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Stephen King once wrote that "Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear." In a horror story, the victim keeps asking "why?" But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn't be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it's what we'll remember in the end. My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer.
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XBOX 360:
1 Player
In-Game Dolby Digital
HDTV 480p/720P/1080i
16:9 Widescreen
XBOX LIVE:
Game-Content (DLC) Downloads (July 27, 2010 [Add-on, 560 MSP] & TBA [Add-on, 560 MSP]) ((DLC is free to who purchased game new))
MSP = MICROSOFT POINTS
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INFORMATION: GAME PACKAGE , XBOX.COM
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Overview
Alan Wake is Third Person Shooter that picks up on a story of a writer, Alan Wake, who sets out on a vacation to a small Northwest Pacific town, Bright Falls. Alan and his wife, Alice, come to the island in harmony, but all turns hell. Alice is gone, and Alan finds himself behind the wheel of his crashed Lincoln crossover. But before all of this happened, while on the way to Bright Falls, Alan had a nightmare. The nightmare introduced The Taken, groups of local citizens who are infected with a black oily and smokey substance. The Taken's role is to kill Wake, but he later discovers that what he writes is coming to life. What he wrote made The Taken come to life. What he did changes his vacation beyond what he thought he'd ever see.
Alan Wake is a single-player only game. The following are subcategories of the single-player mode.
Story (Possible Spoilers)
Alan Wake is a writer who came to the Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls, Washington with his wife Alice for a vacation. Alan wanted to take a break off of writing, after writing got to his head. Parties had taken over his life at one point, and alcohol changed the way he acted. He even got into some trouble over taking a successful swing after a paparazzi. Yet, Alan finds the good side of things when he decides to take a break from everything that is occurring in his life, and takes a vacation.
Not getting too much into how everything occurs, as much as I'd love to, I can easily tell you that Alan Wake is pure story, and pure shooter. If you were worried that you would see a Nancy Drew mystery game, think again. Alan Wake's story may seem a bit childish sometimes, but then you sincerely realize that real-life ways are incorporated into the game. How everything acts, how every single word is an addition to the story, it's more than easy to see Alan Wake's look into real-life.
There are some odd parts, such as finding Manuscript pages that you supposedly wrote, which tell you more about the characters in the manuscript, or coming completely out of place and finding yourself under the supervision of a famous psychologist. You can even listen to radio broadcasts or watch shows on television during gameplay, which relate to the story of what's occurring to Alan Wake, or what's occurring to the town of Bright Falls. This adds odd and interesting parts to the story.
After completing a long-lasting level, your introduced to a scene stating you have completed the level, and the level's name. Then after that scene is gone, a short intro shows you what happened, stating "Previously on Alan Wake." This gives you a quick recap of what you've done, and also delivers and interesting episodic format that some may recognize from the television series "Lost". Lost ended only a few days after the release of Alan Wake, and many who rented or bought the game admit that this would be a substitute for the lost of their ABC program.
The story brings you straight into Wake's life, and everything that occurs is fascinating. Nothing over-outstanding occurs, but some cool, yet frightening scenes happen throughout the game. Narration from Wake is well-told, and is very vivid and ongoing. The story unravels in an amazing way; there are absolutely no shortcuts to the end. In short, Alan Wake is heavily story-driven. The game is almost like a movie, with cinematics the intro into the gameplay. Trust me, I could reveal so much. But that wouldn't be nice, now would it?
Gameplay
The gameplay in Alan Wake is very good, not amazing, but still stands out. Since the game is story-driven, even the gameplay has some tweaks where its cinematic. Dodging an enemy makes everything go in slow motion, and the camera moves to a better angle to show your almost-death. Something in the distance can be seen, only at certain parts, by pressing down on the left analog stick, revealing where your next destination is, or what is occurring over in that area. Parts like this bring the cinematics to the gameplay, without overdoing it.
Again, Alan Wake's gameplay is good, but nothing close to amazing. I almost saw the gameplay repetitive, continuously shining my flashlight in some black oil covered guy, waiting for the black to disappear, and then shooting at them, awaiting the fall of the foe, and the embers that show that he is dead. But, gameplay still brights out a lot, thanks to casual conversations between the citizens of Bright Falls, or with a friend. Even reading signs around Bright Falls brings delight, as it unravels the story, and is still an alternative to aiming down a target for a few seconds.
Killing an enemy is easy, but gets interesting sometimes when you got the longer-lasting foe with a larger weapon, such as a chainsaw. Just by emitting light onto a foe and making sure all the the black substance is gone, which will flash and sound when you have successfully done so, you can pull out your handgun, rifle, or shotgun and kill that fool.
And since Alan Wake is very cinematic, it's easy to forgive the "eh" gameplay. Those cinematic though- I wish there were more. (Movie?)
Soundtrack, Audio, Visuals.
Alan Wake's soundtrack is great. It's spooky, it's played at the right parts, and is just overall fantastic. Once you get to an area of battle- music will signal something isn't right, and bang: bad guys. Unfortunately, as much as the soundtrack was played at the right parts and was great, I felt a lack of it at some parts. Sometimes you just heard udder silence, which is fine when you're in a forest and everything is dark, but when there was light and everything, music could've been playing, and it wasn't.
The audio is great. Every noise you make is realistic, loud (but not overpowering) and is actually stellar. Hearing the frightening quotes from the Taken, from a car falling down a cliffside, the audio is well delivered and is right on. Everything that happens in the game usually has an audio clip, and it sounds fantastic.
Visually, Alan Wake delivers a pretty look. The trees, the plants, pretty much all the scenery is amazing looking, but character models could use some help, mainly around the face. The gameplay runs smooth graphically, there really aren't any bugs that are with it. Cinematics could use a bit of [more] help with the character models, and how some things move. You'll occasionally see some lagging with the clothing, expecially on Wake's agent Barry. He wears a big red jacket. The cars lag often too in the cinematics, they don't look like they're moving. The faces of the characters look decent, Wake seems to need the most help, with Barry right behind him. But other than that, Alan Wake is pretty. No, Alan Wake is not pretty- the GAME is pretty. The game OF Alan Wake. Yeah.
That is all.
Alan Wake was amazing. It really showed off a different form of gameplay, along with some amazing cinematics. Although the gameplay was almost your key into the next cinematic, it wasn't a set-back. The verdict: Rent it or Buy it. It's very different from any other game I've seen, and is truly worth your time.
Just an FYI: Alan Wake will be coming out with DLC this July 2010, and later this year. People who purchased the game new will get the DLC free. You can learn more about that here.
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