Alan Wake – The Fear Factor

Guest Post: Addictedtogaming’s Sky Taylor explores the dark side of Alan Wake:

With the recent unveiling of eight new screenshots for the upcoming “psychological action thriller” Alan Wake, the buzz is back and I can just feel the hype rising around me. I have been trying my best to avoid all the high praise of a game that has yet to been released, but as a huge fan of games that want to make me wet myself I can no longer ignore the fact that this Xbox 360 exclusive is only 4 months away. One of my main concerns is that Alan Wake will not live up to my expectations of getting my heart thumping, my palms sweaty and my bum constantly situated at the edge of my chair.

To create a great thriller you need to think about how you’re going to inject the “Fear Factor” into your game and today I would like to tear apart the information we know about Alan Wake and see if I should order myself a new set of underwear so I am prepared for the best case scenario.

Fear Factor 1 – Atmosphere & Environment

Games such as Silent Hill are the masters of creating an environment that gets the hairs on the back of your neck standing to attention and that awkward lump forming in your throat. Here we have an old, deserted town full of fog, eery sounds and dark secrets that quickly fill all of your senses. With twisted creations, a history packed with violence and the ability to burn gruesome images into your retinas (check out “Silent Hill Fukuro” if you don’t believe me), Silent Hill is the Godfather of the thriller genre.

With Alan Wake we know that light and dark play major roles in this game, ( Remedy have implemented a day-time and night-time cycle) to the point where your flashlight may actually be the best weapon in your arsenal. From the screenshots we can tell that the town of Bright Falls, where the game is due to be set, is a location that most would find scary at night – You are in the middle of nowhere, away from the bright lights of a city and dense forestry surrounds you, cutting you off from the rest of the world. Take away the comfort of being able to actually see what is around you and you find your heart rate beginning to increase.

Fear Factor 2 – Tension & Apprehension

Dead Space was a real winner for making me jump out of my skin. The premise of the game meant that at any moment a large, rabid creature with razor-sharp appendages could fall from the ceiling above me and tear me to pieces in seconds. A memorable moment for me was standing in a room full of mutilated corpses and hearing a voice singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” echo around me through the ship’s ventilation system. There was a strong sense of doom about the situation and you could cut the tension in the air with a knife.

I can only hope that Alan Wake is on par with this game, but I have a feeling that the nail-biting moments will be created through the means of the story and not through the actions of the enemy themselves. Alan is a writer who finds himself facing up to his latest piece of fiction, a horrific tale that he cannot remember writing, being played out right in front of his very eyes. His wife has gone missing and he finds himself trapped in a waking nightmare. I believe the anxiety we will feel, as the gamer, will stem from Alan himself and the hurdles he will face in this game – Both physical and mental. I made a note that during the trailer a man was to be heard telling Alan “it’s all in your head”, something that anyone with a distressing story to share would hate to hear. I have a theory that we may become witness to a man’s descent into madness, but I could be wrong. We’ll see.

Fear Factor 3 – Beyond Control

The quickest way to get someone feeling dread in the pit of their stomach is to put them in a situation that they cannot control. In a game this is not something that is difficult to achieve at all as every decision you make is pretty much pre-determined by the the creators of the game.

A good example of how the developers throw their players into uncontrollable situations is by introducing an enemy that is unlike any other. In Silent Hill it was Pyramid Head, who wanted nothing more than to slice and dice you; in Dead Space it was The Hunter, who was out to rip your body into two; and in F.E.A.R it was Alma, who loved nothing more than to fuck with your head. I have no doubt that there is going to be something in Alan Wake that requires the gamer to turn on their tail and run for the hills. I will be extremely disappointed if the game lacks that “OH SHIT.. RUUUUUN!” factor.

There are not many games under the “Psychological Thriller” genre so Alan Wake does not have much competition in this field, but it will have some tough critics to please. As I have done so above, it WILL be compared to the top games of its category and let’s keep our fingers crossed that Remedy have risen to the challenge. They had great success with the Max Payne series (before they sold the rights to TakeTwo) and if they play their cards right, Alan Wake will be the game that gets their name back on gamers’ tongues.