Hanamaru Kunikida
11-25-2010, 10:17 PM
Alan Wake (Xbox 360)
http://media.ign.com/games/image/object/743/743608/Alan-Wake_X360_US_ESRBboxart_160w.jpg
Published by: Microsoft Game Studios
Developed by: Remedy
Genre: Action
Number of Players: 1
Release Date:
US: May 18, 2010
Japan: May 23, 2010
Release Date:
Europe: May 14, 2010
Release Date:
Australia: May 20, 2010
MSRP: $59.99
T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
Alan Wake is a psychological action thriller video game by Finnish game developer, Remedy Entertainment. Remedy Entertainment is responsible for the game Max Payne and Death Rally.
Alan Wake is about a bestselling thriller writer, Alan Wake, who suffers from a two-year long stretch of writer’s block. For vacation, Alan and his wife, Alice travels to a rural town of Bright Falls, Washington hoping he would recover his creative flow. The couple drives to a cabin which is located on an island in Cauldron Lake. As they unpack, Alan finds out that Alice has set up a typewriter for Alan in the cabin’s study, putting hopes that Alan would be capable to start on his new work. Angered by Alice’s persistence, Alan steps outside for a walk, only to hear Alice’s screams moments later. He finds something dragged Alice from the cabin into the lake waters and he dives in after her, and shortly loses consciousness.
http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/01/Alan_Wake_2006_004.jpg
The story is divided into six episodes; each crafted as it were a TV miniseries. After one episode’s exposition, each that follows ends with cliffhanger, fades into a title screen as songs plays from the unique licensed soundtrack. As next episode plays, it exposes a recap of the previous episode that you have played. Even if episodic gaming isn’t original at this point, the kind of presentation that Remedy is trying to pull here is delivering a video game experience that feels like a TV series.
Along your adventure, you can explore your surroundings; radios and televisions sets can be found in areas like wooden lookout towers and construction site trailers. You may be thinking of overlook these extras, but I advise you otherwise as it will cover how Remedy has done a great job creating a rich detail game world that maintains authenticity even as its plot goes further to the road of amazing.
Wake frequently stumbles across manuscripts which are like the Audio-logs you would find in the game BioShock, serving its purpose to reveal other details about characters not in another way possible, and foreshowing events and explains a lot of the backstory. The twist is that these pages were written by Wake himself which he doesn’t really recall doing.
During daytime of each episode, Wake can wander around and talk to NPCS, but when nighttime presents itself and moonlights up, it’s a whole different setting. Shadows flit across the ground at a speed like X-Files black oils when threats are imminent. The lightning effects used can be shocking. Alan will have to follow the light as his uses a flashlight to evade from these shadows to find his way to the next checkpoint. But just because it’s focus on the story presentation doesn’t mean that it lacks a decent combat system.
Wake’s arsenal isn’t the biggest but everything is useful to survive. It spans from a gun, shotguns, rifles, flare guns and dynamite. As any firearm, it will have ammo which might be gone before you know it, so you’re only two options o surviving is learning how to dodge upcoming wave of enemies’ attack or try to approach to the nearest light(which regenerates your health if you lost some) as that will make the shadows disappear. Eventually you’ll find ammo a long your way as you continue the game. At some parts of the game, Wake will find a car to reach long-distance checkpoints, also while driving you may encounter enemies, so you’ll be able use the car at your advantage and run over them to proceed.
Personal Opinion:
Alan Wake is a psychological action thriller, which actually makes It very unique in my opinion. How every episode is divided and how it ends with a cliffhanger. And when an episode starts, how it starts with a recap of what previously happened. Like combat system isn’t the best but it’s very enjoyable as it’s meant to survive. It has a interesting story too, while I’m not fan of the soundtrack, it’s very fitting with the game.
NOTE: I do not own the DLC, so I won’t be including that.
