Hi! Before we start, I think proper introductions are in order. My name is Teddy, and I like playing video games. Every now and then, I come across something that makes me stop and say “Hey, I can write about that!” I also believe that Mega Man 4 is the best one ( and I am not afraid to fight for it).
So my current topic today (maybe this Month, this might be a monthly thing) is a cute little psychological horror/thriller game called Alan Wake. I chose it because it is filled to the brim with foreshadowing( and also just shadows in general, because it’s a horror game), and also because it is über moody. Quick disclaimer: I’m going to spoil the first chapter of the story to talk about how good it is, and I cannot recommend it enough because it's actually a very fun game (I had no idea I spent three hours playing the game until I had to stop for lunch)
The Story revolves around our main character, the famous author Alan Wake, trying to figure out what the heck is going on while simultaneously not dying to a horde of shadow monsters. Our story starts off with Alan, who has been suffering from writer’s block for two years(at this point, just get a movie adaptation, Alan! Make some money with what you have!). His wife, Alice takes him to the quiet town of Bright Falls to get him out of his funk. As with most horror games, things go horribly wrong, and Alice suddenly disappears!
Now comes the fun part. Alan wakes(hilarious, I know) inside of his car, as if it was all a dream, and notices two things that are wrong: 1) his wife is still missing and 2) his car is hanging off of the edge of a cliff. Alan decides to deal with problem number 2 first. After narrowly escaping from his car, Alan stumbles across a page to a book called “departure,” written by none other than Alan himself. Except Alan never wrote a book called “departure.” Confused, Alan reads the page which depicts the main character being attacked “in the woods by an axe-wielding madman.” Interestingly enough, Alan stumbles across a lumber yard, where he’s attacked by an axe-wielding creature (this game makes the most genius puns) who looks strikingly similar to a man Alan met at the town diner. This confuses Alan, because how can a non-existent book allude to the future? One of the next pages you find describes a garage where a t.v. lights up and the main character sees a recording of himself talking nonsense. Much later, while hunting through a garage and running from shadow monsters, a T.V. suddenly lights up, showing footage of Alan pacing around talking nonsensically. This is just one of many bizarre occurances, and raises multiple questions. Why are we being told the future by a book that, for all intents and purposes, should not exist? Why is Alan talking nonsense? Where did Alice go? Why do the shadow monsters look like townsfolk despite not being human?
Alan wake also forges an intense mood. At the time of writing, there is road work being done outside my home. I remember coming up to a quiet, open meadow filled with trees and rocks; it was very clear that I was going to be ambushed. So I quietly approached a tree, fog obscuring my sight, no sound aside from grass crunching as Alan walked over it, when one of the workers outside my house started up his jackhammer and started his work on the road. My heart stopped for a second and I fell out of my chair. That was when I knew I was immersed. The game had built such an intense atmosphere that a jackhammer nearly gave me a heart attack. This was the first time something like that happened, and I can’t wait for it to happen again(it probably will). I think atmosphere is what makes Alan Wake stand out. It builds so much intensity
I think there are a lot of things people can learn from video games. How to make a gripping story, how to build atmosphere, how to build a father character out of the god of war (Kratos is the best dad). Thank you for joining me, and I hope that you decide to have a look at Alan Wake.
So my current topic today (maybe this Month, this might be a monthly thing) is a cute little psychological horror/thriller game called Alan Wake. I chose it because it is filled to the brim with foreshadowing( and also just shadows in general, because it’s a horror game), and also because it is über moody. Quick disclaimer: I’m going to spoil the first chapter of the story to talk about how good it is, and I cannot recommend it enough because it's actually a very fun game (I had no idea I spent three hours playing the game until I had to stop for lunch)
The Story revolves around our main character, the famous author Alan Wake, trying to figure out what the heck is going on while simultaneously not dying to a horde of shadow monsters. Our story starts off with Alan, who has been suffering from writer’s block for two years(at this point, just get a movie adaptation, Alan! Make some money with what you have!). His wife, Alice takes him to the quiet town of Bright Falls to get him out of his funk. As with most horror games, things go horribly wrong, and Alice suddenly disappears!
Now comes the fun part. Alan wakes(hilarious, I know) inside of his car, as if it was all a dream, and notices two things that are wrong: 1) his wife is still missing and 2) his car is hanging off of the edge of a cliff. Alan decides to deal with problem number 2 first. After narrowly escaping from his car, Alan stumbles across a page to a book called “departure,” written by none other than Alan himself. Except Alan never wrote a book called “departure.” Confused, Alan reads the page which depicts the main character being attacked “in the woods by an axe-wielding madman.” Interestingly enough, Alan stumbles across a lumber yard, where he’s attacked by an axe-wielding creature (this game makes the most genius puns) who looks strikingly similar to a man Alan met at the town diner. This confuses Alan, because how can a non-existent book allude to the future? One of the next pages you find describes a garage where a t.v. lights up and the main character sees a recording of himself talking nonsense. Much later, while hunting through a garage and running from shadow monsters, a T.V. suddenly lights up, showing footage of Alan pacing around talking nonsensically. This is just one of many bizarre occurances, and raises multiple questions. Why are we being told the future by a book that, for all intents and purposes, should not exist? Why is Alan talking nonsense? Where did Alice go? Why do the shadow monsters look like townsfolk despite not being human?
Alan wake also forges an intense mood. At the time of writing, there is road work being done outside my home. I remember coming up to a quiet, open meadow filled with trees and rocks; it was very clear that I was going to be ambushed. So I quietly approached a tree, fog obscuring my sight, no sound aside from grass crunching as Alan walked over it, when one of the workers outside my house started up his jackhammer and started his work on the road. My heart stopped for a second and I fell out of my chair. That was when I knew I was immersed. The game had built such an intense atmosphere that a jackhammer nearly gave me a heart attack. This was the first time something like that happened, and I can’t wait for it to happen again(it probably will). I think atmosphere is what makes Alan Wake stand out. It builds so much intensity
I think there are a lot of things people can learn from video games. How to make a gripping story, how to build atmosphere, how to build a father character out of the god of war (Kratos is the best dad). Thank you for joining me, and I hope that you decide to have a look at Alan Wake.