E3: Alan Wake

By Christian Donlan Published 3 June, 2009

Alan in the Dark.

For the last few years, Alan Wake's been more of a rumour than an actual game: an early next-gen proposition that surfaced briefly to let rip with a shower of moody screenshots before subsequently going quiet for a little bit too long. Every so often, gossip about its fate would bubble up from the deep - idle chatter variously suggesting that it had been cancelled, that it was looking spectacular, or that it had been transformed into a hillbilly water sports game called Alan Wakeboarding - but the stories always dissipated fairly quickly after breaking, and they left nothing behind apart from a few hints of narrative.

And that handful of early images. Focusing on a moody brooder knocking about in his winter wardrobe, and set against a craggy, backwoods environment, they made Remedy Entertainment's project look dreamy and intriguing, an arty experiment shrouded in fog and classy mystery. In other words, Alan Wake didn't really look like the kind of game in which you'd have to fight off a possessed digger. In fact, however, it's exactly that kind of game.

What was probably most surprising about the latest, and most substantial, sighting of Alan Wake, shown at Microsoft's E3 briefing, was how fast-paced it all is. Rather than glumly wandering around in a cardigan, Wake's picking through the shattered ruins of a house, ducking falling trees and flying axes, and fighting whole legions of spectral hillbillies as well as the construction vehicles they've brought with them. Behind closed doors in the Microsoft booth, we're given an extended viewing as a developer plays through an early part of the game, and the sensation remains the same. This is Steven King rather than David Lynch, then - pacy, smart and fairly slick as it sends you blundering around in dark woods, and waiting for monsters to lunge at you out of the damp leaves.

'E3: Alan Wake' Screenshot 1

Wake tends to look a bit like a zombified Patrick Duffy after a night on the sauce.

Wake's storyline unfolds in a trendy episodic format, taking the shape of discrete chunks that seem to clock in around the hour mark, topped with a brisk recap and tailed with a cliff-hanger. A handy borrowing from Alone in the Dark - and please don't borrow anything else - it's one that dictates the game's pace, allowing for a nice blend of exposition and fighting, while simultaneously creating a smooth pipeline for any future DLC to slide down.

Beyond this structure, the plot itself is charmingly potboilerish: Remedy's calling its game a psychological action thriller, and that seems to translate into a narrative in which every major event is swiftly followed by a mysterious repercussion that can only be truly expressed in italics. Alan's taken a holiday...but his wife has gone missing! He's finally gotten over his writer's block and finished another novel...but he can't remember writing it, and now his fictional events are starting to come true! He's decked himself out in a lovely tweed jacket...but he's wearing it on top of a hoodie! What's he thinking?

All of which eventually comes down to pottering about the wooded coastal town of Pride Falls (never holiday in a spot called Pride Falls) trying to unravel the whole ghastly mystery while taking on swarms of murderous paranormal locals. Much of the success of Alan Wake will presumably revolve around the twists and turns of the story, then, and the strength of the world it conjures up - there's a fairly large cast of characters, by the looks of it, and regular intrusions of voiceover from Alan to drive events forward - but that's hard to get a real sense of so far, and for the time being, most of what we're shown revolves around combat.

And combat itself revolves around light. Spookily reanimated diggers and cars seem to be palette cleansers for Wake, with the bulk of his enemies coming in the form of "Takens", local unfortunates who have been transformed by a malevolent darkness into depraved, murdering zombies. Open up on them with Wake's spectacularly loud handgun and they stagger on regardless, as if you'd tried spraying them with Glade - light from his torch, however, makes them look like they've just swallowed a Catherine wheel, as ghostly flesh sizzles and sparks, weakening them up for a final bullet in the head which sends them scattering into the air in speckles of flashing gold.

