At the close of 2023, I checked in on the Game Awards. I only awarded it a sliver of my attention, while I worked on other stuff. Suddenly I found myself drawn to the feature as David Harewood introducing the Old Gods of Asgard. Though I had heard of Alan Wake 2, I hadn't thought much about it. I'd never played Alan Wake or any other game by writer Sam Lake. But as I watched Lake living his best life dancing on stage, I realized I wanted to play this game. Baldur's Gate 3 would go on to beat Alan Wake 2 for best game of the year, but both would stick in my mind. Along with Alan Wake, I'd never played Control or Alan Wake: American Nightmare, which together comprise the Remedy Connected Universe. During the Steam Winter Sale, I picked up Alan Wake and American Nightmare, and resolved to play them, along with Control (which Epic Games gave away for free), in 2024. If I liked them I would buy Alan Wake 2 at the conclusion of 2024.
Alan Wake's difficulty screen offers the choices of Easy, Normal, or Nightmare. The last is not available until the player beats the game on Normal). Though I usually play normal difficulty, I hesitated. Was Alan Wake a horror game that I would have difficulty finishing? A quick perusal of Reddit convinced me to play Normal difficulty.
If you are considering playing this game released in 2010 (I played the original version, not the 2021 remaster Remedy released in preparation of Alan Wake 2), I would recommend Normal difficulty. Alan Wake is not a horror game, like an Amnesia title, but more akin to an action game with a dark atmosphere. Despite the repeated combat, the axes, the guns, and the violence, Alan Wake contains zero gore. It has no jump scares, nor any gruesome or horrific monsters. The experience is tense and gloomy but, as a timid person, I wouldn't consider it horror.
Alan Wake also isn't particularly difficult. I died thirty-seven times, but while that is a bit more than Death's Door, it is still less than Inside (let's not even compare it to Dark Souls or Elden Ring). Many of the deaths felt like the fault of frustrating design, rather than fair victories by the enemy.
Alan Wake opens with the titular character in a dream. The game is narrated by Alan, and sometimes this perspective is from the present, while other times it reflects backwards from the future. In the beginning he narrates driving along a mountain road at night. He crashes into someone in the dark. The lack of a body disturbs him. Distracted by a lighthouse in the distance, he feels an inexplicable need to visit.
Already Alan Wake displays its atmospheric charm. The environment is dark, misty and foggy. Rare sources of light cut through the blackness. Alan stands on a road in a mountainous, forested area. The player is able to see off into the distance with a panoramic view. Above, the player can see the stars twinkling in the night sky. The scene contrasts the darkness of the area with scattered light sources. The vaguely foreboding music contributes to the tension. The volume increases when Alan's situation deteriorates, and relaxes when the threat subsides.
This introductory dream teaches the player the basic mechanics; aiming and shooting, dodging, and the use of the flashlight. It also highlights the seriousness of the situation. Alan is threatened by shadowy humanoids that hound him. One claims to be a character from his stories. They want revenge for, as the enemy says Alan is “A lousy writer.” Later, an enemy kills an NPC with an ax. This scene is remarkably sanitized. The player sees the ax swing, but doesn't see it connect. The player sees the NPC's face, but not the ax embedded in their head. And they see the ax after it has been withdrawn, and no blood is on it.
Alan wakes up aboard a ferry arriving in the idyllic town of Bright Falls. A fictional location in Washington state, the town is transitioning from a rural mining community to a tourist location. Alan's on vacation with his wife. It's an attempt to renew their marriage, and cure Alan's two year writer's block. The couple rented a rural cabin as a getaway. Still, his vacation is repeatedly interrupted by calls from his neurotic, but friendly agent, Barry. At a diner, residents recognize Alan as the famous writer from New York City. The dream sequence, and the entrance into Bright Falls establishes Alan, his backstory, his associates, and the setting.
It also sets up his main foe. He is supposed to meet a man named Carl Stucky at the diner. Stucky has the keys to the cabin the Wakes rented. After pushing aside a crazy person named Cynthia Weaver, Alan meets a woman dressed in an elegant black dress, skulking in the shadows. The woman claims to be the wife of Carl Stucky. While later elements of Alan Wake are detailed, the game lacks subtlety. Her directions to the cabin, it's made clear, are a trap.
Alan and Alice arrive at a lone cabin perched on a tiny island in the middle of a lake. The player learns of Alan's skill at starting old generators, when the lights temporarily fail. After a fight relating to Alan's writing, Alan ends up outside, as darkness descends. He hears a scream and rushes around, until he finds Alice, sinking into the lake. Without hesitation, Alan dives in, and blacks out. He wakes to find himself, in a crashed car on a mountainside, uncertain of how he got there.
This begins Alan Wake proper. Lost in the woods Alan sees the distant glowing sign of Stucky's Gas Station. With no other landmark, Alan aims for it. This is a long section, and despite its extent, or because of it, it offers panoramic views of the forest at night. During the adventure Alan can see the brightly lit neon sign of the gas station. Its red and green light contrasts beautifully against the dark shadows of the woods. It's like a beacon, or lighthouse.
During this adventure Alan starts discovering pages of a manuscript. The first is a title page, Departure, by Alan Wake. Alan's narration explains that these pages are for a book he intended to write, but hadn't yet begun. One page warns of an attack by an ax murderer. It doesn't take long for Alan to run into the referenced character, though the final conflict is delayed. The player collects the manuscript pages scattered across the game. They describe past, present, and future events from Alan Wake. Some refer to concrete events while others explain thoughts and terminology, like “The Taken.” While narration accompanies the initial page, Alan rarely talks about future pages, preferring the player to make their own inferences.
While most manuscript pages are laid carefully on the main path, to collect them all requires a bit of exploring. Alan Wake is a corridor action game that manages to feel like an open world. The areas are just wide enough, and populated with trees and other terrain, to make them feel expansive. In reality they are merely wide single avenues, with no options. Yet Alan Wake manages to hide many secrets and collectibles. The player can't collect all the manuscript pages on their first playthrough, since a few are only found in Nightmare difficulty. Of the 106 manuscript pages, I found 82. There are many other collectibles, but they have no effect on the game. I found 83 of 100 thermoses, and knocked over 4 out of 12 can pyramids. Some collectibles add character, like the 13 out of 15 TVs, and 11 out of 11 radios I found. These two add to the psychological atmosphere of Bright Falls. The TVs play snippets of a show called Night Springs (the opposite of the town), which is a Twilight Zone knock off. The radios feature a local personality, Pat Maine. A clear allusion to Stephen King, he runs his talk show, The Night Owl, which plays creepy music during his breaks.
Another collectible is the supply chests. I can't believe I only found 22 of the 30. These are hidden across the levels. Alan finds them by seeing yellow paint that is only visible when a flashlight shines on it. There are normally a couple dots of paint that lead to arrows that lead to a circle with a torch in it. Beneath this final symbol is a chest with supplies. Ammunition, batteries, and more. Another hint the player is near a chest is the sound of heavy breathing by a woman. While initially these chests are safe, some turn into ambushes, as enemies appear to attack.
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