Alan Wake has been in pre-production and production since 2001 and was announced officially at E3 2005. Seeing as how it is now summer of 2010, that is a long frickin’ time for a game to be worked on… like approaching on a Duke Nukem Forever time frame. Alright, maybe not that bad, but still, you see what I am getting at. Alan Wake is the brain child of Remedy Entertainment, who you may have heard of before. They were the fine folks that brought you the oh so moody Max Payne games.
The game puts you firmly in the shoes of Mr. Wake as he is arriving in Bright Falls for a little rest and relaxation. The purpose of his trip is to try and rekindle those creative juices. You see, Alan is a writer. He writes novels, but hasn’t been able to write one in about two years. His last book “The Sudden Stop” was a best selling book of crime fiction, however he ended up killing his main character. Now with a full blown case of writers block, his wife Alice decides that they need to get away so that he can try and write again. They head to a little out of the way logging town called “Bright Falls” and rent a cabin. Alice tells Alan that the area is known as a place to help artists create and be inspired. Unfortunately Alan doesn’t like the idea of being “tricked” into coming to this place just to write. In a fight, Alan leaves their cabin and Alice falls into the dark water, from which Alan is unable to recover her.
As the story progresses it is revealed that Cauldron Lake is indeed a very special place. Artists create things here to be certain, but when Alan starts to find pages of a manuscript that he apparently has written but has no recollection of, the real mystery is discovered. Why is it that he can’t remember writing this? Why is everything that he has written come true? Why is Alan missing a weeks worth of time and more importantly, where is Alice?
So as to give away as little as possible, I will keep the rest of the story as vague as possible.
Darkness. Darkness is both the answer and the question at the same time. Someone or some thing is controlling or had control over Alan, making him write, while also giving him a bad case of the blackouts. Barry, Alan’s agent shows up in town and hopes to try and help Al get back to his senses, potentially finding Alice along the way. The rest of the cast is just as much intriguing as they are bat shit crazy. It takes all kinds to run this one horse town, and you will meet quite a lot of people that you are never quite sure if they are friend or foe. By the end of the game you get a slight bit of closure, however, the proverbial door is left wide open for the already announced DLC.
See the rest of the original review @ GamesAreEvil.com
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