The one-two punch of the combat is complex enough to keep you in a multi-tasking panic as waves of enemies get closer, but it appears to walk just the right side of being unnecessarily fiddly. On top of that, the old survival-horror classic of making room for yourself and controlling a crowd is livened up by a couple of extra weapons, one of which is a flare gun, which cuts a blood red swathe through your attackers, while the second comes in the form of carefully placed generators, jump-started with a mini-game, which allow Wake to spark dormant streetlamps into life, blowing nearby baddies to pieces, simultaneously allowing him to progress through the darkened woods, one pool of light at a time.

Elsewhere, some Hollywood staging is on hand to keep things moving, alternating sandbox woodland arenas with set-pieces which see Wake crossing a ravine on a rather shaky cable car while being dive-bombed by nasty black birds, or cowering in a house until a construction lorry barrels through a wall to spoil his fun.

'E3: Alan Wake' Screenshot 2

Despite settling on an episodic structure, Remedy hasn't yet revealed if players will be able to play the game out of sequence.

Besides ducking vehicles, you'll also have to drive them, and our demo ends with Wake escaping a pitched woodland battle, and hitting the road to uncover a batch of manuscript pages hidden at a nearby lighthouse. Behind the wheel, and with a break from the carefully staged combat, it's suddenly apparent just how special Remedy's game might be. There's something uniquely promising about tooling around a mysterious mountain town, with firs wreathed in mist, and nasty things lurking in the darkness. Foggy moonlight trailing through the trees brings back all the right memories of eighties Spielberg, while the narrow tracks with their flickering streetlamps and rocky tunnels seem perfect for exploring. It's a setting that's rather standard when it comes to slasher films, but for a videogame, it seems fresh and faintly sophisticated, and ensures that, despite some pretty traditional survival-horror encounters, it's very hard to confuse Alan Wake with anything else.

And, of course, with the end of the episode approaching, it's time for the developers to lay on one last surprise, and they don't disappoint. Arriving at the lighthouse, Wake emerges from his car just in time to see a gigantic tornado ripping through the woods towards him. Vivid and unexpected, it's a pretty good cliff-hanger, both for the level in question, and for the wider game: despite having seen a good deal of Remedy's mechanics in motion, there's apparently still quite a lot we don't yet know about the strange town of Pride Falls, and the dark treats it has in store.

Alan Wake is due out for Xbox 360 in spring 2010, and hopefully still on the cards for PC too!

Picture of Christian.

About Christian Donlan

Chris Donlan writes about games for Eurogamer and some magazines. His heroes include Eugene Jarvis, Errol Morris, and Linus Van Pelt.

Read more articles from Christian by visiting the Christian Donlan archive page.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Lexx87 #1 3 years ago

    Not sure if I like the new direction or would have liked the old one better..

  • bad09 #2 3 years ago

    I can't say the footage impressed me after the long wait, not sure what I was expecting TBH, but somehow, I expected more.

  • belziah #3 3 years ago

    When exactly did you put your hands on it?

  • symmetry #4 3 years ago

    This is going to be fantastic, I really can't wait.

  • Dizzy #5 3 years ago

    I always get the Steven King vibe from this.

  • freeoscar #6 3 years ago

    Bright Falls...


    Bright Falls...


    Not bloody Pride Falls!

  • mcwildcard #7 3 years ago

    I'm guessing the script guys are fans of John Carpenter's work, sounds strikingly similar to his film 'In the mouth of madness'.

  • menage #8 3 years ago

    Fuckin hell, spring is the new Christmas I believe.

  • Yossarian #9 3 years ago

    The 'new direction'? Just curious what you think the 'old' direction is.

    Of course the E3 demo doesn't show Alan tooling about in the daytime talking to people and so on. It's an E3 demo, so it's all shooting and running about. They already admitted that they upped the number of enemies you encounter in the section they showed at the conference to make it seem more action-y.

  • SaberEdge #10 3 years ago

    This game has moved up along side Mass Effect 2 and Uncharted 2 as my most anticipated game. The graphics were amazing and the atmosphere and gameplay were top notch. It's going to be really hard waiting for this one.

