Alan Wake

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2165 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,547 out of 2165
  2. Mixed: 460 out of 2165
  3. Negative: 158 out of 2165
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  1. Dethstar
    Feb 20, 2012
    8
    When I saw this was a microsoft game. I honestly reset my expectations to expect something a very linear and probably quite corny. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by AW. The game has some enhancement for the PC. Things like the crippling FOV you see on many console ports are not a problem here. The game is enjoyable and atmospheric. It is very linear but then due to the nature ofWhen I saw this was a microsoft game. I honestly reset my expectations to expect something a very linear and probably quite corny. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by AW. The game has some enhancement for the PC. Things like the crippling FOV you see on many console ports are not a problem here. The game is enjoyable and atmospheric. It is very linear but then due to the nature of the game this is to be expected, the linear nature of the game is not to the point where you dont feel in control and it plays very well. The location are is good although the game could bear some better textures it is generally very pretty. I have seen many complaints here and on steam about poor performance but I play using a quadfire so have not experienced this problem. However, I have encountered a stonking great bug in the final episodes of the game which prevent me from completing the game. Basically the script seems to have broken down. Required taken dont spawn and an event which is required for progression will not start. A very disappointing end to a game I was enjoying immensely. (Playtime approx 20-25 hours.) Overall, I would say a bit short but due to the atmosphere, story and environment in general I would say this would have been a very good buy for the 20 Euro I paid on steam if it didnt have this cataclysmic bug in my save game.… Expand
  2. despot
    Feb 16, 2012
    9
    Console port well done.

    Suspenseful, unique, well thought game with an interesting story and satisfying combat that makes you come back session after session, or more like episode after episode. Since the gameplay hasn't changed from the original Xbox 360 version I'll just give my opinion of the port quality. The porting from Xbox 360 to PC has gone pretty much perfectly and you do get    Console port well done.

    Suspenseful, unique, well thought game with an interesting story and satisfying combat that makes you come back session after session, or more like episode after episode. Since the gameplay hasn't changed from the original Xbox 360 version I'll just give my opinion of the port quality.

    The porting from Xbox 360 to PC has gone pretty much perfectly and you do get the 2 DLC's and spiced up graphics among other PC only stuff. It runs butter smooth on my 1½ year old $800 PC and mouse and keyboard controlling has been well implemented - actually forgot even to try it with my gamepad as I felt right at home with the mouse controlling the aiming and quickly switching between weaponry on my keyboard. The thumb buttons of my gaming mouse couldn't be keybound but I think it will be patched in no time. No biggie for me since there isn't that many keybindings needed anyways.

    Only obvious giveaway that it is in fact a console port are the lower quality cut-scenes which I suppose are the very same from the Xbox 360 version - a bit weird having a much better looking actual gameplay than the cut-scenes.

    So if I wouldn't know any better and apart from the cut-scenes I couldn't tell that it's a console port nor that it's a 2 year old game for that matter - very well job done indeed.

    As for the game in general - if you like story-driven games and have the mindset for a rather scary survival-action gameplay than this is definitely the game for you. AAA-class game and the price for the new PC version really is a bargain.

    9/10 in comparison to other this gen. games. Apart from the cut-scenes and some few very minor flaws like the awkward car handling in the non-essential driving parts - my high expectations were fulfilled.    … Expand
  3. Eradan
    Apr 30, 2012
    5
    I waited for Alan Wake for years, promised from the hyped press that i would get a twin-peaked-stephen-king immersive and psychotic game. I loved Max Payne 1&2. I still love horror games. Sadly i was disappointed.
    The game is well packed, nice graphics, cure for the details, amazing audio but it smells clichè from the very beginning. The storyline is somewhat interesting but    I waited for Alan Wake for years, promised from the hyped press that i would get a twin-peaked-stephen-king immersive and psychotic game. I loved Max Payne 1&2. I still love horror games. Sadly i was disappointed.
    The game is well packed, nice graphics, cure for the details, amazing audio but it smells clichè from the very beginning. The storyline is somewhat interesting but sure isn't original and the pace is broken by the action part of the game, totally separated from the narration. It's like watching a - often mediocre - cut scene, starting to merge with the story and the characters and then been thrown in the same level over and over, in the dark woods, craving for a source of light, some ammo and the next checkpoint, hoping to end it quickly to go back to the real part of the game. Yeah, it's like this. Reach a location, watch a brief scene, find yourself in the woods at night, follow an absolute linear path through enemies, find that the only difficulties in engaging them is the poor camera control and the low ammo resources, reach the next location, start over. And that's not all, since the devs should have come to realize that this sucked hard they added a lot of manuscript pages to pick up during the "exploration" (read: straight on walk), the sad thing is that this poor written pieces of paper contain spoilers about your next location and the next chunk of story, making it even less interesting to watch.
    This game should have been a 9 for its atmospheres and its potential. Don't buy it unless its price falls under 10$.    … Expand
  4. Dheu
    Jun 23, 2012
    3
    I am certain Alan Wake will garner many positive reviews that focused on the story and its "unusual" style and presentation. I admit, it is interesting and would make an excellent book or movie. The problem is that even the best novel can be turned into a bad computer game and that is essentially what has happened here.

    The story unfolds over the coarse of 20 hours as you run from one    I am certain Alan Wake will garner many positive reviews that focused on the story and its "unusual" style and presentation. I admit, it is interesting and would make an excellent book or movie. The problem is that even the best novel can be turned into a bad computer game and that is essentially what has happened here.

    The story unfolds over the coarse of 20 hours as you run from one well lit area to the next, fighting waves of the exact same 4 monsters, using the exact same 4 weapons and the exact same strategy all the way to the end. The Enemy AI is rudimentary. The soundtrack is non-existent. Alan Wake will occasionally narrate and explain a new revelation, or what he is feeling or what you need to do next.

    The game lacks tradition incentives to keep you playing. There are no choices, no dialogue trees, no weapon upgrades, no level-ups. Even Alan Wakes own survival is tied to the plot and thus never seems to be in question. The game thrusts you into the action without spending sufficient time on character development and then tells you that you need to do X, Y and Z if you wish to save various people you don't care about. This might work in a book or movie were we are simply spectators along for the ride, but it is asking a lot in a game where players must invest 20 hours of their own time to progress the story. I constantly found myself asking the question, "Do I really care about these people? Do I even care what happens to Alan Wake? Why do I need a key to open this door when I have a shotgun in my hand?" As a result, it is easy to lose interest. This is one of the few games I have played in my life that I have had to force myself to finish. Somewhere along the way, Remedy lost that balance between making a game with a good story and a game that is still fun to play. People invest in computers and pay top dollar for games because they want more than books or movies can offer. My advice: Buy BioShock or replay Indigo Prophecy. You can skip this one.    … Expand
  5. Naatan
    Feb 18, 2012
    6
    The story is very interesting but the gameplay leaves much to be desired. It's incredibly linear in the sense that 90% of the time you are just following a path in the woods while you shine your flashlight on enemies and finish them off with your gun. There's some distractions in the shape of puzzles but even those are just rehashed over and over again. It just feels like you're watching aThe story is very interesting but the gameplay leaves much to be desired. It's incredibly linear in the sense that 90% of the time you are just following a path in the woods while you shine your flashlight on enemies and finish them off with your gun. There's some distractions in the shape of puzzles but even those are just rehashed over and over again. It just feels like you're watching a movie but you have to work your way through tedious and repetitive gameplay to actually get to the story. The repetitiveness of the gameplay aside most of what's happening is also very predictable. You just KNOW you're about to get attacked when you find more than a fair amount of ammo, and when you've gone through part of the story where you don't have weapons and you finally find some again; guess how long it takes before you get to use them? More than anything I just feel frustrated playing this game, frustrated by being force-fed terrible, predictable and linear gameplay just to get to what seems like a good story.… Expand
  6. Crescendo
    Jun 9, 2012
    4
    While at first glance this looked like a great game - I was looking forward to it for some time - it soon disappointed me horribly. The beginning was promising, only to become a tedious, boring variation of 16-second-cutscenes and 10 minutes of run-through-the-woods-while-taken-chase-you bit. Unnerving indeed. The story is nothing new, but fitting, the problem is that finding theWhile at first glance this looked like a great game - I was looking forward to it for some time - it soon disappointed me horribly. The beginning was promising, only to become a tedious, boring variation of 16-second-cutscenes and 10 minutes of run-through-the-woods-while-taken-chase-you bit. Unnerving indeed. The story is nothing new, but fitting, the problem is that finding the manuscript pages is pretty much an ingame-spoiler that tells you exactly what is going to happen in the next cutscene. I was really hoping forward to an intelligently written, atmospheric horror game - that is probably why I didn't enjoy it much. You can say that this is my personal problem, but I don't think there's many people out there that are searching for something like this when there are better action- and horrorgames out there, while Alan Wake is a mediocre fusion of both. I'm not even going to start on how terribly clunky console-ported controls feel at times because this seems to be standard in the industry as of now.… Expand
  7. Lockie
    Feb 17, 2012
    10
    I have only one question: why console exclusives are so much better than multiplatform games? The best videogame story i've ever seen in my life. Moreover, 2 years after release, but the game still looks simply awesome. Thank you, Remedy, for porting this masterpiece to PC. Great story, great graphics, atmosphere, sound, gameplay. I'm very impressed.
  8. WolverineGoBlue
    Mar 11, 2012
    3
    Linear, repetitive, predictable. Was looking forward to this. Waste of time. The story is fun and engaging, but action scenes are so boring, I had to give up.

