izigame.me

It was all about his pain. No, nothing autobiographical about that.

For a game about writing, Alan Wake has shocking pacing. About 40% of the game is actively genius: the story is great, the characters are for the most part good, and the atmosphere is impeccable. The soundtrack is fantastic, and the way the story unfolds has the potential to be legitimately cool. It's a shame the game is sunk by the fact that, well, it's a game.
It's clear to me that Alan Wake very badly wants to be a TV show, and it is this ambition I think that sabotages it. It doesn't trust the player with very much; Alan Wake (the protagonist) narrates throughout much of the game about what's happening, or what's happened, and picks up manuscript pages that detail what will happen to him in future. What could be a clever, subversive framing device is played completely straight and also ignored by Alan. The player knows what's round the corner at all times, turning what is a pretty neat story into a bit of a dull one.
The game's biggest sin, however, is that it thinks the player has the attention span of a hyperactive rodent with the number of shootouts and chase scenes it throws at you. Gameplay consists of encountering a cool, intriguing story beat before having to wade through half an hour or more of tiresome shootouts with the same four shadow lumberjacks, who spout off lines like "Fishing can be both a hobby AND a job!" While this is meant to be dissonant and scary, it comes off as silly and tiresome. The game's linearity and haste to get these shootouts going means there is very little time for anything to breathe. You know how in a game like Silent Hill the game will have periods where nothing happens, to allow the atmosphere to actually sink in? There is very little of that in Alan Wake, giving everything a strange, breakneck pace, while not actually mixing up the gameplay rhythms at all. For a horror story, it's also not very scary at all. The villain is lame and poorly defined, and the camera often pans to show enemies spawning (which, while it is helpful to show enemies spawning behind you to avoid cheap deaths, means even enemies that spawn in the shadows in front of you lose any emergent horror lustre).
I dragged myself to the finish, and I must admit, the ending was good, especially knowing there is a sequel on the way now. I think there is a real chance the sequel could be remarkable. This game, however, while I can see why people regard it as an all-time classic, just contains too many repetitive gameplay sequences and drudgery to make it worth it. The game isn't all bad, just probably not worth playing through for the average player. Also, inexplicable product placement in a horror game? Really? "Take that spectres! I have ENERGIZER BATTERIES!"
A slightly disappointing start to my backlog clearing.
BACKLOG CLEAR: #1