I was instantly interested in Alan Wake after hearing only a few sparse details about the game.  As my friends on Xbox Live know I am a huge fan of third-person shooters (why play as a character that I can’t be when I can play as one that I can see?) and an even bigger fan of survival horror games.  Alan Wake is billed as a “psychological thriller” which in the gaming world is pretty much the replacement for survival horror nowadays.  Alan Wake is certainly creepy at times.  It’s a little bit Silent Hill (though far better than Silent Hill: Homecoming), a little bit Resident Evil 4, a little bit Max Payne, and a little bit Lost (the television series, not the mediocre game Via Domus).

I have an eye for great graphics and let me say this: Alan Wake is pretty.  I don’t say that about a lot of games but it truly is.  The ferry scene at the beginning of the game took my breath away. It’s still a long way away from being truly realistic (as is every other game) but when I look back on a game as recent as BioShock (my second favorite game ever) and realize that Alan Wake is better-looking than it I can’t help but be awestruck.  Visuals have certainly improved since the debut of the greatest console of all time, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

It’s unfortunate that the actor providing the voice for Alan Wake, Matthew Porretta, is just not very good.  He is downright annoying at times and when the actor is actually shown as the real-life Alan through several televisions scattered throughout the game, his performances are laughably bad. Thank goodness most of the other acting ranges from okay to great.  I loved Brett Madden as Alice Wake.  She does exceptionally strong voice work.  The music in the game doesn’t particularly stand out apart from some of the songs that are played in-between episodes.  The inclusion of “Space Oddity” by David Bowie at the end of the game was a pleasant surprise.  The in-level music is fine but it’s kind of like how I felt about The Social Network winning Best Score at the Oscars: nobody cares.

One of my gripes in Alan Wake is with the controls.  There is very little wrong with the controls in the game and that is, in the end, exactly what is wrong with them.  I know that doesn’t make much sense but allow me to explain.  The whole point of the gameplay in Alan Wake is to aim a flashlight at something or someone in order to kill it/them or to weaken it/them down enough to score the kill.  This is extremely easy to do.  For someone not to be able to hit a target with the flashlight in this game that person would have to be an idiot or their controller is broken.  Aiming with the various guns in the game is a bit more challenging but also fairly simple.  Aim and fire; that’s it.  There are a few levels in the game that require driving from point A to point B and the cars handled pretty well until I wanted to make a sharp turn.  At that point they spun wildly out of control and trying to get back on course was frustratingly difficult.  Everything else, for the most part, works.

The plot in Alan Wake is the best thing about the game.  It is intriguing from the opening cinematic and although the game is over I am still pondering its meaning now.  As I said the game reminds me of the television show Lost.  Lost confused a lot of people and Alan Wake is likely to do so as well but I can guarantee that anyone who should play through it will be forced to think about it.  The game provides no clear answers and I love it for that.  The quote from Alan at the beginning of the game sums it up perfectly: “Stephen King once wrote that nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations – they are antithetical to the poetry of fear.  In a horror story, the victim keeps asking ‘Why?’, but there can be no explanation, and there shouldn’t be one.  The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it’s what we’ll remember in the end.”