If you get the chance, play Alan Wake. Beat the game on easy or normal mode, then think "well that was pretty good. I wonder what I should play next..."
You should play Alan Wake next. Alan Wake on Nightmare difficulty.
Alan Wake as a premise is interesting. You know how vampires work: super fast, super agile, allergic to sunlight, garlic, etc. Well the Taken in Alan Wake work in much the same way, only without the garlic. It's easy enough to forget this at times when you're playing through for the first time, because hey, your crappy little flashlight powers through their shields of darkness in no time. Then it's just a few shots in their direction and they're gone.
Not on nightmare. No, on nightmare you'll spend 70% of the game running in fear, and the other 30% shaking like a leaf as you expect taken to leap out at you from every shadow. Maybe it's the jump, but going from easy to nightmare is like cooking your first meal at home and then cooking in a Michelin-starred restaurant the next day - the level you've got to be at to get through it is intense.
Alan Wake is an impressive game, not only in terms of difficulty but in terms of story. You play as the eponymous hero, author of several crime thrillers but stuck with writers block and in desperate need of vacation. You travel with your wife to Bright Falls, where crazy things start to happen. Like your wife going missing and the cabin you're staying in turning out to have been under the lake for decades. Thanks to the mystical properties of the lake, you're now trapped in a story Alan wrote himself, trying to find out what happened to his wife and looking for a way to turn it all into a happy ending. The only way to do that: picking up a torch and a gun, and killing some bad guys.
The horror aspect of it really gels well with typical game mechanics; those parts where I'd get frustrated in any other game, having to do over and over as I was killed each time in new and interesting ways (or, more likely, the same predictable way each time), felt different, more dramatic. Every time I died I realised, with mounting horror, that those very same insurmountable enemies would be waiting for me once more, that I would have to run the gauntlet again, only this time I would know all too well what was waiting for me.
Thankfully, for those who wish to put off the inevitable rematch against the forces of darkness, Remedy have inserted several diverting side-quests should you wish to collect all the achievements. There are manuscript pages and flasks of coffee dotted around the world, to be found by anyone who dares stray off the beaten path. The manuscript pages often come in handy, too, giving insights into the mystery surrounding Bright Falls and sometimes even warning you of danger ahead. But don't think that collecting these pages will make it any easier to fight the enemies you know are coming up.
I have a couple of criticisms, because no game is perfect. Having played this twice over, I have problems with the dodge mechanic, in that it doesn't really dodge all that much. At times you can perform a cinematic dodge, where everything goes all slo-mo and you get to see the enemy weapon smashing down where you were barely a moment before, but these are difficult to do at the best of times, much less when you're furiously attempting it in blind panic. Getting Alan Wake out of the way of a weapon is, at times, frustratingly difficult. And when the dark presence can lob objects at you with frightening speed and accuracy, all you can really do is hope you can take it until you reach the next streetlight.
Also the graphics. This is a minor criticism - sure, it'd be terrible if it were all 8-bit and blocky, but it isn't. The problem is, particularly in the daytime scenes, there are parts where the background feels out of place or two-dimensional (particularly noticeable in Hartman's lodge - potential players, take note!). It's almost as if the landscape drifts into the uncanny valley, it looks fine, almost real, but it's too computer-y and looks too fake to be real. Since most of the action takes place at night, however, it isn't too bad, and I don't exactly play games for the graphics. It's just really jarring when a game with good graphics suddenly throws you a flat, badly-textured curveball.
One thing about Alan Wake: they really do love showing off the physics. It uses Havok's physics engine, which is great for realistic effects and perfect for Alan Wake, and you get to see it when the darkness starts chucking things at you. Like train carriages. Or boats. But even the smaller objects get used as weapons, so you can never be sure when something's going to come flying your way. Start eyeing every barrel nervously; if you're not a paranoid wreck by the end of the game, you're doing it wrong.
Alan Wake is not a game for the faint-hearted. I can't say I play many games, but I've never played anything like it before, and even after two rounds I want to go again, just to try and find everything in every level. There's always something you miss, some little in-joke in the background or a manuscript page, and you just want to go back and find them all. On top of which, nothing beats the adrenaline rush you get when you shoot a chainsaw-wielding demon in the face with a shotgun. Fear is only half of the equation in Alan Wake: the relief you feel when you've outrun or outgunned the enemy is all a part of it too. You get to relax for five minutes, congratulate yourself, and then steel yourself for the next stretch of pitch black forest. It's almost enough to make you want a night-light.
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