Platform: PC

Developer:  Remedy Entertainment

Publisher:  Remedy Entertainment

Release Date: Feb 16, 2012 (Steam)

Genre:  Survival horror

Nerd Rating: 8 out of 10

Ladies and gentleman! Writers and creative geniuses alike! Lend me your eyeballs for a few minutes, as I guide you through a well detailed review of a spooky and mind bending game known as Alan Wake.

Our dark story begins with our hero, the nationally famous author (which will be me one day), Alan Wake, who is known well for his horror stories. Alan Wake starts by explaining that the ordeal he goes through begins with a dream. A nightmare, really. Alan Wake is sort of modeled after our cuddly and wonderful Stephen King. Speaking of which, Stephen King is quoted right in the beginning of the game.

“Stephen King once wrote that “Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear.” – Alan Wake‘s first cutscene

Alan Wake has this nightmare about a sort of character he created in one of his stories that is trying to kill him. The character becomes shrouded in darkness and his voice distorts, wielding an axe, and is hellbent on ending Alan’s life. I’m sure that running him over first made him feel less inclined to kill you.

Your weapons are a flashlight and a gun… Let’s fight some shadow people!

Kinda like looking in a mirror, huh, pal?

Alan’s nightmare ends with a scare, and he jolts awake in his car with his wife Alice. The car is on a ferry to a nice and quiet-ish mountain town called Bright Falls, Washington where Alan and Alice are going on vacation. Alan has been suffering from writer’s block (like me!) for over two years now, he and Alice both hope this vacation will serve as a source of inspiration. Also hoping he wouldn’t get noticed right away as a celebrity among the people, but he immediately gets recognized.

Besides the nightmare that Alan had, the first yellow flag bears its unpleasant alarm at his first stop. Alan stops at a diner to pick up the keys to the cabin they rented for the vacation. Not only does he encounter his “biggest fan,” but he is warned not to wander in the dark by an older lady clutching a lit lantern like it was her baby. Not heeding the woman’s advice, he ventures into a dark hallway in the diner towards the restrooms. An old woman wearing a dress darker than the blackest shadow hands him the key to Cauldron Lake Cabin, telling him that this is the cabin they rented.

Bridge to cabin? … Looks safe. Let’s cross it!

Once they got there, Alice makes Alan get all the lights on in the cabin before she dares to enter. Turns out, she’s a wuss over the dark. But soon after Alan and Alice settle in, The red flag flashes its ugly face in the form of the woman in black. Was she a spirit? She was far from benevolent, that’s for sure. Alice manages to find herself in the lake and Alan leaps in to save her, only to jolt awake in his crashed car. What was going on?

On the path laid before him, he finds loose pages of a manuscript for a book he had planned on writing, called “Departure”… odd thing is… he never wrote anything beyond the title since its conception. The only thing he could find himself writing since the writer’s block were grocery lists. But as he reads these pages he never recalled writing, the events in the pages come to occur moments later. And these aren’t happy events, either. These events involve axe murderers, blunt object wielders, and more, covered in shadow and voices distorted, described in the pages as the Taken. All of them are centered in to killing our beloved author. It is up to you to guide Alan Wake through Bright Falls, in it’s darkest and longest night(mare).

This game is fantastic in more ways than one! Graphics look good, dialogue is sound (see what I did there?), and the game controls and mechanics are nice. I absolutely adore this story! It reminds me of Stephen King’s style. If anyone knows anything about the world’s greatest author, it is that he has dominated the horror genre… and that if I ever got the chance to meet him, I would probably pee myself in excitement… ahem… Too much info? Too bad! It’s out there! Secret’s out!

Yarrr… How much did the pirate pay to get his ears pierced? … A Buccaneer!

Alan Wake has a really neat easter egg within the game. The trigger? You must illegally download the game for it to activate. Alan Wake will have a pirate’s eye patch over one eye that can’t be removed, and instead of gameplay tips in between loading screens, text will appear saying “If you like this game, support Remedy by buying it.” That’s right folks! Don’t be a pirate… they are overrated.

All kidding aside, I do have only two real complaints about this game as a whole. The first one is that the character’s faces that barely move when producing words and sounds. It’s almost like watching “Night of The Living Dummy” by R.L. Stine… My other skeleton bone I got to pick is that the game was intended to have sequels… but that idea was shelved soon after making a demo ad for an Alan Wake 2 that took five years before the people at Remedy were finally ready to work towards continuing this story. There’s no clue yet as to when a release date will be confirmed, however.

In summary, Alan Wake has a captivating story, frightening enemies that can keep you up at night, and will leave you on the edge of your seat with it’s cliffhanger ending. I recommend this game for those who want a real scare at night.

What a wonderful view!