Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Story Mode)


I just finished the story mode of Alan Wake's American Nightmare. I started playing the trial on Xbox and it got me hooked. Being an achievement junkie didn't help. As soon as it popped up on my t.v. that I could now earn an achievement I was all in.

Anyways, putting aside my petty achievement addiction. The game was overall fantastic. Nothing more or less of what I expected.

What I often love best about a video game is it's story. It has to hold my interest long enough for me not to skip through scenes or get lost in a daydream. The majority of the live action scenes more then held my attention; they absorbed my mind and thoughts as if I was watching a really good movie. A lot of this is owed to the dialogue throughout the game.   

 A great voice actor narrates the game with a deep commercial sounding voice adding to the spookiness of the eerie setting. The banter between Alan Wake and Mr. Scratch was played out great. It did the job playing on good vs. evil.

The best exhibition of dialogue in the game was Alan Wake reading his manuscript pages. I have to admit I did skip over a few of these but the ones that I played through were quotable. Simple enough; great writing. Enjoying the language of the manuscripts added more to the storyline and background of Alan Wake and Mr Scratch.

I nearly played the game straight through. Not hard to do I understand, as it is a smaller game, and I often found the control and playability of the game too easy for my taste. Another element hindering me from the inability to put my controller down was the repetitiveness of the storyline. Essentially the game repeats itself. Playing in the same setting with minor adjustments to the game play got pretty irritating.

I made it through the game and enjoyed the time that it took from me. It was worth the money and I am excited to play the "arcade action" mode of the game. I will play future Alan Wake game's that are released; as American Nightmare was what you would call entertainment. 

Not to mention the game had a pretty tight soundtrack. I will definitely be downloading the tracks. Finish the game and you get an avatar award, always a joy :)