Day 2 of Alan Wake improves, but still has major issues. Combat remains fun and the story gets more compelling with a couple of twists. However, it remains resolutely not scary and has far too many cheesy moments. The episode ending tropes continue to upset me and the game is just ugly in places. This episode is a big run with some nice touches but a horror game with a lame plot and nothing scary cannot be considered a success. Enough to keep me going so far, but no high marks. Spoilers within.
We start up again back in Alan’s apartment three years earlier. I turn on the coffee at Alice’s request and head into her study. The game is feeling very Heavy Rain in its domesticity right now. I go see Alice, as per game command — the compass is directing me clearly around the apartment now. She made covers for my new book and she flirts with me a little while we discuss it. I go into my study to look at them, and Alan likes them. She’s worried about what Barry will say. There’s another thermos here. Suddenly, the lights go out and Alice starts to panic. I have to go to fuse box and do, but the power’s out. I get a flashlight and go back to Alice. We cut to a CS of them talking by candlelight. She’s explaining her phobia of the dark, and he tells her about a clicker that his mother gave him when he was scared of the dark as a child. She takes it from him and they kiss. Foreshadowing gotten.
We cut back to the present in a CS of Alan with a doctor asking him about his health. There’s a flash of the lake and an axe. Alan’s voice-over says that he’s not telling the doctor anything. I get control and leave the doctor, voice-over dutifully explaining all of this as I do it. I have to find the sheriff, and do so in her office. She has my charged cell phone. The sheriff is looking for my wife, and as they discuss this, we cut to a CS version of the same conversation. Alan’s phone rings and he takes it. It’s Alice and some guy holding her hostage, it seems. I get control back as the guy tells me to go to the back lot of the station to find something — I bet it’s a body part! — and then meet him at Lover’s Peak at midnight. I go through the cell block as Alan’s voice-over repeats the instructions I quite literally just got over the phone. Sigh. Out in the parking lot, I jump a low wall into a garden and kick down boards to reach the old car the kidnapper mentioned. Oh it’s just her driver’s license. Game wasn’t as cheesy as I thought. My phone rings again, and the kidnapper reminds me to meet him at Lover’s Peak and not tell the cops.
I go back into the station, find a couple more manuscript pages, and a TV turns on while I’m leaving. On TV , Alan says the world a writer makes only lasts as long as he writes. To leave the office, I have to go past the sheriff. When I try, we cut to a CS of the sheriff making sure Alan is okay and Alan bluffing through and asking about places to stay in town. The doctor of artists is here and he offers his place as a hotel. Alan demands to know if the doctor knows Alice, and the doctor then reveals that he is the one who invited Alice here. Alan punches him. Alan’s agent Barry comes in and arrogantly threatens everyone with litigation if they don’t back down. The doctor says it’s okay and restates his offer of a place to stay. Alan leaves with Barry who reprimands him for causing bad press.
We cut to a camera zoom over the mountains, and Alan’s voice-over explains that he told Barry everything. Barry doesn’t believe any of the supernatural stuff, but he is just happy about a new manuscript. We’re going to the cabins the cops mentioned as a place to stay and arrive outside. Rose (the waitress) is there and she knows Barry. She tells them that Rusty has their key. Alan can’t stand her for seemingly no reason. She finishes talking and leaves, and Barry scopes her as she goes by. Barry, by the way, is also a creepy model too but at least he has decent voice action. I take control as we enter in the cabin.
As we head inside, Barry keeps insisting that Alan’s story makes no sense. The physical movement of the characters through the conversation is terrible — there is nothing natural at all about the way they move. Inside, I find Rusty on a balcony treating a dog that got caught in a bear trap. He’s renting the cabins and wants me to get the forms for him from the office. I bring him the forms and he gives me the keys and, at Alan’s request, the instructions to Lover’s Peak. I leave the center and we cut to a CS of Barry and Alan at their cabin arguing about what to do about the kidnapper. Alan knocks over a lamp in a truly pitiful angry animation — the lamp doesn’t so much fall as float to the ground. I get control as I leave to go to Lover’s Peak.
