I’ve been writing game reviews for quite a while now, and despite the sheer number of titles I’ve covered they aren’t the only thing I like to write about. Occasionally I like to write original tales and stories, and currently I’m taking a creative writing class which has gotten my thinking gears going. Been writing a lot of dark toned tales and uplifting poetry, and honestly it feels nice as it's not only a change of pace from what I usually do but it tests my ability to create. I enjoy writing more than a lot of people, and part of the reason why I love doing it so much is that I get to envision something that normally wouldn’t be conceivable in the real world. Yes, I know realistic fiction is a genre, but not often you see very explicitly described stories occur in real life. That’s why you have fiction and writing to help capture those events within scriptures and pages. Throw in a couple morals, mature themes, and well executed story beats and you get a memorable tale readers will love for years to come. Not just literature, but films and games as well. There are a lot of reasons why writers deserve more respect than you think, because without them you would not have the interesting worlds, characters, and depth a lot of creative works have. Zelda would probably just be a generic fantasy game if there weren’t writers adding depth to the world, or the Fallout series would just be a desolate empty sandbox rather than an exploration of what humans will do to survive and be a thorough critique on political beliefs. I know there’s that old quote by John Romero stating that a story in a game is like a story in a porn movie and it doesn't matter blah blah blah, but trust me story and writing is important. In fact, a lot of games since he said that proved Romero wrong including future shooters.
Anyways, with that ramble out of the way let’s talk about today’s subject Alan Wake. An action horror game developed by Remedy Entertainment where you follow a disheveled writer whose work becomes reality, and he must fight against dark forces. Remedy Entertainment are the ones responsible for creating the Max Payne series, specifically the first two games, and they are both considered two of the best and most unique third person shooters to come out in the early 2000s. At some point they lost the rights to Max Payne, and they went on to start new projects. The first one being Alan Wake which they announced all the way back in 2005. Their original plan was to create a semi-open world experience with survival horror elements. However, the goal they set was a little too ambitious and halfway through development the team grinded to a halt. They had to scale back the scope of Alan Wake and what we got instead was a more linear experience. That did not mean they downgraded, because Remedy was still pumping a butt load of care into Alan Wake. After a long development process and five years of hiatus, Remedy released the full game in 2010 and surprisingly it did well. It came out the same time Red Dead Redemption released which led to low slow sales numbers, but for their first new IP since Max Payne it was a pure success. Alan Wake was praised for its uniquely designed combat, storytelling, and where said story ended up going. It was a nice twist on action horror and a lot of people considered it one of the best games of 2010. Just one of the best games Remedy has ever made.
After the success of Alan Wake, its expansions, and a standalone spinoff, Remedy was ready to make a follow up to their modern horror classic. They began rough drafting for Alan Wake 2, but unfortunately the idea didn’t go through. That idea did become the concept for Quantum Break though which did alright. Then they made Control in 2019 and people were beginning to wonder if Remedy just forgot Alan Wake existed. It’s been almost a decade, and that planned sequel was not coming out any sooner. Then some interesting things happened. The last major expansion to Control, the AWE expansion, found a way to connect the universes of two of Remedy’s series. Those of course being Control and out of nowhere Alan Wake. I mean it’s titled AWE, so the AW stands for Alan Wake. Then the studio partnered up with Epic Games to release a remastered version of Alan Wake in 2021. Finally, during The Game Awards of 2021 trailer was shown for what would be Remedy’s next big project. A man talks about how a person's writing and stories can create monsters, and we see the face of a grizzled man trapped in a dark place. This was the reveal of Alan Wake 2 and as of the time of writing this review it’s set to be released within four days. Approximately October 27th, 2023.
