I’m Attacking the Darkness!

Think back to your childhood. What was one of your biggest fears growing up? Was it spiders, snakes, robot monkey squirrels? Maybe it was being afraid of the dark. This past week, I’ve been playing the latest release from Microsoft Studios: Alan Wake which centers around darkness.

Alan Wake is about a writer who is struggling to finish a novel after not having written anything since his last best seller two years ago. The game is narrated as if you were playing through a novel and hearing a voice to sort of guide you along. You even get to collect pages of the manuscript throughout the game which give you a glimpse into what will be happening very soon. The main character (Alan) and his wife are taking a vacation so he can get away from writing and relax. Little does he know, his scotophobic wife has planned a meeting with a doctor who specializes in helping artists find their creativity. He doesn’t like that idea, and his anger leads to the disappearance of his wife. That’s pretty much where you step in.

The quick tutorial at the beginning of the game is really neat, because you start off in a dream where things happen that don’t make sense, but you get a feel for the game by learning that you use light to overcome the darkness that shrouds enemies called “the taken,” and even to heal your character. Each chapter after the first begins like it was a television series with “previously on Alan Wake,” and a cut scene with a song to end the chapter. There are little things to collect throughout the game that serve no purpose as in a lot of other games that draw out the need to keep playing the game to finish it to 100%. In order to get the full effect of the game, you should play at night when you can definitely appreciate the darkness and creepiness.

I wasn’t too fond of the controls for the game. A lot of games have trouble getting the animation of jumping correct, and Alan Wake is no different. One thing I can’t stand in games is when you definitely see that you have the clearance to get over an object, but the game wasn’t designed to let you get over the object. Sprinting is also difficult, because the sprint button is also the same as the dodge button, so when you mean to sprint, you actually do a quick dodge and then start running. Dodging and avoiding attacks are also a little awkward, but there is a neat slow motion animation when you successfully dodge an attack, although turning your character around can be quite time consuming.

So far, I have been getting a lot of enjoyment from the game. I really like the dark aspect to it. Anything dark and creepy gets my attention and really makes me want to play the game. From what I have seen, Alan Wake has been getting good reviews and high scores which says a lot coming from the bigger name critics. It’s definitely one of the more interesting games I’ve played this year.

Rent from Gamefly | Purchase from Amazon

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