Hello fellow STEEMITS!
Halloween is around the corner and I made a tradition to play a new horror game on Halloween night. I don't give out candy because my house is not part of the children's typical routes. Last time I gave out candy, I only received about five visitors within three hours. I will have a series of posts counting down my top five favorite horror/atmospheric games and the game I plan to buy for Halloween night. Now, let the top five list begin!
#5 Alan Wake
Developed by: Remedy Entertainment
Publisher: Remedy Entertainment
Platforms: Xbox 360, PC (No longer obtainable through traditional retail)
Released: Feb 16, 2012
This was a gem of a game I found. You play as Alan Wake, a writer, who rents a home on a island to help focus with his work after dealing with personal issues. Alan Wake is accompanied with his wife Alice Wake, a photographer. They are enjoying their stay until Alice Wake goes missing and the island disappears into thin air. Alan Wake must now figure out how to find his wife and his sanity.
The story in this game is very intriguing, atmospheric, and mind-boggling. there were so many twists and turns in this game that kept me motivated to finish it through. Along with the main story, two pieces of free DLC came out to flesh out the story between the base game and the expansion that came out. The voice acting in this game is on point and believable. Animation is done very well but lip syncing does not always match with the words being spoken. The environment usually takes place at night or in a very dark setting. However, it doesn't shy away from having some areas with light at times. The graphics are okay, it may look a bit dated since this game came out for the Xbox 360 and PC in 2012. However, the PC version does have the superior graphics.
Image retrieved from http://Google.com
This game does have game-play that is more than hide-and-seek or go from point A to point B mechanics. The game is viewed in third person. Through out the game Alan Wake will fight shadow monsters, called The Taken, that are immune to physical weapons. In order for them to be killed, Alan must shine a light on them first until their shadow protection disappears. After that, the The Taken can be killed with physical weapons. Alan can hold a handful of weapons at a time. He can hold a revolver, shotgun, pump action shotgun, hunting rifle, and a flare gun. All these weapons must be manually reloaded by pressing the "R" (PC) button as fast as the player can. Along with guns, Alan can use Flares, Flashbangs, Searchlights, and Worklights to help him throughout his journey.
The music and ambiance in this game is top notch. The game has six episodes instead of calling it levels. After every episode, a static screen will appear and play a full song for the player to listen to. The songs can be skipped, but most of the songs are worth listening to before starting the next episode. The YouTube link above this body of text has my favorite song played from the game.
This is not a horror game but a very strong atmospheric game worth playing. However, due to expired license on the music, Alan Wake was pulled from digital platforms and physical copies were pulled as well. Your best bet is to either find a used physical copy or find a friend who bought the game on GoG.com and backed it up onto a external storage device.
P.S. I bought a copy from GoG.com and backed it up.
I hope to have game post #4 released this week.
