Alan Wake
Wake tree arena.
Remedy's Sam Lake wants us to understand that Alan Wake isn't a horror game. Alan Wake is "a psychological action thriller that contains elements of horror". I don't want to split hairs, but it takes a little time to get comfortable with Lake's definition, because initially at least the "elements of horror" are pretty dominant: an axe-wielding madman, a satanically creepy landlord, and a wife who disappears with a blood-curdling scream all feature during a white-knuckled hour at the controls.
And all of this is before you start firing your gun at shadowy figures who burn up when you shine a torch on them. But in fairness to Lake, the supernatural elements are aimed more at building tension than horrifying or shocking the player. There's the feeling, as Wake tries to deal with monsters calling out to him from the murky woodlands of Bright Falls, that a lot of his problems may be products of his imagination.
Even before novelist player-character Wake and his other half have picked up the keys to their holiday cabin by Cauldron Lake, the player has been terrorised in a pre-credit dream sequence by one of his literary creations. Wake then arrives in Bright Falls with a chronic case of writer's block; he's on the run from his publicist and wracked with doubt over whether his talent has dried up. He argues with his wife after she unveils her plan to help him by bringing a typewriter on their vacation, and he storms off into the woods.
Later, he finds himself regaining consciousness in car-wreck. He stumbles through the darkness, coming across pages of a manuscript for a thriller he doesn't remember writing. The next thing he knows he's set upon by figures wielding hatchets and knives. Their bodies are encased in shadows that have the consistency of ink dripped through water.
Somebody's bright idea.
If you were to tick off the influences, Stephen King and David Lynch would be near the top of the list. But Remedy keeps the game fresh with compelling level design and presentation. The way the developer toys with the player's emotions is impressively frightening; as Wake picks up the keys to his cabin from a diner, the entire mood of the scene spins on a dime from friendly and folksy to chilling.
It's also a testament to the storytelling that Alan Wake himself is a man of substance. He's a bruised, conflicted individual; intelligent but also prone to violent outbursts. What makes him compelling, however, is less that he's flawed, but more that he knows he is and that he's trying to resist the weaker side of his personality. He's already facing a fractured marriage and writer's block, but the game suggests his problems run a lot deeper. Wake's fallibility also enhances the gameplay, which puts a premium on light as a weapon.
Wake's night terrors are obvious foes, but the atmosphere can become tense at the best of times.
Remedy's sense of economy and level design craft also permeates the run-and-gun action. At one stage, the player has to navigate from a car crash through a darkened lumber yard to a well-lit petrol station in the distance. The structure is loose but linear, even though the gorgeous environment suggests the player isn't restricted at all. Between the car wreck and the petrol station Wake comes across a couple of useful items like a flare gun and a spotlight (read: gun turret). He also discovers batteries, flares and ammunition, which players will want to ration.
Aiming and firing is your standard left and right trigger setup, but unlike most everymen in videogames who turn into a crack shot the moment they pick up a weapon, Wake's not a natural gunman, and the gameplay has been tweaked to this effect. Switching from running to taking aim feels a little slow, and while a quick reload is available, a mistimed tap of the button can slow this down as well. Not every shot is on target, aiming skill only increases with familiarity, and sometimes the best option is to cut your losses and leg it.
To compound this, Wake's enemies understand self-preservation. If you're staring down multiple opponents, the moment you draw a bead on one of them the others fan out. There's a dodge move, but the quickness of Wake's opponents and their ability to blend in with the darkened woodland is disorientating. Since it only takes around three or four well-placed hits to be killed, you're advised to put as much distance between yourself and attackers as possible.
Alan Wake will never be mistaken for Max Payne, then, but it remains exhilarating and dramatic. You often find yourself running out of bullets, and the gap between Wake and a pack of enemies closes fast. At one point you turn and see a generator next to an unlit outside light, and charge towards it while shadowy attackers hiss and snarl behind you. But when you reach the generator and hit the requested face button, it merely sputters. It takes another attempt to get it going, bathing Wake in glorious yellow light and destroying an attacker only inches away.
