Alan Wake was a psychological thriller that was highly anticipated and was thought to be the one Survival Horror game to revive the genre..... Sadly this was not the case. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are great, the atmospheres are mouth-watering, pants-peeing creepy, but the combat and story are flawed and lackluster respectively. I have heard a great deal about the game and bought it myself, the "original combat system" of having to shine a light on an enemy was something, that was took, from another game. Luigi's Mansion for the Gamecube to be exact. The story on the other hand, was the confetti sprinkle icing on the cake that is Alan Wake for me, it was great, with the manuscript pages to a book not written and the search for a missing wife. Before you begin breathing down my neck saying I just contradicted myself, hear me out, the story says his wife was taken by the darkness but a guy wants her and will give her back for the uncompleted book, ok, sure, thats plausible. But why don't he go picking up the manuscript pages lying around, fill in the blanks himself and claim it as his legally, Wake don't remember writing it. Then its always occurring during a nightmare scene, otherwise Wake commits mass-murder of almost everyone in the town....A new Silent Hill maybe? Why won't Wake wake up?
Alan Wake has its flawed combat and lukewarm horror story, that seems to compile well enough to enjoy and want more, but lets talk about Alan Wake the character. He's a big jerk to everyone and his wife included. This is honestly the first game where I play as a character that brings a smile to my face when he dies or bad things happen to him. The plot starts on a ferry, where he is asked to do an interview for a radio show, he says no and wants no mention of him being there, on vacation. Ok, if I was a busy and successful author, I'd want a rest too. Then he reaches the diner and whines in an internal monologue about the waitress that just loves his work, by this point you may think he's still needing a release from stress. Then you find out, he hasn't wrote in TWO YEARS! If I was a struggling author that hasn't wrote in two years, I'd be flattered someone, especially a younger than me waitress, is such a fan that after two years of nothing they still like me. At the cabin his wife shows him a typewriter to help if he wants to work, he throws a fit setting the scene for her disappearance, it just screams the whole story that if Wake wasn't such a jerk than nothing would have happened and he would have went back home with his wife, instead he is trapped in a nightmare. The game would be a great movie, but the game as it is, seems like it is trying to stretch it out through levels of forest, why a forest? Who knows, but it should bring a sense of nostalgia for Luigi's Mansion and Friday the 13th movies. Flashlights and forests, crazy hulking bodies with axes and machete's as well as more Stephen King references than his own books.
Thanks for reading, just to reiterate, the game is good and makes you crave more, no matter how bad the combat irritates, most of been one area I attempted 10 times before rage-quitting and playing more Deadly Premonition as I bought them at the same time. =^_^=
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