Lets talk Alan Wake.

[Shadowblind]

Wall o' text. For your enjoyment, the green shall not be used on this OP statement. Oh, and screenshots included so you don't lose interest reading :P

My adoration for Remedy has been great since the Max Payne days. So naturally, Alan Wakes dead time was full of speculation about the title on my part. After the E3 gameplay trailer, my opinion about the game is now mixed, lemme explain.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't know what to expect at all concerning Alan Wake. I thought at first that it looked to be sort of like Silent Hill, with limited combat but moderate movement. But a few months back, Remedy "leaked" a blurry screenshot onto the web showing what looked like a Resident Evil 4 view, a third person shooter, but no doubt with more freedom of movement.

So the gameplay trailer showed that its neither of those things, more Mass Effect in movement and combat mixed with Resi 4. Which isn't bad at all, in fact as far as gameplay goes it looks fine. From the video, Alan Wake had the ability to quickly move, or dodge against the darkness-consumed car. He also had the ability to sprint away from the oncoming hoard of darkness consumed enemies. The good thing is that they looked to move fairly quickly, and not trudge around. A mix between Resi 4 and a joggin Left 4 Dead zombie. Neato. The best part is that if Alan Wake does manage to terrify, it won't be doing so because it restricts the player, unlike Silent Hill, Resident Evil, or to a degree Dead Space.

In the gameplay trailer though, Alan had 120 rounds for his pistol. 120. I.e., alot, considering it took only a single bullet to take out an undarkened villager. Alan Wake is an open world Survival Horror game, so I could 'potentially' understand if he went around the entire city 50 times and found all that ammo. But thats grabbing at slim straws at best. I'm hopeful that it was only for the demo display, but since you have a flashlight that can stun enemies, ammo ought to be much more limited, in many ways even moreso then the old resident evil games. Besides, hes in BRIGHT SPRINGS HAPPYJOYTOWN! There shouldn't be so much ammo ^_^. He also found the flare gun, which essentially looks like a "get out free" card for a large zombie hoard attack. I don't like that. If you find yourself in the middle of a hoard with less then desirable ammo, I want to have to BOOK IT out of that area and try to hustle to another part of town to find ammo, not get out free. Although I will admit, the games lighting effects are about as impressive as they come with the hand flare :P

Also, it appears that the environment is just as dangerous to you as enemies, which is good. Cars, tools, (tractors), all get possessed and attack you. The sound effects from them sound scary enough, as do the possessed villagers. So, we count villagers, and dark environments. Remedy has specifically said no monsters or aliens, which, hey, can be great to leave out. That is, if they can keep the scary up in other ways. Being frank here, the title just didn't look scary enough from the gameplay I saw. The atmosphere, when alone, looked great. But when you have environmental light arround you, your essentially absolutely safe. However, I read that pretty much every light you come into contact with, including your flashlight can run out over time. Some lights build power back up, most don't. If thats true, then the feeling that you have a "safe haven" will be gone, and thus the intensity would set in. THATS what I want in a horror game.

The way the story is presented looked fantastic. Unique, innovative, and just really damn cool. In game narration from Wake as you play sounded great, and the hints written in light on the walls are neat ways to present details. So as far as the story goes, I can't complain right now about its execution.

My concerns about the gamer are pretty simple though. Alan Wake is, to my knowledge, the first truly open world horror game. In open world games like this, being able to collect items into an inventory is a fundamental gameplay trait that leads to tons of options. But I don't think we'll be collecting health kits, guns and ammo as much as hoped, since when hit, Alan's health regenerates. Yeah. In a horror game.

BLECH.

To be honest, the graphics are the best I've seen running on an Xbox 360 before, and the narration seems great. The use of light is an "k, thats kinda cool" feature and the gunplay looks fun, though a little average. Remedy has never been known for being "average". So I'm concerned about some elements of the game while other are good.

GAMEPLAY: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-alan-wake/50062

And, I don't hear enough Alan Wake talk here. We've seen only one gameplay trailer so far but damnit lets pick it apart.