Alan Wake isn’t a terrible game. It’s mostly mediocre. There are a few good elements and a number of passable ones. But it just isn’t scary. And for a story about writers, the writing is just sad. As you’ll see in an upcoming Stochastic Thought, it’s an interesting example of how not to make a horror game, but even as a normal gameplay experience, I think you’re better off playing something that doesn’t have such glaring flaws. Details within.
Pros
- Until it gets repetitive, the combat is pretty good. The idea of using light as a set-up weapon is an interesting one, and it creates an interesting combat mechanic, especially with the area of effect light weapons such as flares.
- In particular, the level design of the combat shines in places. There are some combat situations where there are clear theses at work, and where strategy plays a part. There were quite a few fights that I enjoyed figuring out.
- Landscapes are good looking and evoke a small town on the woods quite well. The forests look like forests, and when characters praise the view of the lake, you can see what they are talking about.
Cons
- The characters are some of the creepiest I have seen in a while. In particular, the female characters are horrifying — your “beautiful” wife maybe the scariest thing in the game. It’s 2010 — there is no excuse for this in a console game today.
- The game repeatedly returns to the same tropes. I know that you want me to have a challenge, but constantly stripping me of equipment or making me jump over the same hurdles does not make the game more interesting. Players can see through these things if they are obvious, and here you can actually see the marks of the cookie cutter on the scenes.
- The writing is not good. There are moments of truly stilted dialogue, characters have motivations that don’t make sense, and the end of the game failed to make its resolution clear. The TV tropes to which Alan Wake refers do not work in a game. Perhaps worst of all, the game is full of spoilers that both are terribly written as narrative pieces in and of themselves and suck all the tension, surprise, and drama out of the game. When your main character is a writer, this is not an acceptable failing.
- The game is not scary. It’s just that simple. There are lots of reasons why: the exposition (which the game does despite literally quoting Stephen King about why you shouldn’t explain things), the nature of the enemies, the meta themes of the plot, the main character’s personality and abilities. But aside from a few sudden shocks, the game is never frightening at all. Horror game that’s not scary = FAIL
Overall
Alan Wake has some interesting things in it and I’m glad I played it through as a research assignment, but it’s simply not a good game. If it weren’t a horror game about an author, I could call it an average game that might be worth playing as a filler between better titles. But since it IS a horror game about an author, the fact that it isn’t remotely scary and is poorly written pushes Alan Wake over the line to terrible. Rent it if you really like darkness or want to see how horror games can go wrong, but I can’t recommend anyone buy it.
“But it just isn’t scary.”
It’s not meant to be. You’re thinking of Survival Horror, and this (as the case plainly tells you) is a Psychological Thriller. Thriller and horror are not synonyms.
“And for a story about writers, the writing is just sad.”
I disagree, and am looking forward to any elaboration on this point.
“The characters are some of the creepiest I have seen in a while. In particular, the female characters are horrifying — your “beautiful†wife maybe the scariest thing in the game. It’s 2010 — there is no excuse for this in a console game today.”
You are referring to poor facial animations, yes? I do acknowledge this is a flaw in the game. They should’ve made it better. However, there is exactly one moment in the game that the player should find it distracting, IMO, and that’s when it first shows Alice’s face. It’s nowhere near that bad at any other point in the game, for any other character.
“The game repeatedly returns to the same tropes. I know that you want me to have a challenge, but constantly stripping me of equipment or making me jump over the same hurdles does not make the game more interesting.”
I for one am very glad it took equipment away as often as it did. There would be no sense of vulnerability if I could’ve stayed stocked up on any regular basis.
And I don’t recall jumping over obstacles being such a huge part of the game either.
“The writing is not good. There are moments of truly stilted dialogue,”
True of almost every video game. I think the writing is fine with the exception of manuscripts that were (in-game) incantations only written to alter reality, not to compete with actual works of art.
“characters have motivations that don’t make sense,”
I can’t think of a single example of this.
“and the end of the game failed to make its resolution clear.”
Nonsense. It just didn’t wrap everything up all nice and neat. And this is actually quite common in horror/thriller, as well as a lot of TV series that are out nowadays (and that’s an obvious angle for this game). The closure you get is all you need, however. The in-game objective is to save Alice. You did! Be happy.
“The TV tropes to which Alan Wake refers do not work in a game.”
Such as?
“Perhaps worst of all, the game is full of spoilers that both are terribly written as narrative pieces in and of themselves and suck all the tension, surprise, and drama out of the game.”
I don’t agree with this either. There are very few actual spoilers (that is, something that truly spoils an event because the event immediately follows it, rather than giving you time to forget what you read and still be surprised when it comes around). And the events that DO immediately follow the manuscripts/narration aren’t very important to the plot to begin with, so it’s a non-issue. Lastly, I can’t think of any actual flaws in the narrative. Heck, even the manuscripts (covered already) are inflicted with shortcomings (if you insist on comparing them to the final draft of something a writer writes on his own and of his own free will) but not flaws.
“The game is not scary. It’s just that simple. There are lots of reasons why:”
Main reason: It’s not supposed to be. Horror and thriller are separate genres with separate goals.
“the exposition (which the game does despite literally quoting Stephen King about why you shouldn’t explain things),”
It actually doesn’t explain much, no.
“the nature of the enemies, the meta themes of the plot, the main character’s personality and abilities.”
Nature of the enemies – They’re creepy “zombie-like” ax-wielding serial killers who can often spawn just a few feet away from you and move faster.
Meta themes of the plot – Not sure what you mean here, but the plot doesn’t take away from the chill factor, in my view.
Alan’s personality – How does him being a jerk make it any less thrilling that you might get killed out in the woods alone?
Alan’s abilities – In addition to not having a reliably full-stocked inventory (like you were saying he should), he can’t run very fast nor very far. You feel vulnerable and weak compared to the Taken in too many locations to count. Even you said you died pretty often (You actually told us when and where).
“Horror game that’s not scary = FAIL”
Not knowing Alan Wake is of the thriller genre even though it says it on the front of the case = FAIL also.