Alan Wake (360)

[Flawless]

IGN Hands-on

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Now if you missed the conference stage demo (which you can view by clicking that link up there), here's a quick snapshot of what Alan Wake is all about: You are Alan Wake (surprise!), a novelist who hasn't written anything meaningful in a few years. To help you with your severe writer's block, your wife Alice has suggested taking a trip to the postcard-friendly town of Bright Falls -- perhaps to use as a setting for your next masterpiece. Of course, the game is a suspense-laden ode to the supernatural, so it doesn't take long before your woman completely disappears and you're on a hunt to find her. The twist? Your "psychological thriller" manuscript that you don't even remember writing is slowly coming into reality as your follow Alice's trail. Creepy stuff! One of the immediate bright spots in this very dark adventure is how the narrative is told. Even in its abridged 10-minute format, Alan's narration of the story as it unfolds is highly dramatic and well acted -- and the fact that he's reading his own story for the first time is an interesting take on a familiar "find the missing person" formula. Also of note is the TV-style presentation. Though Remedy wouldn't confirm an episodic structure per se, the team did provide a rather sumo-heavy inference to it. From what we can tell, each chapter starts with a "Lost-"style recap of the events leading up to your current dilemma, and from there you play the chapter through to its conclusion.

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The segment I played was the now-familiar stage that follows Alan as he searches for an acquaintance named Rusty who may know where additional pages of your manuscript are. Finding more pages will help Alan understand his story better, and understanding the story better means that you're one step closer to Alice. Of course, you never really see Rusty directly -- you just follow his screams through a series of pitch-black locations. The game itself plays in similarly to most modern-day action games and shooters. The right trigger fires your weapon of choice (which can be cycled through via the directional pad) and the right bumper activates road flares that you can use as a source of light. You see, light plays a very important role in Alan Wake, as it's the only thing that dissolves the dark shields around inanimate objects and people that have been taken over by the "dark force." While most dark shields fade with time, it's not quick enough to keep you in the clear by just waiting around -- you have to be smart and ready to shine the light at your enemies at a moment's notice; the trick being that your flares are special pick-ups and your always-armed flashlight has a battery that drains away pretty quickly. What I enjoyed most about Alan Wake as I moved from cabin to cabin in the eerie mountain village of Bright Falls, was how effectively Remedy has implemented strong action-oriented gameplay without sacrificing atmosphere. Alan is the only normal person in a very paranormal place, and he's not the type that can just run and gun his way through the horde of evil things surrounding him. Running away is probably the smartest strategy in the game and combining that cowardice (or as I like to call it, tactical withdrawal) with a clever use of your flashlight and gun combo is every bit as entertaining as previously 'roided up horror titles like Resident Evil 5.

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Besides the use of light, Alan has other tools at his disposal. Weapons like pistols, shotguns and flare guns blast your unshielded enemy with great sound effects, and the ability to dodge (with left bumper) puts your reflexes to the test. Of course, using the environment to protect yourself is a key tactic as well (finding street lamps to shun your foes away, turning generators on to create an impromptu shield for yourself or using trees or other big obstacles to block incoming projectiles is just the start. Interestingly, my experience with Alan Wake was somewhat less intense than the demo shown on Microsoft's stage, as the number of enemies was toned down quite a bit, so I never saw the army of Dark enemies that we saw today. Remedy says this was intentional, because they wanted us to a get a feel for how the game works in conjunction with its atmosphere without overwhelming us with too much too early. Most of everything else we know about Alan Wake can be seen in the oft-mentioned MS stage demo that I've already talked about several times over (and I encourage you to check it out). Based on everything I've seen so far, though, Alan Wake is already one of the most interesting, and one of my most anticipated, upcoming games over the next year.

[CMH]

I like how light has a central role in the game.

[Eton Rifles]

Kind of looks like a "Alone in thr Dark" type game.

[Flawless]

More Alan Wake News & Previews

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Interview (Google translated)

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HCG: The process of development of Alan Wake has been long. Do you see similarities with the process of Max Payne or Max Payne 2? Markus: As a company, the sight Remedy create intellectual property that is unique concepts that meet the audience. We feel that the Remedy brand is a guarantee of quality and we want the players feel that too. We are always directed by our own quality bar. While it takes time, we believe that this concept serves the players as well as our high expectations. HCG: Alan Wake seems to follow an episodic structure, with hooks after each climax. The Remedy is based on the famous suspense series of Twin Peaks? Markus: Twin Peaks was definitely an inspiration, as well as other modern series such as Lost, for example. The plot also has a strong style of pop culture, with influences of David Lynch and older works of Stephen King.

