Alan Wake

Don't expect a horror game. Spooky, maybe, but certainly not horror. I must say that at no point of the game did I experience fear like I did in Clive Barker's Undying or the original F.E.A.R. The baddies are mostly hill billies with axes and a severe case of photophobia. What Alan Wake does very well is create a rich and intriguing world were the battle between light and darkness is almost palpable. The story is compelling and absorbing. Alan is very well portrayed as a man desperately trying to solve the mystery of his wife's disappearance. Sure, there's way too many of those let's-cross-through-the woods moments and the level bosses (if you can call them that) don't pose much of a challenge, but the game as a whole is much more than just the sum of it's parts. Alan is just a man trying to fight something he doesn't understand. Bottom line, Alan Wake failed to scare me, but utterly succeeded in entertaining, baffling and even surprising me. This is a game that stayed long with me after finishing it.

TL;DR: Come for the cool story and creative atmosphere, but don't expect groundbreaking fun. This game is a pretty good argument for the idea that without compelling gameplay, a great story can only carry a game so far. A dark tale about otherworldly forces clawing their way into our reality, Alan Wake straddles the line between standard 3rd-person shooter and survival horror. Its unique mechanic is that enemies must first be stripped of their protective darkness with a light source before they can be dispatched. Ammo, health, and battery management are important, but in most sections you'll have more than enough resources, which keeps things from feeling too tense. The combat is only OK, and rarely adds new ideas, so gets stale before long. Luckily the game isn't overlong, and it's episodic presentation encourages playing in spurts rather than a marathon. There are fun multimedia bonuses to encounter sprinkled through the levels, and they really add a lot of flavor. Without these creative set decorations and the compelling story this game would definitely be forgettable. The two DLC chapters are interesting and spice up enemy encounters a little via a new mechanic, but the story is nothing special, leaving the ending of the main game without any meaningful changes. Overall, this game was compelling, and I loved the presentation and story, but found myself tired of the actual gaming sections long before finishing it. I recommend it, but not without some hesitation.

The story, acting and atmosphere is good, but the gameplay can be quite annoying, every part of the combat system revolves around shining a torch at enemies to weaken them, while doing this you are surrounded and hit from behind (three or four hits to die) happens all to often, you can use frags and the flare gun (if you can find them) and they help a lot, you can also tap the left shoulder button to dodge an enemies attack and if you time it right (a lot of the time it's hit and miss) time slows down until you have finished the dodge, if there are may enemies the dodge is useless, all enemies look the same too. Game goes like this, a bit of story,fight and to a street light which is a save point, you might have to fight off many enemies in between and repeat again against the same enemies, any upgrades you find like a better torch is taken away until you find it again. If you can deal with the repetitive gameplay theres a good story and the graphics are still decent and set a good atmosphere, it's worth at least one playthrough. Get in a sale if and there is nothing better.

Good old game by now, good plot, nice atmosphere and caracthers. The horror ans a nice touch to the mix so if you haven-t played it already give it a go, Goes fairly often on sale so grab a flashlight and let's go! ps: I forgot the soundtrack is very good! GLHF

Remedy knocked it out of the park with this one. Cannot wait to play the sequel. Hope part 2 gets released DRM-free on this platform