Alan wake postponed on the pc

this installment will also give an opportunity for players who aren't familiar with the franchise to finally jump on board - this might mean the pc port
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
6,027
If anyone is still interested, the PC version was finally released today. Steam currently has it on sale for $29.99, and they're also giving away the collector's edition extras for free until Feb 23rd.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/108710/

I'd be interested in hearing some feedback from anyone who's played it.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,017
Location
Florida, US
Just played about 2 or 3 hours and I'm slightly disappointed in the gameplay but I really like the setting.

It feels very cinematic, like you are part of an interactive movie. Very railroaded. Or maybe I haven't played far enough to where it opens up and let's me explore. I thought it was going to be more of an adventure game with a horror/thriller theme and less of a modern console corridor shooter. So far there haven't been any puzzles or riddles for me to solve. Only running to the next waypoint and shotting stuff inbetween. I did come across a simple jumping/lever puzzle but that's not really what I was expecting from this game. I was hoping for more of an Alone in the Dark or Cruise for a Corpse type exploration where I could collect clues, explore, talk to people, solve riddles and every once in a while fight a bad guy. The combat isn't good enough anyway to be the main focus of this game. You fight bad guys by shining a flash light on them and then shooting them with a pistol or shotgun. You can jump and dodge as well. There is no cross hair so it's hard to see where you are aiming. (you aim with the flash light).

The camera is hard to get used to. It's either over the shoulder on the far left or far right. Neither feels right and I'm constantly switching back and forth and wishing it was straight behind my character. Why is camera so hard for developers to nail?

I'm collecting coffee thermoses without really knowing why. I have 4 of 50. How that is helping the immersion or the game as a whole I have no idea. Feels like consolites.

There are a lot of cinematics without any interaction. I guess they are nice but I miss dialogue choices and meaningful interaction. I even miss Bioware's stupid dialogue wheel compared to this haha.

Performance has been great and it looks nice with medium settings on my 2 year old laptop so I'm quite happy with that.

The save mechanism is checkpoint based. The checkpoints are very frequent so it's not really a problem but it does not bode well for the linearity of this game. (or lack of openness)

The mood and setting are really nice. I'm going to spend some time with it tomorrow and hope that it "opens up" and turns into more of a explorative adventure murder mystery.
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
998
Location
The Great White North
Thanks for the impressions, Lemonhead. I was hoping it was going to be more like a Silent Hill type of experience, but it doesn't sound much like that at all. Maybe I'll grab it on sale someday, but I think I'll pass for now.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,017
Location
Florida, US
I played this a bit on the Xbox 360.

Very, very moody game with a pretty interesting story. But the gameplay is dreadfully stale and shallow after the first couple of hours.

Play it for the story and the "cinematic" experience - but realise that the actual game is average at best.
 
What is it about, actually ?
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,893
Location
Old Europe
So it's merely the story of someone who tries to find out what happened to his wife ?

I'm disappointed. I had expcted some ghost/occultism/horror story like in John Sinclair.
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,893
Location
Old Europe
I played this a bit on the Xbox 360.

Very, very moody game with a pretty interesting story. But the gameplay is dreadfully stale and shallow after the first couple of hours.

Play it for the story and the "cinematic" experience - but realise that the actual game is average at best.

Spot on! Finished the game on pc a couple of days ago. The gameplay was pretty fun in the start but later on it just felt like a chore. Second half of the game I only played for the atmosphere and story.

Had higher hopes from the makers of Max Payne...
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
340
I'm only 6 hours in and the gameplay is such a chore that I don't know if I can finish it. I want to see how the story ends but… I regret playing on medium difficulty now since I have to reload quite a bit and replay fights since the checkpoint save system only saves every once in a while. I had higher hopes for this game too.

Btw:
There is supposed to be a new "rigid camera" mode in the new patch, has anyone gotten it to work or seen any difference? I don't see any difference…
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
998
Location
The Great White North
I played this a bit on the Xbox 360.

Very, very moody game with a pretty interesting story. But the gameplay is dreadfully stale and shallow after the first couple of hours.

Play it for the story and the "cinematic" experience - but realise that the actual game is average at best.

I would say you summed it up just about perfectly. But the story was pretty good, IMO and was the obvious strong point.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
852
Location
Columbus, OH USA
I'm only 6 hours in and the gameplay is such a chore that I don't know if I can finish it. I want to see how the story ends but… I regret playing on medium difficulty now since I have to reload quite a bit and replay fights since the checkpoint save system only saves every once in a while. I had higher hopes for this game too.

Btw:
There is supposed to be a new "rigid camera" mode in the new patch, has anyone gotten it to work or seen any difference? I don't see any difference…

I restarted the game on the easy setting about 4 hours in because the combat was so freaking aggravating. I just wanted to get to the story.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
852
Location
Columbus, OH USA
There is a launch option where you can activate a developer menu and change to whatever difficulty you during the game. Worked out great. I'm now playing on easy and just trying to get the story without the annoying combat.
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
998
Location
The Great White North
Back
Top Bottom