So E3 is currently upon us. And, like the ravenous hydra of myth that it has become, before the convention even begins we are cast adrift in an ocean of pre-event press releases and teasers. This seems to get worse and worse each year as scientist(s) predict that by the year 2015 pre E3 press releases will begin sometime roughly around Christmas of the previous year. Not one to look a gift-hydra in the mouth(s?), I have been diligently sifting through the steaming mess left on the carpet for news about anything other than fucking motion controls. Really the first thing to catch my eye in all of this pooey press "goodness" is the teaser for the first round of Alan Wake DLC: The Signal.
Can I get a spooky "OoOoOoOoOoOoOoH" for the title? Maybe some wavey hand gestures? Awesome.
Before we get into the DLC, I want to take a moment to talk about the Alan Wake already available to us. For those of you who don't sit at the cool kids table, the central story of Alan Wake is simple, but the way the story plays out is what make it so interesting. The game begins with you playing Stephen King as he and his wife travel to the hole in the wall town of Bright Falls for a spot of vacation. Faster than you can say "psychological action thriller", H.P. Lovecraft's wife disappears and you are dumped into a world of trees and nightmares.
Mostly just trees though.
Clive Barker must then try to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his wife, and the many other spooooooooky things surrounding Bright Falls. This includes, but not limited to, talking lights in the sky, senile Norse gods, living darkness that can possess and animate anyone or anything, a hilarious Twilight Zone TV show parody, and most importantly, the search for coffee. Sure the kidnapped wife of Richard Bachman is center stage throughout the game, but the mystery of just WHO would leave this many coffee thermoses lying around kept me glued to the edge of my seat from start to finish.
The game itself is gorgeous, with amazingly lighting(or lack thereof) and beautiful landscapes that are brilliantly crafted to feel organic and lived in. If you dont feel like you are trapped in the woods at night with a banjo hauntingly playing in the distance, then obviously you have never been raped by hillbillies. Lucky you. It is a shame however that as amazing as the setting looks, the characters inhabiting it look absolutely ridiculous. It isn't that they aren't constructed or rendered well, the models themselves look fantastic, it's mostly just that they have the expressive range of Mr. Potato Head. The characters have some of the worst lip sync and facial expressions I have seen in years. It ruins the immersion slightly when you feel as if you are watching sock puppets spouting serious dialogue.
Despite these gripes, the game has a wonderfully atmospheric mystery to solve that made it nearly impossible to put the controller down for bathroom breaks, eating, sleeping, or funerals. If you don't mind a few aesthetic flaws and programming hiccups here and there, the good far outweighs the bad and makes this a solid rental or purchase. Fans of Twin Peaks will feel right at home here, but if you want a good story and love coffee, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Alan Wake. Four and a half coffee thermoses out of five.
Oh, right. I was supposed to get to The Signal wasn't I? That was a bit of a tangent above wasn't it? Why the hell have you kept reading this far into mindless babbling anyway?
A very short teaser was shown for The Signal, with a whopping 1:07 of balls to the wall Alan Wake...........Alan Wakeness. The first thing I noticed was that you are still playing Alan Wake, which is a pleasant surprise for me as I was sure we would be in the shoes of another character, perhaps the mysterious Clay Steward finally. Depending on if you love psychological torture or not, you will notice that Barry Wheeler is back for more "I'll sue your ass!" shenanigans, but that is fine in my book because I fucking loved this character. Probably the most interesting addition to how the DLC will play out is the return of the eerie floating text from the final portion of the original game. This time it looks like you will be able to use it to your advantage in solving puzzles and even in combat as in the video Alan shines upon the word "Blast" to attack a possessed Taken enemy. Cool beans.
I was really not sure where the DLC would be going story wise considering the open ended finale of the initial game, but now all I know for sure is that I am excited once again to take the plunge back into the cold black waters surrounding the mystery of Bright Falls."It's not a lake, it's an ocean"
Alan Wake DLC; The Signal: the Search for More Money releases Tuesday, July 27th.
-Maxwell Strange
P.S. Thanks to PLAYhorror2010 for hosting the teaser trailer on youtube. Gametrailers is all kinds of hammer fucked right now since E3 started.
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