I find batteries and then head out of the cabin. Alan voice-overs about how he knows what he’s doing is dumb. I head down a forest path and there’s a quick cheap scare from an animal in a garbage car. I enter a cabin on way to explore and I find some ammo. I turn on the lights, just in case, and head back to the road. The ground starts shaking but that does nothing obvious. In the next cabin, I see another Twilight Zone-ish show that’s not as good. Back on the path, I get another flashback of water and typewriters and find a couple more manuscript pages, these telling me bad things are going to happen to Rusty. As I continue on, I arrive back at the center where I got the key from Rusty. As I get there, I hear Rusty screaming and go to help him. We cut to a CS where Alan sees him on ground, his legs messed up. He’s talking about how he saw all of this on a page. I did too, and I’m not sure I like ruining the surprise by seeing these things before they happen in pages. I tell him he needs to get the lights on, and he gives me keys to the main office across the center to turn on the lights there.
I go to the office, but inside an axe is buried in the fuse box so there are no lights coming back here. I go back to the center, and Rusty is now evil darkness Rusty. I kill him exactly like the last boss I took down. I kill 4 other Taken, get more pages, and keep going through a hole in the center. Barry calls having heard an explosion and I tell him to stay inside with the lights on. I find the path to Lover’s Peak. I kill three more Taken, and get more batteries (not that I seem to be using them — flashlights recharge energy without costing a battery if I don’t lose the whole energy meter before giving the flashlight a break.) I continue my run through the woods, and the world starts to get twisted and weird around me. I kill three more Taken at a lightning-struck tree. I die in next fight when the Taken surround me. When I respawn, I get a generator started, scaring off the remaining attackers. I get more ammo. I get to a new section with more Taken. Dodging in this game sucks; it’s impossible to see all of the potential attacks coming at your from the camera angle, and the game doesn’t seem to register a dodge command on occasion. I die once in this fight when I’m overrun, and I die again trying to get to a nearby light source. The third time I make it by running to the light but I’m almost out of bullets. I reach a point where I need to take a tram across a river — it’s an obvious trap. And lo, a third of the way across, birds attack tram. I think I’m killing them with the flashlight, but I’m not sure. The tram suddenly accelerates and it drops me on the other side. There’s a CS of Alan waking up on the ground with the flashlight a little away from him. The Taken are approaching. Alan reaches for the flashlight, but the Taken get to it first. A flare suddenly kills the Taken. A guy appears to give me flares and offer to go together to the Peak.
I get control back as Alan asks him what’s going on. The guy cryptically (and somewhat cheesily) says that this is the way the story goes. As I follow him, Alan realizes that this guy must be the kidnapper – how else would he know who I am or how to find me? We fight our way to Lover’s Peak — me on my flashlight (I lost my gun in the tram crash) and the kidnapper on the revolver. We reach the entrance to Lover’s Peak, but it’s boarded up — he’s going to get boards off while I use flares to hold the Taken off. I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing with the flares but I guess I throw enough to hold them off. We go up to the lights at the top of Lover’s Peak. In CS, Alan has a conversation with the kidnapper. He wants the entire manuscript or he’ll kill Alice. Alan hits him in anger and they both fall off of the platform. Alan gets the gun and the kidnapper runs off as I get control back.
I have to cross a bunch of ledges via fallen logs, and as I do, he gets away (I think inevitably). As I continue, I see a shining thing on the ground. I don’t know what it is, so I approach it. Oh it’s a bear trap. I hit A to get out of it and then kill an opportunistic Taken that rushes me as I’m caught. I run through woods dodging bear traps. I kill a few more Taken and run some more. I get to another generator after killing 4 more Taken. I see the wrecked plane I heard (did I?) before. The plane is way too old — it’s like from the 40’s. I do more traveling, killing Taken and getting to checkpoints. I finally get to a mill with a ladder and then go up in the mill. I have to kick a weight down to go up an elevator to the very top floor. There, I climb a ladder and get on to a new plateau. I equip up there with ammo and batteries. I travel a bit more through the woods and get into a clearing with a broken down shed. I get a hunting rifle and some new pages. I climb up a hill and kill two big ‘uns — that’s pretty fun. I hike more uphill to face a chainsaw guy (predicted by the pages). There are goons hidden behind him that kill me because dodging is wonky, but then I burn a bunch of flares and quickly kill them.
