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Alan Wake
As reviewed on the Xbox 360
Survival horrors. A strange breed of game that you should only attempt to play whilst wearing brown trousers. The genre focuses around a protagonist, of whom you control, whose life is pretty much destroyed by some force of malice that ultimately provides an all out resistance if the protagonist dares to rebuild his or her life. They tend not to be my type of game (I am a baby when it comes to these style games) and when I saw that I was receiving this game on rental, I will admit I wasn’t holding out too much hope for it.
Enter Alan Wake, a famous fiction writer that states his inspiration of the fantastic work he creates, is the legendary Stephen King. However, he has suffered from writer’s block for the last two years and slowly losing his interest in maintaining his career as an author. His agent suggests some time away with his wife, Alice, to relax and to see if this passing lack of enthusiasm with the job will be permanent. Whilst on the holiday, he has a small argument with Alice and starts to have some very intense nightmares. The story keeps this line of consciousness and sleep so thin, that neither yourself nor Alan knows whether what he is seeing is real or just a figment of his imagination.
Part of the story is the clichéd line about being on “the never ending quest to save my girlfriend”, as the nightmare is that Alice has been kidnapped and being held hostage by someone who wants Alan to finish his last novel. However, whilst this plot line has become overused, I will say that Alan Wake does manage to carry it out extremely well.
So why is the game so dark? Well the main theme is the balance between light and dark. The shadows are areas that you don’t want to be in for long and the light from your torch, flares, headlights, streetlamps and any other sources are things to help you against the formidable darkness that surrounds the story. The darkness is a malevolent force that has “touched” many a local inhabitant, turning them into violent and hateful individuals. They are known as the “taken” and their only escape from this infliction is death. Alan encounters the taken on every step of his journey and it’s down to him to find methods of dispatching them in order to help complete his goal.
In fact, for a survival horror, the controls and attack system seem rather easy to master. Alan’s movements are very responsive to the controller and changes in direction are depicted rather smooth on screen. The combat is also rather good – with the taken being near invincible due to the amount of darkness that surrounds them, Alan has to illuminate them by any means possible to help destroy some of the darkness, in order for him to be able to kill them via one of the many weapons available to him. Some weapons are so bright (namely the flare gun) that they even kill the taken for you.
The camera is also an improvement on many horror games. Instead of being like a static CCTV camera (as in many games such as Resident Evil), the camera is under full control by the player, enabling you to have the full ability to scope the surroundings for any taken or collectable pick-ups that litter the landscape. Whether or not this subtracts an element of fear from the game, or just adds to playability I’m not entirely sure, but for me the camera is one of the main selling points for me.
Now what word can I use to describe the graphics? Superb? Awesome? Brilliant? Breathtaking? I think we get the idea there. This review would be a complete failure if I didn’t mention some of the jaw-droppingly beautiful visuals that the developers have put into Alan Wake. Although gaming hasn’t quite gotten to the stage where the visuals make determining the difference between game characters talking and actors talking, Alan Wake has come the closest to it I have seen so far. They certainly are worth seeing.
The lighting effects are also something to note. A game revolving around darkness and light needs lighting effects to be spot on. Alan Wake has done so. On par with the effects of Splinter Cell, beams of light shining by and casting shadows is one of the special effects that the studio have obviously spent a lot of time perfecting. The mirrors, shadows and even the reaction of your torch on the taken when you shine it in their faces... it all adds a deep element to the game – as well as keeping the atmosphere spooky!
The atmosphere is added to by the great sounds and voices. The voice-acting is second-to-none and the sound of peril, excitement, fear and joy can all be pulled from each scene. Listening to the surroundings as you wander aimlessly around the forest will cause your ears to be filled with noises of the woodlands, with rustling leaves, snoozing birds and even the sound of the whistling wind as the darkness approaches. Very atmospheric!
Overall, Alan Wake is a very deep and involving game that will have you clinging on to your controller (and gripped to the edge of your seat) for many hours at a time. The question you ask is “Does it warrant buying?” Well, my answer is, perhaps. As much as you will have a good 10-15 hours out of the game on a play through, there isn’t too much in terms of replayability, other than to finish collecting all of the pick-ups or attempting the newly unlocked “Nightmare” difficulty. I certainly will be adding it to my collection as I did enjoy playing the game and will return to it from time to time. Whether or not it is a rental or a purchase, any serious gamer should at least give Alan Wake a look. I definitely recommend it.
95%
As reviewed on the Xbox 360
Survival horrors. A strange breed of game that you should only attempt to play whilst wearing brown trousers. The genre focuses around a protagonist, of whom you control, whose life is pretty much destroyed by some force of malice that ultimately provides an all out resistance if the protagonist dares to rebuild his or her life. They tend not to be my type of game (I am a baby when it comes to these style games) and when I saw that I was receiving this game on rental, I will admit I wasn’t holding out too much hope for it.
