What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale.
If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review.
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95 GamingTrend
Alan Wake is definitely art, and is well written enough to keep my wife and I on the edge of our seats from beginning to end.
If I can admit something, and give Alan Wake the biggest compliment I can bestow, Id tell you that I had a nightmare about the game the night after I completed it.
No horror game has ever managed that feat or even come close.
It may have taken them five years to kick it out of the door, but Remedy has created a masterpiece.
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> 92 Planet Xbox 360
More than once Alan Wake reminded us of books, movies, and TV shows that we love and spend hours with every week; it helped merge the video game experience with those other memorable moments.
For once a video game was able to show exactly what it means to create something that brings emotion to the gamer; on top of that Alan Wake was just damn fun to play.
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> 90 Computer and Video Games
While its not the generation defining game the epic development schedule might've hyped, Alan Wake is still a fantastic, 10-hour-plus play-it-on-the-couch linear action game
- with brains required or not depending on your preference.
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> 90 VideoGamer
Remedy and Microsoft haven't made a perfect masterpiece, but Alan Wake may well be one of my favourite releases of 2010
an escapade I'm going to remember for a very long time.
It's a stunning action game, a superbly scripted adventure and a technical showcase for the now-ageing Xbox 360 hardware.
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> 90 Meristation
Alan Wake is finally here, and it's as good as we expected.
Rich environments, great story, superb gameplay, many areas to explore, interesting characters.
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A great game that is not the ambitious project Remedy wanted it to be, but it's glorious anyway.
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> 90Destructoid
Anything it could do to irritate the player is quickly made up for with a consistently striking character, intriguing cutscene, or thrilling stand-off against an encroaching force of possessed and gibbering mountain hicks.
Alan Wake wears its own anomalous sense of style with pride and that alone earns enough credit to spend on inefficient dodging or unfair ambush attacks.
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> 90IGN
Remedy's done a great job of mixing elements of written work, television, and videogames to create an experience full of scares, laughs, and thrills that's just as fun to play as it is to watch.
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> 87Pelit
(Finland)
If there were a game version of Twin Peaks, it would be Alan Wake.
The great Pacific Northwest is a magnificently eerie backdrop for a horror story coming to life.
It paces the combat and slower moments well, and it's nice not to have to fight every fight: running away works just as good.
The overdone narrator voice gets annoying at times, but luckily Alan's musings lessen towards the end of the game.
[May 2010]
86GameTrailers
Alan Wake paints a vivid nightmare that you won't soon forget.
It's the freshest take on the horror game in a long time, and every moment feels like it was painstakingly scripted.
There isn't much fluff here.
That said, the game is lacking in the frills that we've come to expect from a triple-A release.
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> 853DJuegos
Alan Wake is an emotionally engaging thriller from start to finish; and it's compelling, different and unique too.
An excellent third person shooter in its own right, but not particularly frightening or memorable in any way.
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> 85NZGamer
A challenging and genuinely frightening experience.
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.As a survival horror, Alan Wake succeeds admirably, and comes highly recommended.
But as a self-proclaimed
"psychological action thriller", it falls short of its ambition.
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> 85IGN AU
Alan Wake is not quite the revelatory experience we hoped it would be, but its a solid and entertaining game thats rich in atmosphere, with good combat mechanics and an intriguing story.
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> 85Gameplanet
The games sense of scale is extraordinary and lovingly detailed.
Not a single asset in any of the expansive episodic settings feels misplaced.
At night, the mist, the shadows and the trees bleed together to create a game world that is equally beautiful and unsettling.
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> 831UP
If anything, Alan Wake reminds me of the first Uncharted.
It is a great, but flawed work
(hello ugly daylight, quirky animations, and a script that mocks the viewer even more than Lost or Twin Peaks) that lays the foundation for what could be an absolutely amazing follow-up.
I just hope it doesn't take another five or six years.
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> 80Eurogamer Spain
Alan Wake lacks that little spark of genious that distinguishes a good game from a masterpiece, an H.P.
Lovecraft from your average Stephen King.
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> 80GamePro
It isn't perfect, but Alan Wake is a superb mystery that has plenty to offer.
Gamers willing to put up with the minor inconsistencies will be rewarded with a rich narrative that's definitely worth experiencing.
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> 80Giant Bomb
The game weaves a powerful narrative web around a core third-person action model that's largely satisfying even when its lack of variety becomes apparent in the later stages of the game.
Even a thousand plaid-wearing axemen aren't enough to slow the driving momentum of these uncanny events, or make the game's foreboding forests one iota less unsettling.
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> 80Games Radar
(in-house)
Like slipping in and out of a nightmare, Alan Wake is a mixed experience.
You'll adore the game's well-written characters and grow obsessed with the deeply intellectual story, but thanks to repetitive action and uninspired levels, reaching the end and solving the mystery can sometimes prove a bit tedious.
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> 80BigPond GameArena
What Alan Wake is then is an outstanding piece of writing.
The replayability will come from your drive to find all the manuscript pages you missed previously
- youll need to put together each element of the story.
Youll want to just get lost in Alan Wake
- and if you decide to pick it up, youll find it hard not to.
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> 80Official Xbox Magazine UK
Alan Wake is a strange beast
- a great story, told clumsily and strewn with odd characters saying vaguely unbelievable things in an earnest way that might or might not be a joke.
However, as baffling as it can be, it really does hold its own, keeping you nervous, excited and rolling your eyes indulgently so regularly that it simply won't occur to you to stop playing.
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> 70Gamereactor Sweden
Great eerie graphics and sound make for a chilling setting in Remedy's long-awaited psychological thriller.
It's a shame the enemies are dull clones, that the gunplay gets old fast and that it never really gets scary.
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> 70Eurogamer
Alan Wake is an accessible, undemanding game with a neat combat mechanic and decent visuals.
It's just not a very original game, it's certainly not an exceptional one, and it's a shame it wasn't ready a few years ago.
