Alan Wake - Page 2

Seems that while Alex review isnt glowing with praise, other reviewers share the "the good outweighs the bad" when it comes to the game.
Stay for the story/look, endure the teioud combat/linearity.
Guess I'll give it a weekend rental, then maybe buy it when its at a lower price.

As soon as this went as a 360 exclusive, I got worried. Sounds like now I should be happy it ain't hitting the pc.

more like Alan Wank

"Weak Anal" is a good anagram, I say

I cant help but wonder if, story wise, its as aclose as we'll get to "In the mouth of Madness":The Game.
Cause if it does, I'll reconsider my waiting for a lower price stance.

I totally respect the Chud review, though expect to love the heck out of this game. I would have loved more enemy variety myself, but I love this type of game to start and tend to be very kind on minor to moderate issues. Games gotta pretty much be broken for me to get upset. While this game is linear, it sounds like I'll still have some nice size levels to check out.

I browsed this thread, and missed any really comments on the Live Action prequel eps, Bright Falls.....(www.brightfalls.com to see em). Very interesting, to say the least. Finally get this game next tues, and definitely have the Limited Editon version ordered.

Surprised this game's not getting way more discussion than it's gotten in here. Enjoying the hell out of this one. Been playing it about as much as Red Dead.

"It's not a lake, it's an ocean."

I began to think about this really hard the other day. Remember the dam in the town -- is it foreshadowing that the dam might actually give way and drown the town?

Some spoilers below (highlight):

I'm starting to think that once Alan jumps into the water to save his wife, he stays in the cabin to write the story and save Alice. He does this by creating Mr. Scratch, who you control from the start of the game (after the car crash). So the whole time you are playing as Mr. Scratch, who is a proxy of sorts of Wake.

In the end, Mr. Scratch saves Alice by sacrificing himself to the darkness for her. So Alan Wake is still in the darkness, but balanced the equation by sacrificing Mr. Scratch for Alice. As far as Zane is concerned, he made a mistake by writing Barbara Jagger out of the darkness, but the darkness used her to escape and gain power.

Zane himself could be a creation of Alan Wake, too. I'm not really sure how Zane and Barbara fit in. If they were precursors to this, or created by Alan Wake. Also, was the darkness unleashed by the earthquake at the lake? How did Barbara Jagger die initially? Did she drown in the lake, and -- while Zane was diving in there to look for her body -- the earthquake happened, and he died as well?

[End spoilers]

The upcoming DLC better answer some of these questions. But it does remind me of the ending of Twin Peaks, so there's that. Speaking of which, the sheer amount of Peaks-love in this game is amazing.

From now on, every game should end with a song by David Bowie.

Also, developers should take notice:

Remedy didn't attempt to shoehorn some lame, extraneous multiplayer mode into this game. They took their time creating a near-masterpiece single-player experience. I wish more developers would do this, instead of ruining what could be a great single-player experience with a worthless multiplayer mode -- i.e., BioShock 2...I mean, who actually PLAYS that shit online, seriously?

I dislike how many gamers now demand a co-op mode. I often find myself preferring to enjoy a great single-player experience like Fallout 3, than playing through 500 pointless rounds of Call of Duty's multiplayer.

Props to Remedy.

I quite enjoyed the full game and the first DLC episode. The game is clearly troubled by some repetition and lack of variety in combat - but the core combat gameplay still remained fun throughout. The game had a nice variety of environments throughout, and an odd assortment of characters. Appreciated the nods to Twilight Zone, Stephen King, and Twin Peaks.

I'd recommend the game - as a new release priced $60, it's definitely not the equal of Red Dead Redemption. But I've seen Alan Wake selling in the neighborhood of $40, and I think it's worth it.

Objectively this isn't particularly above average. The voice acting is great, the writing in general isn't too great*, and the combat is already getting samey two chapters in.

However it hits something in the back of my head which has made me go gaga for the game. It's like it was literally built FOR me and I find myself really struggling to ration out play to one episode a day. Love the style of the game, love the feel of the game, love the design (the use of light is genuinely gorgeous at times) of the world, and I'm genuinely intrigued by the story. I've not had such an obviously 'average' game hit me like this since Parasite Eve II.

*Although it makes a good approximation of the Stephen King style of narrative, especially in the manuscript, which combines the mythos with an almost soap operaish quality.

ETA: I'm also annoyed that it took me an entire day to realise I knew In Dreams (which plays over the end of Episode 1) from Blue Velvet.

