Alan Wake's American Nightmare: Early Impressions

So, I'm about halfway through the story of Alan Wake's American Nightmare -- from what I can tell -- and I'm really having fun with it.

It does exactly what I wanted it to do. Answer some questions, present new ones, fill in some blanks, and pay homage to the likes of that one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where the Enterprise-D is stuck in a time loop, X-Files, LOST, among many other sources. And even though it does all that, it still doesn't actually answer very much or at least doesn't spoon feed the players the answers to what's actually happening. Instead it allows the player to draw some of their own conclusions; write their own fiction as to why things are happening the way they are. Has Alan has actually escaped the cabin under the lake back to the real world years after the events of the first game and he's just gone batshit insane? Are the TVs and radios conduits to the real world? Is his nemesis, Mr. Scratch, living in Alan's head or is Alan living in Mr. Scratch's head? Am I just over-thinking the whole thing? Probably. But that's part of the appeal of Alan Wake, at least for me.

Alan Wake: Played It, Finished It, Looking Forward to Playing it Again

Bright Falls has never looked so good.

As a game, Alan Wake really got under my skin. The combat wasn't always spot-on as Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (by Alan Wake developer, Remedy) but the setting, the psychological X-Files, Twin Peaks aspects sunk its hooks into me in a big way. If I wasn't playing it, I wanted to the be playing it. I burned through the two DLC "episodes" -- "Previously on Alan Wake" still makes me feel good -- and started playing the again from the beginning. Not on a harder difficulty or anything, but just to experience the game again. This wasn't something like Heavy Rain, where I've had the urge to replay but never followed through because I'm not sure I can stand the emotional roller-coaster again. Plus, I know "whodunnit."

I'm slowly burning through the entire series of X-Files -- I should write something about Netflix -- and there are a few episodes, particularly "Darkness Falls" -- Wikipedia describes the episode: Mulder and Scully travel to a remote area of Washington State National Forest after an entire group of thirty loggers goes missing. They soon discover that an unseen force that was lying dormant has been awakened -- which really made me want to stop watching and start playing again.

Alan Wake releases on PC today (in North America) and I finally have a bulletproof reason to dive into the lake again!

The Information I Know

It's weird.

Not often does information drop into my lap, particularly secret information. And when it does, it just feels weird. Like suddenly I'm a target for people that want information and I'll need to fortify my stamina against possible torture or even a targeted hit. I get jumpy.

There was a time many years ago that Square Enix sent out a package to one of AE's writers (and a high school friend of mine) that shouldn't have been sent. I received a mildly frantic phone call from a Square Enix rep asking that the package not be opened and that it be immediately returned via FedEx to the Square Enix offices. At the moment I felt like I had been plunged into some kind of global conspiracy. What was in the package? It was obviously important because they didn't even want our writer to see what was in it. Sensitive information, obviously. Evidence of a CIA hit squad taking out targets overseas? Information on extra terrestrials and that most of them are very concerned with giant chickens and belt buckles?

I spent a couple of hours frantically calling our man in Denver. I left messages with the words "In no uncertain terms are you to open that package! Immediately return it to Square Enix." (Clearly, it takes very little for me to be riled up -- maybe it speaks to a larger paranoia.) I was not only worried about the package being returned, but was truly terrified of what would happen if the package was opened, its secret contents spilling out.

In the end, the package was set back. Unopened, its secrets forever sealed.

But the reason for this particular entry is that I'm in possession of information now that isn't widely known at the moment. I'm hiding under my desk, holding my breath and a loaded Beretta pistol.