Enter Alan Wake, a famous fiction writer that states his inspiration of the fantastic work he creates, is the legendary Stephen King. However, he has suffered from writer’s block for the last two years and slowly losing his interest in maintaining his career as an author. His agent suggests some time away with his wife, Alice, to relax and to see if this passing lack of enthusiasm with the job will be permanent. Whilst on the holiday, he has a small argument with Alice and starts to have some very intense nightmares. The story keeps this line of consciousness and sleep so thin, that neither yourself nor Alan knows whether what he is seeing is real or just a figment of his imagination.
Part of the story is the clichéd line about being on “the never ending quest to save my girlfriend”, as the nightmare is that Alice has been kidnapped and being held hostage by someone who wants Alan to finish his last novel. However, whilst this plot line has become overused, I will say that Alan Wake does manage to carry it out extremely well.
So why is the game so dark? Well the main theme is the balance between light and dark. The shadows are areas that you don’t want to be in for long and the light from your torch, flares, headlights, streetlamps and any other sources are things to help you against the formidable darkness that surrounds the story. The darkness is a malevolent force that has “touched” many a local inhabitant, turning them into violent and hateful individuals. They are known as the “taken” and their only escape from this infliction is death. Alan encounters the taken on every step of his journey and it’s down to him to find methods of dispatching them in order to help complete his goal.
In fact, for a survival horror, the controls and attack system seem rather easy to master. Alan’s movements are very responsive to the controller and changes in direction are depicted rather smooth on screen. The combat is also rather good – with the taken being near invincible due to the amount of darkness that surrounds them, Alan has to illuminate them by any means possible to help destroy some of the darkness, in order for him to be able to kill them via one of the many weapons available to him. Some weapons are so bright (namely the flare gun) that they even kill the taken for you.
The camera is also an improvement on many horror games. Instead of being like a static CCTV camera (as in many games such as Resident Evil), the camera is under full control by the player, enabling you to have the full ability to scope the surroundings for any taken or collectable pick-ups that litter the landscape. Whether or not this subtracts an element of fear from the game, or just adds to playability I’m not entirely sure, but for me the camera is one of the main selling points for me.
Now what word can I use to describe the graphics? Superb? Awesome? Brilliant? Breathtaking? I think we get the idea there. This review would be a complete failure if I didn’t mention some of the jaw-droppingly beautiful visuals that the developers have put into Alan Wake. Although gaming hasn’t quite gotten to the stage where the visuals make determining the difference between game characters talking and actors talking, Alan Wake has come the closest to it I have seen so far. They certainly are worth seeing.
The lighting effects are also something to note. A game revolving around darkness and light needs lighting effects to be spot on. Alan Wake has done so. On par with the effects of Splinter Cell, beams of light shining by and casting shadows is one of the special effects that the studio have obviously spent a lot of time perfecting. The mirrors, shadows and even the reaction of your torch on the taken when you shine it in their faces... it all adds a deep element to the game – as well as keeping the atmosphere spooky!
The atmosphere is added to by the great sounds and voices. The voice-acting is second-to-none and the sound of peril, excitement, fear and joy can all be pulled from each scene. Listening to the surroundings as you wander aimlessly around the forest will cause your ears to be filled with noises of the woodlands, with rustling leaves, snoozing birds and even the sound of the whistling wind as the darkness approaches. Very atmospheric!
Overall, Alan Wake is a very deep and involving game that will have you clinging on to your controller (and gripped to the edge of your seat) for many hours at a time. The question you ask is “Does it warrant buying?” Well, my answer is, perhaps. As much as you will have a good 10-15 hours out of the game on a play through, there isn’t too much in terms of replayability, other than to finish collecting all of the pick-ups or attempting the newly unlocked “Nightmare” difficulty. I certainly will be adding it to my collection as I did enjoy playing the game and will return to it from time to time. Whether or not it is a rental or a purchase, any serious gamer should at least give Alan Wake a look. I definitely recommend it.
95%
Nice find Pete!
TattooedGamer wrote:
> I like how you say you're a 'baby' when it comes to this type of
> game, but will quite happily sit in haunted houses.
>
> :P
Haha true... but the great thing about "ghosts" is they don't hurt you as they may not exist... As with survival horrors, I inevitably die! Frequently.
And Chris, yes, Zombies are one of my biggest fears in games. Even from films the thought of them scares me. HM's ultimate enemy?
> I like how you say you're a 'baby' when it comes to this type of
> game, but will quite happily sit in haunted houses.
>
> :P
Haha true... but the great thing about "ghosts" is they don't hurt you as they may not exist... As with survival horrors, I inevitably die! Frequently.
