Alan Wake reviews

Alan Wake has been in development a long time and it's clear that Remedy wanted it to be something a little special. And that it is!

Alan Wake is very definitely story driven and although the game has many strong elements, it's the story AND the way it's told that make Alan Wake not just a very good game but propels it into the next tier of truly great games. Not only was it fun to play, but I found the story so engrossing, that just like a good book, I found it difficult to put the game down because I just had to know what was going to happen next.

Thankfully, the level of care and detail extends also to the graphics. You'll spend a lot of time in the forest at night, but no matter, the forest is gorgeously rendered. The mist that rolls in to announce the imminent arrival of the bad guys is very convincingly done. During the day, you can climb lookouts and look across beautiful forest vistas. Lakes and rivers sparkle in the sunlight, birds soar high in the sky. So stunning were the graphics at times, that I sometimes stopped playing the game and just admired the view.

The game is no slouch in the audio department with all the requisite creepy sounds you might expect to hear in a deep, dark forest that is home to creatures of the night. The soundtrack has also received much praise in the gaming media.

Alan Wake is the reason I play games. It's a technical showcase combined with compelling gameplay and an engrossing story that Stephen King himself, could have written. Remedy have done themselves proud with a game that stands amongst the best available on the 360.

I first seen Alan Wake development videos in the lead up to the Xbox 360 launch at that time it fascinated me. The game appeared to be very technically impressive when compared to the generation of games at that time.

When it was released last year, I let it slide as I thought it looked like any other current generation game. The impressiveness of the technology seemed to have simmered down over time.

My ignorance of the game and the fact that it was released about the same time as Red Dead Redemption let it slide under my radar. Little did I know when Mighty Ape advertised it for $30 that I was perhaps purchasing one of the games of the year.

After selecting ‘Hard’, watching the introduction, the gameplay started and the atmosphere set. I knew I was playing something that would keep me hooked. The fluid controlling, frights and then excellent story kept me driven to keep playing. It's one of those games that you think, “I'll just play this little part” to yourself and you say that to yourself several times.

Alan Wake looks stunning. The game is dark and cold. You'll find yourself traversing through dangerous fog to find hidden things, yet wondering if you're crazy to do so. The game make great use of bloom lighting to really emphasize the importance of light in the darkness.

From the creators of the Max Payne series comes Alan Wake. It is everything I expected it to be, if you don't pick this up then you're missing out.

The atmosphere in this game was just amazing! I couldn't put down my controller every time I started playing. Good story, good shooting mechanics, a good score to go with the excellent visuals. There was a few minor problems that prevented me from giving this game a perfect score. The driving part in this game is not that good, the car sounds weak and the car handles like half its size. Not really a problem since you don't drive 90% of the time. The variety of enemy is too few. The ending might leaves a few questions unanswered, which leave plenty of room for future DLC (Down-loadable Content) The Signal is the 1st DLC and comes free with a new copy. Overall I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good story, creepy atmosphere, shooting things that jump out of the shadows at you, can't go wrong with this.

Brilliant, Alan Wake is intelligent. Remedy have trusted the gamer with enough integrity to enjoy this game. It is unique in that it does not follow the current trend of fast paced, instantly rewarding, mindless blockbuster games. This is an authetic adventure game, takes the gamer back to the old days of Silent Hill and Resident Evil. If those games were to evolve along the similar lines of their S\style, Alan Wake would be the result. The Episode style and constant narration are an excellent addition as well. Truly brilliant, do the world of gaming a favour and support titles like this, it is one of the last games that does not believe every gamer is a child, who needs their hand held throughout the process.

Alan wake is, to be blunt, completely and utterly brilliant. In a world that is quickly becoming congested with clonally propagated JRPGs and mindless splatterhouse zombie-killers, it is wonderfully refreshing to come across something that is actually original for once.

If you want something to compare it to, think of a plot as intricate and compelling as Heavy Rain's, combined with all the nightmare and horror of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Its story is the visual equivalent of a Stephen King novel, as compelling as The Dark Tower and as endearing as The Talisman. It is expansive and epic, terrifying and tender. The characters are touchingly human, and the world of the story is cunningly detailed in the extreme.

Alan Wake is a challenge, make no mistake about that. This is not a game that you can run through with your mind on your dinner. It is a game that you need to think about, otherwise it won't make any sense. Don't cheat and look up the plot summary on Wikipedia either, the core of this game is suspense, and knowing the plot ahead of schedule would be like breaking the game's metaphorical heart, ripping it out of its chest and leaving it bleeding on the front lawn, covered in tightly coiled piles of malice. If you want mindless hack and slash horror, go play Dead Space.

