Alan Wake “The Writer” Impressions

Spoiler Alert – While this review won’t spoil anything in “The Writer”, it will make mention of events in the full game and “The Signal”.

Alan really needs to “Wake Up”.  Things have certainly taken a turn for the worse.  Not long ago he was just the most recent tourist to visit the small, idyllic town of Bright Falls.  Now, he’s perfectly adept at fending off hatchet-throwing lumberjacks and swarms of blood-thirsty birds.  His newest worst enemy is something far more dangerous – his own imagination.  After wrapping up his real world ventures (sort of), Alan fell into an alternate reality where nothing is a given, especially that which seems the most obvious.  It’s a reality where the most important tool in Alan’s arsenal is the power of light, but will the game’s final chapter shed some light on the ambiguity that “The Signal” cast, or will it just leave us in the dark, yet again?

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Alan Wake, the full game, was very plot-driven.  Alice had disappeared — succumbed to the power of the Dark Presence,  Alan needed to find and rescue her, and a lot of very surreal events happened in between.  After that conflict had been resolved (again, sort of), the nearly impenetrable story took a turn into uncharted territory.  Specifically, in the two add-ons, Alan doesn’t seem like he has had any particular end-goal.  It feels like survival, and answers to questions that don’t exist are the primary reasons for the journey.  The problem with this is that it instills a sense of apathy in the player; they aren’t playing because they want to see how a central conflict is remedied, they’re playing because they think something exciting may happen next.  While the events usually are exciting, they’re not much in the way of integral to the overall plot.

Where the story may falter, “The Writer” more than makes up for in environment and gameplay.  Alan’s mind has become more twisted than ever, and he’s conjured up some incredibly creepy atmospheres.  The most remarkable aspect is that any locale is only one brainwave away.  Alan can travel from Dr. Hartman’s mental institute, through a tornado, and into Stucky’s Gas Station in just a matter of minutes.  All of this in the perfectly crafted nighttime nightmare that infects Bright Falls seemingly every time the sun goes down.  It’s a definite way of keeping the player on their toes and wary of peering around that next corner.

The varied combat is possibly the most impressive characteristic of “The Writer”.  As everyone knows well by now, in the full game, Alan would need to shine a light on The Taken before ending them with some well-place fire power.  In this installation, the flashlight feels like the primary weapon, and the guns are only there as a secondary option.  For most of the chapter, there are ways to use the environment to fend off Alan’s attackers, which proves to be much more creative and exciting than a shotgun ever could.  Remedy did a fantastic job of changing the player’s approach to keep this aspect surprisingly fresh.

While it doesn’t feel quite up to par with the first 6 episodes of Alan Wake, “The Writer” is definitely a fun and interesting chapter to supplement the nearly bullet-proof plot of Alan’s Bright Falls experience.  The “Destroy to Create” mantra that defines “The Writer” makes for an exciting trip, regardless of how off-the-beaten-path it feels.  Given that “The Writer” is the last of the Alan Wake DLC, it’s a bit disappointing that we haven’t gotten much in the way of answers, but I guess answers isn’t something Alan has right now; all he has is a flashlight, and it’s been enough to keep him alive this long.