After finishing the main game (no DLC) yesterday, a few points:

1. The combat sections are so goofy and repetitive. There's a disconnect between the tone Wake is trying to strike and the actual content. It's hard to be afraid of a giant spool. After the third chapter, I started dreading long walks through the woods, but for reasons unintended by the developers.

2. The interstitial material makes the game. The non-combat episode openers, the Night Springs broadcasts, and the radio shows are what make Alan Wake worth playing.

I don't think I've ever been this mixed on a game. The spooky brilliance of the interstitial portions balance out the utter drag of the combat.

Felt a little mixed at first but ended up really liking this game. Some great set piece moments and awesome atmosphere. Puzzle solving was kind of lacking though and the driving parts were somewhat awkward. The DLC was fairly decent too even if it was a little overly trippy for my tastes.

I picked this up a few weeks ago and just started playing it about a week and half ago. I enjoyed it. Alex was right in that it's repetitive and you can only go explore so much. At times I found myself just chilling by the light until "the darkness" went away and then I'd step out, kill some guys and go back to the light just to clear an area. Rather cheap of me. I'd panic sometimes and just say fuck it and fire a flare gun and drop a flash bang just so I didn't have to be bothered actually fighting people. Ahahaa. Cowardly of me. One thing that kept me entertained through out the game was that I used the Batman Begins and Dark Knight scores as music. They worked incredibly well. Sometimes I couldn't tell what was the game noise or music noise. The game came with a code to download the first add-on pack and for that I used the Tron Legacy soundtrack and it worked well enough.

 

In the end it was a decently fun game. Very doubtful I'd play a sequel if one were made.

The game starts out great... The way the first episode builds and climaxes with "In Dreams" is one of the best things I've seen. But the rest of the game doesn't really live up to that start. (I commend them for using Poe's "Haunted" as well... Poe deserves more love and affection than she gets).

 

The story is engaging. But having to play through the repetitive combat and tedious exploration aspects to get to the next cut scene makes the game feel like a chore at times. After a while it feels like you're walking through the same stretch of road, woods and junkyards again and again. The first time a bad guy appears, it's startling. But, later on, you begin to groan.

 

I would like to play the DLC and hope I get to see the end of this story, so they did something right.

 

Also... the driving portions were cool. This was originally intended as an open world game and maybe they should have kept it that way. It made me want an open world survival horror game.

 

I think, at this point, Silent Hill might be the series to pull that off.

I found the non-combat chapter introduction sequences so much more fun than the rest of the game, especially considering that every chapter devolves into the same boring-ass chase into the woods. You know you're playing a weird game when shooting haunted cable spools of rope is a refreshing change of pace.

My point exactly Trevor... Every chapter after the first one would basically fall apart and become boring the moment you left whatever location you started out from. The interior exploration sequences were great. At times they had a level of interest reminiscent of the Sierra and LucasArts adventure games.

The gameplay is rather 'meh," but I LOVE the presentation.  I don't think I'll be getting the DLC episodes, though; not unless they drop in price.  

 

Also, at the end of each "episode," they should have rolled credits.  

Well... The credits are extremely long. So maybe that's why they opted out of doing that.

 

You're right tough. This is all about the presentation. I am curious to check out the DLC because I want to see how the fucking story ends.

I finally got around to playing this awesome game. Don't know why it took me so long to pick it up, but once I started playing it, Alan Wake was hard to put down. I loved every second of it, including the really good DLC. The Signal and The Writer pick up where the game left off, and they feature a gameplay mechanic that shows up right at the end of the main game.  As such, the DLC plays a bit differently than most of the main game, and (trying to be vague here) the DLC plays around with reality in fun ways in order to mess with you. Also, the TVs in The Signal are creepy as hell.

 

I'm not sure if I'll bother to get all the collectibles I missed or not. Trying to find a bunch of coffee thermoses isn't the best thing in the world, but it would be an excuse to spend some more time playing around in Alan Wake's awesome atmosphere.

Does the story end in those two episodes or do they leave you hanging for more?

While I personally liked the ambiguous ending of Alan Wake, the DLC pick up right where the main game left off. Each piece of DLC is basically another "episode" of the game. My copy of the game had a code for The Signal, so I got it for free. It's quite a bit weirder than the main game, but not in a bad way. The Writer continues after The Signal, and it is just as off-kilter as the first DLC episode, but in a slightly different way. I thought the episode ended in a good place even with an obvious "there could be a sequel!" tag at the end.  The story isn't left in such an ambiguous place any more after the DLC.  I thought the DLC had some fun twists on the Alan Wake gameplay, and the story of each was also pretty good. Each episode will add at least a couple hours of gameplay, perhaps a little more if you search for the all new collectibles even though there aren't a ton of them.