  • Reihn #11 3 years ago

    Blimey I'm excited by this. Pleasebegoodpleasebegood!

    I have to say though, I really hope they make the combat solid, tough and exciting . . and then use it sparingly. Great survival horror needs satisfying combat, but it needs to leave you in suspense more than becoming action focused. If fighting becomes the main activity of the game, it loses it's tension and suspense, and the game isn't a survival horror anymore - it's Resident Evil 5.. ; )

    God I hope Alan Wake channels the great, creepy elements of Twin Peaks, Silent Hill, the better Stephen King novels and the film(s) 'Insomnia'..

    I haven't been this excited by a survival horror since the original Project Zero!
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/09 @ 13:22

  • Reihn #12 3 years ago

    Also, thanks for the writeup, Christian! Good work! : )

  • Eraysor #13 3 years ago

    Sounds delicious.

    Also, don't go anywhere with "Falls" in the name. Cascade Falls was in World in Conflict, and that got nuked.

  • jambo74 #14 3 years ago

    Spring 2010, right, I see!

  • spekkeh #15 3 years ago

    Too bad it's back to action-packed fighting monsters. I wish a dev would dare to do something different.

  • Reihn #16 3 years ago

    And Cherry Falls - a lot of celibate schoolkids got sliced up there . . (best Geoffrey Wright film since Romper Stomper through)

  • Gradius #17 3 years ago

    "I can't say the footage impressed me after the long wait, not sure what I was expecting TBH, but somehow, I expected more. "

    This is pretty much how I feel, I mean the game still looks great so far but the problem is there are plenty of great looking 'next gen' games around now, this wasn't the case 30 years ago when we saw the first Alan Wake screenshots, hence they seemed a lot more impressive back then. Anyway, hopefully it'll still be a decent game, just nothing to get that excited about for me personally.

  • Atropos #18 3 years ago

    StePHen King, quoth the nerdy know-it-all.

    Also, Alan Wake will get my money just for being from Remedy. Max Payne had it's faults, but damn, that was some good gaming.

  • Reihn #19 3 years ago

    If they nail the atmosphere, story and delivery, then how Alan Wake looks when compared to how games x or y look won't matter one jot to me!

    Well, maybe a jot . . but it still won't matter very much.. Agreed that it's always great to have a game that looks beautiful. Video games being an inherently visual medium and all.

  • Gecks #20 3 years ago

    the fact that it's called 'alan wake' is alone enough to convince me that remedy are still stuck in the max payne mould of piling hackneyed attempts at a plot onto rather shallow action games. i wonder if the sidekick will be called 'alex position'?

    silent hill (err, 1 and 2) it ain't, but here's hoping it's as fun as the MPs.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/09 @ 10:56

  • TheComedian #21 3 years ago

    Not sure what the 'old' direction was, mate.

    It seems a bit to RE5 for my tastes though... I got my hopes up for this one to be some kind of Twin Peaks-esque experience. I'm still fairly optimistic about it though.

    Uncharted 2 is still looking like the most promising game coming out of this E3 (and this is from the mouth of a 360 owner).

  • Reihn #22 3 years ago

    "It seems a bit too RE5 for my tastes though... I got my hopes up for this one to be some kind of Twin Peaks-esque experience. I'm still fairly optimistic about it though. "

    Agreed - my thoughts exactly! I'm optimistic that it'll be more creepy and less combat-y than this hands on implies. And that may be true - game show demos generally involve as much action as possible, because it works better, and makes a bigger impact, in a show floor environment.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/09 @ 11:55

  • UncleLou #23 3 years ago

    the fact that it's called 'alan wake' is alone enough to convince me that remedy are still stuck in the max payne mould of piling hackneyed attempts at a plot onto rather shallow action games.

