Alan Wake, A Psychological Action Thriller

Alan Wake is truly worthy of the words on its case, this game forces the very evil you are playing to climb sadistically into the back of your mind only to scramble it and make you believe that the next shadow you see is going to be the very essence of pure evil!


Ive never been one for being scared at games but this one truly is one for the ages, the story of Alan Wake is so well written it can tell you what has just happened and then whats about to happen and still make it so scary you will throw your controller at the screen and ask your mum to go into your room just to turn the game off so you can play something else... ok so its not that scary, but fuck me it wouldn't take much to get it there.

Enough about how much this game scared me, Alan Wake is about a writer who is currently having a writers block and has decided to go on a vacation to clear his mind or so he thinks as usual the main characters plans don't quite work out Alan's main problem is that his wife, Alice, organised the trip as a way to get his juices flowing again interestingly enough when Alan finds out about this the game truly starts, within seconds you have seen your wife being dragged underwater by an invisible force and dived into he water to save her only to find out you have crashed your car and a weeks gone by since you have arrived at the town that is the eerily yet accurately named Bright Falls, sounds confusing? Why yes it is but this is all explained later on in the game so patience will help you there.

The storyline of this game is one to be worshipped it truly is unique and overly interesting, this game will take hold of you and leave you wanting more once you've turned it off for the day, during the game you find scraps of pages from a story that you apparently wrote, on its own that sentence isn't scary or interesting but once you realise what you are reading on these pages has literally just happened in the game and then the next one you pick up is something that is about to happen, oddly enough that actually makes the wait for what is going to happen all that more scary you find yourself looking for things that the page had written on it which draws you away from other things that would normally be just a little scary or jumpy, such as enemies jumping out at you and surrounding you wielding axes and pipes and other various weapons that just scream psychopath, seem like your dick/tits have just been ripped off then the bastard who did it is dangling them in front if you telling you how to re-attach them whilst eating them.

Sorry about that i got carried away, oh well I'm hoping you was not too scarred anyway back to the game! The evil presence in Bright Falls is called the Taken, which are basically people encased in shadows that will die if light is shone upon them for too long, now I know I've said before that the same enemy just bigger or a bit stronger is a terrible way to have your enemies, but Alan Wake does this so well, the harder enemies are, as i said, bigger enemies covered in the same shadowy cloak that all enemies are, but they are actually hard to kill and overly threatening and I'm very happy that they only get bigger once, after that the enemies change, for example, there are birds, which will attack you fast and in large groups, objects that are possessed and will be thrown at full force in your direction and even trucks, cars and other various construction vehicles will be possessed and attempt to run you down like the pedestrian you really are. The enemies are both harrowing and evil and are literally the pinnacle of scary, this game will have you shooting at shadows and fearing bushes as you tread through the town of Bright Falls and its large forest.

During the game you will see safe havens which are spotlight style street lights dotted around the map although not all are safe they can be disrupted by the shadows that are surrounding Bright Falls but if you get into the light quick enough the Taken will disappear into the darkness from once they came. The game will mix this up a bit after an hour or so of game play by adding generators, this means that you have to start the generator in order to get your safe haven, which by the way also auto saves your game, Alan Wake likes to throw enemies at you the second you go near the generator so make sure you make no mistakes when winding it up or you will quickly receive a few fractures in your skull as the Taken swing at you with intent to kill.

Alan Wake will have you wanting more and more and seems almost perfect to me that is until the ending, which turns out to be a nice little "To Be Continued" style ending although its not overly disappointing it certainly is annoying to have such a uncreative ending to a very well made and creative game.

Conclusion time! I rate this game a 9/10 for its awesome game play and brilliant playing style it truly is a game worth every penny lets hope a second one is due along soon and is just as bad ass as the first!

A look into Nier's world.

The First game I've decided to review is Nier a somewhat unpopular game by Square Enix.

