Alan Wake

It seems like it's becoming more and more of a rarity to experience a game that manages to create a unique identity for itself in this day and age when publishers are less willing than ever to stray too far from the norm. Instead of innovating developers are tasked with copying the gameplay from the best selling games of the last few years in an attempt to duplicate the original titles sales numbers. Unfortunately this leads to a slew of games that play almost identically to one another, yet lack the heart of the game being emulated, which as often pointed out is best personified in the first person genre. This has lead to a staleness in the industry and has also resulted in me purchasing far less of todays blockbusters. On a positive note though, this change has also seen me looking at more games I missed out on originally as I attempt to find new gems to add to my collection. Despite it's flaws and occasional stumbles Alan Wake is without a doubt one of these gems.

At the time of i...

Alan Wake is one of those games that have professional reviewers going gaga. This reviewer is left scratching his head after he finally finishes the game, because he doesn't see what the big fuss was. For those who aren't in the clear, Alan Wake is a AA game (average critic score between 80 and 90), meaning that it must've been a good game... that, or they were bribed to suck its dick, because in all honestly, Alan Wake is a game that stresses the hell out of "style over substance", as while the graphics are pretty, the gameplay is tedious as all hell! It's about as mind numbing as an episode of Jersey Shore as you're essentially doing the same thing over and over and over again - and I don't mean "oh its just the core of the gameplay", but rather, you're going through the exact same forest, the exact same three enemies, and by the end of the game, you would've cured your insomnia. *bleep* this game.

Quite a shame, too, because the story is actually damn well written. It starts with ...

Alright, so Alan Wake came out recently, after an almost 6 year wait. I eagerly rented my copy, ran home, and popped it in the 360 [which had been gathering dust since I beat and wrote my review for Bioshock 2]. When I started playing the game, I was bothered by something right off the bat. I didn’t know what the *bleep* was happening. I had no idea why I was thrown into extreme darkness, or why I was running away from a random person that was surrounded by shadows. Well, you’ll probably be confused, too. And you’ll need to get used to it, my friend, because Alan Wake will confuse you at every step of the way [especially the ending]. Now for the detailed review…

Alan Wake is a very nice looking game. During the daytime portions, you’ll probably be dazzled and amazed at how gorgeous and colorful your environments are… but that’s the problem with this game’s surroundings. Alan Wake’s daytime portions are extremely scarce, favoring more the darkness and eeriness of the nighttime. That m...

While I had a good time with this game, it didn't hit me in the same way a large majority of reviews - both professional(ly stupid) and the users of Gamefaqs - would lead me to believe. Maybe it's that I set myself up for disappointment after reading those reviews and spending $99 on a copy that I just didn't think Alan Wake was the holy grail it was made out to be. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, but it's not great.

Story: Alan Wake, a best selling author, has been suffering from writer's block for two years, and to try and cure it, he takes his wife known as Alice with him to a small town known as Bright Falls. There, they get a hotel key, but it's not for the room they wanted - it's for a house in the middle of the nearby lake, Cauldron Lake. If only they figured it'd be a bad idea to stay there based on the name, though they thought it was the right key... but they were given this key by a mysterious woman in a black veil. Wouldn't you be suspicious? But hey, we make mistak...

Remedy Studios are most well known for their Max Payne games. It got a film deal and they sold the rights on, so what exactly have they done since? The answer being Alan Wake, an interesting title that was actually announced five years ago in 2005 as a PC and Xbox 360 game. Recently, they announced it would be an Xbox 360 exclusive. Now that it is out, the question is, was it worth the wait?



Yes and no. Remedy Studios made a few changes over the course of five years that while it may suit the games psychological thriller action theme, it just isn't what I was looking forward to all those years ago. Alan Wake was originally announced as a free-roam game along the lines of Grand Theft Auto, with the town of Bright Falls and the surrounding countryside being your sandbox. The game was to incorporate a day and night system where obviously enemies would be out and about during the night and investigation would ta...