 

So I think if you liked Alan Wake, the DLC is worth playing.

I enjoyed it from a storytelling point of view. But I didn't like the repetitive structure of each episode. (Start out exploring some new location for a bit, then a contrivance forces you into THE FOREST ... tedious and endless fights with ghostly hillbillies as you walk through the fucking woods for the umpteenth time) But I will definitely convince my friend to download the episodes so that I can play them. (I don't own an Xbox. I played this at a friend's house.) The story was compelling enough that I want to see where it goes. Also... Do the DLCs change up that structure? Because things like driving through the town were refreshing in the game (until you would hit a contrived road block and have to walk the rest of the way).

I recently got this game for free with my Xbox 360 as a download. I played a few minutes of it so far and I am intrigued by the story-telling. It really has me hooked and I can't wait to play some more to dive deeper into the mystery. I decided to buy Nintendo 3DS that's why I had to put it down.I would highly recommend this game to anyone that wants to play a game with a solid story line and action.

Edited by nathanbjohnson - 6/28/11 at 5:05pm

The new trailer for Alan Wake's American Nightmare, coming out early next year on XBLA.

And also, an article containing more info on what to expect:
 

• This game is being developed as an independent entry that anyone can jump into and understand. It expands and broadens the world of Alan Wake, and contains much more information about the happenings after the first Alan Wake game.

 

• Remedy says that the first game was a combination of "Stephen King and LOST," while American Nightmare is in the spirit of Tarantino's From Dusk Till Dawn and Pulp Fiction.

 

• This game takes place away from Bright Falls, and now is set in a city in Arizona. The developers wanted to go to a classic "American Route 66"-type of location, and a huge change of pace from the original game.

 

• Wake is in Arizona, as he is now trapped in the Night Springs television series he wrote when he was younger. The game is said to reflect on Alan borderlining between reality and fiction, and the thin line Wake is treading and experiencing. Alan goes from episode to episode while caught in a war between light and darkness.

 

• To be released Q1 of 2012, the game is to be faster-paced and more action-focused than the original Alan Wake, with its digital distribution method in mind. But this does not mean that the game is abandoning atmosphere and story, or what makes Alan Wake what it is.

 

• The game is supposed to last for several hours, with bigger replayability than the original Alan Wake.

 

• One unlockable mode is known as "Fight Till Dawn," in which players are in an expansive arena, and must fight waves of progressively tougher enemies while finding ammo and weapons around the various locations. Players win if they can survive until daybreak.

 

• Remedy confirms this will not be the last Alan Wake game, and that the sequel is definitely coming, but no details or specific release-schedules.

 

• Remedy hopes they might be able to bring this game and the original Alan Wake to PC, but nothing set in stone quite yet. However, there might be some bright news for PC-owners in the near future.

 

"Bigger replayability" than the first game? I've already done two entire playthroughs, and I'm still hungering for a third (in part to finally collect every last coffee thermos this time around). But can't wait for this, either.

I enjoyed Alan Wake a lot, so I'll probably cave and pick this one up when it releases. Looks like I'll finally be able to dust off my XBox, which hasn't been turned on since last January when I beat the first one.

 

Finally got to play this on PC. Looks like Alex's review and other related articles are gone. Pity, as I loved his concept of darkness-possessed animals (there are the birds and vehicles of course).

 

Agree that you end up in the woods way too much (but some fun ways of getting there). An open-world version would have been incredible as it feels like it's already 90% there. The cop chase sequence was really great, with new reveals coming quick and fast with their off-screen battle with the darkness falling in your lap at each turn.

 

Over-all, very much Max Payne's Meta-Elements meets Silent Hill - but I have no problems with that. Still trying to figure out the ending. My feeling is that Wake is the invention of Zane, but Wake became real after Zane was swallowed by the darkness/fucked up the narrative "trap". Wake ultimately succeeded in saving the wife though.

 

Really liked the female sheriff and agent characters - the latter wrapped in xmas lights was priceless. Finally some NPCs I didn't want to shoot in the face for their AI fuckdickery. The sheriff got off some awesomely good save shots on the open-street section.

 

Yeah, had expected something to happen with the Dam beyond that annoying super-mario run and jump bit.