RWD get hands-on with one of Microsoft’s games of the year…

Life can be tough for a writer, stumbling through fields of literary context unable to find anything creative or original, pressure to output something brilliant making it difficult to even sit and concentrate. No, I’m not writing my RWD swansong, but shedding some light (you’ll see why that’s funny later) on the plight of poor Alan Wake, the hero of a game with the same name, and a renowned horror writer with a chronic case of writers block.

The game itself is an episodic march through Alan and his wife Alice’s retreat to Bright Falls, where they hope to get a little respite, some time together and give Alan some time to work on a new book. Far too pleasant for a video-game plotline you might think, and you most certainly will be right. It doesn’t take long for disaster to strike. Alice goes missing in mysterious circumstances, leaving Alan to search for her while haunted by the ghostly pages of a book he has no memory of writing.

What ensues is a deeply atmospheric, well paced story that grips you tightly and urges you to continue playing. The pages of the book, found littering the town, act as small prophecies which help guide you to your next objective while simultaneously turning the tension screw quite forcefully. All the while you are becoming slowly more afraid of the dark.

Literally. One of the main elements of the gameplay is a very simple light = good, darkness = bad dynamic (get the joke now?). Your enemies appear as physical manifestations of the evil of darkness, burned by the force of light… torch light; which makes batteries as valuable a find as handgun bullets. While initially this makes for an interesting new method of approaching combat, it soon becomes instinctive, and makes gunfights no more or less then gamers are used to.

But in general how does it play? If you consider the run and gun mechanic of the most recent Resident evil games, you won’t be far from the mark. The game guides you carefully through an engaging and at times thrilling storyline while staying distant enough to subdue accusations of hand-holding. Alan Wake does not reinvent the wheel though, with or without spirit defying torches. This is no bad thing. The strength of Alan Wake is its story, and with a rich well rendered world and unobtrusive controls this is allowed to thrive.

Some may bemoan the linearity of the world (the makers initially suggested that Alan Wake would have a more sandbox feel), others will complain that there is nothing genre-defining to carry forward. I think those people would still recommend you play Alan Wake. For those people who own an Xbox 360 this is the adventure to rival Uncharted 2. I recommend it.

Format: Xbox 360/ PC

Publisher: Microsoft

RWD Rating: 4/5

Tags: Games, PC, Unwind, XBox 360