{sidebar id=1}Alan Wake is a game much like Twin Peaks was a TV show; while the statement is technically true, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Alan Wake is a game about a sleep-deprived writer who hasn’t written a word in years. His wife, Alice Wake, plans a vacation to Bright Falls, a remote town in the Pacific Northwest, to get away from the stress of the city and the pressures that might be contributing to her husband’s writer’s block … and perhaps see a doctor who specializes in helping artists find their muse again and just so happens to have a facility nearby.

Along the way, Alan starts finding pages of what seems to be a completed manuscript that he can’t remember writing …

Alan Wake is fundamentally a horror game – not quite as gory as Dead Space and perhaps not quite as action-oriented as Left 4 Dead, but both feet fall squarely in horror. Things will jump out at you, things will startle you and although it’s a third-person shooter, you’re likely to jump a few times. You may find it similar to Left 4 Dead in the way that Alan Wake encourages you to scavenge, or in the way that Alan Wake generally keeps you on a path, regardless of how wide the path is, and you may also find some of the boss fights reminiscent of Left 4 Dead battles.

The most fundamental game mechanic is the use of light to weaken and occasionally destroy enemies. All enemies have what amounts to a protective shield that can only be eliminated through the use of light – flashlights, flashbang grenades (usually called stun grenades), certain types of ambient light and so forth. Players can injure enemies only after that protective shield has been completely depleted. However, some types of light, primarily flashbangs and flare guns, can remove that shield and also do damage, often killing nearby enemies outright. The game allows players to intensify the light by aiming the equipped flashlight at opponents and pulling the left trigger – while this depletes batteries (a form of ammunition), it also eliminates the shield more quickly. Considering that enemies often attack in groups of two or more, this means that using the left and right triggers at the same time is almost inevitable.

Despite some passing similarities to the Left 4 Dead games in the gameplay and structure (and one boss fight which takes place on a stage while hard rock blasts), Alan Wake is very much its own creepy, disturbing thriller following in the footsteps of novelists like Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz. However, the most important question about any game, regardless of genre, content, etc., is whether it’s fun to play and Alan Wake, despite moving at a significantly slower pace than other games, is certainly engrossing and worth playing, although this may be a title that provides better value if it’s rented from GameFly or a local video store. It feels relatively short (perhaps 25 hours) and has limited replay value unless you’re an achievement hunter.

Accessibility Issues / Concerns

The two most important concerns in Alan Wake are the limited controller options for gamers with use of one hand and a lack of attribution in the subtitles. Given the lack of accessibility that most games released in 2010 have displayed, this actually makes it one of the more accessible titles of the year.

First, the subtitles. They’re clean, using a sans serif font to ensure maximum legibility and readability. They’re large enough that you don’t have to sit inches away from the screen to read them. They are often, but not always, in the letterboxed portion of a cinematic, but regardless, always have enough contrast with the background to clearly stand out. Ambient noises are not subtitled, which may present a problem for deaf gamers since, like Left 4 Dead, some of the noises are made by enemies and those sounds can help you determine where your enemies are. However, offsetting this is a quick cinematic which often plays when you have your back to an opponent – the game pauses, zooms out to show you that enemies are attacking, and then resumes play. While you will often find that one or more enemies were not shown in that cinematic, it provides a warning which may help deaf gamers enjoy the game more.

The more complicated issue for deaf gamers is the lack of attribution – the game does not tell you which character is saying what line, and there are times when at least two people are talking at the same time. There isn’t really any workaround for it – it’s just a problem you’ll experience when playing.

Gamers with use of only one hand will probably not be surprised to hear that this game is not easy to play with one hand. However, if you can play Modern Warfare or Modern Warfare 2 (or similar games) single-player campaigns with limited frustration, you’ll likely find Alan Wake to be significantly easier and involving fewer commands and buttons. However, there is no practical way to remap controls, and the game comes with only two options – a default configuration and an alternate configuration. The game uses one stick to move and the other to look, and uses one trigger to intensify the flashlight beam (almost essential) and the other to fire the equipped weapon.

