In 2010, Remedy Entertainment, known for their film noir epic Max Payne, tried something new. Instead of a John Woo inspired drug-addict/mafioso killing spree, Remedy released Alan Wake, a psychological thriller about the eternal battle of light vs darkness.
<img height=300>http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n511/Sinodaq/alanwaketitle.jpg
For a game with such a cheesey name, I expected the majority of scares to be cheap, with things popping out of nowhere all the time. I also expected (and hoped for) a campy, Sam Raimi'ish plot. However, Remedy managed to suprise me with the game's depth. While the game itself isn't too scary, it's plot is thought provoking and disturbing. After realizing it's Stephen King inspirations, I began to enjoy the game much more.
The main character, Alan is a writer who uses ?paranormal themes as a metaphor for human psychology and inner struggles.? One could argue that mostly everything in the game is a metaphor for Alan's state of mind getting worse as the story progresses. The plot is an interesting twist on the battle of light and dark, inner conflict of guilt and self-redemption, and the war between sanity and madness.
The goal of the game is to rescue Alan's wife, Alice, from 'The Dark Presence', an entity of pure evil that antagonizes Wake through all six chapters of the story. Alan battles The Dark Presence, and it's human incarnations, with the power of light. There are three different types of physical manifestations of the darkness. There are Taken, who are the most common enemies the player must face. Taken always wield axes, shovels, and the occasional chainsaw. Then are the poltergeist objects, basically flying refrigerators, or anything else nearby, which are thrown at Alan. And, of course, there are my favorite, the ?Hitchcock birds? as one character calls them.
All three enemy types can be defeated by light, whether it's from a flashlight, flare, or even flashbang grenade. Hitchcock birds and poltergeist objects explode into ash and disappear when hit with enough light. Taken are defeated by weakening their darkness shields, and shooting at them.
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n511/Sinodaq/alanwakeflashlight.jpg
At the beginning of the game, combat was fun. It would take 2-3 shots with a handgun to put a Taken down and half the flashlight's batteries. This made the player try to figure out if he should run, slowing down his attackers by shining flashlight into their eyes and running again. Or the player could battle it out, but there was no real reward for killing them. As the game progresses, it becomes impossible to get kills without the more powerful weapons.
The only time in the first few chapters it was required to battle was when Wake had to defend a point against waves of the shadowy army. The first two or three times were fun, especially when first given flares. Fortunately, Alan is able to dodge attacks, as they most frequently are melee. One piece of the game I wish hadn't been used as much was the driving. It felt more of a way to add different gameplay, but I didn't see it as fitting in with the tone of the game.
Even on Hard mode, I had difficulty feeling like Wake was in the nightmare'ish Hell that he kept acting like he was in. For a while Wake did not even question the darkness' existence, as if he was used to it, or even expecting it. The feel was more like he was the only one who knew the truth, and the only one capable of saving the town from the Dark Presence. There's one scene in the game, where Alan knowingly chooses to run into the dark forest filled with a zillion Taken, just because he doesn't want to answer questions to the FBI. Sounds a lot like a paranoid delusion to me, what with the whole 'messiah' thing he has going on.
Psychological metaphors aside, the game does have decent writing. All of the characters Wake runs into have distinct personalities and voice acting. There are a few really annoying characters (Alan's editor and an FBI guy, if you're interested) just because of their over-the-top stereotypical behavior. There are at least two I loved, and made it worth playing through just to experience more of their awesomeness.
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n511/Sinodaq/alanwakecharacter.jpg
An interesting way the developers told the story and developed the characters, was that during the daytime, the player was able to walk around and explore an area without worrying about monsters popping out of nowhere. This made for excellent downtime and allowed the characters to relax.
Unfortunately, it was hard to get too attached to characters as most of them would be killed off eventually, in typical horror film style. Alan always knew this would happen, because of a mysterious 'manuscript' that leaves pages of itself through the story. Each page tells a piece of the story from further into the game, giving the player hints on what will happen, accompanied by a foreboding feeling when the events of the page begin to happen.
The feeling of knowing what will happen ahead of time, and still being creeped out is difficult to achieve, and I'm proud of Remedy for trying. A lot of the things in the game tried really hard, and I'm glad they did. I just wish that there was more focus on the survival horror than the action horror. If you want to play a game with mediocre gameplay, but an excellently told story, go check this out. If you're just trying to get a good scare, stick to Amnesia for now.