    The Max Payne games are deliberately hackneyed, walking a fine line between real tragedy and pretty hilarious noir parody. You might say that's the same to you whether it's deliberate or nor, but context is all, and you'd miss the point. It's why Starship Troopers is more than just a B-scifi flick.

    I also wouldn't call the games shallow. They're simple and pure, but I see no reason to shoehorn a negative connotation into that.

    As much as I love the Silent Hill games, I find them a lot more cringeworthy in their seriousness.

  • Gaol #24 3 years ago

    Is this coming out on PC?

  • thenastypasty #25 3 years ago

    Between this and mass effect 2 its going to be a great start to 2010.

  • NewbieZilla #26 3 years ago

    Yes, it is coming out on PC.

  • Gecks #27 3 years ago

    The Max Payne games are deliberately hackneyed, walking a fine line between real tragedy and pretty hilarious noir parody.

    i never saw that line! what sticks in my mind were the dream sequences where you walk along paths of blood, trying to find your dead wife, and it all being dreadfully Serious.

    starship troopers wore its irony on its green blood-splattered sleeve throughout. if there were any points in max payne when it was supposed to be affecting, or any points where it was supposed to be funny, then they were lost on me i'm afraid! not that it wasn't a perfectly enjoyable romp, but for them to make the leap to 'psychological thriller' seems a bit of a stretch to me.

  • AphoticCosmos #28 3 years ago

    Looks great.

    Now that we've seen some gameplay I'm even more hyped ^_^

  • Darren #29 3 years ago

    I'm quite excited about this game, mostly because it's a brand new game from an established developer with a good track record so all signs are that it could be great. It certainly looks nice and the concept is interesting. I'm hopeful.

  • DB2k #30 3 years ago

    Who the crabshack is steven king?

  • HoraceGoesSquiffy #31 3 years ago

    Was intrigued. Cue Zombies. Now not intrigued.

  • Widge #32 3 years ago

    why does everyone have this big aversion to the supernatural?

  • jimboton #33 3 years ago

    It'd be great if this ended up being like the original Silent Hill which had suspense, exploration and some clever puzzles, but that sort of gameplay is too taxing, slow paced and unspectacular for such a big budget title. I don't think they'll risk it, particularly after what happened with Alone in the Dark.

    So RE5 it is then..

  • RedSparrows #34 3 years ago

    do want

    be interesting to see the exploration side of things, if there is one (yes plx)

  • JasonB81 #35 3 years ago

    The graphics were amazing. I was really impressed with the lighting engine and physics. Can't wait to see more of this game.

  • Inquisitor #36 3 years ago

    The Max Payne games were blatant parodies of noir setting. The first was more serious, the second indulges in the comedy of the setting. In game TV shows like address unknown amicably poking fun at Twin Peaks, the enemy AI dancing, playing pianos, telling bad jokes. Laughably dark, over the top monologues from Payne, rarely played seriously, more for parody.

    I can see how one might think the first a serious game if you blunder through the plot blindly and without thinking, focusing on the shooting only. The second is littered with moments of humour, unmissable even if you were to skip all the cutscenes.

    /As for Alan Wake, it looks excellent though I'm worried by the sole focus of the demo on combat. I'm aware that perhaps exploration doesn't make for a wonderful conference demo but I'd have hoped Remedy would be more willing to show off the exploration and investigation of the game to journalists in a more intimate environment than on the big screen.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/09 @ 14:19

  • Gecks #37 3 years ago

    @Inquisitor

    thanks for being incredibly patronising :p i didn't 'blunder' through MP1, but i still struggle to believe anyone could find the serious nature of it in any way compelling, or pick up on any intentional ironic subtext. the endless dialogues and the dream sequences implied that they genuinely thought they were writing something of substance. perhaps MP2 was a subversive about-turn, but i didn't play it. personally i was pretty much done with slow-motion shooting of bad guys about 1/2 way through MP1!

    but anyway, parodying is one thing, but seriously good writing is another, and far too many games put 'psychological' in the press release when they really mean 'some of the rooms will have a lot of blood on the walls.' prove me wrong, remedy!