Visually, Alan Wake is very attractive for ‘360 game. The graphical quality is on par with Halo 3 and Red Dead Redemption. The only real problem with it is that the facial animation is a bit wooden at times, otherwise, it’s brilliant. There are places where the environment gets a bit repetitive, but, given the game's storyline, that's acceptable.

The game itself is not that long, but that's good in the same way that Portal was good because it was short; any longer and it would seem dragged out. The controls are somewhat simplistic, but minimalism works here, too much detail would just get in the way.

Alan Wake a solid game, and well worth buying if you want something that is, above all other things, original. I reccommend that you give it a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I really enjoyed this game. Great atmosphere and a brilliant storyline that keeps pulling you back in till the end. The two addons currently available for the game are also pretty good, but they felt a little rushed to me. Its actually a shame to say this but, the game is really really short and playing it twice is like reading the same book immediately after you've just finished it.

This is a great story driven game well worth your time. The plot is interesting taking a couple of interesting twists and the characters are interesting and well developed. The gameplay is fun and interesting although not hugely varied. Graphics are of high quality. Of particular note is the lighting which is always superb.

Would recommend to anyone interested in highly story driven games and anyone interested in the adventure/ horror genre.

Great thrilling ride keeping you on tenderhooks. Can be a bit linear, also repetitive in the way you kill the badies but all together a pretty good read, I mean game ;)

The game starts of really good and can be quit scary at times, just it doesn't get any different as the game goes on, just the same old thing, “shine torch on zombie, shoot zombie with gun” and the story can get just too weird, but other than that its ok

So into it.
Spend a whole day none stop to finish this game

Excellent game I havn't played for long time!

What happens in other games when its too dark for you to see anything? It doesnt matter because theres automatic lighting, PROGRAMMED INTO THE GAME, but in “Alan Wake” if you want to see ANYTHING AT ALL you need to physically equip your flashlight, point in the direction you want to see in, and then walk foward. Very annoying how when you want to see ANYTHING you need to equip a flashlight and point it where you want to see, and then you only get a tiny circle of white light, while everything around you is pitch black.

Pretty good game, must admit gets the heart racing a bit in places, good response to button bashing!

Great storyline, hard is hard, moderate is good for ppl with fairly good FPS games and easy is well – for dummies!

This is the first time I have played a game like this. It has a good story line but you can get bored pretty easy fighting the same shadow creatures over and over. I do recomend this game to the people the like thirller games. I dont really like this game but their are many people out their that would so I give it a 3

It is better, because its just a natual game for gamers, instead of having to shine a flashlight before you shoot.

Nice Looking women and good storyline,

I have read the other reviews and this maybe a great game but I didnt get past the first five minutes, as soon as I start going over the bridge the game crashes, I have looked for the updates and all my other games run fine.

I wouldnt buy this if you paid me to.

A great game to your collection, fantasic story, tense, great game play, sound and graphics.

Well worth adding to your game collection.

Dont listen to Phill he doesnt know what he is talking about I have played this game and I love it. The graphics and the storyline are Awsome and I recon it should be getting the game of the year award!!!! once you have played it through you just want to start all over again

Incredibly short, but a new style with the flashlight thing, its a good game but nothing more than a rental.

some people waited five years for Alan Wake to come out me i waited one year but all the hype for it was well presented. when i got it i thought it was going to be all hype and no game. i was proven wrong from episode one i was in love best game i had ever played. must have for all xbox 360 gamers. even new gamers will love it same with people who dont like horror games.

A decent survival horror game, focussing more on suspense and atmosphere than horror and puzzles. It's not really scary, and there's only one puzzle in it, but that didn't bother me as I hate puzzles anyway. It's a polished a competent game and I don't have any major complaints. It has a lot going for it. But for me personally the linear and repetitive gameplay let it down.

It's totally linear and each location, with a couple of exceptions, looks more or less like the last. The monsters are pretty much all the same and require the same tactics to defeat, making combat a bit of a bore after a while. You just trudge along, shooting the possessed locals (and often getting hacked to death by said possessed locals), picking up ammo and flares and occasionally having to deal with some obstacle or somesuch. Every now and again there will be a cutscene to advance the plot a bit, and you start a new area (that looks very similar to the last), and set about collecting all your equipment again because (annoyingly) you lose it all between levels. Throw in a few really difficult, but often very cool set piece battles and that's pretty much it.

The controls work well (no having to hold down A to run I'm glad to report). I found maneuvering and shooting very easy. That's something they definitely nailed. I did have a problem when the camera got very close to the character while an enemy was right on top of me and I couldn't see what I was doing. But that didn't happen very often. Combat is handled quite well, but it gets repetitive. A greater variety of enemies or being able to use melee weapons might have helped here.

