| 09 August 2010
As the first piece of DLC for Alan Wake, “The Signal” picks up at the end of the game's main story, though rather than progressing the narrative in a linear fashion, takes it off into new (albeit previously hinted at) territory. As a result, the game's story takes something of an unexpected turn, and though “The Signal” doesn't give much away in terms of plot, it does a good job of setting the scene for forthcoming DLC instalments, and it really makes you wonder where Remedy will take the story from here.
In regard to its story, the premise for “The Signal” is fairly simple, and after the events of the main game, Alan Wake finds himself lost in the nightmare world once again. Trapped, and with no idea how to get out, he soon receives a phone and a cryptic message from an old friend, and with this, he sets out to find “the signal” – a waypoint on the phone's GPS system which he must reach in order to escape the nightmare world.
The resulting expedition sees Wake venture through a wide range of environments both old and new, in his search for the mysterious signal. Whilst you'll initially start out on familiar ground, it soon becomes apparent that the town of Bright Falls is a different place than it used to be; somehow darker and more deadly, it appears as a cruel and distorted version of itself. Worse still, is the fact that the time line appears to be distorted, with temporal shifts causing events to occur out of sequence, and the towns inhabitants appearing as ghostly apparitions.
Remedy have used these temporal shifts to good effect not only in bringing Wake's sanity into question, but also in creating the landscape for the episode. Whilst it initially starts out as something of a whirlwind tour of locations from the main game, the temporal shifts allow you to re-enact some of the most memorable parts of the main adventure, but change enough important details to give you a new perspective on events. This goes a long way to keeping events feeling fresh, while the schizophrenic way you're catapulted between events in the time line prevent them from outstaying their welcome.
Events from the main game aren't the only things that Remedy have recycled from the main game, and the type-written words which litter the environment, and come to life when you shine your flashlight on them also make a return. Unlike in the main game though, where their inclusion was mainly just a gimmick, their inclusion here is more measured, and Remedy use these to create some great environmental hazards – for both you and the Taken – and this really helps to reinvigorate the gameplay. This also helps to add a new layer of tension when fighting (or fleeing from) enemies, as shining your light on the wrong thing in a moment of blind panic can have disastrous consequences.
As previously mentioned, the town of Bright Falls seems like a far more hostile place than before, and this is most noticeable in the aggressive AI, and the sheer number of enemies the episode throws at you; there's no mistaking that the difficulty of “The Signal” is set far higher than in the main game, and this is easily its biggest failing. To its credit, the episode does provide some context for this during the course of the story, but the problem doesn't as much lie with the increased difficulty, but rather in its inconsistency. For the most part, anyone who beat Alan Wake on the “nightmare” difficulty setting will be well prepared for the challenge at hand, but the inclusion of some ferocious difficulty spikes make for some moments of abject frustration, and not even the game's generous checkpoint system is enough to overcome this.
These difficulty spikes are compounded by changes that have been made to the enemy spawn locations, which also seem to have been on the receiving end of some curious, and wholly unwelcome tweaks. Whereas in the main game, where enemies would only spawn from organic places, such as open woodland areas or behind doors, in “The Signal” they will readily materialise right beside you, regardless of where you are – even if you happen to be standing in an empty room. Again, this is immensely frustrating as it makes the episode seem remarkably cheap, but it is also highly detrimental to the feeling of being in a believable world, and is completely contrary to the atmosphere that the main game worked so hard to create – the atmosphere which was the cornerstone of the entire first game.
As a continuation to the main game, “The Signal” does a good job of funnelling the story into a new avenue, and really sets the tone for further instalments, while clever use of recycled assets make for some interesting twists to the same old gameplay mechanics. However, illogical tweaks to the game's balancing nearly prove to be the episode's undoing, and whilst this is forgiveable in a piece of free DLC, it serves to highlight one important point; if second episode “The Writer” is to stand any chance of success, then Remedy really need to up their game.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
