Game Over: Alan Wake

My first experience with Alan Wake wasn't a good one — I hated nearly everything about it and ditched the game before even reaching the middle. I couldn't stand Alan because I thought he was such a jerk; I was pretty new to gaming, so I had a hard time with the (sometimes) cumbersome combat; and I thought a lot of things were cheesy and weird (namely the Night Springs episodes). I had come to terms with the fact that the game would sit untouched until the end of time because it had been a complete failure — at least, in my young and wrong eyes..

Thankfully, one of the missions of my PlayTracker — a great site that offers monthly quests to keep your Steam backlog fresh; you can read more about it here — this month was to get an achievement in the second Special Episode, and instead of just using the in-game chapter selection to skip to the end, my wife suggested I give the game a try. I am enormously grateful to both PlayTracker for making me revisit the game and my wife for suggesting I start from scratch, as my second encounter with Alan Wake wasn't just successful — it was amazing.

I'm not going to lie to you — I had very little hope of liking the game. It was difficult for me to imagine how I could change my mind on something that was so inarguably bad — gameplay- and story-wise! Starting with Alan: I remembered him as a bitter, rude jerk who snapped at everyone and was overall incredibly unlikable; I couldn't fathom hours of dealing with him. But this time around — whether it was because I've grown and matured or due to my new-found love for flawed characters and their struggles — I really liked him. In fact, I braced myself for the whole first episode waiting for the moment he'd become insufferable... yet it never arrived.

Don't get me wrong — he's still a jerk at times. Especially according to his wife (and even his best friend Barry), who thinks Alan is very self-centred, rude, and a bit of a stubborn brat. But I thought he was a phenomenal protagonist, as his downfalls and flaws made him a perfect candidate to go through all the narrative happenings, especially the two Bonus Episodes. 

I very quickly started falling in love with the game thanks to its narrative and characters; it feels like it's been a long time since I got lost so deeply in a story. Throughout the entire journey, I couldn't help but think about the great movie it could make should it ever be adapted appropriately. Whilst it does have some cliches, it was a pretty fantastic cast and narrative.

Additionally, the "horribly cumbersome" and "oh, so terrible" combat was actually incredibly enjoyable! I loved having to shine the light on the enemies until they were vulnerable, and I appreciated the constant change of weapon availability (which is usually done quite poorly in games). Whilst it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows — mostly because I dreaded the possessed objects and the movement being quite clunky at times — I found myself looking forward to the fights and even sometimes sticking around needlessly just to shoot some bad guys up!

I couldn't be happier that I found my love for Alan Wake, especially right before the release of the sequel! I cannot wait to see what they'll do with the story now and — even more — what the gameplay will look like nearly 15 years after the original title!