The premise of Alan Wake reads like a synopsis of Stephen King’s entire back catalogue – a troubled author and his increasingly estranged wife pack up and take an extended vacation out in some woodsy small town in the Pacific Northwest, in a desperate bid to save their marriage and kick Wake’s writer’s block. Obviously, the place is stuffed with the sort of eccentric provincial weirdoes you’d expect to find in a dreary logging town just off the set of The Shining where daylight lasts only minutes at a time, and obviously, the place is under assault by some sort of furious, malevolent supernatural presence that’s taken residence in the local lake. Then Alan’s wife vanishes under, er, interesting circumstances, and he subsequently can’t seem to walk anywhere without tripping over pages from a book he’s written, but doesn’t actually remember ever writing. It’s all an exorable slip ‘n’ slide into the gobby chops of madness from there. 

Alan Wake is kinda spooky. I’m putting that up top here, because I know some people* cry like babies the moment the lights go out, and the lights go out a lot in this game. There’s a good reason for that, mind you – it’s only in the dark that stuff really happens around Bright Falls. 

I must mention at this point that Alan Wake features some of the most evocative lighting and audio effects this side of Dead Space. The game indicates any impending trouble with not-so-subtle cues that mostly involve smudging and distorting the world around you into a blurry, flickering phantasmagoria accompanied by a soundtrack composed almost entirely of minor keys and a desperate kind of rushing sound that might be the wind or perhaps your trousers and shoes filling up with last night’s dinner. Just like a real nightmare, except you’re not naked and writing a geography exam you’ve not studied for. Maybe Remedy missed an opportunity there.

Anyway, most of the game’s action bits feature you versus the Taken. These are those luckless locals who’ve been consumed by the Whatever That Thing In Cauldron Lake Is, and been transformed into agents of night terrors. Mostly with axes. It’s all a bit Resident Evil 4, really, but with a significant addition – since these guys are powered by darkness itself, you’ve got to rid them of this dusky parasite before grinding their meaty bits with good old fashioned lead. And conveniently enough, you’ve got a torch – POWERED BY ENERGIZER! – that does the job. Actually, just about anything that chucks light around works, so you’ll be packing everything from flares to, well, flares. And the occasional flashbang, spotlight, or combustible canister. Once the dark aura pops, you’re set to make blips on the county’s population figures. 

Surprisingly enough, the game’s controls are so perfectly tuned and responsive that what might have been a nightmare all on its own turns into an immensely satisfying combat mechanic instead. 

But all that “I went to Bright Falls and all I got was this blood-spattered t-shirt and a bunch of coffee thermoses” stuff is just there to keep the other parts in between the story parts from getting boring. Alan Wake is very much a narrative-driven game, and many (if not most) of the hostile encounters can be avoided altogether if you’re quick and/or have loads of flares. The big idea here is to work out what’s going on, what’s happened to Alice Wake, and who keeps leaving these coffee thermoses lying about the place like it’s a bloody cafeteria.

As such, then, Alan Wake is relentlessly linear, and anyone looking for a sandbox adventure had best look elsewhere. The game plays out as a sequence of six TV-style episodes, with all the pacing, drama, and almost wryly nudging dispensing of disbelief you’d expect from something like The X-Files or Twin Peaks. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of game in here – expect around 15-18 hours or so on Hard (intermediate here) difficulty if you’re making some effort with all the collectible junk. 

The worst thing I can say about Alan Wake, perhaps, is that you’ll only ever get to play it for the first time once. That’s self-evident, of course, but it’s one of those games you wish you could instantly forget when you’re done with it, and play it for the first time again. I’ve a few complaints about it, however, if largely inconsequential in nature. The facial animation is quite simply repulsive (although apparently this is being addressed in upcoming DLC), and there’s the odd blurry texture here and there. There’s also not very much variety in enemy types, and the two or three boss fights in the game are decidedly underwhelming. 

On the other hand, there’s so much to recommend it. The game has nailed suspense and atmosphere to an enormous hypothetical brick wall with the words “SUSPENSE” and “ATMOSPHERE” spray painted across it, probably with something like Luminol. The story is superb, supported by a bunch of exceedingly well-conceived – and frequently intriguing – characters, as well as some very decent voice acting, and it leaves enough holes to make a sequel not only entirely inevitable, but something THAT CAN’T GET HERE SOON ENOUGH. And while the game’s shamelessly showing its influences all over the place, Alan Wake manages to be something altogether unique in itself. I’ve just never played anything quite like it. 

*Like Nic Simmonds.

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