Yes…I’m a bit late on this. Suck it.
To give you a brief overview of Alan Wake, it’s a bit of a horror mystery game. You play as Alan Wake, a famous crime story writer who has hit a bit of a roadblock and has not written anything for two years. In order to clear that block he goes on a little vacation to a nice little town called Bright Falls with his wife, Alice. Getting to the point: shit goes down. Bright Falls is soon taken over by a dark force that is possessing the generally peaceful residents. Once the folks are possessed they’re dead and referred to as Taken. Where does Alan Wake fit into this? I actually almost forgot to include him in this. Basically, the darkness has taken Alice and Wake is not happy about this. Armed with a flashlight, revolver and a slew of other light sources, he treks into the night and begins lighting up his enemies.
The story is pretty good. Aside from the 3rd person shooter aspect, it is reminiscent of Shivers, The 11th Hour, or The 13th Guest. As you begin the story, you begin to discover pages from a novel that, unbeknown to him, Wake has written…and is living. One of the…for lack of a better word…coolest things about the story is that if you take risks and look into some dangerous nooks you can find pages to the story that foreshadow almost every event about to happen in the story.
From demon shadow birds to shadow men, I love the character interaction the most. Wake’s manager, Barry, is probably one of
my all-time favorite ‘sidekick’ characters in a video game…or maybe even movies. He is the comic relief in the dark a dreary game, even when he’s in danger it’s still mildly humorous. “The Bright Falls general store is now my favorite place in the entire world. See this headlamp? It’s like a superpower. I can just look at one of those things and they die. It’s my flaming eye of Mordor!!!”, that’s one of the random lines he has and after an hour or two of playing the game you can’t help but chuckle.
If you’re looking for a great 1st or 3rd person shooter, this game really isn’t for you. Sure, there are some pretty cool dodge moments and it is crazy to watch an entire swarm of birds light up and disintegrate, but I’d only suggest this if you’re interested in thriller games that are more focused on the story. This is nowhere close to a Modern Warfare or Gears of War. I didn’t have too many problems with Alan Wake. It has a solid and intriguing story and it kept my attention. Sometimes it is easy to get lost in the forests or end up confused as what to do, but I felt that added to the eerie atmosphere.
I’d give this 4.5 squawks out of 5. Pick it up.
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