Alan Wake (Retromendation/ PC version "advance" Review)

It would seem that Ultimate Salt only likes to belatedly review Third Party Xbox exclusives from spring 2010. But technically, as Alan Wake is PC bound, this counts as an advanced review! Booya.

Hey guys, I don't know if you know this, but this game is a psychological action thriller. Just in case you missed it, we put it under the freaking title.

Remedy Entertainment's long-awaited follow up to their stellar two-part Max Payne saga was a long time coming. Initially announced in 2005, the game didn't see release until the spring of 2010, at which point cautious skepticism was bubbling close to the boiling point of outright disregard. What could cause such a high profile game to be delayed for so long?

The answer is about as mysterious as the events that befall the game's titular character. As it would turn out in, Alan Wake, the character, has some problems. Not standard video game problems, though. No one is trying to shoot him, no ambiguously foreign villains have a dastardly scheme that needs foiling, and no flags need be captured. Alan Wake has real problems; problems you might classify as either "grown up" or "first world," depending on your disposition.

His writing career is at a dead end due to a serious case of writer's block and his marriage is on shaky ground; two individual problems that serve to exacerbate each other. In an attempt to alleviate both, Wake and his wife Alice have sought refuge in the relaxing solitude of the Bright Falls, Washington. Things take a sinister turn after a brief encounter with a demonic presence at a local diner, (don't you hate when that happens?) and pretty soon Wake is besieged by ghastly forces of darkness, both metaphorical and literal.

I'd advise hitting the dodge button.

But the less said about the story the better. If you go in knowing nothing, the experience will be significantly more suspenseful. Suffice to say that revealing the story's primary mystery and the game's key hook in the very first promotional videos was probably a bad decision by the marketing squad. Having the player know exactly what is happening from the game's first second severely undercuts the dramatic tension as characters scramble to understand what's happening around them.

Speaking of scrambling, Alan Wake does a lot of scrambling. Plenty of games have a dodge or evade button, but none is as gleefully entertaining to pull off as Wake's scramble. A tap on the sprint button will send Wake into uncoordinated evasive scramble that is exactly what I would imagine a scared pop-lit writer would look like while desperately trying to avoid a demon's scythe.

Why I chose to open up discussion of the game's mechanics with a detailed explanation of the dodge function will have to be marked under the "vague mysteries" column that will no doubt be quite long by the end of this article. My reasoning is this: An animation as simple as the scrambling evade showcases exactly what the game does so well: Detail. It fits Wake's character perfectly that he would awkwardly duck down and scurry away from danger rather than perform an out-of-character combat roll with military precision. It's a small detail, but Remedy's investment in creating fully realized characters.

You can tell they're fully realized because there are several cutscenes without a building collapsing, a boast few modern games can make.

Those characters are then placed in what is perhaps one of the most authentic settings ever seen in a video game. Setting isn't really a big discussion point in a medium where the terrain itself can be warped to enhance the experience, but it always stands out when it is done well. Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City and Bioshock's Rapture come to mind as outstanding examples of a setting playing a major role in a game. Add Alan Wake's Bright Falls to that list.

Aside from the graphical wonders that create the breathtakingly beautiful landscapes routinely showcased in the  cutscenes' sweeping "helicopter" shots, the town of Bright Falls flows with a serene hospitality. Building interiors have an imperfect realism to them that is so often lacking in over-polished video games. Radios and televisions are all fully operational, with TVs even having entire FMV shows that you can stop and watch. It's one of those games that rewards you for stopping and smelling the roses. Eavesdrop on an NPC conversation and you might come away with some valuable insight into the narrative.

But in much the same way that Alan Wake, the character, has problems, Alan Wake, the game has it's fair share of problems. Most notably is the game's core shooting mechanics. They are too good.

That may seem like a brown-nosed critique, but it's true. While the game was marketed as a "psychological action thriller," it is easily recognizable as a survival horror game. The problem is, it's way too easy to survive, eliminating a significant amount of the horror. Wake continually dispatches easily manageable numbers of enemies, and there is never any real sense of dread during combat until the game's final chapter --but more on that in a bit.

The game's use of a flashlight beam as your reticle greatly enhances the verisimilitude of the world. No joke in this caption. Move along.

The game struggles with a transition that snags so many tales of an average person swept into an extraordinary situation; the apparently meek protagonist suddenly develops into an unstoppable killing machine. One minute Alan Wake is a brooding author, the next he's laying waste to an army of ghouls, and no explanation is offered as to why he is able to drop a nether beast with a dingy revolver at 50 yards. The excellent aiming mechanics made possible by the brilliantly implemented flashlight reticle are actually doing the game a disservice.

For comparison, take a game like Resident Evil 4. Similar situation: You're a dude with a gun and people are running at you trying to bring about your death. The difference is that Alan Wake lets you go all Max Payne on some mofos, while Resident Evil 4 practically cripples you. Alan Wake is the better shooter, but Resident Evil 4 had me screaming in terror when I couldn't navigate up a flight of stairs while some Spanish farmer with a protracted butthole where his head should have been axed down the creaky wooden door behind me. The gameplay limitations actually end up heightening the tension, something there is sadly little of throughout Alan Wake's ghoul genocide.

That said, the game's final chapter is unbelievably nerve-wracking. The occasionally meandering and rambling story solidifies it's motives as Wake finally has a clear goal in front of him. To avoid spoilers, the final chapter is a race from point A to point B, hopping in and out of cars while everything from possessed monster trucks to sailboats falling from the sky attempt to stop you. It retreads over every stage of the game, necessitating that the player use what they're learned throughout the game to survive.

Luckily, they've learned to base jump with lit flares.

I remember the fear I felt when a ghostly monster truck tore through a field and rammed my commandeered station wagon into a barn. The smoke spewing from under my hood was a pretty good indication that my car wouldn't start back up, so I decided to run for it, only to exit my car and find a legion of mirky, menacing silhouettes slowly ambling toward me. I started shooting, with my only thought being, "Damn I wish more of the game was like this."

Because it isn't until the end that the game finally actualizes the potential of it's promise. Instead of the first five chapters' cannon fodder, enemies that blatantly overpower you are finally seen with regularity, and in numbers large enough to present some tense moments. It's a panicked dash through the pitch black woodlands that has you jumping at shadows, wildly swinging your flashlight-reticle over the underbrush, desperately trying to see what menacing figure is stalking you from the shadows. It's a masterclass of modern survival horror design.

While rest of the game works as an action game with tight mechanics and an entertaining premise, the implementation of the horror tropes fall flat. And as good as the final chapter is, it's a shame that the rest of the game isn't at the same level.

8/10