almost impossible to tell what’s really someone there or just a shifting shadow. An amazing effect in motion that characterises the game, and can’t be communicated through screenshots or even videos.

• Alan Wake writers interview

Speaking of effect, Alan Wake definitely lives up to expectations visually. The overblown reaction to news that not all parts of the game will be rendered at 720p hold little significance in the end, as it looks fantastic in motion and has little aliasing.

The whole games has a softer appearance accentuated by the selective distortion effects at certain points and the extensive blooming of light sources. The use of light and shadow really steal the show here – it doesn’t have the super-sharp textures of Gears of War 2 or the detail-filled environments of Uncharted 2, but it does have perhaps the best use of light I’ve seen in a game.

That’s not from a technical point either, but an artistic one. Lights such as the torches casts thick beams that are interrupted and sliced by objects, really playing on the ‘safety’ of light in the game. Additionally the very natural-looking smoke and fog effects appear to interact with light shining through it to give a very etherial feel. Gorgeous stuff in motion, and helped by the good use of Havok physics so items that should move, will.

One other point I have to make is that other developers should be taking note that this is how to show night in a game. Don’t make it pitch black but don’t just make it like looking through a blue filter either. Alan Wake’s night feels suitably dark and frightening, yet you don’t struggle to see or have half your screen just showing black. A very good achievement considering a significant portion of the game is spent during this time.

The one key area where the visual slip up is the characters. They look good enough still, but when talking the lip-syncing seems quite off and can distract from the immersion. There’s a bad case of the ‘creepiness’ factor for many of the characters, but by about halfway through the game it wasn’t really bothering me anymore. Still, it’s great to hear Remedy have already identified the issue and are planning a patch.

Some of the dialogue also doesn’t mesh well with the tone of the game. While the corrupted hillbillies have quite scary-sounding distorting voices, when you’re all alone in the forest being pursued by them it’s not appropriate to hear humourous one-liners. I don’t think any horror antagonist can get away with it while maintaining the mood except Freddy Kruger. I’d actually be happy for news of a patch disabling the one-liners.

And while I’m on a role of things that could be improved, for the most part the controls work flawlessly but at times they can be a bit imprecise for the task at hand. For example, crossing a narrow wooden plank is difficult when it takes Alan an extra step or two to stop from releasing the thumbstick.

Not game-breaking by any means, but a little annoyance that I only really noticed maybe three or four times at most but nevertheless is still there. What was more game-breaking was a particular bug at one point late in the game involving a bridge and heavy machinery that involved me being pushed through the ground the first time, and the second time an instant death when the cutscene finished. Luckily I didn’t encounter anything else like this in the game.

The driving handling also leaves something to be desired. Like many third-person action games that implement limited driving section (*cough* Alone in the Dark) the vehicles feel very slippery and difficult to control at any speed above walking-pace. In particular holding the thumbstick for longer than a moment when cornering could send the car spinning as if they were driving on ice. Luckily the driving sections tend to be short and more focused on just getting from A to B so no real fancy driving is necessary.

Something else I noticed was the large amount of product placement in the game. Their car is a Lincoln, with Microsoft Sync on the dashboard. Verizon is the mobile carrier of choice and represented on billboards as well, while Energizer supply the flashlights and batteries.

Not a huge problem, and not to the extremes Metal Gear Solid has taken the concept, but it can drag you out of the world when you see real-world logos that are abnormally large or cameras at the exact angle to show the brand name. I can’t really blame them however, funding the hugely long development time would be very costly for an unproven game not attached to any known franchises.

My final minor complaint is the collectibles. Yes, like most action / adventure games Alan Wake has its own collectibles: coffee thermos and stacks of can pyramids to shoot over. Not a bad thing, but in this case they seem to be collectibles for the sake of collectibles. They serve absolutely no purpose and do not unlock anything except an achievement and a number of the ‘Statistics’ screen. So why are they there?…

Now, an explanation of the ‘episodic’ nature of the game. There are 6 episodes in Alan Wake, each of which will typically take you 1-3 hours each. At the beginning of each is a recap of the story so far to make sure you’re always aware of the purpose of your actions, but really it’s a fancy name for ‘levels’ (although these are far larger than most game levels).

The lack of loading screens is great too. But one of the great things is the ability for Remedy to add more episodes via downloadable content, the first of which is scheduled to drop in July to extend the story without having to wait years for the next game. And yes, after playing Alan Wake I’m already looking forward to new episodes.

Forza 3 lovers – Your Alan Wake fix is here

• Grab your Alan Wake Dodge Ram Livery by starting up your Forza 3 and going to XboxOZ360′s Forza 3 Storefront and see more livery images at his Flickr pages

So in the end what do we have? A fantastic thriller / horror game that weaves a great yarn and provides many ideas and elements that make it stand out from the crowd both in terms of visuals and gameplay mechanics. But most of all, the perfect game to play alone (in the dark) and let yourself be absorbed into the atmosphere.

In this case sharing is not caring: it will only dilute the effect of the experience. Some small problems do persist, many of which can be fixed up via patches but they do not significantly affect the quality of the game as a whole.

If you want something different, something not involving space marines, Ferrari’s, oversized weapons or elves, you’ll be wanting to get this game. Heck, you probably already have.

9.0/10

©2010 Alex Baldwin

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