    Not sure why this scores so highly ... maybe it was a good game 18 months ago.
  9. YuRown92
    Feb 17, 2012
    10
    This game I waited for a long time. I was very angry, when PC version was stopped. At last, now, when this game come on PC, I playing this game with pleasure.
  10. malau
    Mar 9, 2012
    4
    Shine a torch, shoot, run out of ammo, sprint, die, repeat ad nauseum. A complete lack of variety where narrative storytelling takes precedence over gameplay - if I wanted a movie, I would rent a DVD ! Silent Hill style puzzles you can forget ! There's just what I said in the opening line.
    That's a pity because the engine has rendered a beautiful re-creation of a picture postcard    Shine a torch, shoot, run out of ammo, sprint, die, repeat ad nauseum. A complete lack of variety where narrative storytelling takes precedence over gameplay - if I wanted a movie, I would rent a DVD ! Silent Hill style puzzles you can forget ! There's just what I said in the opening line.
    That's a pity because the engine has rendered a beautiful re-creation of a picture postcard Washington State small town - in day time at least, but alas it is an empty experience and a complete waste as you cannot explore due to all areas but the one you need to take being blocked off.    … Expand
  11. v00d00m4n
    Feb 25, 2012
    6
    This game is waste of great potential, which was killed few years ago, when Remedy suddenly shifted to console market from PC, this cause a lot of troubles, forced them to waste to many time to port code to Xbox and optimize (downgrade graphics, physics, etc) it for crappy hardware, and because of this they have too little time to work game content itself, which forced them to cut half ofThis game is waste of great potential, which was killed few years ago, when Remedy suddenly shifted to console market from PC, this cause a lot of troubles, forced them to waste to many time to port code to Xbox and optimize (downgrade graphics, physics, etc) it for crappy hardware, and because of this they have too little time to work game content itself, which forced them to cut half of game which wasn't well-polished. From a great open world survival-horror-adventure, game squeezed to boring linear light-em-shoot-em-up, with many game design flaws, including total lack of melee combat which existed in almost every survival horror since the old days, because ammo is always limited in this genre and whenever you out of ammo you should fight your way with fists, pipes, axes, and everything... or you could just run away, but in Alan Wake you can not do either. Seriously, Alan cant even run like normal man, his run ability somewhere close to fat grandpa at the edge of heart attack - what was Remedy designers thinking when they limited run distance to about 10 meters? Dodging is barely works and sometime when you just want to run, Alan suddenly starts from dodge. Also enemies just the same everywhere, "taken" humans with shield of darkness, about 4 of them - white trash, cops, oversized, and special character, they only reminds me zombie, and zombies cant scare anyone. Remedy should look at Silent Hill, Cold fear or Dead space, to get the idea of how to make scary creatures. Playing linear levels where all you can do is aim flashlight, shoot, barely run and dodge away from non scary humans, and where all the adventure element are "go forward, press button to open gatedoor or pick up manuscript" - not fun at all, just boring and repetitive. Also i don't even want to talk about Riding part of game, it even worse and buggier than it was in Alone in the dark 2008 (which is by the way much better and more imaginative game than Alan, and Alan kinda ripped off many things from it, including episodic format and darkness)
    The only thing that could keep anyone playing is the story, however its very cut and some time parts just don't tied well together, because of Remedy cut too much, you always feel that something else should be between this and that and it was cut without attempt to smooth this out. And this story is impressive for non educated people who never saw Twin Peaks, and other Lynch movies and never reed King books. For me - a King and Lynch fan this story looks as predictable rip-off from Lynch movies and King books, its about 50% Twin Peaks, 30% King, 10% of other rip-off and about 10% of something original. But its well-written rip-off so i still consider story as good story, but nothing super-awesome.
    No let me talk about PC port specifics: for a game that was once PC exclusive 1st DX10 game, return to PC in form like this is insult to all the PC users who waited this game so long! GFX is worse than in time it was announced 5 years ago, dx9 only, textures blurry low res, render distance of high detail LOD is low and transition is noticeable, shadows pixelated just like GTA 4, cut-scenes pre-rendered at 720p 30fps, with a lot of compression artifacts, washed out colors that dont match gameplay gamma, and this really breaking immersion... so in addition to dated 5 years old gfx, laziness of Remedy to bring at least high res textures and real-time cut-scenes to PC, this game is slow as hell! Performance optimization not even here! With gfx like this this game should run at 60fps on 5 years old pc, but it barely runs at about 25 fps on 1 year old PC. And the funny thing - Remedy not even ported this game to PC, they hired Nitro games - 5 (yep u can see it in credits) noob monkey-programmers + 3 testers. this shameful team ported Alan to PC, and Remedy didn't even cared to provide em high res textures and real-time cut-scenes, and no one bothered to enhance gameplay after all the criticism of x360 version. Its just exact copy with few minor extra settings. Which is real shame, especially comparing to what this game once was on PC several years ago.
    This is real insult to all the PC gamers and yet another wasted opportunity to return this game to its original glory that was lost during transition to xbox 360. I hope after Remedy recieved a lot of money from PC crowd and covered development cost in 48 hours, they could invest extra more to bring PC gamers an excuse for all the troubles as 6 simple things 1) Good patch with real optimization of CODE (not the cut of already poor gfx) +dx1011 2) High res texture pack 3) Real-time cut-scenes 4) Render distance sliders that actually affects render distance 5) Tweaks to gameplay, Quick saves, or at least checkpoints after every pickup, and re-usable Save heaven checkpoins + melee combat, at least ability to knock out enemy with flashlight or gun, improvements to run and dodge 6) Modding SDK. After this i would not feel myself insulted and cheated.    … Expand
  12. The_Ommadawn
    May 13, 2012
    8
    Awful on so many levels PERFORMANCE wise!!! Game itself is fantastic (finished it on Xbox when first released). Bought it for PC for the upgrade in graphics and FPS. Sadly, this is far from the truth. My rig is just 6 months old with (at the time) some of the best hardware available. It POWERS through every game I play at rock solid 60 fps on max settings. Now the problem ... Alan WakeAwful on so many levels PERFORMANCE wise!!! Game itself is fantastic (finished it on Xbox when first released). Bought it for PC for the upgrade in graphics and FPS. Sadly, this is far from the truth. My rig is just 6 months old with (at the time) some of the best hardware available. It POWERS through every game I play at rock solid 60 fps on max settings. Now the problem ... Alan Wake even at medium sends my CPU/GPU into overdrive with choppy fps???. Why??? I have read the forums, made adjustments yadda yadda yadda with no improvement. Some people haven't had these issues with AW and good luck to them. Myself and 'mydixienormus' (see his comments) do, so it's not an isolated problem my end. Such a shame cos like others I was really looking forward to this title. Maybe with future patches it will be addressed as I'm sure I'm not alone here. I'm giving it a 5 out of 10 because as a game it's amazing, but with it's current performance I feel cheated and may as well have stuck with my Xbox edition. ----------------------------------------------------> UPDATE 13/05/2012 ... Since the recent patches I went back to AW and admit it runs much, much better now. I still haven't completed it but wanted to change my score to justify its current state. It's a good game full of drama. Not really a 'horror' game, but a heart stopper all the same. Score upped from a 5 to an 8.… Expand
  13. mydixienormus
    Feb 16, 2012
    4
    poor pc performance even on top end rigs
    no crosshair, must aim with flash light
    off-center camera angle is awful there is a delay to initiate shooting and no focused/zoom mode specifically for shooting probably works better on xbox (because it has auto aim, and probably runs smoother.) no reason for a nearly 2 old xbox game to not run 60fps on top end rigs. the camera also sucks, if    poor pc performance even on top end rigs
    no crosshair, must aim with flash light
    off-center camera angle is awful
    there is a delay to initiate shooting and no focused/zoom mode specifically for shooting

    probably works better on xbox (because it has auto aim, and probably runs smoother.) no reason for a nearly 2 old xbox game to not run 60fps on top end rigs.

    the camera also sucks, if you try to have a centered camera view - you run crooked; you have to have a crooked camera view to run straight.


    probably will automatically get good reviews from fan boys and people that were paid to review the game. maybe it was good on xbox, but playing it on pc is like paying $30 to willingly handicap yourself.    … Expand
  14. JaydenPickens
    Feb 20, 2019
    9
    The core of this game is the story! It's a masterpiece and it makes you want more and more. The same thing cannot be said about the gameplay though... repetitive and sometimes annoying as hell, but in the end it doesn't outgrow the good parts of this game which are: story, atmosphere, music and the references to other games, movies, tv-shows etc. This game is a gold mine of good stuff andThe core of this game is the story! It's a masterpiece and it makes you want more and more. The same thing cannot be said about the gameplay though... repetitive and sometimes annoying as hell, but in the end it doesn't outgrow the good parts of this game which are: story, atmosphere, music and the references to other games, movies, tv-shows etc. This game is a gold mine of good stuff and the fact that there's still NO Alan Wake 2 is beyond me. Also we get the 2 dlcs on pc already in the game as opposed to the xbox version. Remember that weird things happen in Night Springs! Pickens approves.… Expand
  15. joemama57
    Nov 1, 2013
    8
    Superb storytelling, memorable characters, and a dark but yet gorgeous atmosphere that will stick with you long after you are finished Alan Wake. I need to address one thing first...

    This is not a scary game...it's not meant to be. It's a psychological action thriller (check the box art if you don't believe me...) Unfortunately people have rated this game based on "scare factor" and    Superb storytelling, memorable characters, and a dark but yet gorgeous atmosphere that will stick with you long after you are finished Alan Wake. I need to address one thing first...

    This is not a scary game...it's not meant to be. It's a psychological action thriller (check the box art if you don't believe me...) Unfortunately people have rated this game based on "scare factor" and that's not fair. Although this game has the makings of "horror" game, it's not. That's like trying to call the movie "Se7en" a horror movie. It has the atmosphere and aesthetics of one but its a psychological thriller all the way through.

    Alan Wake puts you on the edge of your seat and keeps you coming back for more. The game plays out like a thriller/mystery TV show with "Chapters" and "Previously On..." segments. You play as a best selling author who is having difficulties writing his next book. He decides to take a vacation with his girlfriend up to a town called Bright Falls. Located in the pacific northwest, Bright Falls shares many similarities with the fictional town of Twin Peaks (the TV show from the 90's). It's a small, cozy, honest working mans town where everybody know everybody. When your just about settled into the cabin, your girlfriend goes missing. You must then try and track her down while avoiding the darkness that plagues the town and the evil that lurks within.

    The game has several key features. The atmosphere by far steals the show. You can tell a lot of attention to detail went into crafting this beautiful northwestern landscape. The lighting and particle effects are excellent as well. The sound design is well done and the narration from the main character adds to the tension and mystery.

    I do have a few gripes though... One being the character models and stiff animations. The character models look a little dated. I guess from a distance they don't look to bad but once you see them up close you can really notice the lack of detail. The characters seem to move around in the most simplistic ways possible. Also, the lip syncing is some of the worst I have seen in years. It's like watching a poorly dubbed kung fu movie. The driving mechanics, although short, are poorly done. You never feel like you have full control over the vehicle. Too far to the left or right and you swerve out of control and into a ditch.

    My last complaint would be the lack of replay-ability. Once you complete the game...that's it. Your not awarded any bonus missions or free roam. Sure you can go back and collect some coffee thermoses (no seriously there's like 100 to collect) but what is that going to get you? Seeing as how the game was first designed as an open world game (and still feels much like one at times) they could have left that in tact and let you roam around freely after you beat the game.

