Rise and Shine Alan Wake (l'abbiamo finito)

[Giggio93]

Le prime preview sono molto positive


da IGN AU

Australia, July 5, 2009 - It's hard to believe that it's been five years since Alan Wake was first conceived by developer Remedy – but here we are. For the first couple of years, there was very little to go on – just a handful of screenshots, very vague environmental video to show off some early tech demos, and a story summary that sounded very un-gamer-centric. Writers? On holidays? Darkness? Forests? Where was the structure? How would this all come together?

Years later, we finally have concrete answers – and now that we've seen a fair bit of the game, its nuances and concepts are finally coming into focus. By the gods, it looks great – that's the first thing you'll notice. But delving deeper into the experience, Alan Wake is going to shake things up for the thriller/horror genre. These are the five biggest surprises – the things that knocked our striped socks off – about Alan Wake.



The Structure


It might seem like a strange point to be impressed with – and it's not the first game to do it, but Alan Wake's structure is very interesting. The demo, for instance, actually begins with a quick video reel in the form of a 'last time on Alan Wake' montage. The game takes cues from serial drama television, reinforcing how critical it's going to be to keep track of the characters, their motivations and your decisions as the player.

After the recap, an 'episode' kicks off. Again, just like a TV show, Alan Wake's stages appear to be hemmed into tightly-woven narratives. This means that, while you're not going to see much in the way of sandboxy freedom, you're going to get a cohesive storytelling experience, where the action really ramps up to the conclusion of that episode. What's more, these episodes will also be replayable, which is perfect for those who want to try to do a little experimentation along the way.

In the example of the episode we saw, you start off with some narration; from there, you're introduced to your literary agent, Barry Wheeler, and his neuroses and allergies. Things begin to get strange as you leave the relative safety of your cabin and press into the wilderness. This is where the next cool point comes into play.

Flares and Lights


The humble flare. It saves lives – and holy moley it looks cool. In Alan Wake, fending off the darkness becomes critical; the quaint mountain town slowly seeps into night, and in the darkness, bad things come to play. When Alan triggered a handheld flare for the first time, we reeled back. With the 5.1 channel surround sound bellowing, the flare crackled to life. On screen, everything around you within ten yards is lit up in brilliant and menacing red as the flare gushes screen-filling plumes of smoke – thick and persistent in the air. It might seem silly or trite, but this is the best looking in-game flare we've ever seen – and it's not just detail – it's a gameplay tool, which is key.

You see, as you wander towards your goal, humanoid monsters begin to trundle out of the darkness – in towards Alan. If you equip the flare, the bright light of the flare causes them to sizzle like vampires in sunlight. They spark and crackle, and after a little bit of exposure to this intense light, it makes them far more vulnerable to your gunfire.

The lighting in Alan Wake is incredibly evocative. By using your flashlight as a weapon, it suddenly becomes a very important resource. Without your flashlight, you could soon find yourself overwhelmed by the forces of darkness – be it monsters or even possessed tractors and inanimate objects. However, all it takes is a quick burst of direct light to halt them in their path. Did we also mention this stuff looks utterly amazing?


Visual Technology


In a gaming landscape where most titles look impressive these days, it's getting trickier and trickier to impress cynics like us. However, Remedy has really done some amazing things with the proprietary technology in its engine.

You can see the hallmarks of quality design all throughout Alan Wake's world beginning with Alan and the other main characters themselves. The facial animation, lip-synching, and the combination of careful key-frame animation and motion-capture, combine to create some stunning sequences in the game. During moments of action, watching Alan, who's no action hero, stumble slightly as he lunges out of the way of a flock of demonic birds, looks wholly convincing; other, less overt things like dialogue exchanges between Alan and Barry show subtlety.

As we mentioned above, light and dark play critical roles in the experience. The engine handles all kinds of effects with panache. Every major object in the environment, including Alan and his clothing, is self-shadowing – meaning that light sources in the game cast massive and frightening shadows over surfaces all over the place. It's real horror-show stuff; the kind of detail that really builds atmosphere.

On a grander level, there's a key moment in the game where a certain building suddenly gets torn very violently apart – and you will be floored by the dynamic damage, impressive physics and brilliant smoke and particle effects at play.


Scale and Depth


The other half of the technology card has to do with the seamless experience. There are no load sequences once an episode begins; it's just a series of events that you must deal with from start to finish. After pressing through the forest, in and out of cabins, long and winding paths, into a cable car and over a gully, you end up in an SUV, cranking the accelerator along a cliff-side road overlooking the ocean before ending up at your destination, face to face with a gigantic tornado. All of this – from the get-go, is seamless and enormous – a fair use of the word 'epic' if there ever was one.

That's Alan Wake on a macro-level. On a smaller scale, there are a few details you'll really appreciate if you stumble across them; back at the start of the demo, if you turn off the light as you leave the cabin, you'll end up leaving Barry in the dark – and he's not too happy about this, so naturally he'll comment on what you just did. Hopefully the game is littered with little moments of normalcy just like this, because this is the kind of stuff that really adds extra flavour to the experience.


The Quality


Above all the other points we were impressed with, the amazing fact is that Alan Wake appears to a cohesive, compelling experience. You'd have your doubt, after five years in development and a lot of reworking of technology and themes, that Remedy would be able to keep this beast on a leash, but Alan Wake is under control.

We won't know for sure until we've actually sat down with the game, but the controls and movement looks logical, the action is intense, the atmosphere foreboding and the direction and acting are top-tier. By drawing on classic design motifs from sources as varied as Sleepy Hollow, Stephen King and classic American gothic settings, the game appears to have sidestepped the Silent Hill or Resident Evil-clone pratfalls for a tighter, more original experience.

