Review of Alan Wake

I assume that since the first words out of the narrator's mouth were "Stephen King" that Microsoft Studios intentionally wanted you to feel like that you're in a Stephen King novel. Well, they've done a very good job of it. Unfortunately, at it's heart, Alan Wake is just another shooter, on a platform dominated by shooters, from a publisher known for repackaging other people's ideas and trying to pawn them off as genius.

That's not to say that Alan Wake doesn't have a lot going for it. The graphics are beautiful and lifelike. You really do feel like you're in the middle of the pacific northwest. When you walk across a dilapidated bridge, you look down and see the waves below you moving and reflecting light in a realistic way. Character models are also very detailed (though Alan's wife looks like she has a little too much Botox).

What sets Alan Wake apart is the writing. Mikko Rautalahti wrote the story and he goes out of his way to prove that his grasp or character, story, and pacing far excels any of his brethren (that includes Mass Effect and Dragon Age Origins). The characters are straight out of a Stephen King novel and at least three of the Master of Horror's works will pop into your mind within 20 minutes of this game. It helps that the voice acting is well done and that the actors seem to care about this material (as opposed to the sleepwalking-cash my check attitude prone to video games). Alan is a flushed-out real person. He has a sharp, wounding sense of humor compounded by the fact that not only is he a writer, but he's a writer from New York. At the same time, he seems to realize that he's been a real asshole to his wife and that his problems stem from himself, not other people (that however, does not keep him from doing things that he REALLY regrets later on). This all gives him a unique motivation once things get nasty, he's not just a loving husband, but one who realizes he's done a lot of things he should have appologized for a long time ago.

I honestly feel self-conscious about summarizing the plot because I don't think I can convey just how good (in video-game terms) this story is, but here goes. You star as Alan Wake, a writer who has suffered from two years of writer's block after writing a best-selling novel. So that means you've been a jerk to your wife. To save your marriage (not your writer's block as many other reviewers have reported -- I payed real money for this game so I've actually played it) you and your wife decide to travel to the rural town of Bright Falls somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. However, all is not as it seems and pretty soon your wife is missing and you wake up a week later with short term amnesia. The story then revolves around you trying to save said wife and piecing together a story you don't remember writing that may help you solve the mystery of what happened in the previous week.



The pacing of the story is frenetic, with the first ten minutes making me the most excited I've been since the original Fatal Frame (not any of the sucky sequels). Yes, it's a dream sequence but it's probably the best dream sequence in video games, books, TV, and movies in the past 20 years. There are enough bumps and thrills that I pressed my three dogs into service to lie next to me on the couch while I played (they didn't seem to mind).

As you continue on to the town of Bright Falls, you meet enough interesting people and disturbing situations to spark your interest. Throughout the entire experience, the game does a good job of leading you by the nose. I don't think I've been wondering "what happens next" so often since I was forced to watch one episode a week of True Blood in order to catch up on season 2 (apparently Bacchus is not the happy-go-lucky, smoke'em-if-you-got'em god I always thought he was).

The semi-truck hitting the brick wall moment comes when you're actually forced to play the game. You know how many games have a button that you can press in order to skip the story and go to the game play? I wish Alan Wake had the opposite: a button to press in order to skip the game play and go to the story.

Despite the labeling on the package of "psychological thriller" the point of this game is to shoot bunches of enemies. In this case instead of aliens, zombies, or demons the baddies are possessed loggers. This is a two gun shooter, the flashlight in your left hand burns away the darkness that is protecting them while you use the weapon in your right hand to finish them off. The mechanic is neat at first, but I eventually got tired of it. And though the enemy models are very lifelike, I quickly realized there were only three types of enemies that I fought (hand to hand, ranged, and "muscle"). And that I continually fought them over and over and over again.

However, there are some bright spots that made me think things would change. Episode One ended with a haunting song by Roy Orbison that had me running to iTunes to purchase. Episode Two then began with a "Last time on Alan Wake" refresher that seemed right out of any of my favorite cable television shows (currently Dexter but any one will do). So I hoped the game play would pick up. It didn't. Bear traps were added. Irritating, repetitive, unfun bear traps.

I found that I had more fun when there were no enemies around. I enjoyed looking for the book pages, exploring the abandoned plane, or watching the latest episode of the Twilight Zone spin off.

What would I do to improve this game if there's a sequel? I think I would prefer more of a Grand Theft Auto or Dragon Age Origins free-flowing environment. The landscape and the characters are certainly there. Also I would like to see more puzzle solving. As it is now, I think I would prefer to have seen all the game play removed and have this be more of an interactive book along the lines of Disgaea Infinite. I honestly think I would have had more fun. Instead, I got Resident Evil with Plot.

I don't think I'll finish Alan Wake, despite how much I REALLY want to see the ending (though I've heard it's not nearly as good as the earlier episodes). That makes giving it a score hard. Is this what console gaming has devolved to? Endless and endless shooter titles while I'm guilt-tripped by game executives with profit margin reports making me feel like I have to like these? But at the same time there is so much I like about Alan Wake (and there seem to be a whole load of game reviewers on the bandwagon). But in the end, this is a game, and it's the game components that let me down. I'll give it the rental score of 6.5/10 because I can't rate on what could have been (or wish had been). I suggest if you rent this before buying, play a few hours. If you only play the first 20 minutes, then you'll go running to the store to purchase it only to be disappointed later on.

Sherlock Holmes

Once it became available on pay per view, I finally got around to watching Sherlock Holmes. I must admit that I'm conflicted about this film. The cast, in some respects, is outstanding, particularly Robert Downey Jr. He's emerged from the wasteland of continual rehab to become one of Hollywood's most talented and likable stars. His portrayal of Holmes is spot on, though sometimes I had to really crank up the sound to hear what he was mumbling.

I have to admit that I've always liked Rachel McAdams, and if she had been cast as Maid #3 I would have still wanted to rent this movie just to see her. She gives an energetic and nuanced performance as Holmes' somewhat-love interest Irene Adler. That, combined with her own blend of special effects involving partial nudity back shots and silk robes, was worth the price of the movie alone.

Jude Law gives an enjoyable performance as Dr. Watson. And I've always thought he got more press for whom he dated as opposed to the quality of his work.

Where this movie falls down hard is the villain and his "dastardly" plan. Mark Strong was the only halfway decent thing about RocknRolla (a movie, by the way, I had to start and stop three times before I could finish). However, his Lord Blackwood doesn't come across as particularly intelligent. And once I learned his true identity, I was doubly disappointed. I just get the feeling that Lord Blackwood spends most of his time in the pub having beers with his mates, not cooking up malevolent plans to rule England. I can't help thinking about what a younger Sir Anthony Hopkins could have done with this role. Now there would've been a bad guy for the ages.

As it turns out, despite every character telling me the contrary, Lord Blackwood isn't really that smart. Once I learned of his plan, I knew it wouldn't work. And it really just boils down to the fact that he's buddies with a seven foot tall French guy. And we all know what trouble you get into when the only thing you have going for you is the French.

Blackwood is also a horrible engineer. Apparently, he's never attended a lecture on single point of failure or risk management.

And that's what bothers me most about this movie. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle started a whole new branch of science and law enforcement with his works, but the movie is just a collection of triviality posing as genius. Can't anyone write a plot anymore? Feel free to post comments with the name of any writer born after 1940 that can actually write an original plot.

See Sherlock Holmes for the "good guys" but you'll have to cut the villain a little slack.