Introduction
Alan Wake brings highly acclaimed psychological suspense and supernatural intrigue to the video games industry. Released in 2010, this action-adventure game, developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios, emerged as a captivating and innovative addition to the horror genre. With its enthralling narrative, unique gameplay mechanics, and atmospheric presentation, "Alan Wake" quickly gained a dedicated fan base and remains a topic of discussion among gamers and critics alike.
Set in the mysterious and foreboding Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls, Alan Wake follows the eponymous protagonist, a successful writer struggling with writer's block, as he embarks on a journey to find his missing wife. The game's narrative unfolds like a psychological thriller, infused with elements of supernatural suspense and psychological horror, inviting players to navigate a complex web of reality and imagination. As the story delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding Bright Falls, players are drawn into a tale that blurs the lines between reality and fiction, sanity and madness.
To Understand Alan Wake, You Have to Know Remedy Entertainment and Sam Lake
Sam Lake, the lead writer of Alan Wake and the now creative director at Remedy Entertainment, studied english literature at the University of Helsinki in Finland. He has been with the studio since shortly after it was founded in 1995. When working on their first game, Death Rally, Remedy's own game designer Petri Järvilehto needed someone to write dialogue, so he contacted his long-time friend Sam Lake to help out. And thus the creative genius and lifeblood of Remedy Entertainment was born.
Remedy is renowned for their cinematic single-player action games featuring a strong protagonist. According to the studio's managing director Matias Myllyrinne, Remedy aims for “movie realism” and tries to create content unique for the games industry. They always create the stories first and allow that to inform gameplay decisions. Major releases from Remedy Entertainment includes Death Rally, Max Payne 1 and 2, Alan Wake, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Quantum Break, Control, and the single-player campaign for CrossfireX, a first person shooter. They are also currently developing sequels to Control and Alan Wake, as well as a couple other games with only working titles. Nearly all of the company's brand value and reputation comes from the Max Payne franchise, and the Alan Wake IP and Control IP. The latter 2, exist in the same 'universe', and Max Payne exists in a separate parallel universe from Alan Wake and Control. (Quantum Break also exists in the Alan Wake and Control universe.)
So that's some of the studio history, but how Lake approaches storytelling relates to all this 'universe' talk we were doing in the last paragraph. Grasping this style requires one of three things from you:
- You've played a Remedy game (and no, the 1996 vehicular combat racing game Death Rally doesn't count, sorry).
- You've read multiple Stephen King books and are aware of the intersections therein.
- You are familiar with David Lynch and his works, particularly Twin Peaks.
note: There absolutely may be more influences that implement a similar approach to storytelling and media, but these three (and particularly the latter 2) are the most influential and far-reaching.
Sam Lake and Remedy drew heavy inspiration from King and Lynch when writing for Alan Wake. The setting echoes that of Lynch's Twin Peaks. The protagonist is a writer who is plagued by either writer's block or the machinations of his own writing. There are cooky characters that are influenced by sinister energies of the universe. There exists intriguing ambiguity that leaves fans eager to create theories and pen connections where no answer were explicitly given. Everything about the premise of Alan Wakes is destined to create a cult classic upon good execution, and by 2010's standards, Alan Wake absolutely delivers on that. Like the studio sets out to do when making games, there is nothing really like Alan Wake. Yes, there are games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and The Evil Within, but those are all characterized as survival horror games. Alan Wake is presented as a 'psychological action thriller' experience. Of those game comparisons, I would argue that it is most like The Evil Within, especially the 2nd game in the series (released in 2017). This is especially true of the late game of both these games, but I won't get into that now.
Okay, so let's get into the experience of actually playing Alan Wake. It doesn't hold up perfectly; there are some camera issues, some of the cinematic cutscenes drop frames, and the character models and animations are all dated, but Alan Wake is certainly playable, and those things can add to the 'retro' experience of playing a 2010 game (ancient, I know). Thankfully, Remedy made a remastered version of Alan Wake that released in 2021 with new assets and 60fps. It's no remake, but this is the best way to play Alan Wake today. This version also included the two DLCs, which are absolutely necessary to the story and experience.
Stay in the Light - Alan Wake's Gameplay
Alan Wake's gameplay consists of day sequences and night sequences. During the day, Wake isn't under much stress and you can walk around and interact with some NPCs and check out the beautiful and well-lit town and scenery. During the night, however, Wake is usually making his way from one place to another to advance the plot. This is where the core game experience is. These sections are usually quite linear and and consists of running through stretches of dark woods while fighting off a handful of 'taken' - townsfolk that are possessed by a dark force. The gameplay loop is all about positioning yourself appropriately (since the enemies can spawn in any position relative to you), shine your flashlight at them to make them vulnerable to bullets, and then light them up with your pistol, shotgun, or hunting rifle. There are a few other tools, like flare guns (OP, but quite scarce) and flashbangs (also very strong). Unfortunately, this process becomes quite repetitive. The environments are usually quite drab, and weapon and enemy variety is very limited. This would be a bigger problem if the game was longer, but it's not unbearable. The game does try to keep things interesting by adding lots of collectibles and bonus lore material like radio broadcasts and TV recordings, and there are often generators to power on or small environmental puzzles like moving a crane to cross a cavern.
