Hyper Magazine Alan Wake Preview

Australian magazine Hyper has a writeup on their impressions of the Alan Wake showing at X06.

“The game is played form a third person perspective similar to that of Max Payne, although the screen is devoid of the usual HUD. Instead players get the occasional hand writing mission briefing and Wake’s own internal narrative to let them know what to do. Although we have only seen a brief amount of gameplay the use of first person narrative looks as though it will work very nicely for both exposition and immersion. After a little running around and showing off the character animations and cloth physics of Alan’s flapping coat, the first actual gameplay segment of the demo began with Alan talking to a gas station attendant who tells him to head on up to the cabin in the nearby mountains. Jumping in a 4WD, Wake begins the drive up the mountains. We haven’t had any hands on time with the game but from what we were shown the driving engine looks solid and realistic. More importantly it was also explained to us that as well as utilizing the episodic narrative, Alan Wake is going to be an open world game in which players can approach the story as they see fit and will have ample opportunities to explore the mysteries of Bright Falls and be rewarded for their inquisitiveness.

During the drive up the mountains the voiceover kicked in, explaining how the drive seems to mimic a passage in his notebook, if only a hitchhiker would appear. Lo and behold a stranger with his thumb out does turn up and, contrary to conventional wisdom, Wake picks him up. Just as we begin to internally groan at the “coincidence”, the voiceover, with immaculate comic timing laconically says “creepy”. Alan comments to his passenger that in his book a man picks up a strange hitchhiker. The hitcher assumes he’s meant to be the killer in the story but Wake sets him straight telling him that in fact it is the hitchhiker who dies. A little further up the road Alan comes across what appears to be the scene of a hit and run accident. A body lays bloodied in the centre of the road (a body that seems to be dressed almost identically to Alan Wake) and our hero goes to investigate. Shortly after he gets out of the car an out of control truck slams into it killing the hitchhiker, proving more of the mysterious written notes to be true. To make things even stranger the body on the road is no longer there and Alan remembers the next part of the writing that says that the hitchhiker will stalk him in some fashion, before finally passing out.”

Hyper magazine is available from all good newsagencies in Australia, issue #158 has the Alan Wake article.

Credit: Thanks Marcus.