Meanwhile the presentation is stunning, caught in a beautiful twilight between ethereal and realistic. The game's story, gameplay and atmosphere all creep into the player's periphery at an elegant pace, but the visuals win you over before you pick up the pad. Remedy's latest adventure is set in the Pacific North West and every item in the environment looks and feels authentic: there's not a vehicle model or a style of building or a piece of vegetation that looks out of place. The team also boasts that the weather, lighting and even the animals on the soundtrack are region-specific, as are the clothing styles and accents of the townsfolk.
With light more powerful than bullets, weapons often feel improvised, with a flare gun effectively a grenade launcher.
The game also has a trump card in the way its camera blends functionality with cinematic flare, because rather than being glued to every tiny movement the camera is staggered by a split second. This is hardly noticeable when the player is engaged in mundane activities like fiddling with a jukebox or investigating the interior of an unlit house, but when the action kicks into gear it becomes a little more pronounced.
The way Wake almost seems to duck out of shot as the player reacts to a rapid attack feels as though the action on-screen is being filmed by another person. The camera also occasionally unhooks from behind Wake's shoulder to hurtle forward for a reveal shot or a slow-motion close-up track on a hurled weapon. It then returns to its original position swiftly and intuitively with no break in the action.
Alan in the dark.
If a sporadically roaming third-person camera sounds like it might be a pain though, don't worry. Judging by the sections we've played, Remedy doesn't front-load its cinematic effects; if you die, you won't have to sit through a series of pre-programmed scenes before you get back into the action. Rather the game's camera responds to the player's sense of timing; ducking out of the way of a spinning axe at the last minute rewards the player with a slow-motion steady shot, for example.
Alan Wake still has a lot to prove, having gotten lost in the release date woods so frequently that it's impossible to approach it free of scepticism, but the small 45-strong team at Remedy's Helsinki HQ looks to be justifying the slow pace of development. Even after an hour in Wake's company, the game burrows into your head and stays with you long after you've stopped playing it. The more you think about it, the longer its list of accomplishments becomes, and the further away that May release date starts to feel. "A psychological action thriller that contains elements of horror"? It should be worth finding out.
Alan Wake is due out for Xbox 360 on 21st May in Europe.
You may also like...
-
Gravity Rush Review 21
-
Activision vs. Vince Zampella and Jason West: Inside the game industry trial of the decade 64
-
Skyrim gets mounted combat in new update 35
-
Dirt Showdown Review 87
-
Minecraft overtakes Black Ops on XBL activity chart 24
-
Amalur developer 38 Studios lays off all staff - report 43
-
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Review 131
-
Wii U Aliens: Colonial Marines is best-looking version because of console's "more modern tech" 16
-
How the Darksiders 2 delay benefits you 4
-
The Cave Preview: Double Fine's New Game for Sega 19
-
Judge recommends US Xbox 360 ban 171
-
Diablo 3 real money auction house delayed again, client side patch out next week 20
-
First Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 image spotted 25
-
Going Hardcore in Diablo 3 92
-
Mass Effect 3 Rebellion DLC release date announced 15
Comments (96) Latest comment 2 years ago
Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Simple, because J. Wake doesn't work, silly!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Saying hows annie just reminds me of the horrible unsatisfactory conclusion to the last season.I want to know what bob made coop do!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
EDIT: Bob was great, of course, but I think Leland Palmer was a better character.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Yeah and he could randomly break out renditions of any old iron and chim chimney cheroo.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
"inspiration from lynch" well what bit? that it's set in rural nw america? that it's "psychological" (still don't quite see this in the clips and words written about it so far)? Twin peaks was only co-written by lynch, for a start!