I tried to get into Alan Wake back when the remastered version came out in 2021. Control is the only other Remedy game I ever played, and from what I can recall I remember liking it quite a bit. The story was weird yet forgettable and there were a lot of performance issues, but overall I had a good time with it. The frenetic combat was solid, there was a nice selection of powers to experiment with, the Oldest House was an intriguing setting for a game, and I really enjoyed how the game explored the mundane. It was like SCP, but the ideas are more confined and made a bit more appealing to general audiences. Control got me interested in Remedy’s other work and the game I planned to play next from them was Alan Wake. The remaster was coming out, was pretty cheap, and I managed to snag it during a Black Friday sale. It seemed exactly like the type of game I would enjoy, but after episode two which was roughly two hours in, I stopped. Deleted the game off my PlayStation 4 and moved onto other things. The game just didn’t click for me, which was unfortunate, but I decided to give it another go since Alan Wake 2 is coming out. Normally I don’t revisit games that don’t click for me, but I’m glad I did for this one. Managed to beat the main game and can confirm that almost 13 years later Alan Wake still holds up, mostly. I think this game is great and it’s one of the most unique action horror games I have played. It has gotten me intrigued in the sequel, but I wouldn’t call it perfect. There are a fair amount of problems and stuff that didn’t age well. I did really enjoy this game though and want to talk about why it’s so special. Today we'll be discussing Alan Wake and why it probably deserves your attention. Come take a trip into the deep dark corners of the world.
Story
We follow Alan Wake as he prepares to have a lovely vacation with his wife Alice in the far-off forest town of Bright Falls, Washington. Alan is a famous writer known for creating the highly acclaimed Alex Casey series. Two years prior to the game’s main events he finished the series off with the fifth and final book. A controversial step forward for the author, but people were excited to see what Alan had in store next. A departure from what he made before, which is coincidental I said that because Alan’s next book would be titled Departure. Unfortunately, dear Alan here has been suffering from writer’s block and can’t figure out what he wants to write about next. He felt disappointed in his work, the end of the Alex Casey series, and lost the motivation to write more. So what better way than going to an Everytown. Alan was expecting his vacation to be peaceful, but remember he’s a famous writer and everyone in the town immediately recognizes who he is. Word gets out quickly of his stay as one of the individuals he chatted with on the ferry turned out to be the runner of Bright Fall’s hit radio station, and a waitress who helps Alan turns out to be one of his biggest fans. Not a good start to a getaway vacation. Alan is a diner to get the keys to his cabin, but the man who was supposed to give them to him isn’t there. Who is there to guide Alan is a woman dressed in funeral clothing, and she gives Alan the keys to a cabin located at the desolate Cauldron Lake. Alan is already upset and confused enough, but things get worse when Alan receives a prize gift from Alice at the cabin which turns out to be a typewriter. She thought she could get him back into writing, but this only upsets Alan even more as storms outside to get some fresh air. Alan attempts to appreciate their view of the lake, but something strange happens.
The lights to the cabin mysteriously turn off and Alice starts to get attacked. Alice has a terrible fear of the dark and Alan rushes in to make sure she is safe. Her wife has been taken and when he follows her sounds she finds that she has been dragged into the lake. He jumps in pursuit of saving her. Alan then wakes in what appears to be a car crash in the woods. He has no memory of how he got there, but he knows he has to make his way back to town. Along the way he meets a couple strangers, but these aren’t your average people. They are coated in a dark energy and seem to be based on the people Alan met in town. They begin to pursue Alan, wanting him dead, and Alan quickly learns that they can only be harmed when light is shown on them. Alan decides to arm him with a flashlight and revolver, and fight back against the dark presence. Something strange is going on and nobody in town seems to understand what is going on. Alan keeps having visions of what seems to be himself writing, and picks up loose pages to what seems to be a full draft of Departure written by him himself. It’s gonna be a long week, but all Alan has in his mind is finding out where his wife is and escaping the town before it decides to take him with it.
