Remedy opens up about the combat mechanics and missions in their 360 action horror game.
After more than five years in development, Alan Wake is -- finally -- almost finished. And while developer Remedy won't confirm the heavily rumored May 2010 release date -- sticking to the less fun "Spring 2010" -- they are now ready to reveal new details about some of the game's key features, such as how the light and dark mechanics work. [For more on the game, check out this week's 1UP Cover Story.] "Light and darkness [present] a central theme in the fiction of Alan Wake," says lead writer Sam Lake. "Darkness is the enemy; it represents terror, danger, and nightmares. Light is your ally; it represents the waking world, sanity, and safety."
Remedy has succeeded in keeping many of Alan Wake's narrative specifics under lock and key, but as previously detailed, the game focuses on the titular novelist, who finds himself searching for lost pages of one of his thrillers after his wife goes missing on a trip to the Pacific Northwest. While Wake cannot recall writing the novel, the pages he finds indicate that the paranormal events held within are unfolding in his real life, with a "dark presence" possessing both objects and living beings to thwart his quest. So of course, light becomes an essential tool.
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"The darkness protects those that it possesses," explains Lake. "They cannot be harmed with conventional methods before the protecting dark presence has been destroyed with light. In some cases, the possession is so strong that the dark presence regenerates in darkness, and you have to keep your light on them long enough without interruptions to be able to destroy it. In addition to people and animals, the darkness can also take over vehicles, machines, and other objects, all of which it uses as weapons against you. It can also take over doors and gates that block your way until you can find a source of light to destroy them."
While the recent press demo of the game at the Tokyo Game Show showed Wake hiding in the shadows to evade human pursuers, most of the game will find you seeking or creating light to protect yourself from possessed foes and open them up to attack. And though one of the game's many flashlights may be bright enough to remove the darkness from a human enemy, the amount of light needed for larger subjects will scale with their physical size. According to Remedy, Wake will find himself in the midst of a "surreal bullfight" with possessed farm equipment during at least one point in the game.
Additionally, some light sources will not only remove the darkness from a possessed attacker, but also serve as the weapon used to destroy the being. Wake will have access to a flare gun, which can cleanse and kill an enemy with a single shot, trigging an explosion of screen-filling special effects in the process. He can also command numerous vehicles, and use their headlights to remove the dark presence before the front bumper takes out the unlucky roadkill in front of it.
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"The primal fear of the dark is something that has attracted me as a writer for a long time," says Lake. "It seems so fundamental and pure in a way. It's almost as if the whole concept has been programmed into our DNA as people. It's something that has been with us for a long time and has been explored in the works of fiction from theater to books. Also, the symbolism of light as a savior and a safe haven is so cooked into our collective subconscious that it offers a lot of interesting fiction to work with."
More than half of the game will take place at night, but the daytime segments also hold a lot of significance, and most of the game's "episodes" -- inspired by television serial dramas like Twin Peaks and Lost -- will include both daytime and nighttime gameplay. While most action will be relegated to the darkness, Wake has many important tasks to complete during daylight, including interacting with the locals and investigating (and learning the layouts of) the environments. Lake is keen on avoiding spoilers, but teases that the daylight segments will also see Wake driving to meet contacts, and turning the power on so the lights will work when night sets in.
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The idea is that these segments will help unravel the mysteries in the game, and also help structure the experience so that the nighttime events hold more weight.
"The daytime scenes are definitely more about character development and story progression than combat," says Lake. "More often than not, they are there to give contrast and to foreshadow the horrible things to come when the night falls. Just as with any thriller -- be it a book, or a movie or a TV series -- you need to pace things right. If you are constantly hurdled forward at a hundred miles an hour, it all gets exhausting, and you become numb to it all."
And with a statement that can just as easily be applied to the game's lengthy development saga as its accompanying hype, Lake concludes, "Building a thriller is all about a good buildup."
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