Alan Wake – Latest on Remedy’s Psycho-Thriller Inside

Remedy’s Alan Wake is rightfully garnering a lot of attention for Microsoft. Not only does it look beautiful (see the latest bunch of screens at the bottom of this story), but the mere fact that it’s from ‘the Max Payne guys’ has ensured that there is an excitable buzz surrounding the game.

If you don’t know much about the game then you might want to head to SPOnG’s dedicated Alan Wake page to find out more.

The game’s central character, the eponymous Alan, is a bestselling horror writer who’s suffered an horrific trauma involving the disappearance of his fiancée and muse. Alan’s dreams, on which he based his twisted stories, stopped as soon as his wife vanished. This means he suffers the triple-blow of writer’s block and mind-numbing insomnia, oh, and a potentially dead spouse.

The game is set in the deceptively idyllic town of Bright Falls, Washington, where Alan Wake has come to visit a sleep clinic to treat his insomnia (A.Wake – geddit?) and to recover from his wife’s mysterious disappearance.

Alan’s main weapon in the game seems to be his trusty torch, as the mysterious dark-forces that are chasing him are vulnerable to light. You are required to use both the torch and other light sources as booby-traps to nobble your nightmare pursuers – which looks like an interesting, rather different gameplay mechanic.

Overall the game centres on the increasing self-knowledge of your character and the unfolding, superbly-scripted storyline. It’s promising to be a true single-player epic for the PC and 360 in 2007.

SPOnG’s first impression of the game when we saw it at E3, then also more recently at X06, was that it reminded us of a mix of classic Hitchcock suspense with a David Lynch style surreal touch (think Twin Peaks meets North By Northwest – yes, it really does look that good!).

SPOnG will keep you posted with more news on Alan Wake as we get it.