Gameplay
? I wouldn’t call Alan Wake survival horror, but I definitely wouldn’t call it an action shooter either. It’s not close to something like Resident Evil 4. So, the story is off to an interesting start, but how is the gameplay of Alan Wake? I wouldn’t call Alan Wake survival horror, but I definitely wouldn’t call it an action shooter either. It’s not close to something like Resident Evil 4 and is rather a mix up of several ideas. There are six episodes in total, otherwise chapters, and each one has you navigating a series of levels while surviving the enemies thrown in your way. Combat is unique in that every enemy cannot be damaged till you shine some light onto them. Light is your ultimate tool and you have your trusty flashlight to help shine light onto foes. Point your flashlight onto a foe and slowly the dark energy that blocks any damage begins to fade away, but if you concentrate your flashlight onto them that energy will fade faster. However, concentrating your flashlight will deplete its energy quickly and when that energy is drained you won’t be able to use it. You can either wait for the energy to recharge, but that’s not what you want to do during a stressful encounter. Instead use one of the batteries you loot while venturing through levels which quickly recharge the energy of your flashlight. You can run out of batteries though, so be careful when using them. Once you fully expose an enemy with light it’s time to down them. There’s a nice selection of firearms to use and they all pack a punch. Revolver is easy to use and can do decent enough damage from both a close and long range. The rifle is powerful from a long range and shotgun is good up close Alan Wake? I wouldn’t call Alan Wake survival horror, but I definitely wouldn’t call it an action shooter either. It’s not close to something like Resident Evil 4. So, the story is off to an interesting start, but how is the gameplay of Alan Wake? I wouldn’t call Alan Wake survival horror, but I definitely wouldn’t call it an action shooter either. It’s not close to something like Resident Evil 4 and is rather a mix up of several ideas. There are six episodes in total, otherwise chapters, and each one has you navigating a series of levels while surviving the enemies thrown in your way. Combat is unique in that every enemy cannot be damaged till you shine some light onto them. Light is your ultimate tool and you have your trusty flashlight to help shine light onto foes. Point your flashlight onto a foe and slowly the dark energy that blocks any damage begins to fade away, but if you concentrate your flashlight onto them that energy will fade faster. However, concentrating your flashlight will deplete its energy quickly and when that energy is drained you won’t be able to use it. You can either wait for the energy to recharge, but that’s not what you want to do during a stressful encounter. Instead use one of the batteries you loot while venturing through levels which quickly recharge the energy of your flashlight. You can run out of batteries though, so be careful when using them. Once you fully expose an enemy with light it’s time to down them. There’s a nice selection of firearms to use and they all pack a punch. Revolver is easy to use and can do decent enough damage from both a close and long range. The rifle is powerful from a long range and shotgun is good up close., and is rather a mix up of several ideas. There are six episodes in total, otherwise chapters, and each one has you navigating a series of levels while surviving the enemies thrown in your way. Combat is unique in that every enemy cannot be damaged till you shine some light onto them. Light is your ultimate tool and you have your trusty flashlight to help shine light onto foes. Point your flashlight onto a foe and slowly the dark energy that blocks any damage begins to fade away, but if you concentrate your flashlight onto them that energy will fade faster. However, concentrating your flashlight will deplete its energy quickly and when that energy is drained you won’t be able to use it. You can either wait for the energy to recharge, but that’s not what you want to do during a stressful encounter. Instead use one of the batteries you loot while venturing through levels which quickly recharge the energy of your flashlight. You can run out of batteries though, so be careful when using them. Once you fully expose an enemy with light it’s time to down them. There’s a nice selection of firearms to use and they all pack a punch. Revolver is easy to use and can do decent enough damage from both a close and long range. The rifle is powerful from a long range and shotgun is good up close. , and is rather a mix up of several ideas. There are six episodes in total, otherwise chapters, and each one has you navigating a series of levels while surviving the enemies thrown in your way. Combat is unique in that every enemy cannot be damaged till you shine some light onto them. Light is your ultimate tool and you have your trusty flashlight to help shine light onto foes. Point your flashlight onto a foe and slowly the dark energy that blocks any damage begins to fade away, but if you concentrate your flashlight onto them that energy will fade faster. However, concentrating your flashlight will deplete its energy quickly and when that energy is drained you won’t be able to use it. You can either wait for the energy to recharge, but that’s not what you want to do during a stressful encounter. Instead use one of the batteries you loot while venturing through levels which quickly recharge the energy of your flashlight. You can run out of batteries though, so be careful when using them. Once you fully expose an enemy with light it’s time to down them. There’s a nice selection of firearms to use and they all pack a punch. Revolver is easy to use and can do decent enough damage from both a close and long range. The rifle is powerful from a long range and shotgun is good up close. Alan Wake? I wouldn’t call Alan Wake survival horror, but I definitely wouldn’t call it an action shooter either. It’s not close to something like Resident Evil 4. , and is rather a mix up of several ideas. There are six episodes in total, otherwise chapters, and each one has you navigating a series of levels while surviving the enemies thrown in your way. Combat is unique in that every enemy cannot be damaged till you shine some light onto them. Light is your ultimate tool and you have your trusty flashlight to help shine light onto foes. Point your flashlight onto a foe and slowly the dark energy that blocks any damage begins to fade away, but if you concentrate your flashlight onto them that energy will fade faster. However, concentrating your flashlight will deplete its energy quickly and when that energy is drained you won’t be able to use it. You can either wait for the energy to recharge, but that’s not what you want to do during a stressful encounter. Instead use one of the batteries you loot while venturing through levels which quickly recharge the energy of your flashlight. You can run out of batteries though, so be careful when using them. Once you fully expose an enemy with light it’s time to down them. There’s a nice selection of firearms to use and they all pack a punch. Revolver is easy to use and can do decent enough damage from both a close and long range. The rifle is powerful from a long range and shotgun is good up close.
