To
Mark Nielsen
published 5 hours ago / 376 views
Alan Wake read a page describing how he read a page describing the strengths and weaknesses of a game called Alan Wake. The title was “Late Look”; the page described it as a series of articles in which a certain talented writer took a belated look at video games of the past and assessed them in retrospect, with his heightened intellect and acquired taste. “What a hard worker,” Alan thought.
Hmm… That was strange. But the game we're talking about this time is really Alan Wake 2010 – the original version of the cult semi-horror film from Remedy Entertainment. Just in time for four weeks after Halloween (my first draft said “one”).
Strength: Unique themed gameplay.
Light versus darkness. That's it Alan Wake that's all, and the developers managed to incorporate it into not only the story but also the gameplay in a very creative way. Instead of being a conventional shooter, they've added light as an element to fighting enemies (in fact, it's even necessary to make them vulnerable), most notably in the form of your trusty flashlight – with mechanically interesting but questionable inner workings. I'm not sure what type of flashlight can be recharged (draining battery in seconds), but it fits very well into the game, allowing you to either slowly drain an enemy's darkness or use up battery to quickly destroy them. It was already a pretty clever mechanic, but they decided to add light to your arsenal even more with tools like hand flares, a rocket launcher, and absolutely enemy-destroying flash grenades. So, even if the gameplay is still similar at its core, it's how these small differences combine and intertwine with the larger theme that makes it stand out from other survival horror games.
Weakness: 4000 enemies, 4 types of enemies.
While I've praised the combat for its unique design, you need more than just a good system to make combat fun in a game that has a lot of it: you also need well-designed enemies, or at least some variety in them, and that's where Alan Wake a little lacking. I could literally count the enemy types on one hand: Shadow Guy, Big Shadow Guy, Shadow Guy Who Phase-Shifts, and of course, the Levitating Barrel – and that still leaves me with a spare finger! This wouldn't be a big problem if Alan Wake there was less fighting and more emphasis on the story, but it reminds me a lot of the first part unknown The title is about that: it's filled to the brim with combat, although that's actually its weakest element. It's a little less pronounced here, and thanks to the pages, there are tidbits of story even in the longer sections of the gameplay, but there's still too much combat considering how little depth there is to it.
Strength: Collecting
I didn't expect to praise collectibles in a (semi-)horror game, and yet here we are because, frankly, they're one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. Alan Wake gameplay Trying to scour each area for intriguing pages or multiple thermoses of coffee (Alan wondered if the caffeine overdose was the real reason for these hallucinations… Dr. Hartman advised him to switch to decaf) adds a lot to what would otherwise be a very simple game of “go ahead and kill the enemies.” The only downside is that some pages are locked to the hardest difficulty level, which A) you can't select for your first playthrough and B) you're still taunted by them showing up in the page list as uncollected. Not a very good combination. This little problem aside, Alan Wake does a great job of exploring and trying to collect everything that seems worthwhile.
Weakness: Barrel attack.
This is something of a continuation of the previous weakness, but it's really because, aside from some minor pacing issues here and there, enemies remain the only Achilles' heel. Alan Wake. We've already talked about how few enemy types there are, but among those few is one that we writers like to call a “nuisance.” Bringing inanimate objects to life and attacking them is an interesting gimmick on the surface, but I think it was a mistake for the game to turn them into a repetitive and overused enemy because there are even fewer of them than other enemies. You can really only shine light on them and try to dodge their continuous attacks at regular intervals, which can be quite difficult depending on the size of the object and the space you're in, and there's not much fun in the toughest part of the game – the crates and barrels that just want to hug you.
Strength: Pages and pages of writing
It would be a bad sign if the inscription there wasn't one of the strongest elements of a game that's literally about a writer, but thankfully that's not the case in this case. Alan Wake. In fact, this is a two-tiered power, both in the writing of the story itself and in the pages of Alan's writings that you find in the game. While it's hard to go into detail without spoiling things, it's no exaggeration to say that it pushes the boundaries of storytelling, placing a fictional story within a fictional story and making you question whether Alan is even a reliable narrator or is simply hallucinating. And then there's the way the pages play this role, foreshadowing future events or giving you insight into elements of the story that Alan might not otherwise know…except that he wrote it. And that's not even mentioning how well the game balances humor, horror, and mystery – not as well as Twin Peaks series that it clearly takes inspiration from, but is still damn good. It's best experienced first-hand, and it's certainly one of the most unique stories in video games.
Conclusion
Overall, it's not hard to see why Alan Wake got some cult next (again this famous omen). It's a game that combines themes and gameplay while pushing the boundaries of storytelling, putting stories within stories and allowing you to read those stories before you get to that part… the story. Sure, it has its flaws – the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the rest of its ambitions – but overall it's a great game that stands out from its peers and is undeniably… perfect for the books.
Personal verdict: 4 blocked authors out of 5
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