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My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer.
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- Plot setup has been detailed elsewhere. Rumours in Bright Falls giving birth to Mr Scratch, a demented serial killer in Wake's image, intent on finding Wake's wife...at the beginning of the game Wake escapes the darkness and finds himself in Night Springs, Arizona, though 'it isn't made clear whether this is now a real place, fiction come true, or some murky combination.' Though Edge do state that 'the whole experience, including the main game and live-action footage, is stylised to feel like an episode of Night Springs.'
- Of the Arizona reveal, they say 'it looks wonderful, but more importantly demonstrates Remedy beginning to make better use of the open-world engine it created for the entirely linear Alan Wake.'
- 'The first game used these collectable pages to increase the tension by foretelling upcoming events, but in AN, a number form the core of a new mechanic in which you rewrite reality. The page describes conditions ("The wheel was turning", "Kasabian played on the stereo" etc) which if matched will shift the story in your favour. As Wake explains during a cutscene, "The line, no matter how outrageous, is now the truth.'
- Edge talk of the variety in enemies making for a far more engaging combat mechanic. They detail one new enemy called the Splitter. It splits into two if you boost light upon it. Boosting light further creates 4. Firing a flare gun results in being flanked by a small army of now weaker, but no less voracious Splitters. 'It's a brilliant twist that adds a little additional strategy to proceedings: take on the stronger, but lone enemy, or divide it into weaker constituents and risk being overwhelmed?' They also describe Grenadiers, which hurl grenades that explode with darkness.
- 'With Night Springs now 'real', it's left to Wake's dark double, Mr Scratch, to provide in-game broadcasts. His taunting messages are presented as live-action clips that feature a blackly comic, and suitably chilling, turn from Ilkka Villi as he kills victims on camera with all the gleeful resolve of Patrick Bateman. All of the main cutscenes are performed by the game's actors. The transitions between what used to be called FMV and in-engine sequences are handled elegantly.'
- Fight Til Dawn takes place in maps based on areas from the story mode, where you must survive wave upon wave of enemies for 10 minutes...a multiplier counts up to a maximum of 9, gaining increments with every successful dodge and kill.
- 'American Nightmare offers a reimagining of Alan Wake's world broadly similar to RDR's Undead Nightmare and Infamous' Festival of Blood. If what we've seen so far is indicative of the rest of the game though, Remedy's formula twist is built on far more substantial bones, and folds its changes into the gameworld with much more nuance. This doesn't mean it's in any less danger of alienating fans of Alan Wake's previous outings, of course, but it's a confident package which proves that Remedy, like Wake himself, is more than capable of writing its own future.'
MS originally planned to release Alan Wake as episodic content over a series of ten weeks, each one 'airing' at the same time each week. But eventually they grew cold feet over the idea.
- Of the Arizona reveal, they say 'it looks wonderful, but more importantly demonstrates Remedy beginning to make better use of the open-world engine it created for the entirely linear Alan Wake.'
- 'The first game used these collectable pages to increase the tension by foretelling upcoming events, but in AN, a number form the core of a new mechanic in which you rewrite reality. The page describes conditions ("The wheel was turning", "Kasabian played on the stereo" etc) which if matched will shift the story in your favour. As Wake explains during a cutscene, "The line, no matter how outrageous, is now the truth.'
- Edge talk of the variety in enemies making for a far more engaging combat mechanic. They detail one new enemy called the Splitter. It splits into two if you boost light upon it. Boosting light further creates 4. Firing a flare gun results in being flanked by a small army of now weaker, but no less voracious Splitters. 'It's a brilliant twist that adds a little additional strategy to proceedings: take on the stronger, but lone enemy, or divide it into weaker constituents and risk being overwhelmed?' They also describe Grenadiers, which hurl grenades that explode with darkness.
- 'With Night Springs now 'real', it's left to Wake's dark double, Mr Scratch, to provide in-game broadcasts. His taunting messages are presented as live-action clips that feature a blackly comic, and suitably chilling, turn from Ilkka Villi as he kills victims on camera with all the gleeful resolve of Patrick Bateman. All of the main cutscenes are performed by the game's actors. The transitions between what used to be called FMV and in-engine sequences are handled elegantly.'
- Fight Til Dawn takes place in maps based on areas from the story mode, where you must survive wave upon wave of enemies for 10 minutes...a multiplier counts up to a maximum of 9, gaining increments with every successful dodge and kill.
- 'American Nightmare offers a reimagining of Alan Wake's world broadly similar to RDR's Undead Nightmare and Infamous' Festival of Blood. If what we've seen so far is indicative of the rest of the game though, Remedy's formula twist is built on far more substantial bones, and folds its changes into the gameworld with much more nuance. This doesn't mean it's in any less danger of alienating fans of Alan Wake's previous outings, of course, but it's a confident package which proves that Remedy, like Wake himself, is more than capable of writing its own future.'
MS originally planned to release Alan Wake as episodic content over a series of ten weeks, each one 'airing' at the same time each week. But eventually they grew cold feet over the idea.
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