Alan Wake

A lot has been said about the atmosphere of the game and I agree, it is great. Dark and creepy and mysterious. But unfortunately the most scary part of this game is the totally screwed camera positioning and the controls. At least if one doesn't own a gamepad. The character never runs where you are looking, but rather diagonally to your direction of view. Yes, one can change the camera position to the left or right. But that only determines if the character runs into the left or right wall. Running straight is next to impossible. This is very confusing and in combat the camera positioning is potentially deadly. This makes the overall game experience not one of a nice thrill, but one of total frustration. Now some fans in forums dedicated to the game have pointed out that you can get used to the screwed up controls and learn to compensate for the diagonal running. That is probably right, one can get used to a lot of bad things, but that doesn't mean that one has to like them. So my advice is: don't get this game if you don't have a gamepad. If you do own one, you probably can add one or two stars to my rating, since it supposedly gives you more control over the camera. But without one you will regret the purchase, like I do. Even though I got it during the promo for 15$, it still feels like wasted money for a game which only looks great, but plays frustratingly awkward.

While Alan Wake isn't as scary as the likes of a Silent Hill game it nonetheless has outstanding gameplay and a sense of urgency that pushes you through the story. It's an excellent thriller and a shining example of how a port from a console should be done. The only downsides to this game are poor mouse/keyboard implementation (great controller response though) , a definite lack of variety in adversaries, and it's linear to a fault. It's still one hell of a ride though and you don't want to miss it.

Really interesting story (of course, if you take a look at the credits at the end of the game you will notice why...), great graphics, nice soundtrack, good characters, will speed up your heart and will definitely make you laugh at times haha! Game developers know when and how to make a good plot twist, and will keep you astonished throughout the entire game! Still, even if I'd want to, I can't give 5 stars, for a single reason: combat and camera system can feel a little bit sluggish at first, and it might take a couple of hours for people to get used to it. Yet even then, I assure you that when you get the gist of it, both camera and combat will feel increasingly more and more satisfactory, which will compensate for it!

But if you're expecting a scary survival horror game you'll be a little disappointed. The game is a lot more of an action horror. The game starts off kinda slow but it picks up a couple hours in and then you'll be hooked. The story is pretty damn good and it will keep you interested. I enjoyed it a lot and if you're a fan of action or horror or games with a good story then you should definitely give this a shot.

This game really engage from the beginning to the end. In terms of storyline, it's really interesting and the way that it is told to us, like if Alan Wake is reading one of his books... I think that it's pretty cool. In terms of gameplay, well, we can say that the combat is pretty good: simple and funny mechanichs, remove the darkness and shoot; it's simplicity make it even more enganging. This simpleness doesn't means that the game is not going to be a challenge, we have a lot of situations that are going to make us think, administrate ammo and batteries in order to survive. Graphically, even thoug it's been a long since this game's release (2012), we are not in front of a game with bad graphics. The landscapes are beutiful, the town is so cool that I really want to go there on holidays xD. And the charactarer's desgins and animations are also so good. To sum up, we are in front of a videogame that is engaging and funny, it will give you about 9 enjoyable hours, and for 12 -13€ I think that it deserves at least give it a chance ;)