Not Casual

What do you do if you’re afraid of the dark? Where do you go if you’re so afraid of the dark that you freeze up when there’s a power cut? Well, if you happen to be Alan Wake’s wife the answer is a small cabin in the middle of the forest with a small generator in the shed. That’s not clever.

Alan Wake seems to be full of these little discrepancies of character, but fortunately this doesn’t really undermine your enjoyment of the game.

Set in the sleepy mountain town of Bright Falls, Alan Wake is presented in TV style as an episodic survival horror story. This neatly breaks things down into bite sized junks and gives you good stopping point for the evening. Rather neatly the next episode kicks off with a “last time on Alan Wake”, highlighting that these segments of the game should be taken as one off experiences.

The horror aspects of the game are more Stephen King than HP Lovecraft, more immediate threat than distant prevailing terror. Turn the lights down, get on the surround sound and it does do a good job of trying to deny you sleep. There are jumps aplenty and the atmosphere the game generates helps to ratchet up the tension. This despite the manuscripts scattered throughout the game that tell you exactly what’s going to happen round the corner.

The levels feel very Left for Dead, with linear routes to your next safe haven. Combat is solid enough, the light from your torch depletes your enemies protection before you can dispatch them by more conventional means. My main issue with the controls of the combat is that the beam of your torch is essentially your targeting cross hair, for a third person game that’s not quite accurate enough, especially given the hectic pace of combat.

Generally the controls are standard, and do nothing spectacular to convince you that this game is different from the crowd. Puzzles likewise follow trends set in other games in the genre. You won’t find anything particularly taxing here.

Graphically the game is beautiful, fog and the ever prevalent darkness are used well, it’s genuinely worrying stepping away from the lights into the dark forest. The counter side of this darkness also looks spectacular. From the sweep of your torch to the blinding brilliance of flares, light chases away the darkness and briefly illuminates the horrors you face.

I’m finding Alan Wake to be a worthwhile experience, but I don’t think there’ll be much in the way of re-playability in it. For that reason I’m going to recommend you rent this one, it’s certainly worth at least one play through with the lights down.

Tags: alanwake, dark, horror, light, survival, xbox360

Categories: Xbox

Both comments and pings are currently closed.