Day 1 on Alan Wake and I have to say it’s not promising. The game is utterly failing to be scary. It is moving too fast, it doesn’t build up enough, and it’s too obvious in the plot choices it’s making. The combat isn’t bad, but the basic controls are sluggish and finicky in ways that make the game uglier to play than a game of 2010 should ever be. There are all sorts of bad, almost TV-based narrative techniques that feel totally out of place. And it has the stupidest collectible item I have seen in a game in a long time. I’m going to keep playing, but that’s more just to see if this thing can improve at all. Spoilers within.
So this game has a little bit of hype, both in terms of its long development life and for its attempts to be a truly narrative experience. I’m very curious. For a modern title, it has a very quick start up. There’s a lighthouse on the title screen. I hit start and choose to play on normal (in this game, it’s the lowest setting). This is followed by an interesting brightness setting system — reading text in three boxes of different levels of darkness. Brightness set, we start with a voice-over as a camera zones over a pine forest, discussing Stephen King’s definition of horror as things better not explained. It’s Alan Wake talking; he’s a writer. We transition to the lighthouse while Alan’s talking about a dream he had. In it, he’s driving to a lighthouse and he hits a hitchhiker. He’s narrating this as it happens by the way, I guess in case I’m blind or can’t interpret images on a flat screen. He gets out of car and sees (and tells us) the hitchhiker’s dead. He’s concerned that he’ll go to jail and won’t see Alice again. The lights on the car go out and the hiker has disappeared. I get control as the voiceover continues, urging me on.
The game has me look up at a light and then asks if I want to reverse controls. I say no. I hit B on command to examine the car — there’s nothing there, but copies of my book are spilling out of the trunk. I start to sprint (hold down left trigger) towards the lighthouse, but running is actually tricky because the camera controls are VERY sensitive. There’s a crazy zoom in on the lighthouse as I approach it. I’m not sure what’s up with these kooky zooms. Anyway, I head down to a pier-like walkway to get to the lighthouse and once I’m on the pier, we crazy zoom in on a shadowy version of the hiker behind me then he’s in front of me with an axe. He swings at me and kills me as I try to run past him. I respawn on the pier and this time I run away. He’s shouting about me being a writer and thinking I’m in control — uh, that’s kind of cheesy. I reach a obstacle I have to jump and twitchy camera makes me jump off of the bridge instead. Sigh. I respawn at the jump at least. Credit to the game for good save point positioning.
I run into a closed off area and the hiker appears. I have to dodge his attacks with a left button action. That feels a bit wonky. I miss a couple dodges but then I get it. At the last dodge, the hiker disappears. The voice-over tells me that the hiker is from my story (really? how could I have guessed that?) The door opens and I continue. The hiker appears behind me and explodes into a cool shadow tornado thing that starts chasing me, but the dialogue is SO CHEESY, e.g. “how does it feel to die at the hands of your own creation?” I sprint until I tire (pretty quickly) and limp to reach a long rope bridge. I start running across and there’s a normal guy on the other end. I make it across and zoom to the bridge collapsing behind me. The guy, Steward, shepherds me into a house and then the hiker appears. Stewart tries to shoot him, but it does nothing and the hiker kills him with an axe then leers at me through the window. Man, this is so not working as horror at this point. Where’s the build up? Why do I care about any of this? How is it keeping things in the dark to have the hiker claim I wrote him and mock me about it?
Anyway, I’m trapped in the house (thanks for reinforcing that, voice-over). There’s a nice kind of creepy effect where there are giant eyes in TVs and a voice shouting for me. I look around for a way out of cabin but can’t do anything. The voice-over tells me I have to leave and the house starts shaking, but there’s nothing I can do. Finally I get hit by something I can’t see and a weird warped door appears. A voice says to follow the light and I run through the warp door and see a light ahead. I walk to the lit part of the ground and being in the light heals me. The light voice then tells me a poem I don’t follow about how beyond sea there’s an ocean and “to its ports I beam.” Alan, to his credit, says he doesn’t understand. I follow the light again and come to another closed area with the hiker. The light tells me that the hiker is protected by darkness, and so light will hurt it and gives me a flashlight. I shine the flashlight on him to remove darkness, using the camera control to aim the flashlight and LT to focus it for a more powerful, battery-draining attack. The light then gives me a revolver, telling me I have to shoot the darkness-freed hiked because he can’t be saved. Ok … killing a normal looking guy because he’s tainted … seems a little sketch, but I’ll do it. It’s RT to shoot, but I think I aim with the way I’m facing — that’s seems very old Resident Evil not good. The light then says it’s giving me back my dream.
