Alan Wake Review, Episode II

The League of Extraordinary Heavy Machinery

"We'll stay up all night and tell ghost stories and practice making out with our pillows!"

I forgot to mention in my previous entry that Alan Wake features yellow paint that is only visible with a flashlight pointed at it. Often times, it reveals a message from some anonymous graffiti artist about your current situation – "TRUST NO ONE IN THE DARK." Also, you will occasionally find arrows or paw prints of some sort which lead you to a chest containing ammo, flares, or batteries. The painted path terminates in an encircled torch above the chest, and you typically know you're following it correctly because of the faint sound of a woman's breath in the background. That might be my favorite touch. Earlier on in the game, Alan can follow these detours into dark tunnels or behind houses and return to the beaten path unscathed. I am now part way through Chapter 4 of the game, and the safety has changed. Opening the chest and claiming its items often leads to an ambush shortly after. But let's not ignore the fact that the Taken are polite enough to wait for the player to stock up.

The third chapter also marked the first time I used the Energizer batteries I am behooved to collect. I did write that the flashlights recharge on their own, but when Alan is surrounded by enemies, the larger of which take longer to strip of their dark veneer, focusing for too long makes them run out of juice. Usually, I would just run around like a ninny until it was useful again, but some situations are desperate, and my finger found its way to the Q key to insert batteries. Now, I was avoiding this because I incorrectly assumed that it would take as long to replace the batteries as it would to reload a gun with bullets. Wrong – Alan Wake asks the player to suspend his belief again while tapping the battery reload key instantly energizes (see what I did there?) the flashlight to usefulness again. It takes about three to fill 'er up, and if you're a good hoarder like me, you will always have batteries handy. So of course, I am taking full advantage of this logic leap as it becomes necessary, but the mechanics of the magical flashlights will continue to elude me.

You would think that the LIGHTning would wipe out the DARKening. You'd be wrong.

Chapter 3 also starts Alan's war with things. Objects become possessed by the darkness and fling themselves at the protagonist to impede him in his travels. They usually will be barrels or boxes littered about, but the Dark Presence also likes to possess building pillars, freight cars, and in one harrowing sequence, a bulldozer. I like these sequences since they require a different strategy than the Taken. You defeat the objects with light alone, so it is just a matter of being able to dodge flying objects coming towards you. Until one becomes possessed, trees and lamposts are helpful with impeding the flight path of wayward objects, but as I found out in one sequence, you sometimes need them to fly right at you to break open pathways. Empathizing with Alan in this case, that wasn't fun, maybe because it took me a bit to realize that's what needed to happen.

Navigating through Bright Falls and the chapters is still compelling. Alan Wake's writers have provided some clever sequences where Alan is essentially defenseless save for his flashlight, and he needs to manage his batteries and short sprinting ability to make it between "safe" areas. Sometimes I feel compelled to fight the tide of Taken coming, but I wake up from my delusion shortly after I take a gander at my ammo count. Chapter 3 is easily longer than both of the first two chapters combined, so I no longer play just one chapter before turning in for the night. My brain allows itself an arbitrary number of scripted sequences to experience before finding a safe haven and quitting. Then, I become impatient in my desire to return to the game and get Alan to true safety, a concept the story has already dissolved entirely. A twist came about, one that the Internet ruined for me a few years ago, but the un-twist, if you will, came next, and I became proud of the writers for not letting me down. It easily brought Alan Wake out of horror movie and into worthwhile gaming experience. The manuscript pages now capture my interest more, too. The writing may still be forced in its composition, but the content is gripping. Without spoiling it further, they both reveal the future and make the player desperately want to know what happens next in both the narrative and the pages. I'd compare the experience to watching two TVs showing the same program with a 10-20 minute time difference.

Well, I was hoping for a Snickers bar.

I would say I am at the point where I feel comfortable recommending the game to others, but I have not witnessed the end game, which could become a giant let down. For now, the characters are unique, and the Dark Presence has become a formless antagonist, which I hope to dissect further. Alan Wake begins with a Stephen King quote, which indicates that a good horror story does not reveal why the horror is happening. If that is the case, I hope the ending gives me just enough to swallow my suspense.

Part III

All images taken myself via Steam's screenshot feature.