Just purchased this for the X360, haven't seen a thread so thought I'd give it a review. The story is episode-based, just got past the prologue and episode 1. So far, the game is very atmospheric - not sure I can really tell if it's as graphically high-end as the hype says (supposedly the highest rendering level the console is capable of), but it's certainly very pretty - although some of the NPC facial models hit the "uncanny valley" effect pretty hard. First up, the background: The game follows the titular Alan, a pulp fiction writer who appears to have had previous hit novels in the detective noir genre. As we join Alan though, he hasn't been able to write a word for two years (and some of his internal monologue suggests insomnia as well). The prologue introduces the game mechanics in the guise of a nightmare, although it's no surprise to find the nightmare foreshadows the events of the rest of the game. Alan then awakes to find he and his wife Alice have arrived in Bright Falls, a beautiful mountain town abutting a splendid lake. Alice has, as far as Alan knows, asked him to come here on vacation... but when they get to the cabin, she reveals a typewriter - she hopes the scenery will help him write, and also wants him to meet a local psychologist who specialises in helping "creatives" overcome blocks. Alan argues with Alice and storms out into the night, knowing that she won't follow as she has a phobia about the dark. Then she screams and the lights in the house go out... Alan runs back and thinks he sees Alice in the waters of the lake out back - he dives in... ... and awakens in a crashed car, bleeding from a head wound. As he makes his way towards a nearby garage, he is confronted by shadowy figures oozing tendrils of darkness... the same figures from his nightmare. But more confusing are the pages he keeps finding... pages from a book written by himself, but which he doesn't remember writing... pages that foretell the events that then occur. Eventually, he reaches safety and calls the sheriff. He tells her his wife is missing, that they were staying at Cauldron Lake. There's just one problem. According to the sheriff, there hasn't been a cabin at Cauldron Lake for forty years...
The game mechanics thus far seem fairly simple, although dodging attacks is a hit and miss affair for me at present. The game's primary antagonists so far are referred to as "the Taken". A voice in the nightmare (who I strongly suspect to be Alan himself in some sort of psychological twist) tells you that these are beings possessed by "the Dark Presence". They cannot be hurt whilst wreathed in shadows, so you need two things... a gun, and your trusty flashlight. This latter apparently needs to be kept supplied with batteries, although I found it regenerated energy as long as I kept my "bursts" short enough to not totally deplete the energy bar*. In usual mode, the flashlight does not consume energy and simply acts as a beam denoting where your bullets will strike - this is quite intuitive once you figure it out, but players of typical shooters will be looking for crosshairs at first*. By using the left trigger, the flashlight can be shone directly at a Taken. The light repels the shadows and, once "burnt off", you can harm the miscreant. Flare guns can be found, and these seem to serve as heavy weapons, damaging multiple hostiles at once. Regular cutscenes (which aren't too long) serve to enhance the "interactive movie/TV show" feel of the game. The designers have apparently incorporated "an" ending into this game, but one which leaves room for further "episodes" to be released via DLC. So far, it's sticking pretty faithfully to a sort of "generic Stephen King horror flick" approach - indeed, Alan opens the game with a quote from King about the best type of horror stories. Episode 2 awaits for tomorrow night. * Edit: I'd have found these things out if I'd RTFM'd... however the manual also reveals some NPCs ahead of time, so I'm glad I stayed out.
I wish I had a 360. There are a ton of great games that are exclusive to each console. This sounds like this console's answer to Heavy Rain.
Finished episode 2 earlier, a lovely romp through the forest again to meet someone who supposedly has Alan's wife hostage. More of the Taken met a flashlighty doom, but after a bit of a scuffle with the kidnapper, I had to get back to Alan's agent, Barry (a shoo-in for this year's Most Annoying Comedy Sidekick Likely To Be Played By Danny DeVito) who has come to Bright Falls to help out. This necessitated grabbing some wheels... I'm going to try out the alternative driving control layout, as the default bugs the hell out of me. Still, nice to have headlights to drain the shadows off the Taken before running 'em down. Barry got himself trapped in the cabin surrounded by a flock of shadow crows. These were a bastard to defeat (again, I'm crap at dodging) but eventually enough flares took 'em down. Next day, Barry gets a call from Rose, the waitress at the local diner (who's a fan of Alan's books) saying she has the complete manuscript that Alan supposedly wrote - and that's what the kidnapper wants. But it appears she's under a spell... run end credits. I'll give the game props for the episodial format - the cutscene endings of each section really do play out like the sort of endings you'd get on Lost or other arc-based shows. As Rose hangs up from talking to Barry and we get the reveal, we suddenly get a musical track and the camera zooms out from Rose's window and pans across the forest. The musical choices in the game have been good so far, too. Episode 1 ended to the strains of Roy Orbison's In Dreams, whilst this ep finished to Haunted by Poe, a track I hadn't come across before but which I immediately went looking for on iTunes. I hear tell Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds may make an appearance at some point...
Finally completed on Normal difficulty - will be going back through to see if I can track down all of the manuscript pages. Shadow possessed bulldozers really suck. Boy was I glad of finding flashbang grenades... the game starts throwing large groups of very strong Taken at you, and even with a heavy-duty flashlight you're hard pressed to burn off the shadow before they gangrape you. Pump-action shotgun comes in handy for those segments too. Best bit of the game for me? Fighting wave after wave of Taken on a sound stage set up by the crazy old local rockers the Anderson brothers... AKA The Old Gods of Asgard. Blasting away and lobbing flashbangs whilst fireworks went off and a metal soundtrack blared out from the speakers was, to agree with Barry, awesome. And I've changed my mind with Barry. Yes, he's annoying comedy relief. But the character doesn't back down from helping you and gets some genuinely touching moments. His naming of a head-torch he found "The Flaming Eye of Mordor" endeared him to me as well... wish we found out what happened to him and Sheriff Breaker at the end. So, Alan's wife is freed, but the price is one life for another... and yet "Alan Wake's journey through the night will continue"... Can't wait.