    All that set aside, the games pacing, characters and location are more than enough to draw you in. Like a good book, you wont want to put this one down once you've started.    … Expand
  16. Jay_Pickens
    Jul 24, 2018
    9
    The core of this game is the story! It's a masterpiece and it makes you want more and more. The same thing cannot be said about the gameplay though... repetitive and sometimes annoying as hell, but in the end it doesn't outgrow the good parts of this game which are: story, atmosphere, music and the references to other games, movies, tv-shows etc. This game is a gold mine of good stuff andThe core of this game is the story! It's a masterpiece and it makes you want more and more. The same thing cannot be said about the gameplay though... repetitive and sometimes annoying as hell, but in the end it doesn't outgrow the good parts of this game which are: story, atmosphere, music and the references to other games, movies, tv-shows etc. This game is a gold mine of good stuff and the fact that there's still NO Alan Wake 2 is beyond me. Also we get the 2 dlcs on pc already in the game as opposed to the xbox version. Remember that weird things happen in Night Springs! Pickens approves.… Expand
  17. nomorefate
    Nov 3, 2020
    10
    This is my ranking:
    Graphics: 9 / 10 (for 2012)
    Story: 8 / 10
    World design: 7.5 / 10
    PC Performance: 10 / 10
    Side notes: Where's Alan Wake 2?
  18. Fastpoose
    Sep 22, 2012
    8
    Good atmosphere, good story, many people say the story is 'unoriginal', can they name me 5 or more games with better story lines...? Well done Remedy Entertainment keep up the good work.
  19. AlienSpaceBats
    Jan 13, 2013
    8
    Alan Wake, the Stephen King made-for-TV series that never was, or; Dead Space in the woods... kind of. I really enjoyed this game, it certainly kept me hooked for the 9 hours it took to complete (DLC and expansion notwithstanding). The game is set out and presented as if it was a TV series, with many nods to well-known horror tropes. The majority of gameplay sees the player fighting offAlan Wake, the Stephen King made-for-TV series that never was, or; Dead Space in the woods... kind of. I really enjoyed this game, it certainly kept me hooked for the 9 hours it took to complete (DLC and expansion notwithstanding). The game is set out and presented as if it was a TV series, with many nods to well-known horror tropes. The majority of gameplay sees the player fighting off the Taken (shadow men) with a torch ...er, flashlight ... and pistol, collecting manuscript pages (which foreshadow later events), Thermos flasks (why?). and solving rudimentary puzzles. Overall this stuff is fairly casual and easy, which is fine, because in my head all it was there to do was to advance the plot. Good stuff all around then, but the ending left me kind of unsatisfied but with lots of room for a sequel (addressed in the episodic DLCs). Before I forget, extra points for this PC port, which frankly, I think we were lucky to have. Oh, and good writing!… Expand
  20. frast
    Oct 6, 2012
    8
    Great story, the climate that can pull like a book. For the graphics made ​​it interesting? Gels in terms of forest or the city itself, and of the most important, interesting idea for a survival-horror. The game can not draw a single player, but not scare him more. It is a game with the climate, but the climate is not great horror. After a long time, it gets monotonous andGreat story, the climate that can pull like a book. For the graphics made ​​it interesting? Gels in terms of forest or the city itself, and of the most important, interesting idea for a survival-horror. The game can not draw a single player, but not scare him more. It is a game with the climate, but the climate is not great horror. After a long time, it gets monotonous and boring, which does not change the fact that many players may like it, because it is really very good. My Rating - 8/10… Expand
  21. Escherichia
    Jun 17, 2012
    8
    Good port, and worth the wait.
    The story was not spectacular, but it was still one of the best i've seen in videogames in a long time.
    Combat is original, and, while it may feel repetitive after a while, I felt it was handled the right way considering the nature of the game. Graphics are very nice, the main character is likable (something very difficult to achieve for most games    Good port, and worth the wait.
    The story was not spectacular, but it was still one of the best i've seen in videogames in a long time.
    Combat is original, and, while it may feel repetitive after a while, I felt it was handled the right way considering the nature of the game.
    Graphics are very nice, the main character is likable (something very difficult to achieve for most games nowadays) and it was a good, solid experience overall. I like to see games that try and actually make an effort into creating something different instead of settling with making a generic game that would guarantee them a good sales number.    … Expand
  22. Taishay
    Sep 1, 2012
    9
    I get motion sickness from a lot of FPS games, sadly, but eventually I get used to it and it doesn't bother me. Initially I wasn't fond of the camera view with Alan off to the right due to motion sickness. I played for about 5 minutes and had to stop. Now I can complete a whole "episode" and not get sick. The graphics are great and the whole flash light to weaken the darkness I reallyI get motion sickness from a lot of FPS games, sadly, but eventually I get used to it and it doesn't bother me. Initially I wasn't fond of the camera view with Alan off to the right due to motion sickness. I played for about 5 minutes and had to stop. Now I can complete a whole "episode" and not get sick. The graphics are great and the whole flash light to weaken the darkness I really like. I enjoy the fact that it is like watching a mini-tv series and yet you get to play it at the same time. I haven't played a game that is like that, so it is a nice change of pace.… Expand
  23. Viacota
    Oct 7, 2012
    9
    Me encanta; la presentación, la música, la historia,etc. Es básicamente protagonizar un cuento de Stephen King. Al avanzar mucho en el juego me di cuenta que me interesaba más en la historia que en la acción propiamente tal, lo único que deseaba era terminar rápido y continuar sabiendo que pasaba con la historia.
    La historia genial!
    La    Me encanta; la presentación, la música, la historia,etc. Es básicamente protagonizar un cuento de Stephen King. Al avanzar mucho en el juego me di cuenta que me interesaba más en la historia que en la acción propiamente tal, lo único que deseaba era terminar rápido y continuar sabiendo que pasaba con la historia.
    La historia genial!
    La jugabilidad se pude volver un tanto tediosa.
    La lucha en la granja de los anderson simplemente notable y épica.
    La música genial.    … Expand
  24. Botanace
    Jan 31, 2013
    9
    This game is awesome, it is story driven and linear which I really like, this is my first single player game that I bought with my own money, so it will always have sentimental value. The graphics are good, and I really like the unique stories, and the fact that you can dig deeper with the manuscripts. It has replay value for the collectibles, and I highly recommend it.
  25. spectralknight
    Nov 8, 2013
    9
    A great game not only from the narrative perspective but also from technical one...Just a perfect combination of a thriller with an amazing storyline and an exciting gameplay.One of the best single player games I've ever played.
  26. agurczuk
    Jan 1, 2016
    8
    Overall I really did enjoy the game and honestly I believe it is worth picking up.

    The story of the game is something you would expect from King or Coontz. You are a writer. A writer with a writers block - sounds familiar? You go on holiday with your wife and something starts happening. Strange darkness attacks you and you start living out a story written by you that you don't remember    Overall I really did enjoy the game and honestly I believe it is worth picking up.

    The story of the game is something you would expect from King or Coontz. You are a writer. A writer with a writers block - sounds familiar? You go on holiday with your wife and something starts happening. Strange darkness attacks you and you start living out a story written by you that you don't remember writing. Oh - and there is some lake that the native americans living in the area called gate to hell or something like that. At this point I really thought I'm going to despise the story. But oddly enough after a rough start I really did like it and felt it wasn't all that bad.

    The strong part for the game are the visuals which are very nicely done. The scenery is pretty nice, and the lighting effects which are pretty important part of the story are very well made as well. Locations at the beginning tend to be bland - forest, forest and nothing interesting. But later on they do change and are quite nicely designed.

    The main part of the game is trying to find your wife and beat the darkness. You do this by following the story and fighting people possessed by the darkness. You kill them by shining your flash light on them long enough so they become vulnerable at which point you can safely unload your gun and finally kill them. And you pretty much do that all through the game with just a couple of guns - revolver, shotgun, hunting rifle and assorted helpers like flares or flash grenades. It does get repetitive after a while but not to a point that you hate the whole fighting. And I must admit that I did got scared once or twice - though mostly the game is not really that scary. But has a very consistent atmosphere and you generally feel quite nice when the sun rises.

    There are also a couple of elements involving driving a car - but these could have been surely skipped as they're pretty dreadful.

    Voice acting and animation is of very nice quality so watching cut scenes is quite pleasant.

    Overall after a week beginning the game provides good fun up till the very last part which seems a bit dull and you have to push through it. Luckily it's not long enough too leave a bad impression on the game. I had fun. I really enjoyed it. If you like story driven action games along the lines of resident evil or alone in the dark there is little fear you will not like this game.    … Expand
  27. ReezeTheVampire
    Nov 7, 2019
    8
    Alan Wake is one of those games that I would consider a flawed masterpiece ie: it could have been a masterpiece, but it had a few too many flaws. The concept here is great, the gameplay unique, and the story is absolutely gripping with great characters, mystery, and a great sense of urgency. I really did love this one. For the most part it played very well and did a good job of keepingAlan Wake is one of those games that I would consider a flawed masterpiece ie: it could have been a masterpiece, but it had a few too many flaws. The concept here is great, the gameplay unique, and the story is absolutely gripping with great characters, mystery, and a great sense of urgency. I really did love this one. For the most part it played very well and did a good job of keeping things relatively simple so that it felt polished and solid: the gun play feels great, the levels are linear and mostly well-designed, and you always feel the need to conserve, but you never run out of anything for so long that it's frustrating.

    With that said, I certainly have my issues. For one, the story ends on a satisfying note, but with so many loose ends it's really hard to understand exactly what happened; this is expected for such an odd story, but I can't help feeling a bit short changed. While I'm on the story, the world seems so steeped in Murphy's Law that it's almost comical, except its frustrating because you're the one playing; just about any time you feel you're making good progress, or there is going to be a big reveal, the 'plot' steps in to mess it all up and that gets really annoying. The gameplay is cool and unique, but gets pretty old about half way in; having groups of enemies suddenly appear and force the player to deal with it over and over gets to a pretty aggravating point, I personally would have liked to see some more puzzle elements and cool down. The game really loses the horror atmosphere because in just about every room there is a handful of samey dudes to shoot at. There are also some areas, as I hinted at before, in the levels where it's just a bit too cramped or a bit too crowded with enemies and I would find myself dying over and over in the same tiny spot, while most of the game remained pretty damn easy. The game tries to change it up here and there with driving sections, but those are short and the cars handle like garbage so they aren't too much fun to play. To end, about 90% of the game involves wandering in dark forest, which gets old. fast.

    Overall I think it's a great game, but not without its problems. I really don't think these problems detract too much from the game itself, and I still look at it positively.    … Expand
  28. RagingPoet
    Nov 8, 2017
    8
    Alan Wake might not be a good shooter but it is a good game. The story is interesting and always keeps you motivated to push though game levels. Gameplay is a bit boring, but the atmosphere makes up for it.
  29. Jackermy
    Apr 7, 2020
    5
    This game causes strange feelings. Firstly it has got a great story and some fresh ideas, but on the other hand, we got boring gameplay, useless methods to stretch the passage and a few puzzles that are not interesting at all. The game is linear and very boring, all that you need - kill some "taken" and go farther. Also, it is not a horror, quite bad atmosphere and you always got somethingThis game causes strange feelings. Firstly it has got a great story and some fresh ideas, but on the other hand, we got boring gameplay, useless methods to stretch the passage and a few puzzles that are not interesting at all. The game is linear and very boring, all that you need - kill some "taken" and go farther. Also, it is not a horror, quite bad atmosphere and you always got something to protect yourself.
    The game can not offer you a lot of types of enemies (4 types) or weapons (3 types).
    As for me, this game is unworthy of your attention, but you can play for this game just for the story if you are ready to lose some hours for killing enemies and finding a key in the nearest cab.    … Expand
  30. wolfram812
    Oct 1, 2020
    9
    I played this game in 2020. It's an absolute masterpiece! The game is absolutely not outdated! This is absolutely a case when and where the game development ascends to high peaks of real ART. An action-packed very deep intriguing story gonna catch you from the first second to the last. And leave a deep impact in your heart and memory. Thank you, Remedy!!! Wanna more games like this from you!
  31. Geralt123
    Mar 13, 2021
    5
    This could have been a very good game, but it has one serious problem: the combat.

    The combat sucks so much, it is a major annoyance. You have like 20 bullets and a few batteries. Then come 3 waves of 3 enemies. You have to stun them with your torch and then shoot them. Sound fun, but isn't. You constantly run out of bullets and batteries. Running away is not an option because Alan can    This could have been a very good game, but it has one serious problem: the combat.

    The combat sucks so much, it is a major annoyance. You have like 20 bullets and a few batteries. Then come 3 waves of 3 enemies. You have to stun them with your torch and then shoot them. Sound fun, but isn't. You constantly run out of bullets and batteries. Running away is not an option because Alan can run fast only for 20 meters before he catches his breath.

    Other than that, the story and graphics are very well done. The whole atmosphere is chilling and frightening.

    I don't know how the devs could ruin a good game with a combat like this. Had they implemented normal doom-style combat, this could have been a great game.

    Other annoyance is the the camera is left and behind of Alan and you have to walk at a certain angle all the time.

    Seriously devs, why did you ruin this game?

    And needless to say, if you fail at combat, which happens A LOT, you will go back to the last savepoint and repeat the whole ´sh*t over an over again.

