Alan Wake - Preview, Videos, and Other Fantasticness!

Just a quiet mountain town. Yeah.

You are Alan Wake, a well known thriller author who is traveling to the quiet Washington town of Bright Falls (think Twin Peaks) with his wife in an attempt to get his creative juices flowing and overcome his several year writing slump. After some player-controlled chatting with the natives -- including a few foreboding characters -- at the local diner, the action is kicked into gear when Alan gets into a car accident and wifey goes MIA. Soon, shadowey, maniacal axe-wielding townspeople called "The Taken" start to really put a damper on your vacation, emerging from the darkness with nothing but bad intentions.

Honk if you're possessed by an evil presence

The developers at Remedy seem to have done a bang-up job making this game unique, in a time when most anything that can be done has been done. The game is arranged into chapters, giving the feel of watching a suspenseful tv show. Each "episode" begins with a "Previously on Alan Wake" recap, and ends with a "To be continued" cliffhanger; and Wake himself keeps up a dramatic narrative throughout the gameplay, ratcheting up the player's involvement in the storyline.

I'm sure he's just lost.

Playing the game, it becomes obvious very quickly that light is your ally, as shining your flashlight onto the Taken will stun them and strip their protective darkness away, and pumping a few rounds into them from your pistol will finish them off. Similiarly, light is used throughout the game to keep Alan safe and help defeat the dark forces that have fallen upon the mountain town. Health is regenerated by standing in lit areas, and as even animals and inanimate objects become enemies, any source of light becomes a weapon: A spotlight, flares, headlights on a car, and flashbang grenades, to name a few. Remedy has released only enough game footage to really get us salivating, and a lot is still unknown about the game, so don't be suprised to find bigger and badder weapons later in the game.

Why hello!

This game is pretty. Really pretty. The time and effort that Remedy has put into this piece really shows in the gameplay footage that's been released so far. The character models are exquisitely rendered, with great attention paid to skin and clothing texture. This is enhanced further by the amazing lighting, which ranges from brilliant, glowing sun during the day, to hazy, brooding darkness at night. And tell me that it doesn't look spectacular when you shoot a flare gun into a crowd of the Taken, only for time to slow down and the camera to pan out and capture the amazing effect as they illuminate and then disintegrate into the darkness. You, sir, would be lying.

The audio is outstanding as well, with great voiceovers and sound effects, and a ridiculous orchestral soundtrack that will intensify the already thrilling gameplay.

Btw -- those who preorder the collector's edition get the entire soundtrack on cd!