Alan’s voice-over tells me the whole world is dark and the lighthouse is the last safe space. I keep running to it. More guys pop up, and I flashlight them then shoot them. That combat is kind of cool. One guy rushes me and I need to use that dodge before I kill them. I find a flare gun. Three guys pop up in a cluster and it turns out the flare gun is a grenade equivalent, killing them in one shot. I keep running and kill one more guy before I reach the road. A dark tornado thing appears behind me, and have to run across the bridge and dodge holes the tornado causes. I die once on the road because I can’t judge how far I can jump. I then get across bridge into the lighthouse. I start a CS inside where Alan heads towards a light deeper in the lighthouse. Alan sees a long stairway up. The light goes out and something rushes down at Alan. It’s dark and a creepy voice is calling Alan to open his eyes.
Alan does and it’s his wife. She’s talking to him in a car where he fell asleep. Dear God, her model is creepy — her talking animation looks like she’s partially paralyzed. My model is no better – characters in this game are UG-LY. She tells Alan they’re here. They’re on a boat moving towards the town of Bright Falls. (Not Silent Hill. No sir. Totally different.) I zoom over the town and I assume I’m previewing things I’m doing later. I get control back on the boat. She has me go over to an old man to pose for photos. The old man chats with me but he knows my books. He wants to interview me for his radio show, but I ask him to keep my secret — I’m on vacation. I go back to chat with my wife and my agent calls to thank me (Alan automatically picks up the phone when it rings.) The agent’s is a textbook creepy agent stereotype asking me to let him know when I start writing again. I hang up the phone and we arrive.
We cut to us driving, and I have to get the cabin key from a guy in the diner. I go in to get the key while she gets gas. Man, does this game want to be Silent Hill with the way we’re wandering around a sleepy town. Alan CS goes into the diner. The waitress Rose knows who I am and is a big fan. She tells me the guy who has the key (Stucky) will be back in a second. I get control back as she continues talking, but I can’t move until the conversation’s done — so annoying. I walk past a guy who says something about coffee, but I’m past before he finishes. There’s an old guy at a table who asks me to turn on a jukebox in the most over-the-top old man shtick I have seen in a game ever. I activate the jukebox. As I start walking away, I find my first of 100 collectable — get this — coffee thermoses. Yeah, seriously, thermoses. I almost laugh out loud at this. Is there anything in the world less frightening than a thermos? Anyway, the jukebox is stuck and I have to whack it (hit A repeatedly) to get it working. I do. I then go down dark hallway to find Stucky on my own. I knock on the bathroom door. A CS starts and woman in mourning clothes gives me the key and instructions, saying Stucky is indisposed. I walk out, and a woman at the front of the hall tells me that I was lucky not to get hurt in the dark. Ok, this story is moving WAY too fast and trying WAY too hard. On my way out, the cop at the counter tells me the old guys are mental patients waiting to get picked up. I leave the diner. There’s a CS of Alan getting in the car. Alice gives Alan a flashlight, and they drive off as Stucky runs out with the real keys. Duh duh DUUUUUHHHHH.
There’s a CS of them driving to the cabin and the camera zoom over quite pretty pine-covered mountains. Alan’s voice-over tells me that Alan hasn’t written a book in two years. There’s a little Orbison-like music as we look over the pretty lake that the cabin is on. I get control back at the bridge to the island with the cabin. A voice-over tells me Alice is phobic of the dark. I head over the bridge to the cabin, called Bird Leg Cabin. I unlock the door. In every non-combat action in this game, there’s an annoying delay between button press and action. I have no idea why that is, but it makes the whole game feel sluggish. I go inside, but Alice needs me to turn on the power before she’ll go in. I start looking around the cabin and find a collection of books by an author named Zane, but Alan doesn’t know him. Upstairs, I see a picture of a deep sea diver and looking at it summons a flashed image of the mourning woman and makes Alan shudder. I go back outside, and Alice tells me the power cables go to the shed. I go there, but I don’t see door right away. I circle the cabin twice, but then I find it. Inside is the generator. I have to hit A at right time a couple times to turn it on, and doing so gets me my first achievement! The lights are on and I start heading back to the cabin. I examine something on the way, but before Alan can describe he thing I’m looking at, I cut to a CS where Alan looks over the lake and sets up how wrong everything is going to go.