    5/10, with a better combat it would have been an 8.    … Expand
  32. Finerey
    Dec 12, 2021
    4
    govnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovnogovno
  33. Kujin
    Dec 3, 2020
    5
    With a traditional Remedy zaniness sprinkled through the game's story, Alan Wake is a game with a mediocre and boring gameplay, encouraging the player to stay put, point at the baddies and shoot. It's story is a cliche-riddled tale of nothing, barely exploring it's themes while being completely uninterested in it's characters. Alan himself is a prick you don't want to succeed, and twoWith a traditional Remedy zaniness sprinkled through the game's story, Alan Wake is a game with a mediocre and boring gameplay, encouraging the player to stay put, point at the baddies and shoot. It's story is a cliche-riddled tale of nothing, barely exploring it's themes while being completely uninterested in it's characters. Alan himself is a prick you don't want to succeed, and two years after beating this game i couldn't remember his wife's name. It's not scary, and it's attempts to mix up the gameplay loop are pathetic. I don't think I will ever think about Alan Wake as anything than a hiccup from Remedy, a step down from Max Payne and an unfortunate stepping stone to Quantum Break and Control… Expand
  34. letitgo48
    Nov 3, 2020
    10
    Amazing game, honestly can't wait second part. To be clear, PC version is best version of this game.
  35. BreakMe
    Nov 7, 2020
    9
    I'm sure this game was fine on xbox 360, but it truly shines on PC. Remedy is just amazing, graphics, story etc.
  36. elefsar
    Apr 22, 2021
    5
    Story is mediocre, game play is bad, action side is lacking fluent. Couldn't like it.
  37. Alexey970
    Jan 12, 2014
    6
    To be honest, the game is so-so. The storytelling is good, despite of everything other. The gameplay is quite poor. It's poorly copy-past the famous resident evil series, and contains no puzzles, no interesting enemies. So we are getting half novel story-telling, half shooting game very similar to Max Payne, and to be honest it doesn't justify my expectation. I pretty sure that you willTo be honest, the game is so-so. The storytelling is good, despite of everything other. The gameplay is quite poor. It's poorly copy-past the famous resident evil series, and contains no puzzles, no interesting enemies. So we are getting half novel story-telling, half shooting game very similar to Max Payne, and to be honest it doesn't justify my expectation. I pretty sure that you will get more fun by playing in resident evil or silent hill.… Expand
  38. Qieth
    Apr 28, 2012
    9
    Alan Wake was such a pleasure to play through. One of the strongest points of the game is the immersing story, and the way it unfolds. It kept me guessing, and begging for more. The scenery of the game was breathtaking, and while there were quite a lot of "forest" areas, every single one of them was paired up with an astounding view of a valley, or beautiful mountains in the distance.Alan Wake was such a pleasure to play through. One of the strongest points of the game is the immersing story, and the way it unfolds. It kept me guessing, and begging for more. The scenery of the game was breathtaking, and while there were quite a lot of "forest" areas, every single one of them was paired up with an astounding view of a valley, or beautiful mountains in the distance.

    Combat in Alan Wake was nice and refreshing. It was a nice touch that you simply can't shoot your enemies, but have to decide how to take on a pack. While the selections of weapons in the game was modest, you could use them to great effect. I fell in love with the way dodging works in this game, and it made defensive evasion - something that people often overlook in favor of brute force - a pleasant skill to practice.

    This game was long, and it was good. It is definitely one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had in a long time.    … Expand
  39. Osmium
    Jul 30, 2013
    6
    Somehow, I never managed to find something special in this game. To me, Alan Wake is basically just another third person action shooter. It is one above average though, but still I found the gameplay itself to become very boring and repetitive after only around two hours into the game. I was also rather annoyed than fascinated by what I felt to be a pseudo in depth psychological horrorSomehow, I never managed to find something special in this game. To me, Alan Wake is basically just another third person action shooter. It is one above average though, but still I found the gameplay itself to become very boring and repetitive after only around two hours into the game. I was also rather annoyed than fascinated by what I felt to be a pseudo in depth psychological horror storyline. Graphics, sound, and atmosphere are all very good, but the gameplay itself just couldn't keep me entertained. I finished the game within less than 10 hours and won't give it another go.… Expand
  40. Mykwon
    Dec 8, 2012
    5
    Well, after playing quite a while, this is disappointing: the action is extremely repetitive. You just run around in the woods killing enemies. This only thing saving this game is the story with a lot of potential. But it ends very abruptly with a lot of questions asked, and a hope that they will be answered in a next opus. So overall, feels it should be more a movie than a game as theWell, after playing quite a while, this is disappointing: the action is extremely repetitive. You just run around in the woods killing enemies. This only thing saving this game is the story with a lot of potential. But it ends very abruptly with a lot of questions asked, and a hope that they will be answered in a next opus. So overall, feels it should be more a movie than a game as the game part itself is boring.… Expand
  41. sft
    Jul 29, 2013
    6
    The light fantastic (almost)

    Credit is due Remedy for making ALAN WAKE a story-driven game. It’s a partial success, though not a complete one. They have entirely eschewed the typical RPG tropes of dialogue trees and progression choices in favour of a linear, non-interactive structure. The story is played out in a series of cut-scenes and simple A to B tasks. Basically you just have to    The light fantastic (almost)

    Credit is due Remedy for making ALAN WAKE a story-driven game. It’s a partial success, though not a complete one. They have entirely eschewed the typical RPG tropes of dialogue trees and progression choices in favour of a linear, non-interactive structure. The story is played out in a series of cut-scenes and simple A to B tasks. Basically you just have to battle your way from one place to the next. There’s certainly a place for this type of game, and when it’s done well la Half-Life 2) it can be very rewarding. Unlike Half-Life 2, however, ALAN WAKE doesn’t quite pull it off. Firstly, there isn’t enough humour. There’s some but it would have benefited from more. And the story isn’t exactly original. But the main problem for me was the combat. I hated the way control is wrenched away from the player every time enemies approach. I get why they did it (there’s no other way of knowing they’re coming, apart from some audible warnings) but I often found myself disoriented when the camera had finished sweeping around and control had retuned. Several times the sweep lasted so long that by the time I had control again the enemies were right on me and it was impossible to avoid taking a hit. Frustrating to say the least. On the plus side the environments look very good and it’s quite atmospheric (although not as creepy as I would have liked Silent Hill still sets the bar for that). One other thing worth noting is that I found the special episode, The Writer, to be better than what had gone before. It’s even more atmospheric and far more inventive. Overall this is a good game if not an outstanding one.    … Expand
  42. bestreviews2020
    Nov 13, 2020
    10
    Just came here to say, here's my positive review for this amazing game.........
  43. Deific
    Oct 23, 2012
    6
    A game that could have been so much more. What could have been an open world master-piece became a cut down, linear, repetitive and tired novel in the shape of a game. The plot thickens in places but never leaves predictable, and both the writing and voice acting is cringeworthy in places, sounding like an amateur attempt at 'serious' crime/horror writing. Even one of the charactersA game that could have been so much more. What could have been an open world master-piece became a cut down, linear, repetitive and tired novel in the shape of a game. The plot thickens in places but never leaves predictable, and both the writing and voice acting is cringeworthy in places, sounding like an amateur attempt at 'serious' crime/horror writing. Even one of the characters criticises it as 'heavy on the metaphors' which it absolutely is - exhaustingly so. By the time you reach the end of the third chapter, you're willing the game to be over in the fourth, but still have several more to grind through, with the last couple feeling drawn out needlessly so. The 'climax' of the game, simply feels like the writers ran out of ideas, so threw in all kinds of surreal environments and events, none of which last more than a minute or so. The enemies through-out have no variation and you're still fighting the same enemies at the end as you were at the very start of the game. The visuals in places look fantastic (mainly during daylight which you rarely get to see), whilst in others (and for the majority of the game) they're pretty dire. The weaving plot does hold your interest at times and you do find yourself getting a little pulled in to certain twists, but they're over before you know it and you're back to predictable. Combat would feel satisfying if it didn't become tedious first. I bought it on steam for less than a fiver and it feels like I paid its worth.… Expand
  44. whitespider999
    Feb 17, 2012
    8
    Alan wake on the pc is well made port.There are some performance quirks however and hopefully get they patched out. The game controls well, instead of it playing like a traditional crosshair based third person game, you aim with the flashlight. The movement of the flashlight is not as 1:1 instant as a first person shooter, however it controls surprisingly smoothly considering. The story isAlan wake on the pc is well made port.There are some performance quirks however and hopefully get they patched out. The game controls well, instead of it playing like a traditional crosshair based third person game, you aim with the flashlight. The movement of the flashlight is not as 1:1 instant as a first person shooter, however it controls surprisingly smoothly considering. The story is fantastic, with each segment of the game like an episode of lost, with a "on the last episode of alan wake". Each chapter/episode also ends on a really quirky and mysterious musical number. This game definitely has artistic lynchian undertones without being obscure or vague. The game is also visually stunning, the only downside is the occasional low resolution texture. Mechanically the game has the traditional horror elements, however it throws in enough twists to make it feel fresh again. Light plays a huge role in the dynamic of the entire game, with each source of light being a checkpoint of sorts and every enemy being immortal until you shine them with your torch.All of this leads to the game being quite hard, as you can be taken down in 1 or two hits, so you need to make serious use of the dodging mechanic and stay constantly aware of where each enemy is - if they get behind the player, you might be swamped and die within seconds. The combination of the light mechanics, the involving thriller/mystery plot, the episodic touches, and some serious tension make alan wake unmissable. Just make sure you have a powerful pc.… Expand
  45. Mikimax
    Apr 30, 2012
    9
    Awesome game. I haven't played a quality game like this in a LONG time.
    Story, graphics, music, game-play, everything is perfectly fused together to make this masterpiece.
  46. Baenlynn
    Dec 22, 2012
    9
    Alan Wake is proof positive of the point that a story, properly told transcends all media and genres. A game that could be EASILY adapted for film or TV, Alan Wake is a game that is, in actuality, an interactive novel, and one that is just BEGGING for Star Trek's holodeck. Even in the intro sequence I found myself enjoying the game on a level that I have not enjoyed any other game before.Alan Wake is proof positive of the point that a story, properly told transcends all media and genres. A game that could be EASILY adapted for film or TV, Alan Wake is a game that is, in actuality, an interactive novel, and one that is just BEGGING for Star Trek's holodeck. Even in the intro sequence I found myself enjoying the game on a level that I have not enjoyed any other game before. Does that mean it's my favourite game? No. But even still it is a wonderful experience nonetheless. Even the fairly standard horror pacing and formula can't detract from this game, and so intricately tied to and interwoven with its plot the game really manages to tell a story while you battle shadow monsters with a Christmas light wearing sidekick (I am NOT making this up). While I am not a fan of the horror genre, and have never really read any Stephen King (to whom the tilts it's hat many times), the game was nevertheless thoroughly enjoyable. The only down-side to this interactive novel is that like a novel it is not immediately replayable. When you get to the last chapter, you don't feel any pressing need to start over again from the beginning, because what you have really enjoyed is not the thrill of the chase, being hunted by an insidious Lovecraftian shadow-demon, but the content of that story. But I think that is one negative we can all bear if games of this ilk were to become more common in the future. And really that actually makes the gameplay longer lasting easier to savour. Please Remedy, and ALL developers, give us more interactive novels, and less psychotically emotionless space marines killing freaking zombie demons from outer space.… Expand
  47. Pekafu
    May 31, 2012
    9
    Alan Wake is one of the best games I have ever played. The storytelling is epic, The atmosphere takes one to the depths of Cauldron lake and the graphics are great. I hear people complaining about the fps being around 60, but that should be more than enough for anyone. Game is a bit too straight forward but the all the pros make up for those little cons. I wish that this game came toAlan Wake is one of the best games I have ever played. The storytelling is epic, The atmosphere takes one to the depths of Cauldron lake and the graphics are great. I hear people complaining about the fps being around 60, but that should be more than enough for anyone. Game is a bit too straight forward but the all the pros make up for those little cons. I wish that this game came to stores for PC earlier and there wouldn't have been X360 version. Crosshair being just the flashlight is one of the nicest details of the game. This game is not a FPS so there is no need for focused/zoom mode for shooting and I don't know what people are thinking about when they are wishing something like that for this masterpiece. If you want to play some FPS game with much shooting go buy your piece of Battlefield or COD this game is thriller a bit like Resident Evil… Expand
  48. hooner
    Jul 13, 2012
    8
    Very engaging game and an interesting combat concept. Overall story is so-so in my opinion and somewhat generic if you have read better source material, but its the 1st single player game I have played all the way to the end since Dead Space, so that says something.
  49. gerbils99
    Sep 7, 2013
    6
    The story is told in a unique and generally brilliant way, but the gameplay becomes incredibly monotonous by the fifth level. Could have been excellent.
  50. ingreenblue
    May 1, 2014
    5
    If you like your Stephen King, you will like the story. Graphics and sound design are superb. However, the game fails in terms of gameplay. Shine a light and shoot. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. There is almost no enemy variety and no real sense of progression. After the first few Chapters, the only thing that kept me going was the story.
  51. Old_Skewl_Gamer
    Sep 18, 2013
    10
    The best story telling in recent memory. Sometimes the controls suck but the ambiance, careful style progression and suspense punctuated by real fear your batteries will run out on your flashlight makes it amazing and totally worth it. I usually avoid console ports religiously but I'm glad I picked this gem up on sale.
  52. MD1032
    Feb 15, 2015
    5
    From an experienced gamer...