Thanks for reading.
note: Thanks to Marter for advice on reviewing, and for format help.
<img height=300>http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n511/Sinodaq/alanwaketitle.jpg
For a game with such a cheesey name, I expected the majority of scares to be cheap, with things popping out of nowhere all the time. I also expected (and hoped for) a campy, Sam Raimi'ish plot. However, Remedy managed to suprise me with the game's depth. While the game itself isn't too scary, it's plot is thought provoking and disturbing. After realizing it's Stephen King inspirations, I began to enjoy the game much more.
The main character, Alan is a writer who uses ?paranormal themes as a metaphor for human psychology and inner struggles.? One could argue that mostly everything in the game is a metaphor for Alan's state of mind getting worse as the story progresses. The plot is an interesting twist on the battle of light and dark, inner conflict of guilt and self-redemption, and the war between sanity and madness.
The goal of the game is to rescue Alan's wife, Alice, from 'The Dark Presence', an entity of pure evil that antagonizes Wake through all six chapters of the story. Alan battles The Dark Presence, and it's human incarnations, with the power of light. There are three different types of physical manifestations of the darkness. There are Taken, who are the most common enemies the player must face. Taken always wield axes, shovels, and the occasional chainsaw. Then are the poltergeist objects, basically flying refrigerators, or anything else nearby, which are thrown at Alan. And, of course, there are my favorite, the ?Hitchcock birds? as one character calls them.
All three enemy types can be defeated by light, whether it's from a flashlight, flare, or even flashbang grenade. Hitchcock birds and poltergeist objects explode into ash and disappear when hit with enough light. Taken are defeated by weakening their darkness shields, and shooting at them.
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n511/Sinodaq/alanwakeflashlight.jpg
At the beginning of the game, combat was fun. It would take 2-3 shots with a handgun to put a Taken down and half the flashlight's batteries. This made the player try to figure out if he should run, slowing down his attackers by shining flashlight into their eyes and running again. Or the player could battle it out, but there was no real reward for killing them. As the game progresses, it becomes impossible to get kills without the more powerful weapons.
The only time in the first few chapters it was required to battle was when Wake had to defend a point against waves of the shadowy army. The first two or three times were fun, especially when first given flares. Fortunately, Alan is able to dodge attacks, as they most frequently are melee. One piece of the game I wish hadn't been used as much was the driving. It felt more of a way to add different gameplay, but I didn't see it as fitting in with the tone of the game.
Even on Hard mode, I had difficulty feeling like Wake was in the nightmare'ish Hell that he kept acting like he was in. For a while Wake did not even question the darkness' existence, as if he was used to it, or even expecting it. The feel was more like he was the only one who knew the truth, and the only one capable of saving the town from the Dark Presence. There's one scene in the game, where Alan knowingly chooses to run into the dark forest filled with a zillion Taken, just because he doesn't want to answer questions to the FBI. Sounds a lot like a paranoid delusion to me, what with the whole 'messiah' thing he has going on.
Psychological metaphors aside, the game does have decent writing. All of the characters Wake runs into have distinct personalities and voice acting. There are a few really annoying characters (Alan's editor and an FBI guy, if you're interested) just because of their over-the-top stereotypical behavior. There are at least two I loved, and made it worth playing through just to experience more of their awesomeness.
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n511/Sinodaq/alanwakecharacter.jpg
An interesting way the developers told the story and developed the characters, was that during the daytime, the player was able to walk around and explore an area without worrying about monsters popping out of nowhere. This made for excellent downtime and allowed the characters to relax.
Unfortunately, it was hard to get too attached to characters as most of them would be killed off eventually, in typical horror film style. Alan always knew this would happen, because of a mysterious 'manuscript' that leaves pages of itself through the story. Each page tells a piece of the story from further into the game, giving the player hints on what will happen, accompanied by a foreboding feeling when the events of the page begin to happen.
The feeling of knowing what will happen ahead of time, and still being creeped out is difficult to achieve, and I'm proud of Remedy for trying. A lot of the things in the game tried really hard, and I'm glad they did. I just wish that there was more focus on the survival horror than the action horror. If you want to play a game with mediocre gameplay, but an excellently told story, go check this out. If you're just trying to get a good scare, stick to Amnesia for now.
Thanks for reading.
note: Thanks to Marter for advice on reviewing, and for format help.