Which action title featured bullet-time gameplay and appropriately dramatic combat sequences years before it titillated us so much in Stranglehold? Which shooter also featured an engrossing and well-told plot a very long time before BioShock landed on shelves? The answer is of course Max Payne, and its criminally under-purchased sequel. The developer of this series? Remedy Entertainment. Their new game? Alan Wake for the Xbox 360 and PC. Now, can I stop using question marks? Please?
Yes indeed, Alan Wake is the new action title from veterans Remedy, and once again the story looks likely to be as important as razor-sharp gameplay. We're told that players of Alan Wake will be assuming the role of a best-selling suspense author, of the same name, who has escaped to small town America in order to get over the bizarre disappearance of his fiancee and muse.
Not only is the premise an interesting one, brimming with potential, but the fact that Microsoft Game Studios has leapt into bed with Remedy as publisher suggests that Alan Wake has more than a bit going for it, the publisher tying the game up as a 360 console exclusive - Windows PC being the only other launch platform (a PS3 edition was apparently canned when MS became publisher).
Musings aside, I should probably tell you as bit more about the premise, which is juicier than a particularly ripe mango. Set in the eponymous "deceptively idyllic town" of Bright Falls in Washington state, Alan Wake players are promised a rich and cinematic world full of potential. Interactive and highly realistic environments are hinted, and Remedy even promise that we'll be able to roam freely, despite the importance of the plot. "The basic idea with the free-roaming world is that we give the player goals, and then the player can go about achieving those goals in the way he chooses. Alan Wake is more tightly character-driven and story-oriented. Meaning that the player's goals and missions are closely focused around Alan Wake and his story. Also, the setting, the tone and the game being an action thriller all set it clearly apart from the GTA games," explains writer Sam Lake.
Despite this free-roaming aesthetic, then, Remedy will drive the game along via missions, which will gradually uncover what promises to be a tense and occasionally surprising mystery. How Remedy can make open-world gameplay work alongside the game's missions and plot will be key to the title's success; ensuring that players don't feel rail-roaded and unable to take advantage of the title's sandbox elements a key element of Alan Wake's future.
'Terrifying' enemies will be on-hand to liven up the combat side of things, while there will be far more characters to interact with and learn from than most action titles. Indeed, these hints of RPG aren't the only elements of the genre represented. There will also be puzzles to overcome, multiple outcomes and various relationships to forge and break. While the premise sounds a bit like Commando meets Misery, a fantastical twist also seems likely, early PR spiel pointing to a "nightmarish" world, in which "Alan Wake must use a variety of weapons to survive, including his most powerful ally against the creatures of darkness - light itself."
The fact that the game's central character is a suspense novelist also seems unlikely to be a coincidence, and we're expecting Remedy writer Lake to make this character trait key to the central plot, with perhaps even a twist or two along the way.
Remedy certainly know how deliver a cinematic experience, and much will depend on whether the developer can adapt to an action genre that has come a long way since the last Max Payne graced the small screen. An 'intense psychological thriller' perhaps hints at a game with more than a surprise or two up its digital sleeve, but whether Alan Wake can really "raise the bar for videogame storytelling" in the wake of BioShock, Orange Box, Mass Effect et al remains very much to be seen. That said, the prospect of 'real time' pacing is an interesting one, if the developers can maintain the action and tension without spoiling the story. Early screenshots certainly hint at a game dripping in atmosphere and style, with Remedy assuring pre-release fans that the game will be very much of the 'next-gen' ilk, both in terms of technology and gameplay.
The game's unique tech will apparently mean more detailed environments, with players fore-warned to pay close attention to details in their locale, which may help expose the secrets of Bright Falls. Diverse and immersive environments are mooted, from vast forests to tiny rural towns. The dark mystery in which Alan Wake is involved becomes more apparent as we learn that light will become a weapon for our hero. It seems that Wake's foes use the darkness to grow more powerful, and as the game progresses, nights will get longer and the situation will become more perilous. Wake will then need to combine normal weapons with 'light' in order to overcome the 'creatures of darkness'. "Intense cinematic action is something that we love to do, and Alan Wake features tense combat gameplay as well, but all things considered the game has a lot more emphasis on adventure and exploration than what Max Payne did. Driving is an integral part of the game," reveals lead designer Petri Järvilehto.
Finally, Remedy believe the game will play out as a psuedo-episodic narrative, the missions serving to underline distinct sections of the plot. The overall feel of a 'dramatic television series' is promised. There is also no multiplayer element to the game, the developers instead focussing on a killer singleplayer experience: "We'd much rather give the players a great single-player game, than a mediocre single and multiplayer game," offers Järvilehto.
As with all promising things, there's a catch. And Alan Wake's is a fairly hefty one, it being the case that very little of an official nature has been heard of this potentially epic experience since Microsoft and Remedy last enlightened us back in September 2006. That being said, we've still heard encouraging snippets on the grapevine, and chatter points to a release in 2008. Let's hope that time and the increasing quality of the competition doesn't serve to diminish the potency of Alan Wake's gameplay-mix, when it does eventually arrive in our lounges and on our desks.
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