I get control back to head up to the house to find Alice and go inside. She’s not downstairs. An open door takes me outside. I turn on a radio out there and Rose from the diner calls into the show to reveal she saw me. I go back inside and Alice calls from upstairs. There’s a surprise for me in the study so I go in there. The surprise is a typewriter. She got it with the hopes he’ll be inspired, but he’s upset about the implication. She says there’s a doctor in town who helps artists. The lights dim for a second and there’s a flash of another guy in the room in the dark. Alan CS storms out, and goes in the dark where he knows Alice won’t go. He trips and recovers, laughing to himself. The lights suddenly go out in the house and Alice screams. I get control back and run towards the house as she screams. The birds attack me as I approach, but then I get inside and there’s a CS as Alan looks around. Another door is open and a quick camera shot says she fell in the lake. Alan CS dives in after.
There’s a CS flash of the mourning woman at the keyboard. Alan comes to in crashed car. What happened? Alan’s cell is dead and he has to find help to find his wife. I get control back. I find a book for the artist doctor in the back of the car, and Alan still doesn’t like him. I have to get to the gas station. I run through woods, and behind me, the car goes off a cliff. I approach a light I see. Inside, I find a page of a manuscript I planned to write but hadn’t yet about an axe murderer at night. I can hit select to actually read the pages — not good writing at all. Quickly, it begins to get deeply flowery in its awkwardly purple style, using tortured metaphors like they were raining from the sky. I see a shadow figure ahead as keep moving, but it disappears; this happens almost on cue to where I thought it would, by the way. I see a closer light at a lumber mill and head there first. I have to climb a log to get over a fence. It’s very treacherous with this overly sensitive camera control. I get into the lumber mill and cut to a CS of Alan calling out to a guy up ahead. It’s Stucky possessed by the darkness ranting about hotel rates, EVILLY. I find another manuscript page about using the flashlight. I run through mill as falling logs hit me. I sprint into the cabin as an axe hits door behind me. Inside, Alan CS gets his flashlight (with RIDICULOUS Energizer product placement) and gun.
The phone in here gets cut. I’m picking up ammo as I see forklift heading toward the cabin and then I suddenly die. Why? I respawn in the cabin and oh there’s a door that opens when the forklift hits the shed. I run out and see two guys to kill. I do it. I then have to shut off power to climb a log over an electric fence. I do so, get over, and kill another guy there. I run through woods and suddenly have another flash of the woman. I die once from a fall, because it is WAY WAY too easy to run to my death. WHY DOESN’T THE CHARACTER STOP AT CLIFFS?!? FUCK YOU GAME!!! I find a path and then have to navigate around a set of islands, because Alan says something about the water being bad. On the plus side, I find another THERMOS! I get across the river, fight two Taken (that’s what the enemies are called) and get pretty hurt but kill them. I get to the lumber yard. There are yellow arrows painted on the logs pointing in a direction but there doesn’t seem to be anything over there. I follow the compass in the interface instead (a yellow dot shows me where to go) and get to a broken staircase. I need another way up, and it turns out I have to turn on generator to use construction equipment to get up. I explore for the generator, and there are three Taken guarding it whom I deal with handily. I activate the generator with another hit-A timing puzzle. I use a crane to move a group of logs to form a bridge between two log stacks. I climb one stack and run across. At the top of the stairs, I get some shotgun ammo. I run through the woods once again, killing two Taken then dying fighting two more.
I respawn and find a safe point to start up (I guess the generator thing is a core mechanic). It’s a scene of running and fighting. I get more manuscript pages but clearly missed one and the text seems to imply I need them all to save Alice. If that’s true, that SUCKS. I head to the gas station with enemies behind me. I run into a shed first. I get a shotgun and more ammo, and then turn on the TV. It’s a Twilight Zone parody. Wow this TV show is thorough. I watch it all the way through — it’s about alternate quantum universes and has a standard cheesy twist from a bad Twilight Zone episode. I go back out and run more. Stucky appears with goons. I kill the goons, and then kill Stucky. Stucky’s not very hard — he runs more, but it’s the same flashlight/gun thing. I do find a thermos in the middle of the fight, you know, to reinforce the terror. I find more pages as head into the gas station. I see a sign that tells me I lost a week since Alice and Alan got here. I get inside an open garage and see myself writing on TV. Wide early stab at plot: I was writing story to bring Alice back, but that mourning woman was writing some other story to kill me. The light is Alan the author talking to Alan the character. That where I put my money. I find phone and call the sheriff. In CS, the creepily modeled cop arrives. Alan explains that he’s been in an accident but the cop says there’s no island where Alan says there’s an island. She asks about Stucky but Alan doesn’t answer, knowing she won’t believe him. We cut to Alan looking over the lake and seeing no island.
