Alan Wake Hands on
It seems I’m wrong again, just like with Darksiders and Assassins Creed 2, I jumped the gun and decided I knew what these games were about before even playing them. I’m sorry Remedy, looks like I got you guys all wrong.
After spending a few hours with Remedy’s Alan Wake, the much delayed and much hyped title has won me over to the point where I can safely say it’s one of the most intriguing games I’ve played in a long time.
I’m about an hour and a half into the game (just after the first episode) so there are a few things I can judge straight off the bat. The visuals are crisp and detailed, Alan’s character model in game is a multi layered and beautifully crafted avatar, several pieces of clothing layered on top of each other pop from his body as he moves around the world; realistically and with just the right amount of weight. The dreary looking preview video’s made it very hard to get excited about the environments but having played the game I can’t see how I missed the great use of colour and light in the world Remedy have built. Foliage moves as Alan Walks past, light and shadow duck and dive around him as makes his way through the nightmare he’s landed in.
I am slightly disappointed with the facial animation during cut scenes, when Alan looks shocked his mouth opens like he’s getting ready to throat a horse, infact his cut scene model is no where as pretty as the in game Alan. Mass Effect 2 and God of War 3 set the facial animation bar for 2010 and in truth I feel sorry for any developer who has to deliver anything graphically after such a strong start to the year. The night scenes are actually surprisingly colourful when your in them and not as boring as the trailers would have had you believe, it doesn’t hurt that Remedy pressed the atmosphere button until they wore their fingers down to the knuckle. The sound and music are fantastic, especially when an attack is becoming imminent, the forest barks and screams at you if your lucky and whistles and whispers if your not.
Whatever about the visuals – Combat and presentation are really what this game is all about and Remedy are firing on all cylinder thus far. I don’t want to spoil any part of the story, if you have followed the game at all then you know as much about the story as I’m willing to tell you. So far, its been delivered extremely well and pushes the medium in a direction that hasn’t really been explored this well as of yet. The episodic format hits all the right notes and thanks to some Nolan North quality voice acting it keeps you strapped tightly into the story. Very cool indeed, cant wait to see where it goes. If you like Lost, Twin Peaks or Stephen King novels then you’re in for a treat. So far the survival horror angle isn’t that heavy handed but for me this is a good thing, I’ve never been a huge fan of that genre anyway.
Combat is very tight and not at all as clunky and awkward as I expected. Left trigger focuses your flashlight and right controls Alan’s weapon fire. The controls are very well thought out and minimal tutorial is needed before you start popping fool’s. Firing a flare gun at a group of Taken as the screen brakes into slow motion, the flare burping and hissing out into the darkness…is awesome and very satisfying with a yummy amount of feedback coming from the gun play.
So there is it, the game is good so far and I’ve gotten all the rudimentary admin out of the way for my review. Cant wait to dive back in, expect our review early next week!
Oh man. Sounds great!