It uses checkpoint saves but it saves often so when you die you rarely have to go very far back.

What I found quite annoying was the constant narration from the protagonist. Alan narrates your progress in this dull, inflectionless voice which I suppose is an attempt to add suspense but is just annoying. He sounds like he's reading a book rather than commenting on what's going on right now. What's worse is the narration acts as a spoiler telling you what you need to do to get past obstacles rather than letting you figure it out yourself.

It's not an overly long game. I played it quite comfortably over a three day weekend, so to me it's not worth the hundred bucks I paid. The story seemed a bit muddled and I didn't really understand the ending. But overall I'd say it's a reasonably fun, decent game that I can recommend to fans of the genre, especially if you don't like a lot of blood and gore. But I'd wait until you can get it cheaper, it's just not long enough to warrent full price.

Allan Wake is truly the most spectacular game i have played on the 360. The story line it's self is magnificant and deep, along with a perfect dialog and charactor reaction to the envrioment. The games lighting system is going to be hard to beat, with excellent shadow effects and daziling use of lighting from the torch.

The story/game is huge with an entire “Free Roam” island that you can walk, drive around.

The game delivers good action and suspence with good frights along the way. the game i recomend to be played in a very dull lit if not dark room as this truly adds to the atmosphere.

All up this game is easily a 10/10 but my opionion it would far out do any game i have played in a long time.

Alan wake was ultimatly entertaining to play, though I was never ever scarred one bit. Im a horror game fan and there are psx games that are STILL alot scarrier then Alan Wake. This is important in a horror game and is found vastly lacking. But still, the game play is entertaining, the pace is good, the characters can be great so there is fun to be had. Im just still waiting for a really great next gen horror game. Im still playing a ps2 horror series that gives me more chills then Wake did and thats why it hasnt stayed in my collection (trade in). Dont beleave the hype and just expect 10 hours of light weight dark action. Another excellent price point mighty ape.

Well I got to say it was well worth the wait.
Immersive, intense thriller/action based game, graphics are amazing, it's one of those games that you don't really wanna play by yourself in the dark.
Only gripe I had was the awful lip sync on the characters, just didn't do justice for me.
All in all it's worth to have this on your games shelf.

…but a beautiful and often tense one at that. Great story driven plot and gaming.

The game, while being intensely linear is still extremely playable, and managing two ammo sources (light and regular ammunition) makes for some incredibly tense moments. Graphics are amazingly rendered, and coupled with great audio make for a dramatic and heavily atmospheric game. The only letdown for me was the character animation during cut scenes, a lot of the facial and body movements are robotic at best, which tempered an otherwise masterful storytelling experience. Gameplay if a little repetitive at times is still usually spectacular enough that it never becomes boring.

Eagerly awaiting the release of the DLC

Allan Wake, i had seen this game advertised thinking “Yes it could be a alright game” so on that instinct i brought the game. Two days later there was a knock at the front door, i hesitated for a moment. On opening the door i see a yellow package laying on the ground…..“Hmmm is this Allan Wake?” I opened the package revealing the green casing of a xbox 360 game and found it was Allan Wake. I inserted the game into the machine there i sat watching then wham the game comenced and WOW!!!!! this game has it all, stunning scenery, breath taking graphics, a very in depth and deep story. The use of light sourcesis truly amazing along with the speech and way the people (charcters) in the game move. This game brings back the meaning to survival horror and fans of the Resident evil and Silent hil games will NOT be disapointed. I can truly say there is nothing and i mean NOTHING bad about this game. Truly Amzing.

This is the best game I have played this gen.

The story is absolutely incredible. Alan Wake is worth having in your game collection. It isn't the longest game, and by the end of it combat is a little tedious but the story is what makes you want to keep playing and not put it down. The graphics are good, especially the lighting and fog effects at night, they add to the over all feel and make the game feel more alive.

Two pieces of DLC have been confirmed (The first coming out in July and the other with an unconfirmed release date) which will continue Alans journey through the darkness.

If you like games with a decent story then you absolutely must buy Alan Wake. You wont regret it.

Alan wake bring the survival element back to the Survival Horror genre. The story is deep and intelligent. The graphics are stunning. The game has a focus on dark and light which is well realized with the lighting they use for the game.

The supporting characters are interesting and all have their own history. Remedy have put a lot of focus on making you care about the characters.

The episodic style of the game is interesting, more games should do it. This is a must buy for all Xbox 360 owners.

An intense psychological action thriller comes to life in this years Xbox 360 exclusive. Going to be Microsoft's biggest titles along with Halo reach. From the developers that bought you Max Payne, Alan wake is a story of loss and redemption. A must buy for all Xbox 360 owners.