The game title comes up suddenly, and it’s end of episode one. There is a black screen with that message. It seems to be a song interlude of an Orbison like song (“In dreams I walk with you” is a line). Huh, this makes no sense. I let it run until a verse completes and when a second one starts, I decide to skip. What is this previously on Alan Wake montage that follows? I just played this. Man, this game has a bunch of weird and not-working narrative tricks in it. We cut to three years ago, NYC, with Alan returning to apartment for episode 2: Taken. With that, I call it a night.
I´ve just found your blog. As soon as I saw the AW tag I click on it to know your thoughts.
I also played the first chapter, and then decide to uninstall it for the same reasons you point out. But I thought on downloading the book (all the manuscript) and found it a great reading.
AW is an interesting example of how tricky could be the result when you try to be something you or not. When you choose a language to create something you shouldn’t rely on other language to explain it.
f*ck I am not the one on the avatar! thats my dad! OMG
Odd how the above poster thought they were in the position to criticize another on language… Anyway, here is my reply to Day 1!
“The game is utterly failing to be scary.”
Not supposed to frighten the player. It’s a psychological thriller, not survival horror. Read the case next time before buying/renting a game.
“It is moving too fast, it doesn’t build up enough, and it’s too obvious in the plot choices it’s making.”
I would’ve liked some elaboration on that last point. But I didn’t think any of it moved too fast or failed to “build up” at all. The suspenseful atmosphere of this game is one of its best features.
“The combat isn’t bad, but the basic controls are sluggish and finicky in ways that make the game uglier to play than a game of 2010 should ever be.”
Unless you’re controlling an everyman (a writer, to be precise) and not a marine. Everything worked just fine to complement the intended feel of the game. Making Alan move like Altair from Assassin’s Creed would’ve been a mistake.
“There are all sorts of bad, almost TV-based narrative techniques that feel totally out of place.”
Such as? Well it’s no secret that they were going for a TV series sort of feel. I rather liked it, but to each his own.
“And it has the stupidest collectible item I have seen in a game in a long time.”
I’m assuming you’re talking about the coffee thermoses. What would you have preferred? Something even more ridiculous for this sort of game, I bet.
“We transition to the lighthouse while Alan’s talking about a dream he had. In it, he’s driving to a lighthouse and he hits a hitchhiker. He’s narrating this as it happens by the way, I guess in case I’m blind or can’t interpret images on a flat screen.”
Actually, he didn’t narrate hitting the hitchhiker. He only said “I had seen the hitchhiker too late”, which is perfectly fine. And then he tells of his fears about getting put in jail and never seeing Alice again, which is MORE than fine. Let’s continue.
“He gets out of car and sees (and tells us) the hitchhiker’s dead.”
You can’t actually *see* that someone’s dead. You have to check for a pulse to confirm. And since there was no way for the PLAYER to note the lack of a pulse on the hitchhiker, I’d say Alan telling us he was dead was a-ok too.
“I start to sprint (hold down left trigger) towards the lighthouse, but running is actually tricky because the camera controls are VERY sensitive.”
I didn’t have any issue with the camera, but noted that the way it was positioned and independently controllable fit well with both the TV series and thriller feels that were surely intended.
“I’m not sure what’s up with these kooky zooms.”
More TV stuff.
“…a shadowy version of the hiker behind me then he’s in front of me with an axe. He swings at me and kills me as I try to run past him. I respawn on the pier and this time I run away.”
Why didn’t you run away the FIRST time? Lol, and why did you even include this.
“He’s shouting about me being a writer and thinking I’m in control — uh, that’s kind of cheesy.”
? Ok.
“I reach a obstacle I have to jump and twitchy camera makes me jump off of the bridge instead. Sigh. I respawn at the jump at least. Credit to the game for good save point positioning.”
Yeah, I don’t see how you could blame messing that jump up on the camera. I got over it just fine on every playthrough, but anyway.