I get back to the campground center, and while I’m in a light checkpoint, Barry calls to say birds have surrounded the house. I tell him to keep the lights on. I get to a garage with a car inside. I need a key to unlock the garage. I go into a men’s bathroom across the way. I find the keys there and see a TV that shows more about me writing. I get jumped by a Taken in a stall on the way out; it’s not scary and I kill it quickly. I get hunting rifle ammo in women’s room. I get in the car and take it as far as I can, ramming Taken along the way. The drive is backtracking over places I’ve been. I have to leave the car at a road block and continue on foot. On the way, I find a flare gun but then I waste a shot from it in the subsequent fight because I didn’t realize it was equipped when I picked it up. That’s an easy fight and I keep going. The kidnapper calls. When I tell him I haven’t completed the manuscript yet, he says he wants it done in two days and hangs up. I get to the house and there are tons of birds in the sky. I have to fight birds back when they descend on me, but I have no idea where they come from when they dive. The fight takes forever and I die in it twice, but I finally defeat them with lots of flares and batteries lost, and the scene cuts as I enter the house.
Dawn rises and Barry goes to town to try to id the kidnapper among the townsfolk. Alan has to write the manuscript, but he can’t do it; he’s blocked. There’s a CS of Barry on his cell with Rose. She says (over the phone) that she found more pages and that we should come and get them. When the call ends, we see Rose hang up the phone. She has been taken by darkness and the woman in black is there, telling her she did a good job. We zoom out to another song, see the title card, and have another pointless music interlude.
I go on to episode 3 and see another previous story montage. Why? How is this useful? Episode 3 starts with a CS of Barry and Alan arriving at Rose’s trailer park. The sheriff calls — there’s an Agent Nightingale wants to meet me. I’ve read about Nightingale in the pages and I don’t think the agent is trustworthy. And that’s it for tonight.
“it remains resolutely not scary and has far too many cheesy moments.”
I don’t think this game was supposed to be “scary” in terms of instilling fear in the player. It wasn’t marketed as Survival Horror. They even identified it as part of the Thriller genre on the front of the case, probably to minimize how many critics compared it to Silent Hill or Resident Evil…
One thing I DID fear, however, was that this “cheesy” complaint of yours would not stop in the first page you wrote. And I was right. I just wish I knew what you meant by it.
“I get control and leave the doctor, voice-over dutifully explaining all of this as I do it.”
That doesn’t happen. The narration only explains why Alan didn’t tell Doctor Nelson the truth. Then, if you linger, it gives Alan’s first impression of the doctor. It says nothing about leaving the doctor or the room he’s in, or even heading to the Sheriff’s office.
“I go through the cell block as Alan’s voice-over repeats the instructions I quite literally just got over the phone. Sigh.”
This is fair criticism, I think. The narration does quote the purported kidnapper to remind the player (unnecessarily) where he/she’s supposed to be going. But at least it began with “The early morning light hurt my eyes and made my head ache.” So it’s kind of a useful narration (keeping you connected with the player’s feelings/thoughts) immediately followed by something you and I agree is unnecessary.
“Oh it’s just her driver’s license. Game wasn’t as cheesy as I thought. My phone rings again, and the kidnapper reminds me to meet him at Lover’s Peak and not tell the cops.”
No. The kidnapper doesn’t call again. It’s Barry that calls you here.
“Rose (the waitress) is there and she knows Barry. She tells them that Rusty has their key. Alan can’t stand her for seemingly no reason.”
