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Fighting the Darkness: Alan Wake on Xbox 360

The titular character of Remedy Entertainment's first-person shooter Alan Wake is a famous writer who, when the story opens, is traveling with his wife to the town of Bright Falls to overcome writer's block and repair a troubled marriage. But what begins as an idyllic getaway quickly develops into something sinister, as Wake's wife is abducted, and scenes from a horror novel he can't remember writing begin coming to life. The townspeople start turning into monsters—collectively known as the Taken—and Wake must try to track down his wife while fighting hordes of ghouls who lurk in the shadows and creep out of the engulfing wilderness.

Alan Wake Gameplay

You quickly discover that the monsters feed off darkness and can be stunned by bright light. Combat involves using a combination of bright-light devices and a series of guns. There's a slight learning curve to this process, but Wake himself has never fired a gun before, so you learn along with him, gradually developing into a cunning monster-killing machine. Over the course of the game the combat can get repetitive, but strategizing your way out of the difficult situations is thrilling and satisfying.

All of these monster-killing opportunities are strung along a riveting storyline with an episodic structure reminiscent of a TV show. There is a reassuring pattern to the game: Alan gets a mission, discovers clues that bring him closer to his wife, and fights his way to the conclusion of the mission, fighting scads of monsters along the way.

In the long lead-up to Alan Wake's release, there was a lot of talk about the game providing a sandbox-style environment for players to immerse themselves in. But this element was all but abandoned in the late stages of development, as the designers decided to emphasize the storyline and episodic gameplay rather than the openness of shooters in the Grand Theft Auto mold. This is slightly unfortunate, as the world of Great Falls is so fully realized that you naturally want to walk around and explore, but the strength of the story and the beauty of the rendering make up for this.

Alan Wake's World

The world of Alan Wake is by far its strongest point. After the opening scene, you start off in the middle of a foggy forest as you make your way toward a distant lighthouse. But you only have a few seconds to appreciate the stunning depth and realism of the world before the trouble starts and you're fleeing for your life to a nearby cabin. The entire game is punctuated with pulse-pounding scenes like this, full of difficult and surprising situations that you have to strategize your way out of.

Few games succeed at being truly scary, but Alan Wake raises the bar for the horror genre. A sense of permeating danger sets in very early and never goes away. The forest where you spend much of your time is shrouded in fog, and your flashlight barely penetrates the darkness, giving the sense that there could be frightening things just beyond sight. The game reinforces this again and again, with the Taken popping out from surprising directions, often just when you're lulled into thinking the coast is clear.

When combined with the compelling storyline, this sense of terror makes Alan Wake a truly gripping adventure. While you may need the occasional break just to calm your nerves and get back to reality, Alan Wake is the video-game version of a page-turner. It's great entertainment, and you won't want to stop till it's over.

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April 27, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized

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