“I have to dodge his attacks with a left button action. That feels a bit wonky.”
As mentioned before, Alan not moving very swiftly or smoothly is part of the point of thriller/horror. Horror games do this quite frequently because having perfectly fluid controls diminishes the fear/suspense… That’s not to suggest the controls in Alan Wake aren’t sufficiently RESPONSIVE, however, because they are.
“The voice-over tells me that the hiker is from my story (really? how could I have guessed that?)”
*sigh* Because his first line was “You don’t even recognize me, do you, writer?” and then he says “You think you can just… play with people’s lives and kill them when you think it adds to the drama?” Alan finished his award-winning series of books by killing the protagonist. Obviously, he would know that. And obviously, the player WOULDN’T know that at this point. Hence, the narration was both sensible and with a purpose.
“but the dialogue is SO CHEESY, e.g. ‘how does it feel to die at the hands of your own creation?'”
BY the hands of your own creation. And how is it “cheesy”? Am I going to be reading this word a lot in this review? If so, I certainly hope you define it at some point, because none of the dictionary definitions seem to fit.
“I sprint until I tire (pretty quickly)”
Yep. Wouldn’t be very suspenseful if you could easily run away from everything.
“Stewart tries to shoot him, but it does nothing and the hiker kills him with an axe then leers at me through the window. Man, this is so not working as horror at this point.”
I actually found that part to be pretty chilling. But again, this is not a horror game to begin with. Psychological thrillers are not works that are out to frighten you. I do wish you would’ve educated yourself on the words printed clearly on the case for this game; your review here might not have suffered from what I FEAR is going to be a never-ending (and ultimately ill-placed) criticism throughout the whole thing.
“Where’s the build up?”
No need for any. It’s a dream.
“Why do I care about any of this?”
Umm, because you’re playing a video game and someone in the game is trying to kill the character you’re playing?
“How is it keeping things in the dark to have the hiker claim I wrote him and mock me about it?”
If this were a horror game/movie, you’d have a point about not identifying ‘the bad guy” so early. But since this is NOT horror, you have no case here either. Let’s move on.
“The light then gives me a revolver, telling me I have to shoot the darkness-freed hiked because he can’t be saved. Ok … killing a normal looking guy because he’s tainted … seems a little sketch, but I’ll do it.”
Lol, he is so not a normal looking guy just because the darkness is no longer protecting him. If you’da taken the time to notice, he still looks quite a great deal like a zombie.
“It’s RT to shoot, but I think I aim with the way I’m facing — that’s seems very old Resident Evil not good.”
Blasphemy! The gameplay in Alan Wake is vastly superior to ANYTHING Resident Evil has done. You just need to get the hang of it, which is something every game requires.
“A dark tornado thing appears behind me, and have to run across the bridge and dodge holes the tornado causes. I die once on the road because I can’t judge how far I can jump.”
Why on earth were you trying to jump over holes that size in the first place? Yep. It’s official. You started playing this game when really you wanted to play from an entirely different genre.
Facial animations were awful, I will give you that one.
“They’re on a boat moving towards the town of Bright Falls. (Not Silent Hill. No sir. Totally different.)”
It IS totally different from Silent Hill…?
“I zoom over the town and I assume I’m previewing things I’m doing later.”
…Why?
“my agent calls to thank me (Alan automatically picks up the phone when it rings.)”
Are you implying you need a phone button? Why would you? Does Marcus Fenix in Gears of War need a phone button? Why would Alan? Story-centered games do not need phone buttons, just so you know 😛
“Man, does this game want to be Silent Hill with the way we’re wandering around a sleepy town.”
Okay, just to squash this whole “Bright Falls = Silent Hill” argument here and now, Bright Falls = TWIN PEAKS. Ok? It’s been confirmed by Remedy (not that it needed to be) that it was this fictional town that was the inspiration for the setting. Compared to Twin Peaks, Silent Hill has practically nothing in common with Bright Falls.
“There’s an old guy at a table who asks me to turn on a jukebox in the most over-the-top old man shtick I have seen in a game ever.”
The fact that they’re dressed like bikers is enough to neutralize this comment, I think.
“As I start walking away, I find my first of 100 collectable — get this — coffee thermoses. Yeah, seriously, thermoses. I almost laugh out loud at this. Is there anything in the world less frightening than a thermos?”
Why are you holding collectibles to the standard of “Does it scare me?”, is the real question.
