Wakeful (No, Not Insomnia For A Change)
I've remarked in the past that I don't really do computer games. Yes, I know, I've talked about World of Warcraft, but I've also noted that my ongoing engagement with it is a complete one-off. Apart from occasional bursts of interest in the madness of a new Ratchet and Clank game, nothing holds me for long.
So a few months ago when I was in line in a shop somewhere and saw a display of a game called Alan Wake I didn't pay much attention. Then The Mrs mentioned it as something I might find to be up my alley, so I thought I'd give it a go. Full disclosure - I'm shit at games which involve the use of a console controller with any degree of urgency. Not dextrous enough you see, so I'm always fumbling for the right button as the hideous evil monster comes ravening at me. And then I die. Or I never spot that I'm out of ammo at a crucial moment. And then I die.
So it was with low expectations of my own performance that I embarked on this 'psychological action thriller'. The story (and for once this is a game that really wants you to invest in its story, so it's worth giving some details) centres around the titular character, an author with writer's block who's struggling to get going on his next best seller. In an effort to help him relax and sort himself out, he and his wife travel to a town in Washington State called Bright Falls, set amid lakes, mountains and forests, where they're going to rent a cabin and chill. Except that a mysterious old woman steps in to divert them to a different cabin on an island in the middle of a lake, from which Mrs Wake vanishes. And then things start to get weird.
I think you get the gist.
Anyone reading that introduction and thinking "sounds like a Stephen King thing" would be absolutely right. The developers' intention to pay homage to King is glaring. The man is actually mentioned a few times in the narrative. And the narrative, sadly, is the weakest thing in the game, which is a pity as the act of storytelling becomes fundamental to the structure of the whole thing, and having the core tale told so weakly is a massive flaw.
The psychological part of the game revolves around the mystery of Alice Wake's disappearance, and a week of Wake's life immediately following her loss which he doesn't remember. During that week, he seems to have written a manuscript which tells the story of events that then happen to him in the game. One of the mechanisms that is central to the whole thing is that you, the player, find pages from this manuscript scattered along your path, some giving insights into what happened previously, others offering hints of what's to come. You can see how the developers thought this would benefit the suspense thing; you're basically told about some of the stuff that's going to happen to you ahead of time, but you have no way of avoiding it. Unfortunately, after a few of these it starts to feel a little dull - if it was a more sparingly used tool it might be more effective. None of this, however, is helped by the leaden style in which the pages are written, and that in turn sadly matches the monotonous tone of the spoken narrative as throughout the game Wake talks to himself and you, mostly telling you things you already know.
Even worse, though, from a narrative point of view, is that along with certain helpful game items, some of the manuscript pages are off the beaten track, or easy to miss as you run through the more chaotic events. So in reviewing my progress through the game I would find that some small number of pages had been missed in each 'Episode' (the whole thing really wants to be a TV series). Meaning that some of the 'Previously on Alan Wake...' recaps would be the point at which key plot points are revealed to me, which is pretty shoddy. Worse, and I'd actually say unforgivably, the recap of one particular episode's end at the start of the next includes information that simply wasn't there the first time round. If you're going to make your game be all about the telling of a story, playing fast and loose like that is just outrageous.
So I'm less than impressed with the story here. The action thriller parts, however, I'll give some credit. Note that I've never played any of those horror game franchises like Silent Hill, so for all I know this is weak sauce thrills by comparison, but personally I found it very effective. At various points in the game you'll find yourself at night in a creepy locale (forest, ghost town, lumber yard, mine) being pursued by Taken - local people who have been taken over by a literal dark force. These people are shrouded in darkness, which needs to be burned off with a light source before they can be damaged. At certain times clouds of darkness begin to swirl around you as a precursor to waves of enemies moving in, or dark-possessed objects flying at you. This creeping around in the dark element is very effective. Even when you're not being assaulted the atmosphere is sufficiently tense that you'll (or at least I will) jump at the slightest thing. At one point I was investigating an abandoned cabin, and totally by chance as I turned around my flashlight beam crossed a window, revealing a human shape running by outside. I may have dropped the controller in shock. I know I came about as close to crapping my pants as I have since I was a baby.
I've seen it argued in other reviews that the combat sequences get a bit repetitive, which may be fair, but the variation of location and the escalating nature of the enemies kept me pretty involved, at least until towards the end, when my growing irritation with the narrative cheating was actively affecting my enjoyment of the game. I ran through the last two episodes more for the sake of not having left the thing unfinished than for any sense that I wanted to see what happened at the end (which is just as well, because it has one of the worst, most cliched endings in fantasy fiction. Possibly more than one in fact - yes; it's that kind of a conclusion).
I think the most significant thing I can say about the game is that having picked it up within a week or two of its May release I played it five or six times in short order (I gave myself a rule about only playing it after dark for heightened effect) then basically forgot about it until this weekend. That's not a good sign, really, is it?
I was slightly thrown, having looked to check when it was released, to see that the game's Wikipedia entry lists a lot of 5/5 and 9/10 reviews from people presumably a lot more familiar with what makes a good video game than I. There's a lot of talk of tension and atmosphere which I'll support. Also I'll agree that the landscape it uses looks beautiful. But I worry about what else is out there if this one is such a shining example of plot and pacing as so many suggest. Because if this is a good example of those things in games, then it's probably as well I don't play more.
High marks for tension, but far lower for the narrative that it wants so desperately to be taken seriously.