Finally, gamers with precision or color blindness concerns may experience some difficulty with starting generators – the generator puzzle involves pressing a button at specified intervals and uses green to indicate that the player pressed the button at the right time and red to indicate a misstep. It’s probably easier to show this than to explain it:

When you press the A button in the area with solid color, it’s successful – green and red are just indicators and not essential to completing the puzzle.

With those issues noted, Alan Wake feels significantly accessible because the game is absolutely loaded with checkpoints – there are occasions when you’ll run into two checkpoints less than 30 seconds apart, and not because there’s a boss fight or any notable puzzle in between – they’re just that close sometimes. There are just checkpoints everywhere, meaning that even if you die, you’ll never have to go too far back to catch up.

Frankly, that – perhaps more than any other accessibility feature – makes Alan Wake feel accessible. There will be frustrating fights and you’ll die while trying to solve a puzzle, but in nearly every single case, you’ll start so close to the puzzle that you can jump right back into it. It’s almost – but not quite – like having a re-do function in the game. It is arguably the most forgiving checkpoint system I’ve ever seen in a game due to the sheer volume of checkpoints and how close they restart the player to a fight or puzzle. That, perhaps more than any other idea in this game, is something that every developer working on games with checkpoints should implement immediately.

Overall, the subtitles and checkpoint frequency make this game very accessible for deaf gamers and gamers with precision concerns, gamers with color blindness should experience few, if any problems other than the above noted puzzle, and gamers with use of one hand ought to find the controls more manageable than games like Modern Warfare or Modern Warfare 2.

At A Glance

Precision: This game requires some precision. Upon realizing that the flashlight beam is also the targeting reticle (i.e. where bullets will go), the game gets much less confusing. In short, pistols and other weapons will fire at whatever your flashlight has targeted. Some fights take a bit more precision to finish a boss, but the game feels fairly forgiving on Normal difficulty. You will also need to jump across gaps and dodge enemy attacks, both of which use fairly easy controls. There are a small number of reflex-based puzzles, usually starting a generator, which requires pressing a button a few times at specified intervals. Recommend rating of 7 out 10 for single-player campaign.

Deaf Gamers: The subtitles are outstanding – while not completely letterboxed, there is a significant amount of contrast and the subtitle font is both highly legible and readable. Cinematics are subtitled, as are a large number of atmospheric conversations and character comments. Mission-specific text is subtitled. While ambient noises are not subtitled, the game usually pauses the action for a moment and zooms in on approaching enemies to alert you to their presence. However, it can become confusing when people are talking while the main character is doing a voice-over, especially due to the lack of noting who is speaking what dialogue. Recommend rating of 7 out of 10, only because speakers are not identified and atmospheric noises like birds are not subtitled and some birds are hostile.

One-handed: Gamers with use of one hand will likely find the game difficult. There are two control modes, driving and on foot. There is a default configuration and an alternate configuration for each, but no remapping is possible. Although Alan Wake doesn’t use a particularly large number of controls, nor does it require particularly swift reflexes, it will likely be challenging for one-handed gamers, especially due to all but requiring the use of both triggers at the same time. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10.

Subtitled: The subtitles are often partially and occasionally completely letterboxed. There is a significant amount of contrast, making sure that the text is legible and readable against backgrounds in the game. Finally, the game uses a sans serif font, meaning that it uses the most basic version of letters to ensure maximum legibility and readability at a glance. Speakers are not identified, and ambient noises are not subtitled. Recommend rating of 7 out of 10.

Color Blind: Gamers with a form of color blindness should not encounter many, if any problems. Some puzzles use both red and green, but they use solid colors on an outlined background and do not use both colors at the same time. As one example, starting a generator requires the player to press a button when a spinning marker is in a certain area – the area is shown in green, but if you press the button before or after the marker is in the region, the puzzle turns red and continues on. As long as a player with color blindness presses the button while the market is in the solid colored area, in this example, the game should present few challenges. See the full review for more information. Recommend rating of 7 out of 10 due to using red and green when other colors would have worked just as well.