There are a couple of unique weapons in Alan Wake, those being the flare gun and the throwable items you have. The flare gun is the strongest firearm in the game and is best used when you are surrounded or as a last resort. Remember your enemies are weak to light, and the flare gun can burn through them and explode which wipes out a whole group of foes. Finding rounds for this weapon is hard unless you find one of the hidden caches in levels, so be on a lookout for them. The two throwables you have are flares and flashbangs. Flares can be held high to ward dark foes off from you, and if you get close to them with a flare you can slowly start exposing them. However, the flares will burn out and if you are too close to a foe you may risk putting yourself at harm. Then there is the flashbang and dear lord are these things powerful. It has the power of the flare gun but is easy to use and can just be thrown onto the ground. Easily whipping out foes, but again these things are pretty rare so use them sparingly or during a stressful moment. You have health, but unlike most horror games it’s not replenished using health kits. Instead, it will regenerate overtime, but you can make it regenerate faster by standing in light. I should also mention dark coated enemies don’t always come in the form of human beings. Sometimes the objects in the environment become sentient and start chucking themselves at you. They can’t be damaged with guns, so use your flashlight. Sometimes it’s a literal vehicle that comes to life and you have to engage in a little boss fight. Outside of how the combat works this is actually a really simple game. The combat is unique, but this is your standard linear narrative driven shooter. Get to Point A to Point B and try not to die. Simple, but still a damn good time. Hopefully you can find out where Alice is, rescue her, and rid the town from the darkness that wishes to destroy it. Purge the source using the light within.
Thoughts
I had a really good time with Alan Wake and despite some of the problems I had with it I can say it is worth your time and I do recommend it. The core combat and gimmicks that surround it are really neat, but I will say not everyone is going to like it. In most shooters you would hold down the left trigger to aim and steady your weapon. In the case of survival horror games this is really important as ammo is sparse and making every shot count matters. In Alan Wake you have to go unlearn a bunch of these things as a lot of survival horror staples don’t apply in this game. If you hold down the left trigger you just focus your flashlight, but you can still aim easily without the need of steadying. Your gun. This game has a forgiving lock on system it never tells you about, and I think it’s since there are a lot of stressful combat encounters where slowing down just a bit is basically suicide. Alan is not as tanky to control as other survival horror protagonists and can easily move around. You can even dodge enemy attacks with ease which you also wouldn’t normally be able to do in other survival horror games. Ammo isn’t as sparse as other games and there’s a lot of resource caches lying in the open. That’s why I this game isn’t survival horror, but that doesn’t mean you are punished.
You have a low ammo capacity, and much like old school shooters Alan Wake removes all your guns at the start of every chapter or specific story moments. I personally don’t mind this as I’ve played shooters that have done this too, and this creates a sense of feeling powerless as you start every chapter weak and slowly accumulate a powerful arsenal with time. Every gun feels fun to use and despite a couple of moments where the game bombarded me with flare gun rounds and flashbangs I never felt too powerful. It’s a fairly balanced game and every time I died I felt like it was my fault rather than the game. Although I will say the dodge mechanic feels finicky and the game throws too many ambushes at you. You have to be perfect with dodging at times, because if some enemies hit you with their first attack they are always guaranteed to hit you with the second even if you press the dodge. Ambushes are surprising the first few times, but after the fifth time they start to get over played. Like the devs ran out of creative juice and just spammed these through levels. The game has okay movement. Alan tends to turn around weirdly, you can only run for seconds before Alan gets shortness of breath which is frustrating during moments where you to outrun something, and the game has terrible collision and navigation. Alan won’t always make jumps you need him to or climb objects in the environment with ease. Same can apply with the enemies as they too have trouble utilizing or moving around the environment.
