Alan Wake Review, Episode III

The Case of the Ever-Changing Loadout

Part I and Part II of my episodic review.

Ragtag group of misfits.

 I recently completed the remainder of Alan Wake and the two bonus DLC chapters, and I must admit that I was left rather satisfied. Although the story becomes much more linear in the latter half of the game, there are enough scenarios thrown in that make reaching the dangling carrot the least of your worries. I actually found it amusing how often the objective would be to reach Point A only to change into something else every other minute. The effect was elongating the chapter without making it seem artificial. The player can often see the objective and coolly think, "Oh, it's right down there," but two hours will pass, and surprise, the objective still has not been completed.

Some character story arcs were left dangling. At the end of the game, you only truly find out what happened to two major characters, and the rest is left up to speculation. This isn't so problematic as there are only a few avenues of assumption you can take with the remaining townsfolk. But one does wonder! One thing I appreciated about the final chapter is that there were no major plot holes left. Every shred of foreshadowing from the beginning was addressed, and the only questions that remain were purposely left by the writers for the player to contemplate.

The mandatory trope of a horror scene happening somewhere in a church is complete.

There is one more bone I'd like to pick, and it's regarding loadout. At times, Alan will reach the major goal for that section of the game, and after a cutscene, he'll be left to continue on his quest. Bafflingly, even if he reached a safe haven or simply took a car ride, Alan will set off on his next objective with different weapons or a weaker flashlight. I'll just say it's disappointing to reach a house at night with a heavy lantern, a hunting rifle, and tons of ammo and flares only to be dispatched in the morning with a regular flashlight and maybe a pistol with a few bullets. This is an unnatural way to impose resource conservation especially when it doesn't make any sense in the flow of the narrative. I can accept heated moments when Alan would not have time to grab all his items, but if there's no rush, you'd think he would stock up. Maybe I'm nuts, but it reminds me of games like Dead Space, which do a better job at making enemy scenarios more challenging without screwing with your weapons and ammo.

Overall, I really enjoyed Alan Wake. The story, while not overly affecting, is compelling and makes proceeding through the game worthwhile without running on too long. I also greatly enjoyed the overall flow of the gameplay and the combat despite my nitpicking. Neither the combat nor the narrative comes off as tacked on, which is a testament to effective game design. However, I would suggest tossing it up for future entries. In actuality, the only enhancement to basic third-person shooting is the flashlight mechanic, and future iterations with no changes to this would start to feel tired quickly. Hopefully, Remedy Entertainment does more with the light/dark mechanic to keep things fresh. I also hope they keep up the presentation quality. This was one of the better looking games I've played, and the scenery and lighting effects never grew stale. Just some work on the character models and lip-synching is greatly needed.

Don't be fooled. They're lanterns of doom.

"The Signal" and "The Writer"

The Steam version of Alan Wake comes with the bonus DLC chapters, "The Signal" and "The Writer," which came out after the game was released on the Xbox 360. When you finish the main campaign, the credits scroll, and you are returned to the main menu, so you must manually select these episodes to continue Alan's story. Without spoiling too much, they serve to elaborate on what happens to Alan after the ending of the main story, and they set the game up for a sequel. The story between the two episodes is peculiar but less compelling. Although the goal is obvious, it is readily apparent they are for players who just want to play more Alan Wake more than to offer truly though-provoking revelations about his predicament.

Although mostly intact, there are a few new gameplay elements, which were previously introduced in the very final act of the core game. Due to the surreal setting, ammo stashes and batteries are supplied by words hanging out in the environment. Shining the flashlight on them forces them to release their load. This flows into other areas where words, such as "bridge," "rock," or "climb," reveal objects required to proceed to the next objective. The words also play into combat where "boom" and "fireworks" either destroy the Taken or remove the darkness from them, setting up easier shots.

This feels right.

While "The Signal" feels grossly linear in the way it makes Alan navigate the world, "The Writer" shines by creating platform puzzles that stretch the imagination to greater proportions. The setting for both is a rehash of familiar environments from the core game, but they are effectively remixed and tossed about with new survival scenarios to keep everything exciting and new. It all still looks good, but sadly, there is no daylight to speak of, which I enjoyed before. In one scenario, a cabin and a tunnel are merged together into a continually rotating maze that Alan must proceed through lest he get dropped into the abyss below it. Things like this keep "The Writer" more fun than "The Signal," so at least the DLC ended on a good note. I would say these episodes are worth playing if you have them by default like I did, but due to the lack of important narrative additions and short length (about 2 hours each), they are not bringing anything to the table for your dollar. It'd be better to wait for a sequel.

All images taken myself via Steam's screenshot feature.