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Poor Alan Wake.
You’d think that,
what with himself
being a celebrated
writer of fiction
and all, he of
all protagonists
would be the first to realise that he’s
actually at the centre of his own story.
Here it takes the form of a missing
person mystery, one where the once
best-selling author is caught in a race
against time to rescue his wife from
the eerily spooky forces plaguing the
fictional town of Bright Falls.
If this sounds like the makings
of Netflix’s next hit series, that’s
because these days it probably
would be. 2019 marks my first time
playing through Remedy’s first stab
at episodic storytelling within a
videogame, and experiencing it almost
ten years later through a modern lens,
I can’t help but appreciate the amount
of bingeworthy material on offer here.
Alan Wake functions perfectly fine
as a third-person action-adventure,
sure, but whereas many games circa
2010 made gameplay their focus, the
emphasis on tone and narrative here
is what I find gives me the motivation
to venture into the dark in search of a
loved one.
It helps that Alan Wake
doesn’t tread lightly when
alluding to its source
inspirations. Bright Falls
essentially acts as a
dead ringer for Twin
Peaks, Alan’s paranoid
portrayal makes him a
perfect palette swap for
John Cusack’s character in
1408 , and the supernatural
plot feels like it could have
been lifted from an X-Files episode.
These are all good things, by the
way, and the type of material I wish
more videogame stories were willing
to pay homage to. References may
hit you with all the subtlety of a
sledgehammer, yet it’s done lovingly in
a way any self-confessed fan of genre
cinema will appreciate.
I went in expecting survival horror.
But the deeper I got into Alan Wake,the more it resembled that of an old
ghost story. Alan’s primary means of
fighting back against the hordes of
dark apparitions is light. Armed with
a flashlight and sidearm of choice,
shining beams into the face of threats
sees them cower back into the dark
of the Washington forestry. And
should bullets start running
low, dashing for safety
under the nearest lamp
satisfies the need to
catch a breath. It’s in
moments like this where
Alan Wake reinforces the
idea of its hero as just
your regular Joe, rather
than a tough action hero.All talk
Also solidifying this is the constant
monologuing that punctuates Alan
Wake’s long stretches of exploration,
whereby voice actor Matthew Porretta
hams it up just enough so that Alan
remains earnest and never cheesy.
Less forgivable, however, is the
game’s hokey character models,
which must have looked a bit iffy even
in 2010. Cutscenes that seek to depicta serious tone kept pulling me out of
the conspiracy, as janky animations
see the game swerve into full B-movie
shlock. They haven’t aged well
today, but still they’re a testament to
Remedy’s ambition.
Alan Wake’s moody atmosphere,
unpredictable story and insistence
in separating itself into six in-game
episodes remains charming and
admirable. And as we fast forward
to today, where the demands of the
streaming-obsessed generation are
forcing creative talent to rethink their
approach to storytelling, it’s hard to
deny that Remedy was definitely onto
something in this weird mish-mash of
TV show and videogame. Qextra
“I can’t help but appreciate the
amount of bingeworthy material
on offer here”
Charting the origins of today’s Netflix-ification of society and
asking: is Alan Wake responsible? AARON POTTER
PUBLISHER MICROSOFT GAME STUDIOS / DEVELOPER REMEDY ENTERTAINMENT / FORMAT XBOX 360 / RELEASE DATE MAY 2010WHAT IS IT?
A bold, if not always
successful, combination of
thriller, detective series and
narrative-driven action game- with a few spooks thrown
in for good measure.
More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 099