Alan Wake Review (Hex: Nightless Night)
As someone who has completed the game on Playstation and near 100%'ed the sequel on PC, I find this a weird game to come back to. It's obvious, by the nature of Remedy's history, that this was a huge swing for them. Max Payne was sold to Rockstar for development money and Quantum Break/Control were mere twinkles in their eye, Alan Wake was the definitive next step for their plans. This was truly a make or break for them and thankfully it succeeded... for the most part.
The biggest, categorical flaw I can provide is that the combat of the original Alan Wake is wholly pathetic. As a team who'd defined bullet time and tight action scenes, it's a shock that this game feels the way it does. The shooting is powered by strong sound effects and explosive visual effects but feels dull in a structural mind. It lacks an impact that it desperately needs but I think it truly comes down to repetition. The gunplay is hardly challenging and the light mechanic is well-utilized but most combat encounters begin and end with the same scenes. The game tries to vary these engagements through varied environmental interactions, but it does little to quell the overarching sensation that you're doing the exact same thing every fight.
That is where my qualms with the game end, though. Outside of a few pacing issues and the obvious restraints that a $20 indie game from 2010 would have, the rest of the game is extremely solid. Bright Falls is a very charming environment and Wake's "fish out of water" attitude towards its odd citizenry is entertaining if not slightly overdone. Bright Falls does fall into repetitiveness too, given that most of the environments it provides is rural wooded areas that are usually doused in darkness but it never feels as notable as the combat due to the fun setpieces it provides. Cutting through log farms or across trapped farm lands almost never gets old.
While Bright Falls is great (and gets much, much more love in the sequel) the characters of Bright Falls are perhaps its strongest asset. The tight triangle of Wake, Barry Allen (Wake's Manager,) and Sheriff Breaker keeps the plot moving and provides a lot of space for the background characters to excel. The Andersons are amazing, Cynthia Weaver provides an excellent deuteragonist and Nightingale/ Hartman share an equal role as antagonists in their own right along with the Dark Presence. If there's any aspect of the game that should compel you to play this game, it's seeing Remedy have as much fun with these characters as possible and truly pushing their budget to the limit in creating setpieces with them.
I would be remiss, as I often am, to not mention Alan and Alice's relationship in a review. Alan is a very troubled character and absolutely deserves to be criticized as he is. He's an alcoholic, workaholic writer who's taken his burnout and put it onto his wife. The later developments in the story (Control's AWE DLC and AW2) do ease him into a likable character who's overwhelmed and dealing with his issues through his writing, but it should be noted that Alan is very unlikable in this game and that is intentional. I personally think it adds to his monologues through the game as he narrates his development into the titular hero, the little moments like the moonshine scene give him a good dynamic with Barry and show a fairer side of his character. Seeing as Remedy has slowly reformed his character over the decade since this game released, I don't find it as egregious as others do, but I can understand some long-term fans' reservations towards him.
Overall, as dated as it is, it's hard not to recommend this game as a fan. I can hardly think of any series, even my favorites, which I could write more about and I think it's truly admirable to see how Remedy as a team has refined themselves since this first game. Their writing is among the best in the entire industry and it's hard to not see them as a wellspring of refreshing stories if you can get through the beginning of their sophomore franchise (not including Death Race). The density of their thematic storytelling is truly unmatched.
If you can't finish this game but love the story, which I entirely understand, watch a recap and hop over to Quantum Break (tangentially related until Alan Wake 2) or Control (basically the world-building sequel before Alan Wake 2.) They are all small corners of a much larger map and I couldn't be happier that Remedy has worked so dutifully to create a large universe.