Speaking of levels I said I really liked them despite their design being bad. You have these stages and moments where you navigate open spaces. Dotted around these places are empty shacks or places you’d expect to find supplies to help you. Some of these places do and some of them do not. In fact, there’s a lot of buildings you’d expect to be able to enter and you can’t. I can forgive them for this, because this is an Xbox 360 title that came out in 2010. However, I didn’t like how there is no reward for exploring your surroundings or checking every nook and cranny. There are secrets though like these coffee thermoses, but they don’t really do anything for you. They are just a collectible you pick up and you gain nothing from them. It would be nice if they made it so that every time you find more your maximum health or stamina increases, especially since again you can only run for four seconds. Maybe even allow the player to refill health during combat or gain an energy boost. In Alan Wake 2 though I heard they are changing it so that coffee thermos are now used to refill health, which is good. There are these driving sequences and honestly I thought the game could go without them. I was fine with the slow pacing and trudging through forests, but the driving feels like it belongs in another game. Performance also isn’t great. It’s not terrible and I’d say I ran into less bugs and framerate drops than Control, but the game still tends to tank when too much is going on and I had a moment where the game crashed due to the lighting engine of the remaster spazzing out. I recommend playing it on PS5/Series X.
Despite my problems with exploration and empty fields I do still like the level design. I enjoy the setting of this game and it knows when to set the mood for certain moments. You go to a lot of places and there’s some really nice set pieces. I like the first encounter with the moving bulldozer as you have to juggle between shining light on it while also fighting the enemies homing in on you. Navigating dark tunnels and buildings was thrilling as I never knew what would lie around the next turn. One of my favorite moments which I bet is for a lot of people is when you get onto a stage and it starts blasting music from the Old Gods of Asgard. The game arms you with a ton of weaponry and you just mow down wave upon wave of foes. Said moment also got replicated in Control and its coolest area The Ashtray Maze, so you have Alan Wake to thank for it. The game didn't go on for too long and took me around seven to eight hours to beat. For some it may take around ten to eleven due to skill and difficulty, but you are still getting a fair amount of game here. Plus if you got the remastered version like me you also get two extra chapters and the American Nightmare DLC which is just more game to mess around with. It's a game that knows how to pull it's punches and when to stop so that it doesn't go on too long and become stale by the end.
The biggest thing I want to address though is the story. It’s considered a highlight for this game due to its presentation and plot twists. Yeah, it certainly is in those areas. Alan Wake is what I call a lovable asshole. A youtuber I follow Gingy summarized it best by saying he’s mean to everyone around him, but he cares deeply about those close to him. He takes things seriously when they go horribly wrong, and you kind of understand why he is the way he is. The plot, the mystery, and how it unfolds is intriguing and discovering how Alan ended up in the car crash and why there is a dark evil roaming around Bright Falls was thrilling. I think the ending was cool and it got me interested in the sequel now. What I don’t like are the characters Alan meets during his journey and some of the dialogue. The side characters aren’t terrible, but due to how some of them were written I didn’t end up liking most of them. Barry being a really good example. He's suppose to be Alan's agent and best friend. A buffoon whose used to play jokes and show how much better Alan is than him. However, instead of seeing him as funny I kind of just saw him as an asshole. In fact, a lot of characters in this game are assholes and would be better if they just wrote the dialogue for them differently. Yet again, 2010 was a different time for gaming. Despite my complaints and the aspects that have aged poorly I do really like this game. It has fun enough gameplay and an intriguing narrative, and I certainly like it a lot more than Control as this game mostly lives up to its potential. It knows how to work with what it has as Control kind of struggles with tackling the mundane while also telling a serious narrative. The game is cheap nowadays and now is the perfect time to play it since Alan Wake 2 is coming out in a few days. In the end I am going to give Alan Wake an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
This critique was written by the single man at Review on. Stay tuned for more content and feel free to check more reviews out over at my site!