Alan Wake 10 Years Later: 10 Moments Worth Revisiting Bright Falls For
The moments that make Alan Wake worth playing again a decade later.
First releasing on the Xbox 360 all the way back in May 2010, Alan Wake has recently had its 10th birthday. Despite it getting on in years, Remedy’s critically acclaimed psychological thriller still holds up remarkably well and is still just as captivating and tense today as it was a decade ago.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Alan Wake revolves around the eponymous best-selling author as he travels to the picturesque town of Bright Falls, Washington with his wife Alice in the hopes that the trip will clear his writer’s block. Unfortunately for the couple, though, Alice is mysteriously taken from their lakeside cabin that night and Alan, after jumping into the lake to save her, awakens one week later in a car crash. With shadowy figures stalking the small town at night and manuscript pages surfacing of a book he can’t remember writing whose contents are coming true, it’s up to Alan to get to the bottom of this mystery and save his wife from the darkness that’s claimed her.
Nominated for numerous awards and home to a dedicated fanbase that is still yearning for a sequel, here are 10 moments that are worth revisiting.
Beware spoilers for the entire game.
10. The Nightmare
Typically, tutorial sections don’t
tend to be particularly engaging. Teaching players the basic gameplay mechanics
before throwing them straight into the meat of the game, these training sections
are as short and sweet as possible.
Alan Wake, on the other hand, uses its tutorial section to give players a tantalising taster of what’s to come within a condensed encounter with a hitchhiker that's framed as the author's nightmare.
Desperately racing to reach a lighthouse, believing it to be the only safe place left, Alan accidentally hits a hitchhiker in his haste, instantly killing him – or so he thought. With his car wrecked in the collision, he must continue to his destination on foot. But after taking a few steps, the hitchhiker reappears wielding an axe.
While this section does teach you the basics of dodging, healing, and combat, it does so by throwing players straight into the deep end, as they frantically flee from the evil presence at their heels, while sewing the first seeds of mystery of what’s to come.
Gripping players at the very start, things were only going to get better from here on.