Alan Wake — Survival Horror With Less Survival and More Horror
Alan Wake is one of those games that we have been waiting for a long time to get our hands on. It was to be a survival horror game that put the emphasis on story before anything else, going so far as to make “story” the main point of symbolism for the game. This made most people treat Alan Wake as the next coming of Silent Hill, which was an interesting proposal, but in actuality it’s quite a bit more than that. While certainly a horror game in every aspect of the word, “survival” may be a bit of a misnomer. Alan is more than capable in a fight, especially against the dark nightmarish denizens of the night that constantly try to eat his face. However, even through Alan’s unnatural combat ability, the enemies and atmosphere continue to scare you, making Alan Wake one of the few action games that still manages to retain a true horror settling.
Alan Wake is a well known horror/thriller writer who, unfortunately, has started to run out of ideas. Instead of following Stephen King’s example by throwing darts at a dartboard with random story elements on it, Alan decides to take a vacation to the quiet foggy mountain town of Bright Falls in order to decompress. Unfortunately, Alan has never played Silent Hill before, or else he would have known to stay the fuck away from quiet foggy mountain towns. Things go wrong, as they tend to do in horror settings like this, when Alan starts encountering bounds of paranormal activity, interspersed with finding pages from a novel of his that he doesn’t remember writing. Now it’s up to him to figure out just what the hell is going on in Bright Falls.
The plot accomplishes what it set out to do, which is make a videogame that feels much more like a novel than anything else, but there are still some flaws. The supporting characters are at best stereotypical and at worst poorly written. Alan himself, however, is very believable, even if he does start toting around fire-arms with no problem. He is from New York after all. Any shortcomings that the plot encounters are isolated entirely within character writing, which is a good thing. Even the bad characters are voice-acted well, and the dark atmosphere will continue to give you chills right up until the game’s awesome conclusion. The first person narrative structure that Alan uses is particularly effective in making game events seem as if they are being read right off the pages of a book. It does a lot to keep the horror vibe going.
Alan Wake is a linear game, as horror games tend to be. The game has an obvious goal set out for you, and there is really only one way to reach it. The unfortunate part of this formula is that it suffers from what Silent Hill has suffered from for years, the “why can’t I go there” problem. There aren’t so much “invisible walls” in Alan Wake as obstructions that probably wouldn’t take THAT much to clear or cross if you really tried. It becomes pretty obvious as the game goes on that you will always end up going down the path that horrifies you most, and this almost starts acting as a compass for you by the game’s midway point.
The fear in Alan Wake comes from our natural fear of the dark. Light in this game is hard to come by, and you will be traversing one shadowy locale after another, hoping to survive. The enemies in this game are basically incarnations of the dark itself. They are tough to see in darkness and light is their primary weakness. Some people may complain that it is difficult to get a bead on your enemy in such pitch blackness, but I’d argue that that is very much the point.
Although this is an action game you won’t find yourself with the arsenal that games like Resident Evil give you. Instead, your tool set is sparse, with only a handful of different guns, most of which is stuff you would find in backwater hunting cabins like hunting rifles and shotguns, and some light sources to keep your way illuminated. Light is your primary tool in Alan Wake, and shining any sort of light on your shadowy foes will stop them in their tracks or harm them. This makes many of your tools have a double purpose. Your flashlight, for example, can stun enemies and sap at their light, while say a flash bang grenade, merely disorienting for you, hits the enemy with the force of a full explosive. It’s an interesting mechanic, and when you find small patches of light from say flood lamps or whatnot, you will run to them frantically for a tiny bit of safety.
The whole point is to really hammer home your innate fear of the dark. The enemies are extremely powerful and if you aren’t constantly watching your back and keeping them at bay, they can rip you to shreds in a manner of seconds. Though normally you have to conserve ammo in games like this, you’ll also have to conserve batteries to make sure your flashlight keeps working. Since enemies are dispatched with light and bullets, you can easily handle most of the enemies that come your way when you are fully equipped, but they just keep on coming and eventually you’ll start panicking and fearing for your life, even as you mow down hordes of spirit possessed hillbillies. Add to this a variety pitfalls just lying around, like bear traps or almost breakable bridges and you’ll find yourself second guessing every move you make.
Alan Wake is a pretty short game, barely breaking the seven hour mark, but that’s OK. This is one of those games that puts quality over quantity. I felt like I got my money’s worth from Alan Wake, even though it was easy to beat in a couple of days. They very obviously leave room for sequel opportunities, and I’ll probably be coming back. Horror fans, you should check this out. You may cringe at paying full price for a seven hour experience but hell, rent it if you have to. Either way this is one game you certainly must experience.
(25 votes, average: 2.80 out of 4)
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