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HCG: The game will have abundant resources for the fight, or be limited, as is characteristic of some games of terror? Markus: We have a huge range of situations of gameplay, but this is an area that we are not yet ready to reveal details, not to spoil some surprises. HCG: Alan Wake will have a balanced focus between action and suspense / terror or be more focused on action, as seen in the E3 demo? Markus: Alan Wake is a game of action, but the plot of suspense is important to create atmosphere and climate. The story and the situations that the player experiences during the game are filled with elements of suspense and terror, and those combined with action is, in our opinion, a good mixture.

Alan Wake no longer an open-world.

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HCG: When the game was announced in 2005, was said to be in open world. However, as work with the new episodic structure? The game is now a more linear experience? Markus: The episodic structure has always been a part of Alan Wake. Despite the game being built from scratch in an open world of technology, we wanted to give the player the best roller coaster ride of emotional possible during the game, and a more linear structure is more logical to give the experience of suspense, giving the best impact possible in terms of plot. We removed the structure of sandbox for achieving this story full of hooks, having said that, as our tools and technology allow us to define the scope of every town, there are episodes in the game with many opportunities for exploitation, if the player wants more research into the mystery, meeting people and finding hidden extras.

[Flawless]

New info from Pelaaja magazine:

• Alan Wake is not late. Before E3 2009, Remedy have never given a release date and all previous dates found floating on the web were made up by other sources. In fact Remedy have never missed a release date for any of their previous games and does not intend to with Alan Wake. Alan Wake will be released Spring 2010 for the Xbox 360.

• Alan Wake today can be played from start to finish. It's all about polishing and giving the final touches from now until shipping.

• The game is still about Alan Wake, a writer, who hasn't been able to write anything for a few years. His wife Alice takes him to the small town of Bright Falls to find inspiration. When they arrive things start to turn into a nightmare. Alice disappears and Alan gets driven into events that were written by himself, although he doesn't remember writing them. The dark force overruns the whole town and the only thing Alan knows is that in order to find his wife, he must find the mysterious pages of his manuscript, and the events described in them turn real in front of his eyes.

• The original vision hasn’t changed, but the way the game plays out has been experimented with along the development process. One of the major changes is that the game is no longer a sandbox type of game where the player can roam freely. Since Remedy wanted to focus heavily on having a compelling storyline, sandbox style gameplay does not mix well with what Remedy wanted to achieve. Remedy stressed that this does not mean the game will be linear and that you have to follow a set path throughout the game. “The player must not feel they’re being pulled from strings. The player must feel like they’re making the decisions themselves”. There are many characters in Bright Falls that Alan can interact with, and exploration is still very much apart of the game. Throughout the game the player will be finding the missing pages from Alan Wake's manuscript, however not all the pages will be found through the plot. Similar to how BioShock handled it’s audio logs, Alan Wake will allow you to roam freely around looking for them. There's still a day-night cycle and weather changes. Remedy is calm and confident about Alan Wake. They're not worried that people expect too much from it.

• Remedy has said from the beginning that light will be an important element of the gameplay. Alan Wake’s most important weapons are his flashlight and other light sources found in the game world. The dark force can possess both the residents and animals in Bright Falls and make even lifeless objects attack Alan. They are vulnerable only in the light. Light strips the shield that the darkness adds and once that shield is stripped, you can use conventional weapons.

• Even though Microsoft is publishing Alan Wake, Remedy still own all rights to the game and Alan Wake is planned to be only the beginning of the story.

• Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Remedy haven’t spoken about the PC version of the game yet and the release of a PC version is up in the air. When asked about it Remedy replied saying that both Microsoft and them are only speaking about the Xbox 360 version at the moment.

[Flawless]