Gameplay: 8
“A decent survival game”
Sound: 7
“Not so great, yet fitting soundtrack”
Story: 10
“its psychological action thriller but on a video game”
Replay Value:
Moderate
Final Score: 8
http://media.ign.com/games/image/object/743/743608/Alan-Wake_X360_US_ESRBboxart_160w.jpg
Published by: Microsoft Game Studios
Developed by: Remedy
Genre: Action
Number of Players: 1
Release Date:
US: May 18, 2010
Japan: May 23, 2010
Release Date:
Europe: May 14, 2010
Release Date:
Australia: May 20, 2010
MSRP: $59.99
T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
Alan Wake is a psychological action thriller video game by Finnish game developer, Remedy Entertainment. Remedy Entertainment is responsible for the game Max Payne and Death Rally.
Alan Wake is about a bestselling thriller writer, Alan Wake, who suffers from a two-year long stretch of writer’s block. For vacation, Alan and his wife, Alice travels to a rural town of Bright Falls, Washington hoping he would recover his creative flow. The couple drives to a cabin which is located on an island in Cauldron Lake. As they unpack, Alan finds out that Alice has set up a typewriter for Alan in the cabin’s study, putting hopes that Alan would be capable to start on his new work. Angered by Alice’s persistence, Alan steps outside for a walk, only to hear Alice’s screams moments later. He finds something dragged Alice from the cabin into the lake waters and he dives in after her, and shortly loses consciousness.
http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/01/Alan_Wake_2006_004.jpg
The story is divided into six episodes; each crafted as it were a TV miniseries. After one episode’s exposition, each that follows ends with cliffhanger, fades into a title screen as songs plays from the unique licensed soundtrack. As next episode plays, it exposes a recap of the previous episode that you have played. Even if episodic gaming isn’t original at this point, the kind of presentation that Remedy is trying to pull here is delivering a video game experience that feels like a TV series.
Along your adventure, you can explore your surroundings; radios and televisions sets can be found in areas like wooden lookout towers and construction site trailers. You may be thinking of overlook these extras, but I advise you otherwise as it will cover how Remedy has done a great job creating a rich detail game world that maintains authenticity even as its plot goes further to the road of amazing.
Wake frequently stumbles across manuscripts which are like the Audio-logs you would find in the game BioShock, serving its purpose to reveal other details about characters not in another way possible, and foreshowing events and explains a lot of the backstory. The twist is that these pages were written by Wake himself which he doesn’t really recall doing.
During daytime of each episode, Wake can wander around and talk to NPCS, but when nighttime presents itself and moonlights up, it’s a whole different setting. Shadows flit across the ground at a speed like X-Files black oils when threats are imminent. The lightning effects used can be shocking. Alan will have to follow the light as his uses a flashlight to evade from these shadows to find his way to the next checkpoint. But just because it’s focus on the story presentation doesn’t mean that it lacks a decent combat system.
Wake’s arsenal isn’t the biggest but everything is useful to survive. It spans from a gun, shotguns, rifles, flare guns and dynamite. As any firearm, it will have ammo which might be gone before you know it, so you’re only two options o surviving is learning how to dodge upcoming wave of enemies’ attack or try to approach to the nearest light(which regenerates your health if you lost some) as that will make the shadows disappear. Eventually you’ll find ammo a long your way as you continue the game. At some parts of the game, Wake will find a car to reach long-distance checkpoints, also while driving you may encounter enemies, so you’ll be able use the car at your advantage and run over them to proceed.
Personal Opinion:
Alan Wake is a psychological action thriller, which actually makes It very unique in my opinion. How every episode is divided and how it ends with a cliffhanger. And when an episode starts, how it starts with a recap of what previously happened. Like combat system isn’t the best but it’s very enjoyable as it’s meant to survive. It has a interesting story too, while I’m not fan of the soundtrack, it’s very fitting with the game.
NOTE: I do not own the DLC, so I won’t be including that.
Gameplay: 8
“A decent survival game”
Sound: 7
“Not so great, yet fitting soundtrack”
Story: 10
“its psychological action thriller but on a video game”
Replay Value:
Moderate
Final Score: 8