    This game wasn't worth the small 7 hours that I spent on it. In summary, the story shows great promise but is ultimately a let-down at the end, the combat is pretty horrible, and the graphics just aren't quite there. Please do yourself a favor, if you're not really into the suspense-thriller genre, and really like your combat to be interesting, please give    From an experienced gamer...

    This game wasn't worth the small 7 hours that I spent on it. In summary, the story shows great promise but is ultimately a let-down at the end, the combat is pretty horrible, and the graphics just aren't quite there. Please do yourself a favor, if you're not really into the suspense-thriller genre, and really like your combat to be interesting, please give this game a pass. You really aren't missing anything. This is at its core, a short, 100% linear game, with a low amount of content. The developers of this game used long S-shaped paths with lots of waves of enemies to bring up the play time, and the combat just isn't enjoyable.

    Spoilers past this point.

    Firstly if you don't have a lot of patience, I would recommend enabling cheat codes by setting "-developermenu" in launch options in steam. This will allow you to refill your ammo when you run out.

    UI: The highly offset camera angle is a constant nuisance. You will literally zig-zag through this entire game with W-A and W-D combinations the entire time. Walking in a straight line is extremely difficult. The slow-motion enemy deaths are way overused, and there's an irritating, lengthy camera sweep every time an enemy approaches from behind during which you can't do anything but watch it run/fly towards you and get the first hit. The funniest thing is that they combined the "sprint" key with the "dodge" key, so literally every single time you want to start sprinting, you will first perform a "front dodge" maneuver, so it will look like Alan is going to fall over and then all of a sudden he's running at full blast. Lazy and comical. Vehicle physics are barely usable. All of the cars basically have bald tires and 500 horsepower because they're so tail-happy it's ridiculous.

    Combat: It is actually possible to run out of ammo and get stuck at certain points in the game. Your only way of dispatching enemies is with guns, and there's no option to run past them in 90% of zones. The combat in this game is boring, there is no avoiding it. Right-click on an enemy with your flashlight to drop their shields, then use a small handful of weapons (you literally only get like 3 guns the whole game) to take down their health. Rinse, wash, repeat. Don't get me wrong, the combat is OK in small doses. The problem is that you'll find yourself fighting past wave after wave after wave just to get to the next Dan Brown-style mini cliffhanger at the end of each episode.

    Story: Alan Wake does not end with a resolution to the storyline, which is a shame, because the story in this game was well thought out and is quite good at its core. Instead of trying to figure out an ending that ties everything together and makes everyone happy, it half-resolves a couple things and asks a few more questions. This is SO LAZY, and a HUGE pet peeve of mine. You spend the whole game fighting all this garbage just so the dude can get his wife back, and then, it doesn't happen. Many of the elements in this game are borrowed.

    Graphics: Textures and effects range from incredibly detailed to cheesy and overused. The characters' faces are absolutely terrible for a 2011 game. Misshapen, not following the dialogue at all. None of the characters ever change clothes for the entire game. There's no visual or soft barrier for the environments, so once in a while, you'll jump down a small cliff and just die. Finally, there's this annoying blur effect that is used so often that it actually prevents you from properly seeing the graphics they did actually do right, things like smoke and lighting.

    Conclusion: 5/10 Good effort, but would not recommend.    … Expand
  53. artandpassion
    Jun 2, 2021
    10
    Hopefully Alan Wake 2 will be revealed on E3 2021, because i'm tired of waiting. Come on, this game was awesome :D.
  54. TitaniumDragon
    Feb 21, 2013
    5
    This game is greatly overrated. What's wrong?

    Well, it starts off strong enough you get into the action quickly (none of this "oh I don't get to really play for an hour" nonsense) and you get into the mystery of the piece pretty quickly. What's not to like? Well, the problem is that Alan Wake suffers from two problems: 1) The action is terrible. 2) The story isn't great.    This game is greatly overrated. What's wrong?

    Well, it starts off strong enough you get into the action quickly (none of this "oh I don't get to really play for an hour" nonsense) and you get into the mystery of the piece pretty quickly. What's not to like?

    Well, the problem is that Alan Wake suffers from two problems:

    1) The action is terrible.

    2) The story isn't great.

    The first is obvious; in the intro, you learn how you burn the shadows off of enemies, then you shoot them to death. Okay, cool, so they expand on it right? No. The ENTIRE GAME'S GAMEPLAY is exactly the same thing burn the shadows off of enemies, then shoot them. There isn't even much variety in the way of enemies there are normal enemies, that cut you; fast enemies, which are harder to hit; and large enemies, who deal more damage and take more damage to cut down. There are moving objects that lift themselves up and hurl themselves at you as well, which sounds a lot better than it actually is the physics of it is awkward and the AI sucks, meaning they often "get stuck" on stuff.

    Thus the ENTIRE game's action consists of doing the same thing over and over and over again, to enemy after enemy after enemy, with little variation. Somewhere around episode 2 (of 6) it wears thin, and there's a lot more to go.

    The collectibles, likewise, leave something to be desired. Half of them are stupid, and the other half of them, while okay, suffer from the problem that searching for them messes up the gameplay and pacing; rather than trying to get out of the woods, instead you spend hours wandering around in the woods trying to find pages and thermoses and other nonsense. It sucks; the game plays a lot better when you aren't running around trying to find stuff because (let's face it) the gameplay wears thin anyway, it is even thinner stretched out like that. It doesn't help that Alan Wake can't run for very long, and has to slow down if you have him run for more than thirty feet or so that dude is seriously out of shape.

    Okay, so the gameplay rather sucks (even if the basic premise sounds interesting). What about the story?

    Well... again, the story kind of sucks too. The problem is that you start off the game with a mystery, and all's well, right? Well...

    It becomes glaringly clear what the answer to the mystery is early on, and without that mystery, there's just... nothing really substantive. Sure, the characters run around, and Barry and Sarah are okay characters, but Alan Wake himself is a bit bland and really it all feels a bit pointless. The story isn't terrible, but it isn't amazing either, which means that it doesn't make up for the mediocre gameplay. There is a brief upswing in the story in episodes 4 and 5, where it feels more fun, but the end of the game is as bland as chapters 2 and 3 were, and feels very empty due to the loss of any other characters interacting with you.

    Overall I can't recommend this game, but I don't discourage you from buying it either; however, it is average, neither great nor terrible.    … Expand
  55. spinx
    Apr 13, 2012
    9
    Great game and very good story and different gameplay mechanics, visually impressive on the highest settings... Remedy has still got it! But I must say, they will need to improve the formula if they want to make a sequel... At the end, I just wanted to know the end of the story, the gameplay became a bit predictable, but it was only at the end of this masterpiece that I had this feeling...
  56. slippery
    Jun 13, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Alan Wake is the story of an interesting idea marred by derivative and underdeveloped storytelling, repetitive gameplay, interruptive loss of camera control, inaccurate controls. It's a story of great potential that's never realized simply because the developers really needed to outline and storyboard their story a little better. Alan Wake is a game that probably would have worked better as an adventure RPG style game, but in trying appeal to a larger market, tried to make an action game.
    **********

    Spoilers from here:
    THE GOOD. I like the atmosphere. I like the mystery. I like the episodic format. I like the initial idea of using light to force back the darkness.
    WHAT I THINK THIS GAME NEEDED. Variety. Oh, look! I'm back in the woods and HERE'S ANOTHER SAWMILL! This game had some lovely scenery, and I would have liked to have seen a bit more variety there. As well, many of the enemies are just cut-and-past. I almost think it would have been better if the enemies in this game weren't humanoid "taken" at all, but rather indistinct shadows. I'd have LOVED to see the great fog-effects of the engine used to create shadowy, swirling enemies that are just shadow and smoke and darkness. Especially if you add fog to the woods, and you have to spot shadows in the fog. That would creep me out.

    GAMEPLAY: I think guns were a bad idea. I know why they did it, but I would have liked to see simply light vs. darkness. Flashlights, flares, flareguns, even candles and lanterns. I think the light vs. darkness was a cool concept, but the guns just made it mundane. Again, I know why they did it, but I think it marred the uniqueness of the concept.

    STORY: I loved the mystery aspect. I loved when they cast doubt on Alan Wake's sanity. That was brilliant. But they didn't develop it as much as they could have. They could have contrasted Alan's sanity and insanity, waking and dreaming, sober and drunk with the light and darkness. It COULD have been the story of Alan's own light and darkness. The potential was there. The elements were there. But somebody wanted a game with more mass-market appeal and said "Let's make it a shooter." Note to developer: the guy who made that decision should be mopping the floor, not making creative decisions. A unique and memorable work of art requires RISK.

    The story had problems. First, Alan is writing crime fiction. The references to Stephen King and the homages to HP Lovecraft don't fit. Either make him a horror writer, or stop kissing Stephen King's a**. It just doesn't work. Second, If the darkness wants Alan to write the ending and finish the story so that the darkness can escape, why are all the taken trying to kill him? As soon as it becomes clear that Alan's trying to destroy the darkness, then I can understand the darkness trying to STOP him finishing the story, but up until EP6, Alan's under the impression that the darkness WANTS him to finish the story, and everything points in that direction. So why are the taken trying to fight him instead of trying to lure him back to the cabin? It just doesn't work. Again, they only did it to add action to what was otherwise a 3d third person adventure game built around a tone of suspense.

    Finally, the ending: Alan Wake writes the ending: he can write anything he wants. So why does he not escape? Why does his wife escape but he's still writing at the end? Why is the darkness not defeated? He did what he was told to do: he brought the light and filled the empty heart with it and drove out the darkness: but the only thing that changed was that Alan and his wife traded places. He's still at the mercy of the shadows. Why? Again, marketability. They want to set up the inevitable sequel. It's lazy writing and doesn't take any risks because it doesn't require the writers to figure out a cool way to let Alan win this time, but allow for the darkness to return again in another form.

    THE BOOK PAGES: cool idea, but not terribly compelling. Many simply told more or less what we were seeing anyway, just from another point of view. It needed more time to write it up properly. In a game like Doom3, the messages left all over the place led to caches (Alan Wake handled that VERY effectively and in a very unique and original way with the messages that only show up under the flashlight). But I didn't feel a real NEED to read Alan Wake's messages. I just didn't see anything there that was necessary.

