A place for physics, video games, philosophy, and beer.

07 November 2010

Impressions: Alan Wake

Almost... Scary...

On Monday, I started a playthrough of Alan Wake which I live tweeted for about an hour until I was bored out of my mind with the game and had to stop. Why was I bored? This game starts off pretty slow.For the most part, the game is an interactive cutscene for the first half an hour. Since there is not much to explore this is boring, although the environments are nice to look at. I imagine some of this exploring is a by-product of the game once being an open-world game [1], but since that fell through, we are left with some driving sequences where you can only drive from point A to point B.

Story-wise, the game starts with Alan Wake and his wife on a trip to Bright Falls to try and solve Alan's writers' block. They travel through town to a diner where they pick up the keys for the cabin they are staying in from a mysterious lady, the first time it is obvious the town is a little spooky. From there, Al and Alice, his wife, head to the cabin. While at the cabin, Alan finds out his wife wants to enroll him in a program for artists who are having a tough time. Alan finds Alice's suggestion indicative of her believing he is somewhat psychotic, so they fight, at which point her storms out of the cabin. Alice, who has a deathly fear of darkness is soon heard screaming as the lights go out in the cabin and Alan rushes in to find out the problem. From this point on, the story takes a sharp supernatural turn and also picks up a little.

Overall, the environments are nice to look at, but for about three of the six chapters in the game they are almost all identical. Some variety is added towards the end of the game and there are some moments that are actually quite memorable. For the most part, the game is not scary, though there are freaky moments. I am having some fun with this game but I cannot wait to get back to Mass Effect 2, to be honest.

[1] Greg Kasavin. Alan Wake E3 2005 Impressions. Gamespot. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/alanwake/news.html?sid=6125494&mode=previews

No comments:

Post a Comment