Well he calls her an airhead, defined in the dictionary as “A silly, rather unintelligent person”. To be fair, she does give off that vibe. But to be even MORE fair, Alan Wake is a jerk (Can I say what I’m really thinking? Oh well, this will have to do), pinning his inner unhappiness on people who slightly annoy him, particularly the fans that worship him. Make no mistake, I cannot defend his character. But I don’t think we’re meant to. Guilt becomes a theme in the story later on, and it’s a common one in the horror/thriller genres. Further, I found it oddly refreshing to play such a “human” character. Most video game protagonists are one point short of perfection in all they do, particularly in the social realm. I was endeared to Remedy’s concept of a “hero” here. One more way the game’s just different, and I liked it. But yeah, he’s a… jerk 🙂
“As we head inside, Barry keeps insisting that Alan’s story makes no sense. The physical movement of the characters through the conversation is terrible — there is nothing natural at all about the way they move.”
That’s a good call. Guess it’s not just facial animations they should’ve worked on a bit more. And good eye on the lamp thing! Though I don’t get your attention span at times. Good eye anyway. If you ever work on a video game, I hope they put you in charge of animation!
“I head down a forest path and there’s a quick cheap scare from an animal in a garbage car.”
Op! Was that you admitting you got scared? I think so! Ladies and gentlemen, there’s hope for this man! 😛 That didn’t scare me, what scared ME in this section was how in the first cabin you can enter (that isn’t yours) you can turn to face one of the windows and see a Taken walk by real close. Idk why, but that one got to me.
“We cut to a CS where Alan sees him on ground, his legs messed up. He’s talking about how he saw all of this on a page. I did too, and I’m not sure I like ruining the surprise by seeing these things before they happen in pages.”
Fortunately this doesn’t happen all too often (and the manuscripts aren’t always clear about what’s going to happen to whom, and when!) But there is actually a good storyline explanation for those times it does happen, and that’s that Thomas Zane is intentionally leaving them in Alan’s path so he can be ready. But he’s pretty bad at it, which is good for us! I agree that doing this too much would be bad, no matter what reason they gave.
“I go back to the center, and Rusty is now evil darkness Rusty. I kill him exactly like the last boss I took down.”
Heck, I didn’t even notice this. It’s true that the first two bosses move the same, lightning-fast, showing up all too close to you before you even know it. Idk why I didn’t catch it before, but I’m glad the rest of the bosses aren’t like that. I would’ve definitely noticed!
“Dodging in this game sucks; it’s impossible to see all of the potential attacks coming at your from the camera angle, and the game doesn’t seem to register a dodge command on occasion.”
You have to time it right. He won’t dodge if he’s not moving (naturally). I think they wanted to make the player use his legs “button” and upper body dodge button at once, as you would have to move both to dodge successfully in real life. And, not being able to see all of the enemies at times is a huge part of what creates suspense in thriller/horror stories. It’s just frustrating to see it in video games because, you know, we want to be in control dammit!
“I reach a point where I need to take a tram across a river — it’s an obvious trap.”
…How? What makes it “obvious”?
I’m surprised you passed up the opportunity to give the game a gold star for changing the combat up here. I mean, one of the main things people say about this game is that the combat is repetitive. Yet, here you are with just a flashlight and having to work with the kidnapper to stay alive, and it gets no mention, nor does the fight with the birds 🙁
The flares keep the Taken away from you (or the flare if you drop it) temporarily. It explains that in the game.
“I climb up a hill and kill two big ‘uns — that’s pretty fun. I hike more uphill to face a chainsaw guy (predicted by the pages).”
Yeah, but way back in a shed before you had reached the fallen plane! Be honest, you had completely forgotten about it by this point 😉
“I get jumped by a Taken in a stall on the way out; it’s not scary and I kill it quickly.”
Now that part DID make me jump. I was totally unprepared for it.
“The drive is backtracking over places I’ve been.”
Not in the gameplay, you haven’t.
“We zoom out to another song, see the title card, and have another pointless music interlude.”
Did you listen to it? Every song they play is actually quite fitting, but this one rocked it. Again, TV shows and such do this pretty often, and that’s obviously the feel they were going for. I liked it, Alan Wake’s got one of the best video game soundtracks I’ve ever heard.
“I go on to episode 3 and see another previous story montage. Why? How is this useful?”
See above.
One thing I have to admit. Your summaries are very thorough. I’m enjoying them, if only because they make me feel like I’m playing the game all over again! Cheers.