Interview: Remedy's Oskari Hakkinen on Alan Wake

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How unusual it is to have the protagonist be a writer and not, say, a space marine (or a cop seeking vengeance)?. Is he an everyman? Does he know how to shoot a gun? We always set out to make an action game and we had a good picture of what kind of main character we wanted – not an action hero or a commando but rather someone smart and likable, an everyman in a bad situation. We set out to make a story-driven game, and we knew that narration as a story-telling feature was something we wanted to implement. A writer, a professional storyteller, all of a sudden just seemed like a logical choice. Alan Wake has been to the shooting range as part of research for his previous publications, so yes, he knows how to use a gun. Alan Wake started as an open-world game, but is now more linear for the sake of story progression. Yet, you've said that you want players to feel like they are making their own choices. How will you accomplish this? Alan Wake is built from the ground up on open world technology, however this is not a sandbox game. In order to deliver a strong story driven experience we opted quite early on in the design process for a more linear structure which supports the story driven experience. We've always wanted to give the player the best possible roller coaster ride through the game and the thriller story is our way of doing it. Having said that, the world is huge and episodes are played out in large areas of the world. The player should not feel like he's being pulled by a string. Players make decisions and have plenty of exploration opportunities should they wish to look and dig further into the game, meet the locals and find hidden extra to uncover more of the mystery. Since daylight drives away the horrors of Bright Falls, what will players be doing in the daytime? Also, how are weather effects being integrated into gameplay? During the day there is a possibility for further NPC interaction, uncovering the mystery and the town of Brightfalls, however, even in daylight there are places that are dark therefore the player should always be on his toes. We control the day and night cycle and the weather to create drama and suspense, these factors will dramatically affect gameplay.

[CMH]

I think making a more linear open world will benefit this game. I'm actually in favor of more games going this route as I think the open world free roaming formula is not always the best approach.

[Flawless]

1UP Interview

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1UP: When the game shifted from an open world to a more linear game, was there anything else that changed along with that? MM: No. I think we're very close to the core of what we set out to do, which was to tell a compelling psychological thriller and also to have an awesome use of light in gameplay. So, I think those are very close to what we set out to do. Of course, we iterated and iterated and polished and then tried different things -- it's just the way we work. We craft things from the ground up very carefully. When gamers put their hard-earned money down, hopefully they're having an awesome action experience.

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1UP: Is there a day/night cycle? MM: Yes. So the day/night cycle was a part of our simulation. We control the time of day to get as much drama out of each situation as possible, and the amount of light has gameplay significance... So as the world slides further and further into night, darkness becomes the thing to avoid. OH: Light's a combat tool for the player; it's also a safe-haven, and we have various different ways to use light sources. For instance, [you can use] the headlamps of a car, or you might need to man a turret or start a generator, for instance, to create yourself a safe-haven. Or use, for instance, a hand flare to create yourself a momentary safe-haven. Many, many, many clever forms of light. 1UP: Will ammo often be scarce in these situations? OH: At times. MM: You don't want to frustrate the player with inventory management, but sometimes it's nice to kind of turn the tables and to make sure that, you know, maybe you're in a bad situation where you don't necessarily have all the resources at your disposal. It becomes more about outsmarting your enemies as opposed to outgunning them. Alan Wake is very much an everyman -- he looks like a young Harrison Ford character who was pushed into an extreme situation. OH: Wake believes that he can will his light source. When he's in a state of panic or fear and his friends have been taken, he doesn't really understand it. He's an everyman, but inside his state of panic or fear, he believes he can will his light source to burn brighter and thus burn away the darkness quicker. Is it all in his head or is it reality? That's up to the player to decide. MM: And a lot of the story and the fiction revolves around subjective versus objective. Is it really happening or is it all in his head? We kind of play with that. It's an interesting theme.

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1UP: Will there be many puzzles that tie in with that, or is the game mostly action? MM: We have a good diversity of different kinds of things for the player to do. There will be certain minigames...but in terms of puzzles, nothing that would be too frustrating for the gamer, nothing too complex. I think there's a lot of talk that there will be "problem solving." We hope that kind of emerges naturally because light is such a clear gameplay element -- like, if you need to position lamps, for example, to provide cover for yourself, or you need to start a generator and before you start the generator you need to go through [a specific path of lights]. But it should all emerge naturally out of the world as opposed to being bolted on after the fact. OH: As Matias said, I see it as a form of puzzle -- to really use the light sources around you cleverly, whether it is moving a light source to create a protective barrier from this dark presence that's trying to attack you [or something else]. So that in itself is a puzzle, I think. 1UP: What about backtracking? Is it pretty much a straightforward game? MM: We have some...because we control the day-and-night cycle, we might have a location that, say, isn't in the daytime [the second time you see it]. Maybe you've spoken to other non-player-characters near it or something like that and we want to place the player there when it's dark and it's stormy outside. And that's actually a very powerful tool because we've now made the player more vulnerable, but they also know the location. So we'll have some of that, but mostly, the kind of empty-level backtracking where you look for the key to open the lock -- that's not really a Remedy thing. We try to cut out the pieces of the game that aren't rewarding and to leave the really good parts in. OH: You have an opportunity during the daytime, as well, to meet the working locals and get to know the town of Bright Falls. But there are going to be some dream and nightmare scenes, so you might backtrack in your memory, perhaps.