    What this game needed most was consistency, more development, more focus on the ideas, and less playing-it-safe by company men looking to maximize the market potential of the game. I bought the game at 90% off on steam, and I still don't think it was worth the price.    … Expand
  57. mario1088
    Feb 13, 2013
    10
    Even Stephen King would not be ashamed with that quality of plot. Characters like from Twin Peaks deep and not obvious, perfect atmosphere and surroundings. My vote 10!
  58. Vixremento
    Feb 22, 2012
    8
    Pretty decent game overall and quite a bit more challenging that I had originally expected. The third person movement and almost auto-aim still seems to simplify things a little but at the same time they're not shy to swarm you with bad guys so I guess without going FPS style they've done a pretty good job.  
    Auto health regeneration but with a nice added twist over the usual    Pretty decent game overall and quite a bit more challenging that I had originally expected. The third person movement and almost auto-aim still seems to simplify things a little but at the same time they're not shy to swarm you with bad guys so I guess without going FPS style they've done a pretty good job.  
    Auto health regeneration but with a nice added twist over the usual "just take cover and you'll be fine" bit was welcomed! Otherwise there's a lot of exploring that prevents it from becoming "slit your wrist" linear it does it's job nicely while looking pretty sweet too. As a survival horror it's okay to good (sorry I think Amnesia set a really high bar) while as a game it's fairly fun to play through (I actually wanted to finish it unlike so many other games that I just got super bored with).  
    Performance wise it runs like a charm on my aging GTX295 at 1920 x 1200 (yeah baby!) so nothing to complain about there (shame on bigger devs for failing in this department with so many of their ports that look like crap compared to this).  
    So what's not to like with this game? Well sadly (even though Remedy has done a bang up job at this PC version as so many other Devs seem to fail at when porting to PC) it still plays like a console game and I just can't help shake that 3rd person "must play with console controller" feel it has going for it (I'd love for them to do an FPS style survival horror game made specifically for PC but I fear their console monetary rewards will prevent something like this...at least we got this one on PC finally too!).    … Expand
  59. k3Ck
    Mar 6, 2012
    10
    Great game and pretty good port, runs great on my laptop with maxed settings @720. The game starts off a little slow but it really starts to pick up a few hours in. I thought Alan Wake was going to be a horror game but I was wrong, it's more of an action game and it's not very scary. The story is very good and the action and scripted sequences are excellent. I'm really glad this cameGreat game and pretty good port, runs great on my laptop with maxed settings @720. The game starts off a little slow but it really starts to pick up a few hours in. I thought Alan Wake was going to be a horror game but I was wrong, it's more of an action game and it's not very scary. The story is very good and the action and scripted sequences are excellent. I'm really glad this came to the PC and $30. Over 15 hours of intense play is well worth it and I'm sure I will play it again in the future. A must buy for any action fan!… Expand
  60. kelticpete
    May 10, 2012
    4
    They should have made a book, or a GAME. This seems like neither. I thought with the insanely high reviews this was a no brainer when it went on sale for 15 bucks. Dear horror game coders: Clunky controls that make you feel OUT OF CONTROL do get the adrenaline pumping, but that is not fear. after playing Rage and Skyrim (first person is ALWAYS better) the controls on Alan Wake feel like IThey should have made a book, or a GAME. This seems like neither. I thought with the insanely high reviews this was a no brainer when it went on sale for 15 bucks. Dear horror game coders: Clunky controls that make you feel OUT OF CONTROL do get the adrenaline pumping, but that is not fear. after playing Rage and Skyrim (first person is ALWAYS better) the controls on Alan Wake feel like I am gaming drunk off my butt. Again, crappy control of the character makes you feel out of control but that is just ANNOYING in an actual game. I just looked that the universal stats on Steam. 12% of people did not even finish the first acheivement. I did. Now I am in a town (that is not a big spoiler) I have no desire to watch a ton of cut scenes, I want to either play a game called alan wake or read a book called alan wake. Color me annoyed. I don't suck at horror games. Resident evil 1 was an all time fave. this is no RE 1. After dying like 10 times playing RE 1 I finally got to a safe area and I was so pumped for the game. I have the opposite reaction with this game. I like to explore in a gameworld, so it is annoying to start a game were you are running your a@@ off just to survive. Stop to see the graphics? nope, I can't I am too busy running. I quickly realized it was better to get hit by the bad guys while running than try and take a stand. I am sure there are upgrades and better weapons but I only give it a 50% shot that go any further. It actually made me want to go read a horror book instead of playing a "game". Off to amazon to find something to read. peace out.… Expand
  61. flagoon
    Mar 8, 2012
    8
    As a long time Max Payne fan, i had quite high expectations from Remedy. And they didn't disappoint me a bit. The story was great, and it kept me hooked till the very end. The action sequences were good, although there could've been more open areas, and more different places. I recommend this masterpiece to everyone who likes the action thriller genre, and in generally to everyone.
  62. smk123
    May 3, 2012
    9
    Without a doubt the games main strength is its storyline, throughout the whole experience it never failed to have me in suspense thinking of what might happen next, sure the combat is a bit samey, but aren't all horror games? The graphics and sound quality are superb, can't fault them in anyway, looks stunning on my machine, got it day one and I don't regret this at all
  63. jacobwt226
    Mar 5, 2012
    10
    I love games like civilization V,and shogun, I hate thrillers, I hate Horror, This is my only exception. I gave it a 10 because of what it has, it has a good story, the background, and setting is amazing, on Steam, they have collector edition bundle for $35 dollars, I love it, I go to bed with a flashlight beside me (so to speak). I have entered a unending night, I love Alan wake, as soonI love games like civilization V,and shogun, I hate thrillers, I hate Horror, This is my only exception. I gave it a 10 because of what it has, it has a good story, the background, and setting is amazing, on Steam, they have collector edition bundle for $35 dollars, I love it, I go to bed with a flashlight beside me (so to speak). I have entered a unending night, I love Alan wake, as soon as american nightmare comes on PC, I almost want a Xbox so I can play American Nightmare sooner... I would say that this is the 2nd best game I played, and a major time sink, but then again, if i am sinking, might as go down with the ship! I will encourage (and yell at you) to buy this game, it is not horror, it is not a thriller, it is the best game I have played that is a shooter. I also love, how it pays respect to the whole horror genre, I don't like horror as I said but man! I may reconsider just to enjoy this game more! If i were you I would be at the checkout already. I would of paid double, or more for this game, I can say that with a Bible on my hand, under oath. Best game you can buy...If you like Uncharted, or third-person shooters this is a must! Also, I am planning on buying all the books, all of the guides, everything, just to help support this game, I may even buy the clock! I would be a lot more of a critic on this game if I had not played it, NOTE: I am buying a Razer Xbox controller so I can have the best PC experience I can! A couple people will whine about how "this thing is wrong, this tree has bad textures" i took a chance on this game, and I will NEVER regret it! Love this game, and I can't say that about a lot, or maybe a few...… Expand
  64. emupleasure1988
    Mar 7, 2012
    10
    Being a massive fan of supernatural drama, I was immediately drawn to Alan Wake and bought the Limited Collector's Edition at launch.

    The game involves a writer trying to understand why a book he can't remember writing is coming to life. The action comes thick and fast, and the narration by the lead character makes you feel more attune to the world constructed by Remedy. As you go through    Being a massive fan of supernatural drama, I was immediately drawn to Alan Wake and bought the Limited Collector's Edition at launch.

    The game involves a writer trying to understand why a book he can't remember writing is coming to life. The action comes thick and fast, and the narration by the lead character makes you feel more attune to the world constructed by Remedy. As you go through the storyline, you meet a whole host of characters, ranging from mad to simply disagreeable, but all of them have a place to be and a purpose to serve. The story is well put together, with collectables strewn all over the town for those who want to look a little deeper.

    If you want a game that hails from the greatest horror authors and makes the concepts work, buy Alan Wake. As a side note, it's one of the few games on 360 that has never received a patch. :)    … Expand
  65. GenuineOpinion
    Feb 18, 2012
    10
    Performance shouldn't have an impact on the game play score. The game itself is wonderfully ported. Wonderful story, as to be expected. Anything else........ Pretty much it's an all around quality game that is ominous and at times scary.
  66. Hobiologe
    Feb 22, 2012
    10
    Well, it's one of the best Action-Thriller-Adventures of the X360 NOW and FINALLY on PC, but not a simple port, rather than a great improved version from a graphical perspective as well as additional content (both DLC episodes "The Signal" + "The Writer" included) and PC exclusive features (3D mode and multi screen support). Very well done, Remedy!
  67. Strider
    Feb 21, 2012
    10
    Amazing game. It's so rare that you actually get your moneys worth out of many single player games these days. You buy it, get it home, beat it in a few hours and you're done. This is not the case with Alan Wake, you will get several hours of gameplay for your money. The story is simply fantastic, and original, as is the gameplay itself. Your not going to just run and gun through it andAmazing game. It's so rare that you actually get your moneys worth out of many single player games these days. You buy it, get it home, beat it in a few hours and you're done. This is not the case with Alan Wake, you will get several hours of gameplay for your money. The story is simply fantastic, and original, as is the gameplay itself. Your not going to just run and gun through it and survive. It's TV mini-series style presentation is also very well done. You really do feel like you are playing a supernatural TV series. The overall effect is an addictive game that you enjoy playing, that keeps you guessing as to what's going on and what's going to happen next. If you like suspenseful horror or supernatural entertainment , then you are going to like Alan Wake. Yes, this game is a console port, however the PC version is far better looking than its console counterpart. Seeing them side by side really drives this point home. If you are going to port a game to PC from an inferior console, this is how you do it. Higher resolutions, higher fidelity, and DX10 features that no console can touch. Kudos to the developer for a proper port. The game played fantastic on my gaming system. AMD 1090T at 4.1GHz, XFX DD Radeon 7950 BE, 16GB DDR3 1600. Running a live broadcast via X-Fire through the entire game. No problems from the game at all. Very happy with my purchase and the gaming experience. So not only do I highly recommend Alan Wake, I suggest you play it at night, in the dark, with the volume turned up and in its full HD+ splendor. This way you can properly enjoy the dark side of Bright Falls.… Expand
  68. pandazpa
    Feb 27, 2012
    10
    Okay, okay... The performance in this game is a bit problematic for some people (I'm running ok in an old HD4850 512mb. Indeed: It could be more optimized). But what I'm reading in most comments is "my top end rig doesn't run this game @60fps all the time". C'mon!! Did you guys tried to play and understand the history? And one more thing: This IS NOT a FPS and Alan Wake is not a soldier.Okay, okay... The performance in this game is a bit problematic for some people (I'm running ok in an old HD4850 512mb. Indeed: It could be more optimized). But what I'm reading in most comments is "my top end rig doesn't run this game @60fps all the time". C'mon!! Did you guys tried to play and understand the history? And one more thing: This IS NOT a FPS and Alan Wake is not a soldier. The gameplay is very good, the history and environment deserves a 10.
    Because the lacks of optimization in the engine I'd give an 9, but there are many people giving 0 because they were expecting an godlike Alan Wake with fps like controls or are just pissed because their new PC don't run 60 fps all the time (OMG, it goes down to 45fps... seriously?)... Because of them, I'm giving 10.    … Expand
  69. marquillos
    Mar 4, 2012
    10
    Among the best games for pc as a single player experience so far this year. Although it could be tweaked a little more, specially the run/evade key being the same, there's not much more you can ask for a game like this.
    a solid 9. Enjoy this jewel!
  70. Curunir
    Sep 5, 2012
    10
    I am writing solely to offset the clueless reviewers who give this game a 0-4 score and address/disprove their major complaints. a) poor performance on "top end" hardware - I'm playing it at 50 fps maxed out on an i3, gtx550ti, that's very far from top end. b) poor controls/camera angle - that is simply not true. Controls are completely lag-free and the camera angle takes about 5 minutesI am writing solely to offset the clueless reviewers who give this game a 0-4 score and address/disprove their major complaints. a) poor performance on "top end" hardware - I'm playing it at 50 fps maxed out on an i3, gtx550ti, that's very far from top end. b) poor controls/camera angle - that is simply not true. Controls are completely lag-free and the camera angle takes about 5 minutes to get used to, unless you have some sort of handicap c) linear, no levelups - do I even need to say why this is not a problem in this genre?