  • Bulbatron #38 3 years ago

    I've been looking forwards to this game since day 1, so it's great to see actual footage. I hope there will be lots of exploration though and I hope the combat doesn't turn out to be an irritating, repetitive chore.

    After the miserable failure that was Alone in the Dark, I am extremely anxious about this game, I really don't want to get that badly stung again.

  • schnide #39 3 years ago

    So they realised they couldn't do what they wanted, and made it into more of an action game? Well, fair enough. No harm in being ambitious, and even less so in accepting that you can't always reach those goals and then making the best of what you've got.

    Duke Nukem Forever.

  • The-Bodybuilder #40 3 years ago

    For those moaning about the combat, tell me, how would you expect remedy/MS to demo a nervy, tense game withing 5 minutes?
    walk around through the forest for a bit with a tourch, see some stuff far away, that's it.

    Then people will be moaning how it hasn't got any atmosphere.

  • Rodchenko #41 3 years ago

    why does everyone have this big aversion to the supernatural

    Don't know. Guess there is a difference between creating a supernatural atmosphere of tension and suspense and throwing hordes of supposedly supernatural enemies at you to shoot at. As long as we didn't see much of this game I was hoping that it would follow the first path. Now it seems like yet another shoot-20-zombies-to-reach-checkpoint thing.

    Interest down a bit. It still looks very pretty, though.

  • Reihn #42 3 years ago

    @ KingsXKing

    Why are you lurking in multiple Alan Wake threads just to say it doesn't interest you? I hope you get paid for this shit - pretty sad if you don't. ;P

  • Nithron #43 3 years ago

    Is he wearing a hoodie, under a shirt? Under a jacket?

  • mkreku #44 3 years ago

    Aww.. I was hoping for an action adventure! You know, an open world version of a small mountain town in the mid west USA, where you casually walk around talking to villagers and every once in a while get a "quest" where you have to fight a bit, driving the main story forward.

    This sounds a lot more like any Silent Hill/Resident Evil clone ever made. Let's hope the open world still remains at least. With vehicles!

  • ademkermad #45 3 years ago

    Bright Falls!!! Get it right Eurogamer

  • UncleLou #46 3 years ago

    Aww.. I was hoping for an action adventure! You know, an open world version of a small mountain town in the mid west USA, where you casually walk around talking to villagers and every once in a while get a "quest" where you have to fight a bit, driving the main story forward.

    Yeah. I wasn't expecting it, but I sure was hoping it s well.

  • frankfurter209 #47 3 years ago

    @UncleLou

    I don't think anyone's ever spoken my mind as precisely as you did with your evaluation of Max Payne (the deliberately cheesy noir balanced with genuine tragedy) and the awkward seriousness of Silent Hill.

  • frankfurter209 #48 3 years ago

    As for that other guy, I thought Max Payne 1 was way more cheesy half-serious game than MP2. The bit with Vinnie Gognitti and him saying stuff like, "YER DEAD PAYNE" and "What are you apes standin' around for? Kill'im!" was obviously over-the-top and ridiculous.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/09 @ 21:47

  • TheJuriel #49 3 years ago

    I'm very interested in this, and not just because it's being developed by finnish, but daaaamn, still a year before release?

  • john_silence #50 3 years ago

    It could be Pride Falls. The name keeps changing, it used to be Dark Falls, then Bright Falls, it could Pride Falls now.

    Also, cool write-up, my enthusiasm is understated, yet immense. Oh, and it's "palate cleanser", not palette I believe. Being French I should know, I mean eating smelly cheese and frogs and snails, boy do we need palate cleansers ;)

  • cobaltfram #51 3 years ago

    I'm really unimpressed too; it looks like Resident Evil 4 with a flashlight.