Alan Wake

Alan Wake was part of the EA bundle from last year. I had thought about picking this one up for quite sometime but didn't feel the price outweighed the perceived value so, when this came available for a price I set myself, I jumped it. Not sorry I bought it, but it's not as good as I was hoping.

The game is a bit resource heavy, mainly on the graphics, but it is one of the more visually appealing games I've played. The mechanics are sound and well crafted, although I did have to turn my mouse sensitivity down to the lowest setting to make it work right, but that's not really a fault, just a comment.

OOOOH, scary planes landing behind you!

An over the shoulder third person action game its got a bit of a Silent Hill vibe to it and a fairly unique concept; although guns are present most combat is conducted with light. In the opening encounter you learn to use your flashlight as a weapon and, to further instil the lessons, a flare gun, which is this games version of a rocket launcher.

The atmosphere is really well done. Once you get past the half wit NPC's it does a better than average job of drawing you in. Having said that, I can't say as I'm a fan of the narration style that uses a pulp fiction horror style; the information given through narration does a great deal to help draw you in, but I've never been a fan of that style of writing

I'm rating this 5/10, I like to encourage innovative game development, and this is fairly unique, but it's list price and story telling style stop me from going higher. At the end of the day I just can't decide if I actually like this game.