    It saddens me deeply to see a considerable number of people who completely missed the point of the game, then came here to complain about issues that simply don't exist.

    Alan Wake is the best purchase I've made in a very long time, so much so that I'm actually playing it with my wife who finds both the gameplay and the cutscenes engaging enough to watch and she does not play videogames.    … Expand
  71. camoe
    Mar 9, 2012
    10
    this game is simply outstanding i have a top end rig and the game runs perfect for me so i don't know what some users here are saying it runs great the story is very good in this game its like reading a great novel and the game play mechanics are very well done.Also remedy knows how to treat the pc players they on on the forums answering questions with in minutes and patching the game withthis game is simply outstanding i have a top end rig and the game runs perfect for me so i don't know what some users here are saying it runs great the story is very good in this game its like reading a great novel and the game play mechanics are very well done.Also remedy knows how to treat the pc players they on on the forums answering questions with in minutes and patching the game with pc players feed back and what they would like in the game i hope remedy carry on making more alan wake games for the pc… Expand
  72. Batuhan87
    Aug 14, 2012
    10
    Exceptionally good story.Gameplay is fantastic.The soundtrack is also one of the best out there.Graphics are very good and its performance is good too.
  73. JvJ
    Apr 16, 2012
    10
    This masterpiece is brillant. It's not just a game, it's more much than this. Just let it recount its story and you will not be disapointed. Give it a try, it worth it !
  74. Lethal1ty
    Feb 24, 2012
    9
    Amazing game!! The world needs more games like this!! Totally worth the money!! I am really glad this game was made for PC. I have to thanks Remedy out of my heart for such a awsome game.
  75. Lordnine
    Mar 24, 2012
    9
    Alan Wake surprised me and went way beyond my expectations. What really made the game stand out and kept me playing was the engaging story and fun characters. Not to belittle the gameplay, which is more than sufficient, but this is a game where you continue to play to find out what happens next. My only real complaints are that the camera sticks a little too close to your character andAlan Wake surprised me and went way beyond my expectations. What really made the game stand out and kept me playing was the engaging story and fun characters. Not to belittle the gameplay, which is more than sufficient, but this is a game where you continue to play to find out what happens next. My only real complaints are that the camera sticks a little too close to your character and difficulty is inconsistent at times.… Expand
  76. NL-Woody
    Mar 4, 2012
    9
    Awesome game! Good PC version, no problems! great sory, gameplay and graphics but the ending was weak and the game could get repetitive. Overall worth buying 85/100
  77. MalcomGTX
    Apr 20, 2012
    8
    Great game if you can get past some of the weird graphical issues, lip syncing is some of the worst. It was a game that had its design goals changed and budget cut mid-creation, so some areas that feel exploratory are actually linear and were intended to have more content. Still, the atmosphere and story make up for its shortcomings and is one of my favorites. I really hope to see an AlanGreat game if you can get past some of the weird graphical issues, lip syncing is some of the worst. It was a game that had its design goals changed and budget cut mid-creation, so some areas that feel exploratory are actually linear and were intended to have more content. Still, the atmosphere and story make up for its shortcomings and is one of my favorites. I really hope to see an Alan Wake 2 soon with a bigger budget, given what the devs displayed here with a cut budget and little time, I have high hopes for what they can do in the future given the resources they need! Pick it up if you have the change, its totally worth it and do remember, it was originally released in 2010 with a bootstrap budget so don't expect 2012 big-budget graphics.… Expand
  78. Ruwach
    Sep 24, 2012
    10
    I just loved this game, really good story line (reminded me of Steven King), interesting and original gameplay (fight with light), and nice graphics. Everything a gamer desires.
  79. igor-qwe
    Feb 15, 2013
    10
    There was a time when I had been waiting for Heavy Rain not even having a PS3. Yeah, it was difficult to read all positives reviews not having a possibility to play on my own. But at that very moment another terrific game came out, which story helped me to forget about other stories in games for a while. Being a fan of Stephen King and liking Twin Peaks it is easy to fall in love in theThere was a time when I had been waiting for Heavy Rain not even having a PS3. Yeah, it was difficult to read all positives reviews not having a possibility to play on my own. But at that very moment another terrific game came out, which story helped me to forget about other stories in games for a while. Being a fan of Stephen King and liking Twin Peaks it is easy to fall in love in the story of Alan Wake. Not only you get fun of reading another page of manuscript, listening to another radio show or watching episode on TV, but also you are taken by gameplay that is one of the most comfortable on XBOX360. That is one of the games that makes you think that you will replay it again long before the ending.
    I managed to complete all the achievements and played through the games three times. Thumbs up, Remedy! Unforgettable moment house container, where Alan is, is rolled by and thrown from the cliff.    … Expand
  80. Gamer147
    Aug 12, 2013
    3
    I wouldn't say I suffered, but I decided to quit after about two hours of gameplay. The port was done correctly, no bugs or whatnot- BUT, the game itself was really boring. The gameplay was really unrewarding, nothing interesting actually happened, the verdict on this so-called horror game was very easy to decide. It's not scary, not innovative, not fun to play, not interesting (at leastI wouldn't say I suffered, but I decided to quit after about two hours of gameplay. The port was done correctly, no bugs or whatnot- BUT, the game itself was really boring. The gameplay was really unrewarding, nothing interesting actually happened, the verdict on this so-called horror game was very easy to decide. It's not scary, not innovative, not fun to play, not interesting (at least two hours in) and quite repetitive. Thanks, but no thanks.
    (Also, shooting mechanics and point of view sucked, not very intuitive)    … Expand
  81. Vilio
    Feb 9, 2014
    3
    I bought this game in Christmas sale.
    First of all. Terrible shaking videos brings you on island, where you get wrong direction and your girlfriend disappear. Ok, nice start and there are some scary ghost in forest, many pages from book, where are future steps described....
    BUT! Main character is terribly crappy, unable to walk and run more than 50 meters. His position is on side, but    I bought this game in Christmas sale.
    First of all. Terrible shaking videos brings you on island, where you get wrong direction and your girlfriend disappear. Ok, nice start and there are some scary ghost in forest, many pages from book, where are future steps described....
    BUT! Main character is terribly crappy, unable to walk and run more than 50 meters. His position is on side, but he is moving to the center of screen, what is terrible first hour. After 1 hour you find him terrible clumsy. Ghost persons are coming from nowhere and you have to hit them with light from your lamp. And during this, he is terribly clumsy. When you are trying to run from them, they are faster and Alan is terribly clumsy to go around tree, rock. When Alan is hit, he is clumsy more than before...
    This game is joke. Creator was somebody who was creating main character and scene perspective completely drunk. When I see other games like Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, where character control is helpful, not doing stupidities, I'm asking WHY ? WHY ? Why did I bought this terrible game ???????    … Expand
  82. Necrotaur
    Aug 11, 2012
    7
    Alan Wake is like playing a Stephen King novel, interspersed with (for the most part) bland shooting segments that I wished would be over so I could move on to the next exposition. Overall enjoyed Alan Wake, but the repetitive nature of the combat, and constant 'run through a forest with a flashlight' segments got boring fast. The controls and camera angle are a little awkward as well.Alan Wake is like playing a Stephen King novel, interspersed with (for the most part) bland shooting segments that I wished would be over so I could move on to the next exposition. Overall enjoyed Alan Wake, but the repetitive nature of the combat, and constant 'run through a forest with a flashlight' segments got boring fast. The controls and camera angle are a little awkward as well. The atmosphere is great though, and I enjoyed seeing the story unravel.… Expand
  83. WomZombie
    Jan 10, 2014
    4
    Not a great game, and another example of the metacritic score not representing reality. The game has nice graphics, but terrible token enemies. It's like they thought they'd better add the shadow monsters to give it an arcade feel. They're annoying and ruin the game, they are fun for about 2 minutes, then it gets tedious and repetitive. I'm not alone in this opinion, just read a fewNot a great game, and another example of the metacritic score not representing reality. The game has nice graphics, but terrible token enemies. It's like they thought they'd better add the shadow monsters to give it an arcade feel. They're annoying and ruin the game, they are fun for about 2 minutes, then it gets tedious and repetitive. I'm not alone in this opinion, just read a few reviews.

    Very atmospheric, I would have liked to go through the game without any combat.

    Wait for it to be on sale if you need to see it. The graphics and mood are interesting, perhaps a bit self-indulgent and pretentious... also confusing because it's a dream within a nightmare or something like that.

    I would have preferred a first person view, the third person perspective has its limits.    … Expand
  84. keefbaker
    Oct 6, 2013
    5
    When big budget games screw up they screw up well. This game attempts to take Stephen King tropes and turn them into a computer game, it looks great, is well voiced but massively over-cutscened. Also the only real scares come from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers of enemies. I didn't complete this simply because I stopped caring. Sad really..

    It feels like a sci-fi channel movie.    When big budget games screw up they screw up well. This game attempts to take Stephen King tropes and turn them into a computer game, it looks great, is well voiced but massively over-cutscened. Also the only real scares come from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers of enemies. I didn't complete this simply because I stopped caring. Sad really..

    It feels like a sci-fi channel movie.

    Basically if you want a really scary game get Amnesia: The Dark Descent.... That's what you need,    … Expand
  85. Anderen2
    Mar 24, 2012
    8
    Remedy never dissapoints me. Another good game with an interesting story to play. I see many having issues with performance, runs great with all settings at high @ i5-2500k and ATi6870 atleast. Only thing I might say is that the game might be a bit repetive gameplay-wise after a while (Duck, light, shoot and repeat). Still it was an enjoyable experience :)
  86. violent
    Mar 11, 2012
    5
    I really like the scinematic cutscenes but the game got really repetative after a while. The "puzzles" are more like roadbumps that slow you down than real puzzles because they are so easy. They just take time to do. I really liked the beginning of the game but I eventually got tired of the repetative combat encounters that I stopped playing it.
  87. EddyHan
    Mar 13, 2012
    9
    This game may be a console port, but there are lots of things done right in this game! The story is amazing! It gets the player really involved and the atmosphere adds to spooky feeling which this game delivers very well! The combat is excellent! The slow motion effects don't make this game easy also there is limited ammo to carry based on how powerful they are which feels balanced. TheThis game may be a console port, but there are lots of things done right in this game! The story is amazing! It gets the player really involved and the atmosphere adds to spooky feeling which this game delivers very well! The combat is excellent! The slow motion effects don't make this game easy also there is limited ammo to carry based on how powerful they are which feels balanced. The graphics have only improved on the textures, but its effect is still really well presented. But, this game isn't perfect. Auto Aim is permanently on and you can't go straight on to Nightmare mode which means the game treats the player like a noob from the start. Also, you cannot max out the graphics settings which is not surprising because it is a console port. Overall, this game is a good example of the effort developers need to put into making a console port, but it is because it's a console port that limits the game on PC. This game is on Steam and I recommend getting this one purely on the experience and story.… Expand
  88. Gonzi
    Mar 13, 2012
    8
    It is story-heavy game and that story is pretty good. Finding those story pages is actually pretty good "storytelling mechanic" and I really loved it.