We're confident that Alan Wake is going to deliver something that will surprise you in the same way it did for us, so let's hope Remedy can land this plane on schedule and with minimal bumps and shakes.

nzomma, pare fico
E sembra anche che sia graficamente e tecnicamente Amazing.

[Antropos]

Ma amazing non vuol dire divertente?
Forse ti confondi con Awesome

[Giggio93]

Messaggio inviato da Antropos

Ma amazing non vuol dire divertente?
Forse ti confondi con Awesome

amazing : traduzione dall'Inglese all'Italiano


strabiliante
meraviglioso
stupefacente
sconcertante

Remedy

[Shadowmania]

mah io son rimasto un pò deluso dalla presentazione allo scorso E3, me lo ricordavo meglio così pare sul serio un clone di Alone in the Dark con storia alla SC

[Kaiser_87]

Messaggio inviato da Shadowmania

mah io son rimasto un pò deluso dalla presentazione allo scorso E3, me lo ricordavo meglio così pare sul serio un clone di Alone in the Dark con storia alla SC

tecnicamente superbo, gli alberi che si muovono sono anche io però ho avuto la sensazione di deja-vu con aitd.
Sperando non sia un clone superdopato graficamente, ma dubito quei tizi là ne sanno qualcosina di vg

[torgianf]

al e3 e' stata mostrata solo la parte action che si svolge in notturna. spero che facciano vedere qualcosa della parte diurna che dovrebbe essere esplorativa e con enigmi da risolvere

[Dream1]

Messaggio inviato da torgianf

al e3 e' stata mostrata solo la parte action che si svolge in notturna. spero che facciano vedere qualcosa della parte diurna che dovrebbe essere esplorativa e con enigmi da risolvere

SSSh! non glielo dire, lasciagli credere solo quello che hanno visto... (c'era da divertirsi...).

[Giggio93]

Messaggio inviato da Dream1

SSSh! non glielo dire, lasciagli credere solo quello che hanno visto... (c'era da divertirsi...).

ma infatti

Le preview hanno confermato che quello dell'E3 era solo un video dimostrativo per far capire come funzionava la parte action, e sottolineano che il gameplay da giorno a notte cambia totalmente

[kilokilo]

Messaggio inviato da Shadowmania

mah io son rimasto un pò deluso dalla presentazione allo scorso E3, me lo ricordavo meglio così pare sul serio un clone di Alone in the Dark con storia alla SC

C'e' anche la parte di giorno, Shadow... dove si trasforma in un noiosissimo punta e cliccka.

[roronoa]

Messaggio inviato da kilokilo

C'e' anche la parte di giorno, Shadow... dove si trasforma in un noiosissimo punta e cliccka.

Sezioni delle quali immagino potrai farci un attento resoconto visto che, a quanto pare, le hai viste e testate.

[Al84]

Remedy è Remedy punto.Questo gioco l'aspetto tantissimo.
Se la Remedy ha lasciato Max Payne e venduto i diritti perchè si volevano dedicare ad Alan Wake con tutte le loro forze un motivo ci sarà.

[Luther_Blissett]

Messaggio inviato da kilokilo

C'e' anche la parte di giorno, Shadow... dove si trasforma in un noiosissimo punta e cliccka.

ma te non sei quello malato che arriva agli apici dell'evoluzione di fl0w giusto per prendere il trofeo?
come osi parlare di noia?

[marco 84]

Ah ok, questo é merda a prescindere.
Massima fiducia per anciartid 2

[Shadowmania]

Messaggio inviato da kilokilo

C'e' anche la parte di giorno, Shadow... dove si trasforma in un noiosissimo punta e cliccka.

ah bé allora si che si ragiona

[matteoanto]

kilo parliamo di alan wake non di heavy rain qui.....

[boys]

Messaggio inviato da marco 84

Ah ok, questo é merda a prescindere.
Massima fiducia per anciartid 2

sai com e' , anche noi usiamo il metodo "smerdata preventiva" inventato da voi in ogni topic sony

abbiamo avuto buoni maestri

[Giggio93]

Messaggio inviato da boys_rm

sai com e' , anche noi usiamo il metodo "smerdata preventiva" inventato da voi in ogni topic sony

abbiamo avuto buoni maestri

il problema è che noi, essendo maestri, sappiamo che giochi gufare e coglionare, voi che siete ancora dei giovani padawan non riuscite a percepire i giochi in cui la forza scorre potente.
Ti faccio un esempio, non troverai mai nessuno che perculerà Last Guardian, mentre guarda caso qui nel topic del nuovo gioco remedy ci conferma con le sue gufate che ha ancora molto da imparare

perciò giovane allievo, passa al lato oscuro, e godrai di tutti i privilegi della casta suprema

[DXTR]

vedere poi decidere...

[stobbArt]

Messaggio inviato da matteoanto

kilo parliamo di alan wake non di heavy rain qui.....

90 minuti di applausi

[boys]

Messaggio inviato da massimorocca

il problema è che noi, essendo maestri, sappiamo che giochi gufare e coglionare, voi che siete ancora dei giovani padawan non riuscite a percepire i giochi in cui la forza scorre potente.
Ti faccio un esempio, non troverai mai nessuno che perculerà Last Guardian, mentre guarda caso qui nel topic del nuovo gioco remedy ci conferma con le sue gufate che ha ancora molto da imparare

perciò giovane allievo, passa al lato oscuro, e godrai di tutti i privilegi della casta suprema

comunque sta cosa di last guardian la voglio appurare quando si aprira' il topic ufficiale , fidarsi e' bene , non fidarsi ( dei boxari) e' meglio

fermo restando che a me AW ispira molto e'