Gaming by Miksa

Players’ world wide will have the opportunity to experience fear on a whole new level. Remedy’s new promising horror action adventure game delivers horror, mystery and shooting, supported by great story and stunning visuals.

There has been certain stagnation in the horror genre for the past several years. Though some new titles like Gears of War, Alone in the Dark and Dead Space delivered some extraordinary atmosphere and fast paced action, the entire concept of horror hasn’t been brought to a higher level. But that’s about to change.

Remedy, the famous Swedish gaming developer, best known for its Max Payne franchise, has been developing a brand new horror title for 4 years now. Though we were introduced with the title and the basic elements only recently, the shown was more than convincing.

Story and setting

Alan Wake is going to be a horror action adventure game with a unique story and setting. The main character, by which the game is named, is a best selling author of horror novels. He writes books based on the horrifying nightmares he sees when the lights go off. However, a tragedy changes his life, when his fiance goes missing. In order to deal with his loss, Wake moves to a desolate little town of Bright Falls.

Alan Wake - a writer doomed to see his horror novels coming alive

From there on, things go from bad to worse. Alan finds himself unable to dream anymore, and fails to continue his writings. But that’s just the beginning. He realizes that some of the horrors he witnessed in his nightmares have started to appear around him. Once the sun goes down, strange creatures start to appear in the vicinity, making him question his sanity. To top it all off, he captures sightings of his fiance, calling for him. Days grow shorter and night threatens to overwhelm the peaceful town, and Alan is the only one who can solve the mystery.

Gameplay

Alan Wake incorporates both adventure and action elements into its formula, though the accent is put not on shooting but on finding ways of staying alive. The primary element the game introduces is the usage of light. While safe and sound during the day, players will engage in much different setting during the night. The horror’s from Alan’s novels only come to life in the darkness, so in order to avoid them, players will have to stick to the light. This is not going to be easy, because as the game progresses, the duration of the day will grow shorter.

"Something terrible lingers within the darkness"

The shooting part will be limited due to the usage of flash light, so don't expect shotguns or anything similar. Revolvers and the popular 9mm still do j Its still unclear whether melee attacks will be included in the fighting mechanics, which is only a speculation (but, in this case a welcomed one).

In order to progress in the game, there will be plenty of objectives to complete which will involve talking to the local townsfolk and exploring locations on variety of places. Quests will be regularly updated in Alan's journal, highlighting the current onto the screen.

The town of Bright Falls and the surrounding woods will provide an ample opportunity for players to explore and find clues, and will also contain safe locations during the night. The town itself looks very similar to the TV show’s Twin Peaks. This is fair concept, which looks flawlessly and makes quite an impact if the player has seen the series.

The looks

Despite the fact that its in development for more then 4 years now, Alan Wake still looks great. Though several modifications are made even now in order to keep up with the competition, the lightning effects, the natural night/day cycle, and the gorgeous outdoors still make this game look eye candy. The town with all its buildings, structures and vehicles look top notch, due to insane number of textures constructing it. Character models, especially Alan's look great, encompassed by face animations and a huge amount of polygons. But, perhaps the greatest asset of them all is clearly the shadows. A true horror game cannot bring a horrifying atmosphere without the usage of shadows, which Alan Wake seems to deliver best. Enhanced by the artificial sun during the day, and the moon during the night, shadows are making this game more alive and frightening than anything we have faced before.

From dusk till dawn, Alan Wake' style

To put it all together, Alan Wake look really promising. The interesting story, innovative gameplay, and the still great visuals add up great to the expectations. The only thing that starts to bother all the gaming community are the constant delays, coming from Remedy themselves. As of late, there are rumors saying that Alan Wake will ship for ship this November for the PC's, followed by a X360 release in early 2009. Be this true or not, Alan Wake is sure to provide some interesting atmosphere to boil the blood, once more.