We live in a world where video game heroes are bald, chisel jawed and have more muscle then an Olympic weightlifter. They carry massive guns and blow the living stuffing out of everything that moves, such is the demand for the action packed shooters that dominate the modern gaming world. Perhaps this is why mild mannered Alan Wake is a breath of fresh air. He has hair, which is a good start, but additionally he is as far away from a hero as you can get. He’s a writer, not a warrior, and carries deep flaws and traits that make him feel utterly mortal. You played through the game believing you were in fact seeing the development of a character, as opposed to the development of an avatar.
Alan Wake was a thoroughly enjoyable romp; a knowing love letter to the Stephen King school of psychological horror mixed in with the action elements that are usually found in a Resident Evil or Silent Hill. There was more than a whiff of Resident Evil 4 in the sequences where you are being relentlessly hunted by possessed townspeople wielding axes and chainsaws. A strong story featuring likeable characters, a suitably dark and imposing setting, and a neat gameplay device of weakening enemies using light before you could blast them, added into one very strong title. It had some issues with pacing and repetition, but a strong desire to see the story through to the end helped you power through without really thinking about it.
The problem then, for Remedy, was what to do next. The first game took five years to develop and sold respectably, though not astoundingly. It was clear from the nature of the ending and the way they affectionately referred to the title as ‘Alan Wake, Season 1,’ that they had more planned. But what they produced next was not a true sequel in the strictest sense. They released ‘Alan Wake, American Nightmare.’ An exclusive DLC release that provides a short, but sweet, additional adventure for Mr Wake.
In a slight twist, this tale is acted out like an episode of Night Springs; the ‘Twilight Zone-esque’ show you could watch on various TV’s dotted around the first game. There is a reason for this. Alan, in his continuing battle with the darkness in the form of his murderous doppelganger Mr Scratch, has written another tale that is coming true, which he based on an old episode of Night Springs which he wrote when he first started out as a writer. But his manuscript is scattered and his knowledge on how to end the nightmare incomplete, and once again he has to find the missing pieces in order to stop himself being trapped in a groundhog day-esque time loop for all eternity. The game is deliberately canny about stating whether this is an out and out follow up to the events of the first game set in the real world, or if it is just a product of Wake’s imagination as he battles his evil twin.
There’s no such deliberation to be had with the gameplay however, as you are quickly plunged straight into the darkness bashing that made up the meat and potatoes of the first game. Less is made of the story heavy segments, focus this time is much on the action. A good job then that while the gameplay remains pretty much unchanged, they have added an array of new weapons for Wake to wield, and made it so his torch is nigh on impossible to run down. It makes dodging and shooting the baddies that much more streamlined, and much more enjoyable as a result.
A shame then, that it suffers so much from issues of repetition; which is bizarre when you consider that it is a five to six hour game. It is inevitable, when dealing with time loop storylines, that repetition is going to play a big role. But largely it deals with it well by mixing events up and changing dialogue with the NPC’s. But when you find yourself dealing with wave after wave of very similar enemies, as you did in the first game, then you begin to wonder if they couldn’t have shaken it up a little more.
This of course doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun, because it is. The chance to discover more about the story by once again uncovering pages from Wake’s missing manuscript provides an intriguing distraction, even if the writing style is erratically different from one page to another. Radio interviews featuring Wake’s agent Barry and his new clients (the old time rockers from the first game), and TV’s displaying the hijinks of Mr Scratch, add another level to an already compacted story. A story that definitely leaves you wanting more from Alan Wake, with the ending again decidedly ambiguous as to where the protagonist will go next.
Add into this a high score arcade mode, where you fight to survive until morning against the hordes while scoring as high as possible, and you get a package that is well worth the 1200 MS points you’re asked to hand over. Above all else it is encouraging to see that Remedy are not yet done with this fledgling franchise, and bonus material such as American Nightmare can only increase our hope that someday we will see a fully fledged sequel.
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