Anyhow, it appears I was right when I guessed this was the collectible you meant. So let me say again, I would love to get a better suggestion from you for collectibles in this game. I’m sure it would be very interesting, but I’m also sure none of your suggestions would be more fitting to the world of Alan Wake.
“I walk out, and a woman at the front of the hall tells me that I was lucky not to get hurt in the dark. Ok, this story is moving WAY too fast and trying WAY too hard.”
And this criticism is WAY too inarticulate.
“There’s a little Orbison-like music as we look over the pretty lake that the cabin is on.”
Umm, that would be “In Dreams”, by Roy Orbison, lol.
“In every non-combat action in this game, there’s an annoying delay between button press and action. I have no idea why that is, but it makes the whole game feel sluggish.”
How on earth does this one thing that comprises less than 1% of your time in the game make the WHOLE game “feel sluggish”? You know what, I think you’re the only one trying too hard here. Trying to find a flaw that actually diminishes the enjoyment of the game, you know, for normal people.
“I can hit select to actually read the pages — not good writing at all.”
It shows a cut scene later in the game to give you an idea why the writing isn’t “good”. Lots of critics miss the point by a mile and harp on the “bad writing” in the manuscript. I’m sure you will too.
“Inside, Alan CS gets his flashlight (with RIDICULOUS Energizer product placement) and gun.”
Actually, I barely noticed this one. It’s one of the examples of product placement done RIGHT in video games. That, and the commercial later.
“The phone in here gets cut. I’m picking up ammo as I see forklift heading toward the cabin and then I suddenly die. Why?”
For someone who thought the rather modest product placement in this scene was so blatant to be “ridiculous”, you sure don’t pay attention to more important aspects of the game you’re playing as you play it. Recall that the portable office you walk into here is near the edge of a cliff (It shows you this in one of those “kooky” zooms you disparaged the presence of earlier) and then again you have the chance to notice by looking out the window once you get inside the office. But I guess you found the ultra-subtle “product placement” too distracting to think about, Idk, SURVIVAL. Anyway, yeah that “forklift” (which was actually a bulldozer, BTW) pushed the office off the cliff, that’s why you died.
“I respawn in the cabin and oh there’s a door that opens when the forklift hits the shed.”
*sigh* The “cabin”/”shed” is an office, and the “forklift” is a bulldozer.
“I die once from a fall, because it is WAY WAY too easy to run to my death. WHY DOESN’T THE CHARACTER STOP AT CLIFFS?!? FUCK YOU GAME!!!”
Given my very recent education on your inability to see cliffs… I’m gonna say it was probably your fault you died.
“I find a path and then have to navigate around a set of islands, because Alan says something about the water being bad.”
Or because falling into a raging river with water flowing that fast would certainly kill/injure you.
“There are yellow arrows painted on the logs pointing in a direction but there doesn’t seem to be anything over there.”
There was a ladder, which led to an ammo cache.
“I do find a thermos in the middle of the fight, you know, to reinforce the terror.”
I would say if anything hindered your ability to feel the tension in this game’s combat and atmosphere, it was your own obsession with trying to find flaws while also trying to play the game. It would explain how many times you died in this episode, and so much more. Collectibles in video games need not serve any purpose other than being collectible. If you don’t want them, DON’T GET THEM.
“I get inside an open garage and see myself writing on TV. Wide early stab at plot: I was writing story to bring Alice back, but that mourning woman was writing some other story to kill me. The light is Alan the author talking to Alan the character. That where I put my money.”
It’s an interesting interpretation. And except for the part about the woman and Alan physically writing different stories, it could actually be true.
” I find phone and call the sheriff. In CS, the creepily modeled cop arrives. Alan explains that he’s been in an accident but the cop says there’s no island where Alan says there’s an island. She asks about Stucky but Alan doesn’t answer, knowing she won’t believe him. We cut to Alan looking over the lake and seeing no island.
“The game title comes up suddenly, and it’s end of episode one. There is a black screen with that message. It seems to be a song interlude of an Orbison like song (“In dreams I walk with you†is a line). Huh, this makes no sense. I let it run until a verse completes and when a second one starts, I decide to skip. What is this previously on Alan Wake montage that follows? I just played this. Man, this game has a bunch of weird and not-working narrative tricks in it.”