    It has great gameplay mechanics. You have different tools to defeat enemies, but right combination is the key. Thanks to that, the gameplay feels very rewarding and I was really enjoying it all the time. Graphics of the game is very good,    It is story-heavy game and that story is pretty good. Finding those story pages is actually pretty good "storytelling mechanic" and I really loved it.

    It has great gameplay mechanics. You have different tools to defeat enemies, but right combination is the key. Thanks to that, the gameplay feels very rewarding and I was really enjoying it all the time.

    Graphics of the game is very good, both technically and artistically. The darkness feels "real", The light really cuts trough it, and as a result, I was "scared" in the dark and I was rushing towards any kind of light that I saw.    … Expand
  89. Umberto
    Mar 18, 2012
    9
    When i started playing i was sceptic, but i soon changed mt mind. From a technical point of view, Alan Wake is good but not excellent. But the story, the setting, and the main character are simply fantastic. The plot contains plenty twists, it is always intriguing and exciting and Alan's madness is almost touchable.
    Another point of strenght of this game is the enormous number of details    When i started playing i was sceptic, but i soon changed mt mind. From a technical point of view, Alan Wake is good but not excellent. But the story, the setting, and the main character are simply fantastic. The plot contains plenty twists, it is always intriguing and exciting and Alan's madness is almost touchable.
    Another point of strenght of this game is the enormous number of details and cure that the developers had.
    Everything is designed for an immersive game: The manuscript pages, Night Springs series, pictures and paintings, radio programme...
    Also music is a positive element, it's perfectly choosen, and i can't forget the "Old gods of asgard", whose songs was written by the Poets Of The Fall.
    Not a perfect game (the fighting mechanism is boring), but a Must-have for who likes thriller and horror games and want to try something different, more original and "Serious" than a flat survival horror such as Resident Evil or Silent Hill.    … Expand
  90. Philendrick
    Mar 24, 2012
    9
    I truly enjoyed playing through Alan Wake. I'll break it down for you. The storyline was fantastic and fresh; well-written for a game of this type. The setting was beautiful! If not for all of the thrills, I would have loved to pitch a tent and camp in the mountains. The characters were well developed enough for you to care for them, and make the story-telling worthwhile, but not asI truly enjoyed playing through Alan Wake. I'll break it down for you. The storyline was fantastic and fresh; well-written for a game of this type. The setting was beautiful! If not for all of the thrills, I would have loved to pitch a tent and camp in the mountains. The characters were well developed enough for you to care for them, and make the story-telling worthwhile, but not as developed as I would have liked. I enjoyed the episodic format and opportunities to enjoy the great soundtrack - with both new and old artists; I even bought a couple of tracks on iTunes afterward. The core gameplay concept is very unique, but at times difficult to master.

    The weak points were predictable moments of attack from enemies, and repetitious attacks. Some suspense-building instead of constant suspense would have been nice. The control system was definitely designed for a joypad, so I recommend using a 360 controller or getting a 360 controller emulator for your existing joypad; play the game as it was designed to be played. Also, there are unreasonable difficulty spikes that made me feel I had to cheat the battle system to get through a segment instead of enjoying close-calls and bare success.

    It's clear that Alan Wake was not micro managed by Microsoft and was developed free from a heavy hand. It feels very much like a game made by a small studio, so the weaknesses and strengths that go along with that show in the game. I recommend you give it a try!    … Expand
  91. Vex
    Jul 6, 2012
    5
    First of all, I haven't had any performance issues whatsoever.... so the mediocre score I'm giving this game isn't reflective of it's performance at all. My main gripe with this game is extreme repetitiveness and lack of true innovation. I'm some 4 hours into the game right now and from what I've seen, the entire gameplay can be boiled down to "run through the dark forest -> get attackedFirst of all, I haven't had any performance issues whatsoever.... so the mediocre score I'm giving this game isn't reflective of it's performance at all. My main gripe with this game is extreme repetitiveness and lack of true innovation. I'm some 4 hours into the game right now and from what I've seen, the entire gameplay can be boiled down to "run through the dark forest -> get attacked by a bunch of dark psychos -> kill them all with a flashlight and a gun -> repeat until you've reached your destination". In this day and age when more and more games provide true choice and shape the outcome according to the choice you make, boring games like this with the 90s gameplay have no place on any serious gamer's shelf. The first hour or so was fun but after that I was bored to tears.

    Onto the more positive aspects: the atmosphere is decent, graphics are good and the surroundings look pretty and realistic. Too bad every good aspect is spoiled by extreme repetitiveness and dull gameplay with no true innovation.    … Expand
  92. Lukinsons
    Apr 2, 2012
    7
    Alan Wake has really nice story and dark atmosphere so play it only at night. The story is divided on few epizodes like some series. But there is only few type of enemies in this game. The optimization is very bad and after 2 episodes it will be very stereotype for you.
  93. BoredSeal
    Jun 1, 2013
    5
    Story and technical side of game are ok. But gameplay is very boring. Spending all the time running in predicted way and fighting all the time with same weapons and pointing flashlights is not my kind of fun. Most of older horror games are much more entertaining.
  94. violentine
    Jul 5, 2013
    5
    5 seems a bit rough score for a game that got so many positive reviews already. In all honesty, I don't know how the game managed to get so far with such a mediocre gameplay. I guess the trick is in graphics which are still beautiful and create a fantastic atmosphere suitable for the Stephen King-esque storyline. The story is definitely a homage to King with the writer in distress, weird5 seems a bit rough score for a game that got so many positive reviews already. In all honesty, I don't know how the game managed to get so far with such a mediocre gameplay. I guess the trick is in graphics which are still beautiful and create a fantastic atmosphere suitable for the Stephen King-esque storyline. The story is definitely a homage to King with the writer in distress, weird murderers and dreamlike locations near a very american mountain village. It's like cliche in a cliche. You're armed with a flashlight and a gun and must first use the light to sort of "break down shields" from enemies to be able to shoot them with your weapon. That's all there is to fighting mechanics. Use flashlight, shoot with a pistol. Run to the next area. Bad guys appear from the shadows. Use flashlight, shoot with a pistol. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. There are also collectibles for those people that bought this game with their last moneys and just HAVE to get everything out of it. The beginning of the game felt a bit like Resident Evil 4 which is a great game. You should play that instead.… Expand
  95. AmmarAlKhafaji
    Jul 1, 2013
    10
    just the idea of the game is amazing and new and the story is the best with the perfect cinematic like every game from remedy entertainment this was the best on 2010 and the best on Xbox 360
  96. csabber
    Aug 19, 2013
    6
    The story in Alan Wake is quite exceptional comparing to other video games in the genre. Too bad the rest of the game can't match up to the well-written storytelling.

    The game kicks off interestingly where we meet our protagonist, who is struggling with writing crisis and a "little bit" of insanity. Soon we find ourselves fighting with shadowy creatures named 'The Taken' controlled by a    The story in Alan Wake is quite exceptional comparing to other video games in the genre. Too bad the rest of the game can't match up to the well-written storytelling.

    The game kicks off interestingly where we meet our protagonist, who is struggling with writing crisis and a "little bit" of insanity. Soon we find ourselves fighting with shadowy creatures named 'The Taken' controlled by a mysterious force.

    The fighting mechanics based on the power of light are unique. While this newish fighting scheme is fun at first it lacks deepness, so it becomes repetitive. Unfortunately nothing good can be said about the controls, which is one of the most discouraging features of the game: awkward movements, slow reaction times, super sensitive mouse controls

    One of the high points of the game is the voice acting. It phenomenally supports the great story, which pushes the player for resolution...that may or may not exists in the end. The end of the story will leave many with questions and bad taste, but the open nature of the conclusion is not necessarily a bad thing at all. However, the special chapters (The Signal and The Writer) will help put a proper end to this tale.

    After 6 chapters it is hard to think of any reasons why anyone, who is not a fan of Alan would start this game all over again. The replay value of the game is very low thanks to its linear nature. Other than some collectibles there's no point to return. Alan Wake is one of those games that would've been enjoyable on a big screen rather than with a controller in a hand.

    Rating: 65/100; Replay Value: 1/5; To Beat: 14-16 hours (incl. the specials); Played on: normal.    … Expand
  97. laymonage
    Aug 26, 2013
    10
    The story is just amazing. The atmosphere is well-done, the gameplay is a little bit repetitive at times but it's still good. A good PC port too. Amazing game.
  98. debigman
    May 16, 2014
    2
    This game is buggered to hell. The voice acting is awful, it is way too hard, the learning curve is steep, the gunplay is HORRENDOUS. And bad hit detection.
  99. COMThing
    Jul 17, 2014
    5
    A very linear game with predictable gameplay. It might as well be a movie since the story and atmosphere are the only things worth noting amongst the many scripted events. As far as gameplay goes, you know something big is about to happen whenever you get a new piece of equipment or find a resupply cache.
  100. fasad
    May 6, 2014
    5
    Gameplay is extremely repetitious and not a lot of fun in itself. The enemy's can provide a few scares early on in the game, but you soon find yourself attacked by the hundredth fishman/lumberjack zombie and the effect is lost. There are only a handful of different enemies and very few unique environments the player can interact with, which reduces the gameplay into a pretty tedious grind.Gameplay is extremely repetitious and not a lot of fun in itself. The enemy's can provide a few scares early on in the game, but you soon find yourself attacked by the hundredth fishman/lumberjack zombie and the effect is lost. There are only a handful of different enemies and very few unique environments the player can interact with, which reduces the gameplay into a pretty tedious grind.
    A unique part of the gameplay is shining a torch (flashlight) on enemy prior to being able to damage them. However, you are rarely attacked by large numbers and are almost always provided with enough ammo and flares to easily keep out of trouble. Both player and enemies move slowly, and most combat takes place in an open environment, so backing away from enemies is an effective but boring tactic.

    The story is reasonably interesting, but it evolves slowly and is so "cheesy" it is hard to take seriously. All the characters in the game are extremely unlikable, and seem like they were designed by a child. This reduces motivation to progress through the game, as the only real reward for the gameplay is plot progression.

    Graphics and sound are generally impressive, but viewpoint is frustrating and not really suited for mouse control. The character controls are quite clumsy, and the dodging mechanic isn't really very useful (avoiding enemies is far more effective).    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

30
#30 Best PC Game of 2012
19
#19 Most Discussed PC Game of 2012
9
#9 Most Shared PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 30
  3. Negative: 0 out of 30
  1. Gamer.nl
    May 5, 2012
    70
    Alan Wake is a decent port with a few console-characteristics that cause a few annoyances. But PC-gamers finally have the option to enjoy Alan Wake's unique and gripping story.
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  2. Computer Games Online RO
    Apr 13, 2012
    82
    Yet as a finished result and, finally, as a product with an interactive purpose, Alan Wake suffers enough from trying to mix so many influences, ending very close to the "you love it or hate it" model. Eventually, maybe these are just the "pains of childbirth" for something more complex or for something else as deserving as interactivity, a new „species" that needs to be judged less for its interactive aspects and more for the ones that regard its style.
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  3. PC PowerPlay
    Apr 5, 2012
    80
    "A gripping rollercoaster ride." - Stephen King. [Apr 2012, p.52]
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