If you haven't read the three posts that I made about Alan Wake back in February, I recommend that you go check them out before reading this post. Don't worry, I'll wait.
Back? Good. On Tuesday, the...damn, I don't know what to call this. I was going to say DLC. But it's not. Alright. It's called Alan Wake's American Nightmare, and it's a standalone release. I guess I would call it a continuation of the original game, but your guess is as good as mine. Like the first game, the story is very classic, very basic science fiction. (Hint: That means you won't really know what the balls is going on.)
So we'll just keep it simple and say it's a continuation. If you don't want spoilers, stop reading now. The first game ended on a rather sour note, and I think I complained about it back in February. This game solves that problem, actually, because you're given hints that this is really picking up right where the first game left off. Alan was stuck in the darkness, trying to write his way out. Well, now he's out, and he's landed in Arizona. The darkness came with him, and it seems it has manifested itself into a dark version of Alan Wake himself. I've seen it on a TV screen -- from what he said, it seems like he's trying to take over Alan's life. Sort of like it wants to actually take his place.
The game plays exactly like the first one. It looks like there have been some graphical improvements -- Alan looks better; especially his clothes. The lip synching is still bad, though. That was a problem in the first game, too. Remedy aren't exactly known for their great lip synching, so I'm not going to dwell on it too much. Hell, Max Payne 1-2 didn't even have moving lips.
There's one thing I'm wondering, and it's a pretty significant change from the first game: Alan Wake had many wonderful jump scares. It kept me on edge, and I yelled at my screen on many occasions. This game lacks that. I think it may have been a design choice. It's playing more like an action game rather than a survival horror game. I'm not exactly sure I like that; not yet anyway. I'll have to see how things play out with the rest of the game to make a final decision there.
A few new things have been added. The manuscript pages are back to find, but they actually serve a purpose now; you can use them to unlock weapon cases that give you a pretty significant edge against your enemies. It's an interesting way to actually reward the player for exploring aside from just giving them achievements for collecting the pages themselves. I'm in favor of this.
I've seen one change to the enemies so far. There's one kind of Taken that will split into more Taken when you shine your flashlight on them, making them weaker but more numerous. It's a cool change of pace when they are thrown into the mix.
One change that amused me the most was the narration. In the first game, it was Alan doing the narrating himself. That's changed now -- it's a totally different voice doing the narration, and it's done in the most blatant rip off ever of The Twilight Zone. The entire game is presented like it's an episode of a TV show just like TZ. It's corny as hell but brilliant at the same time.
Also, it feels like they are trying to push the envelope on the feeling of an open world. They're no where near a Skyrim or a Fallout, or even a GTA for that matter, but it was cool to have this safe haven in the middle of the map and being able to explore out from it to get what I needed, and then make my way through the darkness back to that brightly lit area. It was a good immersive technique.
That's about all I have to say on the game for the moment. I've got just under an hour of playtime on it so far. Given the price, I'm not expecting more than a couple of hours. You can pick it up for under $13 currently on Steam. If the rest of the game plays out like it has been, I would definitely say it's worth the price. Even if the scares aren't there, I'm still having a lot of fun playing as Alan once more. It's good to hear him again, and it's good to experience that oddball, quirky humor that so entertained me in the first game.
Below are a few screenshots I took tonight for your viewing enjoyment.
No comments:
Post a Comment