Like I mentioned, the game is not too long, so this process is mostly engaging and fun. Here are some things I liked and didn't like about the gameplay:
Likes
- The soundtrack and licensed music
- Turning on power “minigame”
- Driving
- Flashbangs
- 'Night Springs' lore segments
- DLC!!
Dislikes
- Holding L3 for points of interest
- No stamina bar (panting audio cue is cool, but not sufficient for monitoring in intense moments)
- Fighting inanimate f***ing flying objects
- The camera
- The bear traps looks just like manuscripts…
- Enemy spawn positions!
Stellar DLCs - ‘The Signal' and ‘The Writer'
note: spoiler alert for the main story!
After the 6 episodes of the main story, the story of Alan Wake continues in two DLC special episodes, The Signal and The Writer. These episodes seem to be where the story and gameplay really get to take things to the next level. Looking back at the original 6 episodes, they feel like exposition for the DLC and eventual sequel. The base game sees Wake trying to save his wife Alice, who fell into the lake and is being held hostage by the Dark Presence. This Dark Presence is trying to use Wake's writing to escape from the lake and overtake the world. During this time, things get weirder and weirder in the town and the darkness grows as Wake continues to write what the Dark Presence wants him to. He does this so that he can save his wife. At the end of the base game, Wake sacrifices himself by jumping in the lake to save Alice which traps him in the Dark Place, a twisted and surreal version of Bright Falls. Wake learns that he exists in the Dark Place as the rational Alan Wake, while the irrational Alan Wake exists in normal reality in the cabin. Wake must regain control of his inner-psyche to find his irrational self, which he does at the end of the DLC. This leaves him whole, his true self, although he is still trapped in the Dark Place trying to find a way to escape and return to reality and rejoin his wife. The lore goes pretty deep and has lore that exists in other media formats, and it's worth exploring.
The gameplay for the DLCs is free to get weird. It feels like Remedy thought of some interesting gameplay mechanics that they wish they had earlier, as the base game was lacking in variety in the gameplay department. There are floating words that manifest the item when light shines on it, and this skyrockets the possibilities. Everything from ammo and items, enemies, lore elements like characters or memories, and even landmarks like buildings or bridges can spawn from these words. This mechanic is a little wacky, yes, but at least the the setting and situation doesn't need to vie for realism. Another highlight is the lighthouse in DLC 2, The Writer. The lighthouse, which you are working your way towards, rotates and and clears out all enemies that come into contact with its radiant light beam. This kind of dynamic light to play with and outsmart the enemies is a great idea that could have been introduced earlier in the experience.
Conclusions
My experience with Alan Wake was a bit of a roller coaster. I have know about Alan Wake since it came out in 2010 (I was 11 at the time), but I grew up in a Nintendo household and spent my hard-earned cash on Playstation hardware and games: Alan Wake, of course, was a Xbox exclusive and then came to PC a year later. It wasn't until 2021 when Alan Wake released on a Playstation console in the form of the remaster. With all that being said, I have wanted to play this game for a long time. I am a massive fan of Stephen King (he is my favorite author, in fact), I adored Twin Peaks, and I even played and loved Max Payne 1 and 2 a few years back on Twitch (here are the VODs for anyone interested). My expectations were high.
So that's the context - but one other piece of context is that I just came fresh off of platinum'ing 2022's God Of War: Ragnarok. When I booted up Alan Wake, it took a bit to lower my standards and enjoy a 2010 video game. Despite the remaster, the game feels pretty dated; the character models are a bit stiff and awkward, the environments aren't as detailed as more modern games, the combat wasn't very complicated. Also absent is any RPG elements like skills or detailed inventories, something more common than ever with modern games. However, after playing for a few hours and letting the title screen music ruminate in my apartment while I did other things, I started to come around to this cult classic. By the end of the main story, though, I was feeling like the game had run out of ideas… but then comes the DLC. I was not expecting the captivating turn of the story accompanied by the new and innovative gameplay. My fascination and love for this game is at an all-time high by the time the final credits roll. The best part of all is that Alan Wake lives on beyond the final credits. There is an Alan Wake DLC in Control, there is a sequel coming, there is a 6-part live action mini-series that serves as a prequel, there is a spin-off in which Wake writes himself into a fictional town to defeat his evil doppelgänger Mr. Scratch… and no, I didn't make that up! It's great.
Alan Wake is an absolute cult classic that is a treat for horror and psychological thriller fans alike. The sequel is very promising and 13 years of advancements in game development and technology has the promise of making an even better game than the original in the sequel, Alan Wake II. I can't wait. Until then, I am planning on playing through Control with all of its DLC, and then scraping YouTube for lore breakdowns on everything in the enthralling, sinister, and enigmatic universe!