In the game you start of as Nier, a loving father who will do anything to find his daughter, Yonah, a cure for her rare and potentially deadly disease known as The Black Scrawl. Typically and for no reason at all Nier seems to be able to wield and use swords and spears like a pro which is handy because lets face it, its fun to kill shit. Nier has a lot of interesting features added into the game, you can grow your own crops from a small farm outside your house, fish (oh how we all love fishing) and even upgrade your weapons in two different ways, one being the usual, you walk into a blacksmiths shop and he says give me this, this and this and i shall turn this into this which makes you think EXCELLENT with that upgrade I'd surely kick twice as much arse! Another way to upgrade is to infuse words into your sword or spears name making its statistics re-arrange in a number of ways like adding a poison effect or mana draining abilities, oh how the fun never ends!

Now I'm not sure why words have so much power in the world of Nier but apparently they do so much so that one of your companions turns out to be some sort of overly smart but not too well informed book called Grimoire Weiss who will float about and be the arrogant arse of a book that Grimoire Wiess truly is.

Now that we are on the subject of companions i shall tell you about the half naked woman that will eventually join your cause and basically be the "never been loved, I'm too strong for that kind of thing" arsehole of a character, and by half naked i literally mean it barely clothed and simply wearing what looks like lingerie, this hateful and predicable character is called Kainé but hey shes not all bad deep down she just wants to be loved so don't judge her straight away here's one of the many shots of Kainé's behind that you will see flash before your eyes a few times during the game.

Nier is a unique game in its own way however whilst playing you find yourself wondering why it was that easy to tell what was going to happen yet at the same time somethings happen that you really didn't expect and if I'm honest they don't actually ever get an explanation as to why that happened for example you come across a child, Emil, who joins your cause, he has eyes like Medusa and can turn anything into stone with a simple stare yet at some point his long lost sister eats him and when his sister is killed by Nier he becomes some sort of floaty Jack Skellington look-a-like apparently that's just how it is.

The game is increasingly repetitive having you button mash your way through countless demons and using magic when a large group decides to show up, annoyingly the game lacks difficulty, one upgrade of your two handed sword and everything will either dye in one hit or be knocked back by the sheer force of the blow which even more annoyingly includes bosses, now what good is a boss battle if you can knock him to the other side of the room with a light attack and destroy his projectiles with the same light attack which by the way seems to create some sort of invisible barrier between you and any incoming magic which makes them disappear if you are mid attack handy but shit considering not one person wants to sit there and be the king of a game by simply pressing X constantly and destroying everything you touch.

When it comes to creativity the game fails miserably however you cant say Nier didn't try as at one point you are jumped with several stories and riddles to solve which halt your quest if you cant do it, oh and if you get it wrong the answer changes and you have to read the 20 minute long story...again and again until you get it right but hey you get a few easy ones first so its not all bad is it? The riddles were not annoying unless you got them wrong but lord all mighty are the stories boring forcing you to read them as it encases your screen in black and throws large words at you until you complete this part of the game.

Somethings in the game go unexplained like why does Nier decide to put a robin style mask on that has only one eye cut out? and why does adding words like Pah and Mah as prefixes onto your swords incredibly unoriginal name make it that bit more powerful that it already was? Again I'm guessing in this game its simply because that's how it is.

A few other things in the game lack what i call imaginative such as the enemies they are simply black shadows of what used to be people but are now Shades, what has happened to the world of gaming why is it Shades and not something creative your don't have to name your enemies by what they look like that's just boring oh how i would love to see a legion of Dave, Freds and Perrys wouldn't that make the game just that bit more fun? if not you cant say its not original! Even the types of Shades are as boring as their name its basically small, medium, large, boss and later on in the game they acquire bin lids and scraps of metal as protection against your pysical attacks which is useless if you have a two handed sword a few swipes and they are already dead or at least grounded.

Finally i am going to rate this game out of 10 why? Because i can and its a nice conclusion, that's why, I give Nier a 4/10 which means this game is worth a look at but i wouldn't recommend paying more than £10 for this unless your a real Square Enix fan then it just may be right up your street. I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings thus far and i hope you shall return for more ramblings in the near future.