Way back in 2012 I played this but for some reason, never realy finished. Back then, I knew about Twin Peaks and most of the references in here but I hadn't fully engaged with a lot of those works. The gameplay and the story grabed me but as most game sof the time, it ended up just rotting in my Backlog.
Now, more than a decade after that first journey, I decided to restart from scratch. The first episode reinforced why I had originaly liked the game. But then, as the Gameplay kept repeating situations and the story began to show the limitations of Vide Game Writting of the time (why are they getting drunk then?!?) the cracks started to show.
Alan Wake eing modeled after Lost but only having 6 episodes funily enough makes it feel more like a modern Netflix original show. Even has that annoying mystery boxing that's just hiding concepts that have been done before. But then again, it's also a game that proudly mentions those references, as a way to more easily get away with having taken from them. It's an homage. It just doesn't help that the musical choices are so unimaginative that they feel like the soundtrack an AI would assemble based on what it thinks David Lynch would chose.
As it's finishing, the game enters a new challenge. How will it put into Gameplay the idea that a writer can write himself into the winning scenario? This segment loses the hold on land that had helped guide the beginning portions and make the story engaging. But it's experimentation is also something that makes you feel like replaying. Maybe there's something else in there that I missed. Or maybe I just need to try the DLCs in order to truly «get» the story.
For all it's problems, Alan Wake is anything but ambitious. Time hasn't been kind, as other narrative games nowadays do laps around it. But there is an intereting story here. Using Wake's lantern to fight mosnters in the woods is still a pretty cool combat system. It's a 2010 game through and though. Part of a frontier in video game storytelling that's figuring out ways to reach the pinacles of TV and Cinema. In this game, it's still not realy there yet. But it's getting close.
Now, more than a decade after that first journey, I decided to restart from scratch. The first episode reinforced why I had originaly liked the game. But then, as the Gameplay kept repeating situations and the story began to show the limitations of Vide Game Writting of the time (why are they getting drunk then?!?) the cracks started to show.
Alan Wake eing modeled after Lost but only having 6 episodes funily enough makes it feel more like a modern Netflix original show. Even has that annoying mystery boxing that's just hiding concepts that have been done before. But then again, it's also a game that proudly mentions those references, as a way to more easily get away with having taken from them. It's an homage. It just doesn't help that the musical choices are so unimaginative that they feel like the soundtrack an AI would assemble based on what it thinks David Lynch would chose.
As it's finishing, the game enters a new challenge. How will it put into Gameplay the idea that a writer can write himself into the winning scenario? This segment loses the hold on land that had helped guide the beginning portions and make the story engaging. But it's experimentation is also something that makes you feel like replaying. Maybe there's something else in there that I missed. Or maybe I just need to try the DLCs in order to truly «get» the story.
For all it's problems, Alan Wake is anything but ambitious. Time hasn't been kind, as other narrative games nowadays do laps around it. But there is an intereting story here. Using Wake's lantern to fight mosnters in the woods is still a pretty cool combat system. It's a 2010 game through and though. Part of a frontier in video game storytelling that's figuring out ways to reach the pinacles of TV and Cinema. In this game, it's still not realy there yet. But it's getting close.