According to writer Sam Lake, the core game design, situations, and content have been set since E3 in June 2009. That means nearly a year of polish time. Was it because the game needed it? For sure, our hands-on time illustrated the fine balancing act required when delivering innovative, tightly scripted action with fun gameplay. A sense of tension, foreboding and danger at every turn underpins the survival horror genre, and our time with Alan Wake revealed plenty of the same atmosphere. But the polish time is clearly vital as the developer grapples with keeping the hero real, fragile, challenged and heroic.
The idyllic town of Bright Falls is the backdrop, and you have to think that Lake watched plenty of Northern Exposure; this Pacific Northwest setting feels much like the Alaskan town that played such a vital role in the 90s TV show. Suffering writer’s block, novelist Wake is on a mind-clearing journey with his wife when he’s involved in an accident and his spouse goes missing. So begins an adventure where he discovers pages from his own manuscript — that he can’t recall writing — that portend later events, written in a style that provides hints and tips for how to deal with many of the potentially deadly situations.
The pacing is dictated by an episodic format that reminds you where in the story you are, who’s told you what, and where you should be heading next. But while Alan Wake is a linear storyline, it’s told along a TV-style timeline. Complete an episode and you’ll get the “Previously on…” introduction of events from earlier cut scenes – yet when the phrase “And now, Alan Wake continues…” beckons, it’s quite possible you’ll play out a scene labelled “Two years earlier…” Even in current time, Bright Falls radios provide handy background info, and you could catch a chat show interview with yourself on TV that at least provides context for your current mindset, if not tips how to proceed.
Wake is faced with a zombie-like dark presence — zombie people, zombie birds, zombie who-knows-what — which he can blast with a light source. This could be a torch, a flare, or a giant spotlight acting like a mounted gun. They’re then vulnerable to traditional bullet wounds, but ammo management is important, requiring diligence as you search each out-house and shack for batteries and bullets.
The thirdperson action is where most of the polish has been focused. The acting is generally excellent, and in our brief hands-on time the game never lets you forget it’s trying to tell a serious story. That said, supporting characters do provide comic relief. A terrified buddy covers himself in Christmas lights, complete with a bulb on his forehead, and declares, “It’s my flaming eye of Mordor.”
But the action sequences can be tricky. Solutions to scripted events aren’t always apparent, even at the start when a rogue bulldozer trashes the hut you’re investigating. A safe exit isn’t immediately apparent and insta-death beckons if you don’t react in time. Similarly, the combat can be plain freaky as you cast around in the dark, flashing light at anything that might be moving to try and spot an enemy. Time a dodge perfectly and the action slips into stylish slo-mo (the Max Payne hallmark), and as Lake reveals, “it wouldn’t be a Remedy game without a dream sequence.”