Now the first silent hill - lynch heavy. Soundtrack straight out of eraserhead, and a level of mystery and ambiguity to the plot that would suit mulholland drive. But even then, lynch was one of many influences (jacob's ladder being the primary one), with the game itself happy to cut its own path for the most part. Lynch gets dropped so many times in previews for alan wake that it's making my head spin.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
you could even be able download a 'pearly king' outfit as DLC!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I don't know but considering that cooper in the black lodge was aged anyway he could still go back and use the same actors.The second series was definitely inferior.In the first series you never really knew if bob was a supernatural being or just a manifestation of lelands abusive relationship with laura or the evil in all of us.Thats part of what made it scary for me.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
jake the wake roberts?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
the quote in question is "If you were to tick off the influences, Stephen King and David Lynch would be near the top of the list." - i'm asking WHY lynch (i'm not really familiar with stephen king aside from film adaptations) is near the top of that list? according to who? for what reason? inspiration/influence doesn't have to/shouldn't be a direct rip, but please, show your working!
ico was influenced by italian surrealist painter giorgio de chiroco (sp), okami was essentially a playable version of a hokosai painting; those are what i would call obvious influences to be "ticked off".
there seems to be fair few lynch/twin peaks fans here, and i'm sure we'd all love to see a game that takes 'inspiration' from its key tenets of ambiguity, metaphor and cherry pie, but at the same time i think it deserves more than being name-dropped every time something weird happens in NW america!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I've got loads of games lined up so can wait up to 1.5 years to play this properly...
Comment below viewing threshold Show
The whole 'scattered pages' thing still sounds like a dumb copout.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
[link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaPepCVepCg
]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaPepCVepCg
[/link]
sorry...
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
as per the 'I can't un-see Bomberman' issue with Bioshock2 - now I can't un-hear the marmot when I read 'Alan'...
Comment below viewing threshold Show
They announced they had scrapped the PC version a week or 2 ago.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Is getting so ridicule is not even funny anymore.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
The optimist in me hopes this mean the PC version will still surface, but maybe 6-12 months after the 360 version? You would think the bulk of the PC code must be there already.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
That's an easy one, you just have to wait a year or so and check for yourself, it either appears or not. Time flies when you're having fun anyway. So they say.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Too true! every time Alan Wake has been mentioned on various forums, I've started chuckling. Just had to share it with folk...
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Just be sure to post it at the forums, because you know... we need to know about that.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I like horror games like this (or psychological thriller, whatever) but unfortunately there haven't been many (if any)good ones around for a while. I hated Alone In The Dark.
This is the direction I would have liked Resi Evil 5 to take, rather than the Gears Of War style angle it took.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Would you class the 6th sense as a horror movie?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Still, at least you can shoot and walk at the same time unlike another well know survival horror title.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Before I sound too negative, the game sounds intriguing and graphically the game looks terrific but, sadly, I won't be buying it because of the tearing as the issue annoys me. It's why I decided against buying Heavy Rain too. Hopefully, Remedy will see sense and release a PC version at some point though.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Good point. Maybe the supernatural/science fiction elements need to be bearing malice towards the protagonists? Although the hanged bodies felt pretty horrific rather than, er, thrillific...
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Yep, my point exactly.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Not trying to be rude here penhalion but.....you don't know anything about the game.
You don't know if they've all been taken over by this "evil", you don't know if they embraced it, you don't know whether they ran into a church, you don't whether may be alan's the evil one, heck you don't even know whether its all a figment of his imagination.
It's a bit illogical to start applying "logic" to the story of a game of which all you know of the story is a few video clips and what the developers have told you.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Yeah, no doubt certain scenes were definately horrific, but it seems initially at first that the supernatural elements were bearing malice to boy (whether he's the protagonist or not, I'm not sure. But it doesn't change it much though.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
btw we need more inteligent games (I fear this and slinter cell are dumbed down by marketing) most gamers are not kids.
heck stephen king is a kids author and were (i'm) looking at this thinking this is an adult game.. .where the heck are the rest?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
On the negative side -
Enemies that basically shout I'm going to keeel you aren't as scary as moaners.
