Review: “Alan Wake” takes horror games to new heights

While I was first pretty disappointed to find out that Remedy’s “Alan Wake” is more an action/thriller than a survival horror game, it wasn’t long before I forgot all about that minor gripe. Alan Wake combines all the elements of a survival horror game with an intense action experience and a deep story that will keep you engrossed until its final moments.

Alan Wake is the story of a fiction writer of the same name. Wake, a successful writer with a few years worth of writer’s block, decides to take a vacation with his wife Alice. They settle on the idyllic Pacific northwestern town of Bright Falls where Wake hopes to find peace and quiet and Alice hopes her husband will begin writing again. The couple aren’t in town long before strange things begin happening to Wake – his wife disappears and he begins finding pages of a manuscript written by him that he has no memory of.

The levels of Alan Wake are divided up into chapters and each chapter usually includes Wake investing and talking to residents of the town during the daylight hours and fighting dark entities known as Taken. These Taken draw power from the darkness and can only be hurt after giving them a healthy dose of light. Using light to hurt your enemies is an interesting aspect of the combat in Alan Wake. For instance, Wake will usually have a flashlight to fend off enemies but he can also use items like flares to harm the Taken and create breathing room when outnumbered. Taken aren’t the only things Wake needs to be wary of, as the darkness that is consuming Bright Falls can possess objects to attack Wake.

Wake travels to all parts of the town, meeting many of the odd residents of Bright Falls. These characters often serve as comic relief but will often end up assisting Wake on his journey to save his wife and discover the mysteries of Bright Falls. Sheriff Sarah Breaker has lived in Bright Falls all of her life and has an understanding of the weird happenings in the town. She and Wake’s best friend and manager, Barry, will often assist Wake, whether it is during the fairly boring story-driven day time segments or the action-fueled night sequences.

Though the day time sequences are pretty dull, they do set up the tense night time segments very well. If the combat weren’t so exciting and fluid, you might not be able to overlook the lulls in the action. Fortunately, using light to soften up enemies to be vanquished by conventional firearms is a really fun mechanic and the action runs very smoothly even when overwhelmed by multiple Taken. Though the only weapons you’ll find are a revolver, shotgun and rifle, the different light based weapons help round out your arsenal. Flares, flashbangs, spotlights and flare guns are all extremely useful when fighting multiple Taken (and you’ll often be outnumbered) and the visual effects that accompany these firefights are spectacular.

Recently, the first DLC pack, dubbed “The Signal,” was released on Xbox Live. It should be noted that if you bought the game new, you received a code to download The Signal for free. If you redeemed it too early, the code was voided but you should have gotten a new code in the email address attached to your Gamertag.

The Signal picks up the story right after the finale of Episode 6. It’s hard to give details about the plot, since it deals directly with the ending of the main plot, but The Signal is decidedly much creepier and based less in reality than the game proper. Fans of the combat will be happy to find that The Signal is much more action-oriented than most of the episodes but because of this, the story suffers slightly. The plot is barely advanced at all as Wake spends a majority of The Signal trying to reach a character that will provide him with more information. Just as it seems that this character is in reach, the episode ends.

Alan Wake isn’t the typical third-person action game nor does it necessarily fall under the survival horror category – it blends elements from these genres into a thrilling action/adventure game that keeps you in the dark until the games’ final moments. Using DLC packs to extend Wake’s abnormal times in Bright Falls, Remedy can keep fans of Alan Wake busy for a long time to come.