(Full review follows below)

• Game Name: Alan Wake
  
• Original Release: 2012
  
• Genre Tags: Adventure; Horror; Third-Person; Story Rich; Atmospheric
  
• My Overall Grade: A-
  
• Estimated Playtime (Campaign): 12-20 hours
  
• Multiplayer Aspect: None
  
• Recommended To: Established fans of the genre; Those intrigued by the genre; Aesthetes; Strong narrative advocates; Game atmosphere connoisseurs

”Nightmares exist outside of logic” – Stephen King

Alan Wake is an extremely enjoyable third person action-adventure/survival game with a very story-driven experience and the theme of a psychological thriller. It is a very cinematic game, with a lot of dialogue and cutscenes. So if you need constant action, you won’t find it here; but if you enjoy games that feel a lot like movies-you-control, this is a great pickup.

The backbone of this game is the excellent narrative, which is well-executed and well-acted. The main story arc is mysterious, intriguing, and suspenseful. And the voice acting is quite convincing, which is critical for a game this heavily story-driven. But my personal favorite aspect of Alan Wake is the development of the various characters. Video games sometimes have great stories, but often they lack the depth of character development one may find in other mediums of storytelling, like books, TV, or movies. The way this game was produced, though, it is easy to feel the connection with the characters and immerse yourself in their personalities.

The graphics, animations, effects, and soundscape all work in concert to create an extremely engaging atmosphere that reinforces the strong narrative. The gameworld looks great and you can feel the heavy atmosphere of the creepy little village that acts as the story’s setting. This vivid and intense setting allows the entirety of the game to be entertaining; even slow plot points remain amusing due to the immersive ambiance. If you are into immersion, Alan Wake is definitely the kind of game you want to play with headphones on, lights off, and no interruptions.

But looking past the engaging narrative and atmosphere, you will find that the actual gameplay is also pretty decent. The controls are mostly solid, albeit a little clunky— but it is the kind of clunky that is purposefully imposed to adhere to the paradigm of the scary/survival genre. And there is an interesting dynamic involving shadows and illumination from which all action/combat is derived and that affords the game a charming uniqueness. There are also a lot of collectibles that provide further lore/backstory and add an additional dynamic to the total gameplay. Be warned however: the collectibles system can break the immersion of the game at times because you’ll have to sidetrack to find them during intense moments in the storyline.

In short, Alan Wake is a great experience. It may not appeal to those who want constant action from their games, but for those who enjoy cinematic, narrative-driven games, then this will be great to consider trying if you haven’t yet. The dark psychological-thriller theme is easy to find intriguing and the gameplay, while not innovative, has a unique charm that is gratifying to experience.

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TL;DR: Alan Wake is a well-constructed and interesting game, with great atmospheric environments that work well with an interesting combat mechanic. With this is a clever story line and charming but somewhat poorly animated characters; this game is great for anyone looking for a solid thriller game.

In Alan wake there is a dark and twisted world where light and dark are prominent in both environment and tone. The graphics still hold up today and work beautifully with the lighting mechanics to build an intense experience. The atmosphere in Alan Wake is excellent; walking through dark woods in the night with your flashlight and weapon is rather creepy and with the light based combat mechanic manages to scare and reward. While at times the environment may seem repetitive the game does break up its action with puzzle sections and slightly dodgy driving segments.

Positive features:
-Fantastic atmosphere
-Different combat mechanic with array of weapons
-Beautiful graphics and lighting
-A well put together story line
-DLC comes included

Negative features:
-Occasionally repetitive areas
-Cut scenes are dated with poor character models and lip syncing
-Sudden physics related glitches on more than one occasion

To conclude Alan Wake is a solid all-round game; while not perfect and debatable in terms of its "horror" tag the whole experience is one that is well worth your time with replay ability for completionsists and DLC that adds to the game and story.