And Chris, yes, Zombies are one of my biggest fears in games. Even from films the thought of them scares me. HM's ultimate enemy?
I like how you say you're a 'baby' when it comes to this type of game, but will quite happily sit in haunted houses.
:P
:P
I'm the exact same with these sort of games. I bought F.E.A.R for the PC when I was about 15. I honestly stopped playing after the first 10 minutes. The zombie sort of games are not very scary, it's these suspense games that very subtly scare the stuffing out of you, which is why I actually enjoy them! They scare me, but I love it! Awesome review HM, may pick this one up...
Alan Wake
As reviewed on the Xbox 360
Survival horrors. A strange breed of game that you should only attempt to play whilst wearing brown trousers. The genre focuses around a protagonist, of whom you control, whose life is pretty much destroyed by some force of malice that ultimately provides an all out resistance if the protagonist dares to rebuild his or her life. They tend not to be my type of game (I am a baby when it comes to these style games) and when I saw that I was receiving this game on rental, I will admit I wasn’t holding out too much hope for it.
Enter Alan Wake, a famous fiction writer that states his inspiration of the fantastic work he creates, is the legendary Stephen King. However, he has suffered from writer’s block for the last two years and slowly losing his interest in maintaining his career as an author. His agent suggests some time away with his wife, Alice, to relax and to see if this passing lack of enthusiasm with the job will be permanent. Whilst on the holiday, he has a small argument with Alice and starts to have some very intense nightmares. The story keeps this line of consciousness and sleep so thin, that neither yourself nor Alan knows whether what he is seeing is real or just a figment of his imagination.
Part of the story is the clichéd line about being on “the never ending quest to save my girlfriend”, as the nightmare is that Alice has been kidnapped and being held hostage by someone who wants Alan to finish his last novel. However, whilst this plot line has become overused, I will say that Alan Wake does manage to carry it out extremely well.
So why is the game so dark? Well the main theme is the balance between light and dark. The shadows are areas that you don’t want to be in for long and the light from your torch, flares, headlights, streetlamps and any other sources are things to help you against the formidable darkness that surrounds the story. The darkness is a malevolent force that has “touched” many a local inhabitant, turning them into violent and hateful individuals. They are known as the “taken” and their only escape from this infliction is death. Alan encounters the taken on every step of his journey and it’s down to him to find methods of dispatching them in order to help complete his goal.
In fact, for a survival horror, the controls and attack system seem rather easy to master. Alan’s movements are very responsive to the controller and changes in direction are depicted rather smooth on screen. The combat is also rather good – with the taken being near invincible due to the amount of darkness that surrounds them, Alan has to illuminate them by any means possible to help destroy some of the darkness, in order for him to be able to kill them via one of the many weapons available to him. Some weapons are so bright (namely the flare gun) that they even kill the taken for you.
The camera is also an improvement on many horror games. Instead of being like a static CCTV camera (as in many games such as Resident Evil), the camera is under full control by the player, enabling you to have the full ability to scope the surroundings for any taken or collectable pick-ups that litter the landscape. Whether or not this subtracts an element of fear from the game, or just adds to playability I’m not entirely sure, but for me the camera is one of the main selling points for me.
Now what word can I use to describe the graphics? Superb? Awesome? Brilliant? Breathtaking? I think we get the idea there. This review would be a complete failure if I didn’t mention some of the jaw-droppingly beautiful visuals that the developers have put into Alan Wake. Although gaming hasn’t quite gotten to the stage where the visuals make determining the difference between game characters talking and actors talking, Alan Wake has come the closest to it I have seen so far. They certainly are worth seeing.
The lighting effects are also something to note. A game revolving around darkness and light needs lighting effects to be spot on. Alan Wake has done so. On par with the effects of Splinter Cell, beams of light shining by and casting shadows is one of the special effects that the studio have obviously spent a lot of time perfecting. The mirrors, shadows and even the reaction of your torch on the taken when you shine it in their faces... it all adds a deep element to the game – as well as keeping the atmosphere spooky!
The atmosphere is added to by the great sounds and voices. The voice-acting is second-to-none and the sound of peril, excitement, fear and joy can all be pulled from each scene. Listening to the surroundings as you wander aimlessly around the forest will cause your ears to be filled with noises of the woodlands, with rustling leaves, snoozing birds and even the sound of the whistling wind as the darkness approaches. Very atmospheric!