For a game made in Finland the dialogue and acting somehow have that stilted Japanese survival horror sound to them. Chopping it up in the vids isn't doing much to help this even if they do want to protect the story.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Superb atmophere.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Console games can only be played properly with a 360 pad.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Screen tearing, vehicle controls and some linear action sequences the only downsides
Comment below viewing threshold Show
The only thing I can compare this to recently would be the PS3 Japanese horror game Siren Blood Curse, which was one of the only recent horror games to at least stay true to the genre.
I just hope Alan Wake doesn't go the way of Resi 5 and most other recent 'horror' games and turn into an action shooter with lots of blood.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
touche mon ami ;0)
although I do actually use a 360 pad for the consoley type games I play on my pc :0)
edit: I should point out that tearing and poor frame rate wrench me out of a game and completely wreck the immersion so many devs spend millions to achieve, that's why I play what I can on the pc.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Hehe I'm a Finn too.
"Sam Lake"? WTF!??!?! Bwahahahahaha.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I can undertsand the distraction of screen tearing though if it's very noticable.. which i've not found with the majority of console games i play..other than saints row 2 anyway.
http://www.gameblog.fr/news_13854_alan-w... - more gameplay footage of Alan Wake
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Slasher films are thrillers.
Slasher films firmly belong to the horror genre - even by your "natural/supernatural" distinction, since the most famous film "slashers" are basically supernatural in, erm, nature. The distinction between "thriller" and "horror" genre classification is rather hard to pinpoint without a couple of thousand words but I agree that films/books billed as thrillers usually don't contain elements of supernatural.
Which probably means that Lake's Alan Wake is a psychological action thriller that contains elements of horror insistence is actually a bit of a spoiler (especially if coupled with the name-dropping, the setting, protagonist being a writer and so on). You don't even have to be a seasoned genre aficionado to know where this is probably going
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Why don't you, you know, wait for the game to come out instead of moaning as usual about some small graphical defects?
And we get it... it's not coming out on PC, unlucky for you PC gamers. We get it already.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Jeez, no wonder games don't share equal footing with other forms of entertainment. A "psychological action thriller" with all the subtlety of a shlock 1980s straight to VHS slasher flick.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Still if it's like RE5 1080p tearings but 720p smooth.... That I ll be chugged with!
Looked forward to this SINCE before launch and a goddamn long time waiting for this.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
David Lynch = really good
SK + DL as inspirations = Great! (hopefully)
Comment below viewing threshold Show
David Lynch = crap
SK + DL as inspirations = hmm actually sounds like a ballin idea
Comment below viewing threshold Show
The Kotaku hands on refers to " Enemies are numerous and relentless." This is going to be an action game foremost. Less Siren, more Uncharted.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
All the things that seemed intersting about this game seem to have been stripped out. I thought this was meant to open world. Pushing boundries with narrative. Instead it is a linear action romp. Sure it looks graphically excellent and no doubt atmospheric but this is not the groundbreaker I was hoping for. Couldn't mistake it for Max payne says the previewer. Are you sure? Sounds very similar in structure and gameplay to me.
Plus Gecks is completely correct - so far, so not Lynchian at all. Rarely do we see creatures attacking character with axes etc and straight combat in Lynch's films. They are far more about toying with narrative expectations and wierdness, which Alan Wake seems to have rather forgon in favour for 3rd person action romp. It wil no doubt be good in what it does, but .. not what it could have been... I reckon..
edit. incase no one said this already - A. Wake or A. Sleep? We shall see.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
P.S. I regret nothing!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Stop whining will you please. If you seen tearing in videos its not from the final build. The game isnt due until end of May. Come on. I bet there wont be any tearing in the final game. Wait and see. You can start whining if there should be tearing issues when the game is relased. OK?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I will eat my cat in a hat if that is not the case.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show