Alan Wake is a linear third-person shooter whose atmosphere and story attempt to redeem the frankly clunky combat. The game proceeds in six episodes (with two additional DLC episodes that are now included for free). Worth a purchase on sale if you enjoy a combat-driven interactive movie, but there's not much replayability (unless you're a collectibles and achievements fanatic).
You can view the opening of the game here.
Installed size on hard drive (all DLC and extras): 11.2 GB

Alan's wife, Alice, gets “taken” by a mysterious “dark presence.” The entire game is spent trying to release her from its power. Alan is frequently lost, operating on whim, and not really sure of how to proceed. A writer himself, he begins researching old legends of Cauldron Lake and the power that words written there seem to possess. This is really the best part of the game, as the labyrinth of creation and created and how to balance what is desired with what is needed leads Alan down an increasingly dark path (pun intended). As he discovers, he is not alone in his knowledge of the lake's mysterious power, nor the first to suffer from it. The supporting cast are varied and colorful characters, several of whom have their own history with Cauldron Lake.

The atmosphere is suitably dark and fog-swept at times. Most of the game happens at night, so turn down your room lights and crank the audio to catch the ambiance (the sound design is superb). The setting is a unique one: the woods and small town atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest. The ambiance is captured nicely, and the woods have thick foliage and dark shadows. Old logging and mining gear abounds, providing just the right touch of historical nostalgia and rusty menace. The buildings and architecture are a mix of rustic, country-style structures (built sturdy to withstand the harsh winters) other more attractive, modern structures designed to impress tourists (Cauldron Lake Lodge). The superb music score is the icing on the atmospheric cake: moody but melodic, it catches the feeling of solitude at night-time haunted by the supernatural.

A supernatural that is made perhaps more terrifying by the clunky combat. Shine a light at enemies to burn away the darkness, then shoot them with whatever weapon you have to hand. It works well enough, but feels loose and sloppy. The weapons are few, but do feel different: revolver, shotgun (regular and pump-action), flare gun, hunting rifle, flares, and flash-bangs. That's it. They're not all available at the same time, and at the beginning of each episode, Alan only has a flashlight and a revolver. So, no matter how good you were with saving up your gear, thinking there might be a big battle coming up, once the episode ends, you'll lose it all anyway. The enemies offer little variety. You've got the standard hatchet-throwing “taken”, the big “taken”, the fast “taken”, and random flocks of crows that fly out of the sky and attack Alan. Sometimes random objects (like cars, tires, dumpsters) will become possessed and attack Alan. With so many creatures that dwell in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, I expected there might be a boss fight with a bear or a pack of coyotes, but no.

None of these drawbacks would matter if the total experience offered by Alan Wake were more than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, it isn't. I enjoy it because when I first played it years ago I had no idea that video games could handle narrative in this fashion. I'll always have a nostalgic appreciation for it and it just kills me to provide a mixed recommendation. But if you want more than story and atmosphere, look elsewhere, because you'll be sorely disappointed by everything else. If story and atmosphere suffice, though, get Alan Wake right away.

It's a good game, no doubt, but it suffers from the same problem as a lot of other 3rd person shooter/horror games such as "The Evil Within". It very quickly becomes not "scary" and much more focused on shooting arenas. That being said, it's not a bad game since the combat is OK, the story is interesting and the characters are too.

All in all it's a solid game and if you can get it on a sale it's definitely worth it.

A classic with a really good story. You should have played this at least once in your life.

Alan Wake has a really interesting story and a main character that is flawed enough not to be a Hollywood style bad ♥♥♥♥ hero, but motivated enough to press on in the face of adversity. You might find the plot difficult to follow, but give it a chance. It's smooth and creamy and goes down easy, like dipping your sack in melted butter, but it's not your sack, it's your brain.

The combat system is pretty clever. While the "Over the shoulder shooting" style game isn't an original idea, the way the enemies are made vulnerable is both relevant to the plot and smart enough that it creates tension without having to have foes burst out of air ducts every 5 seconds, using shock to replace fear. It's challenging and frightening in a story driven way, like a good novel, but it's not a novel, it's a game.

Go on, give it a go. It's no doubt much cheaper these days and it still holds up, even after all these years. The whole thing is very refreshing, like jumping into a cool lake. Only it's not a lake, it's an ocean.

P.S. If you play with "Direct Aiming" disabled the camera movement sensitivity is tied to (varies with) the frame-rate.
To avoid this behavior, you'll need to either enable "Direct Aiming" or make sure your FPS never drops below 60 and enable V-Sync. (Thanks 80TCS)

Energizer & Verizon

thought the game play was great, but really loved the story

aWAKEning.

10/10