For you to sit there and claim the narrative “tricks” aren’t “working”, you would need to establish just what you think they were supposed to be accomplishing. To me, it’s rather simple. They were going for a TV series like feel. It’s the reason for the narration, zooms, cinematics, calling the levels “episodes”, the songs playing at the end of each (which, BTW, Alan Wake has an amazing soundtrack!), and the “Previously on Alan Wake” montage. I will continue reading your review, page by page. Always like an opportunity to discuss this game because IT’S GREAT!
Wow, well I appreciate you taking the time to read the whole thing and comment so much. I obviously don’t agree with almost anything you’re saying, but that’s a difference of opinion. Let me just clarify two things:
– I don’t want Alan to be a marine. I want to control him in a natural way to what I expect from a game of that year. The controls are just wonky. They aren’t challenging (see Silent Hill 2) or experimental (see Heavy Rain) — they are just weird. Nonetheless, as you’ll see later, I like the level design in this game, and the combat scenes using darkness are the best things that the game has.
– Narrating over something I’m currently doing and adding no insight, or telling me what’s about to happen on screen in the next minute, is not good writing. It just spoils the suspense. The writing needs to be exceptional to not just be redundant with the things I’m seeing on the screen, and whatever you think of this game, the writing is NOT exceptional. That makes the narration repetitive, and repetitive is bad writing.
By the way, I write this blog in basically a stream of consciousness with one quick edit, so the fact that you would compare my writing to something that was developed over several years means either my ad hoc writing is amazing, or my point about the quality of the writing in Alan Wake is quite accurate.
Anything you disagree with, I am obviously willing to discuss. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve no reason to think so yet 🙂
“- I don’t want Alan to be a marine. I want to control him in a natural way to what I expect from a game of that year. The controls are just wonky. They aren’t challenging (see Silent Hill 2) or experimental (see Heavy Rain) — they are just weird. Nonetheless, as you’ll see later, I like the level design in this game, and the combat scenes using darkness are the best things that the game has.”
I’m glad you came to appreciate certain aspects of the game. I think most people DO, if they play the game further than just the first two levels. But I’m still baffled by this criticism of the controls. “Wonky” doesn’t tell us much. What happens when you try to control your character? I found the controls to be DIFFERENT, sure, but perfectly responsive. That’s, you know, figuring you’re not getting hit it the head with an ax at the same second you’re pushing the button for Alan to shoot and wondering why he isn’t doing it.
Perhaps there is no way to articulate what you mean when you say the controls aren’t natural and are “just weird”. I can appreciate that you didn’t like the controls, however, even without understanding exactly why. I’ve been turned off LOTS of games because I personally just didn’t care for the controls.
“- Narrating over something I’m currently doing and adding no insight, or telling me what’s about to happen on screen in the next minute, is not good writing.”
Narrating over something the player is currently doing and narrating events the player is currently observing are somewhat different, I submit. If the narration is “I picked up the revolver” AS Alan picks up the revolver, that would be weird. If, however, it says “I knew I would have to use the gun to defend myself” (not a line in the game, just an example), I don’t see anything wrong with that. It gives you the objective in a story-telling fashion. I won’t deny there are SOME instances in which the narration is completely unnecessary and sure, maybe even a poor decision. But as I pointed out just in your summary of the first episode, the narration is sometimes important (e.g., when you need to inform the player of something only the protagonist has the means to know – like who that first villain was).
“It just spoils the suspense. The writing needs to be exceptional to not just be redundant with the things I’m seeing on the screen, and whatever you think of this game, the writing is NOT exceptional. That makes the narration repetitive, and repetitive is bad writing.”
I’m sorry, I can’t get on board with “If it’s not exceptional, it’s bad”. But I can acknowledge that there are problems with the writing. I just didn’t see enough of them to distract me from the story itself, the gameplay itself, the atmosphere, etc.
“By the way, I write this blog in basically a stream of consciousness with one quick edit, so the fact that you would compare my writing to something that was developed over several years means either my ad hoc writing is amazing, or my point about the quality of the writing in Alan Wake is quite accurate.”
Umm, I DIDN’T compare your summary with the writing in Alan Wake. If by chance you are referring to the very first thing I said, I was talking about how the other person who commented on your summary was suggesting a language barrier was to blame for the “bad writing/narrative”, while being barely understandable himself! And then swearing.
THANK YOU for actually letting my comment through! This is what I was waiting on before reading and commenting further, to see if this page had been abandoned or was being governed by an admin with a bias, quite frankly.