Overall, Alan Wake is a very deep and involving game that will have you clinging on to your controller (and gripped to the edge of your seat) for many hours at a time. The question you ask is “Does it warrant buying?” Well, my answer is, perhaps. As much as you will have a good 10-15 hours out of the game on a play through, there isn’t too much in terms of replayability, other than to finish collecting all of the pick-ups or attempting the newly unlocked “Nightmare” difficulty. I certainly will be adding it to my collection as I did enjoy playing the game and will return to it from time to time. Whether or not it is a rental or a purchase, any serious gamer should at least give Alan Wake a look. I definitely recommend it.
95%
As reviewed on the Xbox 360
Survival horrors. A strange breed of game that you should only attempt to play whilst wearing brown trousers. The genre focuses around a protagonist, of whom you control, whose life is pretty much destroyed by some force of malice that ultimately provides an all out resistance if the protagonist dares to rebuild his or her life. They tend not to be my type of game (I am a baby when it comes to these style games) and when I saw that I was receiving this game on rental, I will admit I wasn’t holding out too much hope for it.
Enter Alan Wake, a famous fiction writer that states his inspiration of the fantastic work he creates, is the legendary Stephen King. However, he has suffered from writer’s block for the last two years and slowly losing his interest in maintaining his career as an author. His agent suggests some time away with his wife, Alice, to relax and to see if this passing lack of enthusiasm with the job will be permanent. Whilst on the holiday, he has a small argument with Alice and starts to have some very intense nightmares. The story keeps this line of consciousness and sleep so thin, that neither yourself nor Alan knows whether what he is seeing is real or just a figment of his imagination.
Part of the story is the clichéd line about being on “the never ending quest to save my girlfriend”, as the nightmare is that Alice has been kidnapped and being held hostage by someone who wants Alan to finish his last novel. However, whilst this plot line has become overused, I will say that Alan Wake does manage to carry it out extremely well.
So why is the game so dark? Well the main theme is the balance between light and dark. The shadows are areas that you don’t want to be in for long and the light from your torch, flares, headlights, streetlamps and any other sources are things to help you against the formidable darkness that surrounds the story. The darkness is a malevolent force that has “touched” many a local inhabitant, turning them into violent and hateful individuals. They are known as the “taken” and their only escape from this infliction is death. Alan encounters the taken on every step of his journey and it’s down to him to find methods of dispatching them in order to help complete his goal.
In fact, for a survival horror, the controls and attack system seem rather easy to master. Alan’s movements are very responsive to the controller and changes in direction are depicted rather smooth on screen. The combat is also rather good – with the taken being near invincible due to the amount of darkness that surrounds them, Alan has to illuminate them by any means possible to help destroy some of the darkness, in order for him to be able to kill them via one of the many weapons available to him. Some weapons are so bright (namely the flare gun) that they even kill the taken for you.
The camera is also an improvement on many horror games. Instead of being like a static CCTV camera (as in many games such as Resident Evil), the camera is under full control by the player, enabling you to have the full ability to scope the surroundings for any taken or collectable pick-ups that litter the landscape. Whether or not this subtracts an element of fear from the game, or just adds to playability I’m not entirely sure, but for me the camera is one of the main selling points for me.
Now what word can I use to describe the graphics? Superb? Awesome? Brilliant? Breathtaking? I think we get the idea there. This review would be a complete failure if I didn’t mention some of the jaw-droppingly beautiful visuals that the developers have put into Alan Wake. Although gaming hasn’t quite gotten to the stage where the visuals make determining the difference between game characters talking and actors talking, Alan Wake has come the closest to it I have seen so far. They certainly are worth seeing.
The lighting effects are also something to note. A game revolving around darkness and light needs lighting effects to be spot on. Alan Wake has done so. On par with the effects of Splinter Cell, beams of light shining by and casting shadows is one of the special effects that the studio have obviously spent a lot of time perfecting. The mirrors, shadows and even the reaction of your torch on the taken when you shine it in their faces... it all adds a deep element to the game – as well as keeping the atmosphere spooky!
The atmosphere is added to by the great sounds and voices. The voice-acting is second-to-none and the sound of peril, excitement, fear and joy can all be pulled from each scene. Listening to the surroundings as you wander aimlessly around the forest will cause your ears to be filled with noises of the woodlands, with rustling leaves, snoozing birds and even the sound of the whistling wind as the darkness approaches. Very atmospheric!
Overall, Alan Wake is a very deep and involving game that will have you clinging on to your controller (and gripped to the edge of your seat) for many hours at a time. The question you ask is “Does it warrant buying?” Well, my answer is, perhaps. As much as you will have a good 10-15 hours out of the game on a play through, there isn’t too much in terms of replayability, other than to finish collecting all of the pick-ups or attempting the newly unlocked “Nightmare” difficulty. I certainly will be adding it to my collection as I did enjoy playing the game and will return to it from time to time. Whether or not it is a rental or a purchase, any serious gamer should at least give Alan Wake a look. I definitely recommend it.
95%