Alan Wake

I really love this game, having played it on Xbox. After I put it into the console, it didn't leave until I finished the game! Fantastic story, spooky as hell sometimes, I could really feel my heart pounding a couple of times xD It also reminded me of many of Stephen Kings storys, and Twin Peaks, which is a very similar town to Bright Falls(the town in this game). Voice acting is great, and the music is perfect... Every one can look foreward to standing on stage during one of Old Gods of Asgard's definitive hits.. xD Very messy review.. sorry for that xD

Remedy did it again. An engrossing story where a happy ending seems almost impossible. The gameplay is very interesting and tense at first, but as you begin to face seemingly endless waves of shadows, it becomes more than a bit monotonous at times. That being said, the story kept me going and will lead me to play again on the hardest difficulty setting, if only to read a few more pages of the manuscript.

Think of Alan Wake as a story that really wants to be told in a movie, but is instead transplanted into a computer game. While I found the story it tells compelling enough to finish the game, the gameplay can't be called anything but poor. The battles are repetitive: walk a few meters and wait for enemies to be teleported in. Each time there are just fractions of a second to react to being surrounded by opponents that move at light speed. When Doom 3 came out, it was criticized heavily for this kind of gameplay, but unlike in Alan Wake, you could at least accurately control your movements. Here, due to the 3rd person view, you always have to wait for some movement animation to finish, and whether the game reacts to your mouse clicks or keyboard input is a bit of a lottery. The detailed terrain made possible by a modern 3D engine also introduces problems that didn't exist in past shooters, like the insurmountable ankle-high obstacle. Worse, often you can't see at all what's going on since you're standing with your back to a tree or a rock, which fills the screen and obscures the action. Instant death invariably follows. Saves are only possible at checkpoints, and while on the whole this works smoothly, there are about half a dozen points in the game that become intensely frustrating. Each time you die, you have to pick up items and ammo again, occasionally watch cut scenes, then die again after a one-second fight that you lost because while you reacted, the character you're controlling didn't. As a game, it's a failure, but an interesting one. There is the intriguing mystery of what's going on, impressive scenery, and a lot of atmosphere and attention to detail. On the whole the game is still worth checking out if one likes the genre.

I'm an old guy, pushing towards my sixties. I've had this game installed on my computer for a long time but never got around to play it. Until now. Graphics: They are beginning to be a tad bit dated, but so am I. I won't complain about them as I don't require life-like facial expressions to enjoy a game. For me, they worked just fine. The story: It suited me just perfectly, as I'm a long time hardcore fan of Stephen King. As old and experienced I am, I still almost wet my pants on several occassions during game play. I hate flocks of birds... Those other scary things? Not so much. The controls: I agree with other reviewers that these absolutely could have been better and more responsive. Still, I really never had any major problems with them, although I did die sometimes because of them. If you can't see toyr enemy, you die. Simple as that. That's why I gave the game four stars instead of five. However, there was one thing I was impressed by = the cars. Many games where one can drive a car, and that includes many racing games, could learn a lot from how cars behave in Alan Wake. As an experienced driver myself, this was the first time I've played a game where the cars actually felt quite real in their behaviour.