Alone In Bright Falls – Hoping Alan Wake Lives Up To The Hype

I don’t play video games nearly as often as I’d like to be able to.  On top of the demands of normal life, my day job has added a little extra pressure lately.  There’s also the writing.  Let’s face it.  Right now, the writing is far more important than gaming.  I’m working on the game I’ve been writing about here on Geekcentricity.  I’ve got at least one other project on the back burner, simmering away, getting a few notes and such every now and then, but since the game is starting to really come to to a “rolling boil” in my brain, it’s been getting the bulk of my writing attention.  Then there’s this place.  I’m still here.  Still writing things other than the game.  And posting them here on Geekcentricity.  But I can see things gravitating.  Most things have been tying back to the game.  Even when I write about something else, I still see the relationship.  I’m okay with that.  I know that it will come back around.  I do cycles.  Since you’re strapped in for the ride here, you might as well get used to it.  It’ll make the trip must more pleasant.

Where were we?  Oh yeah… video games.

There are a couple of games I’m really looking forward to.  One of them is a game that’s been scaring the hell out of me even though it doesn’t come out for another 10 days.  It is a horror-themed game, but that’s not what’s been scaring me.  I’m scared because this game has the potential to be either phenomenal or really, really bad.  The game is Alan Wake.

I know.  The developer, Remedy Entertainment, isn’t calling it a horror game.  They’re calling it an “action thriller.”  Even so, it still looks like it can pack a pretty good scare.  I just hope it works.  Sure, Remedy has the Max Payne games on its corporate resume.  But this game just looks like it’s going to break a lot of rules.  That can be a good thing, or it can be something that the XBOX 360 audience is just not ready for, even if they do everything right.

The narrative structure of the game is arranged into episodes like a television series.  It’s even said to have been inspired by television series like Twin Peaks, Lost, and X-Files.  I won’t go too far into the setting or plot of the game other than to say it is set in a seemingly idyllic small town (Silent Hill anyone?) where the protagonist has gone to break out of a funk-inspired writer’s block.  His wife disappears (Silent Hill again?) and he begins searching all over town to find out what’s going on.  Except he finds out that he’s written a novel that he doesn’t remember writing (the game is also inspired by the work of Stephen King – The Dark Half seems to be an influence here).  And the horror novel that he wrote, but doesn’t remember?  Well, it starts coming to life.

I can’t wait to play this game.  It’s been in development for years (first announced at E3 in 2005).  It has an ESRB rating of “Teen.”  Those things scare me as much as any game content I’ve seen.  Not that a game has to be rated “Mature” to be good, but it’s a horror… errr, I mean action thriller game.  I just associate the genre with some gore and the accompanying “Mature” ESRB rating.  Still, everything I’ve seen from this game looks incredible, so I’m stoked about it.  Let’s just hope it’s not another Alone In The Dark (2008).