Alan Wake: The Signal

The Signal is a great addition to the Alan Wake story but there is not enough here to really understand the reasoning behind it.

The franchise's future looks - ahem - brighter, but we'd be best advised to withhold assent until the second extra episode, The Writer, is released later this year.

The Signal is a really cool, twisted and somewhat frightening expansion to Alan Wake, but doesn't have much story to it. Still highly recommended to all fans of Alan Wake.

Continues the narrative and challenges the player the way it should in the atmosphere and the environment. It is a good first sample of the depth of the story created and leaves us eager for the next episode.

The story in Alan Wake's first downloadable episode lacks a purpose, but exciting combat and a moody atmosphere make this a good addition.

So I'd rather play an erratic instalment of Alan Wake than a highly polished cover-shooter clone, because even when it fails, the former gives me something to think about in the ensuing days. Put another way, The Signal gets better the more I don't play it.

Alan Wake fans will want to check it out, if only for the morsels of story it gives them.

After playing through both The Signal and The Writer, the biggest impression I'm left with is that these two chunks of game (hateful combat aside) are better than anything that came on Alan Wake's retail disc. They illustrate Alan as a character, they immerse him in a world of his own internal madness, and they play to the strength of the premise in a way that actually makes sense. I can honestly say that if these levels had been included in the main campaign, my overall evaluation would've been significantly higher.