…and so the story continues! {Alan Wake}

For the past couple days I have been glued to Alan Wake. I love the new DLC: The Signal. There isn’t any real purpose for the mission other than moving through a bunch of Taken and trying to find 10 Alarm Clocks and 6 Character Cutouts…but damn it was fun!

I decided to play through on Nightmare Difficulty because that’s what I was attempting to do with the whole game. It takes a bit longer (cause I die more :P) but it’s more of a challenge.

I am one of those gamers that yells at my television :$ But I love it. I love when a game can frustrate me beyond frustration yet keep me playing it! When I get to the point that I just give up …fail. Not Alan Wake though. It can be fist clenching, teeth grinding, eye squinting, frustrating… yet I continue!

I would rate this new DLC: The Signal

9/10 for it’s game play

7/10 for it’s story line (plot)

Should you get it?  Of course!! If you like RPG’s with action and if you played Silent Hill or Resident Evil and like it… you will LOVE this game! If you are going to buy it, make sure to pick it up new (if you want the free DLC: The Signal) or used (cheap enough that you will buy the DLC). I would recommend buying it as there is still more DLC to come! More gameplay is a sign to buy and keep the game!

The following write up is my walkthrough/experience of the game. If you don’t want to spoil the game for yourself… play first – read later 😉

Cheers!

New Achievements:

-“A Friend in Need”: find someone to help you 25G

-“A Friend Indeed”: follow the signal to it’s conclusion 50G

“Fast and Furious”: make it through the final battle in less than 1 minute and 30 seconds 25G

“Words Will Never Harm You”: trigger all of the furnaces in the basement 25G

“Run-on Sentence”: complete the episode without reloading the game or restarting a checkpoint 50G

“License Revoked”: complete the episode without using a single vehicle 20G

“Tick Tock”: discover 10 hidden alarm clocks 30G

“Cardboard Companions”: discover all of the cardboard standees 25G

The Signal:

Alan has to find a way to open the door to the Bright’s Diner so he could let the light out and free himself from the darkness.

The scenery is grainy and it appears that Alan is walking through a dream or a memory.

You will start in the diner. The voices of the characters keep cutting out with a tinge of editing from a computer. When you walk around the diner, it is the same as it was in the beginning of Alan Wake. The waitress is hitting on Alan and everything is set up the same. The old dudes near the jukebox are see-through. When you play play the song for them it’s twisted and sounds like something from an old horror movie. The lady warns you not to go down the hall. She tells you to stay in the light.

Of course you don’t have an option so you walk into the back of the diner and goes to the restroom. The mirror starts flickering then talks to Alan. Telling him to find a better point of contact. Telling him that he makes it all happen. I half expected the mirror to open a portal to another world as in Silent Hill. A parallel world where Alan could finally find out how all the events fit together.

A light beams out of the mirror and Alan was given a flashlight and a gun. 5 batteries and 24 bullets. Walk out of the restroom and head back into the diner. There will be a flash of darkness and Alan freezes for a moment. Once you arrive in the diner, you will find all the people gone and it is a disaster. There are televisions sets scattered around and talking to you. Go to the only exit available: the front door.

The door is locked.

All of a sudden, the “staff only” door to the kitchen breaks open and out come 4 Taken. One rather large guy and a few smaller ones. Use LT to burn away the darkness and RT to kill them!

After that’s taken care of, go into the kitchen. Collect the Alarm Clock 1/10. It is sitting on the counter.

…. leave the building. You are in a forest and must go towards the light. There are a LOT of Taken here. Be prepared to fight them (with whatever you have left from the diner) or run to the light!!

You will enter an old house. You can only go in one direction. Listen to the voice talking to you. Burn away all the words that you see. This will open doorways and give you supplies.

Random words start to float around you. “Roloading”, “tent”, “bed”, “radio”, and “phone”. Of course it’s a verizon phone. Not just a made-up brand. WOW. That’s so stupid.

Alan answer the ringing phone and the voice tells you to follow the signal. The GPS system will try to lead you there but there is interference.

Outside of the Tool Store, go to the right and to the side of the building. You will find a Cardboard Cutout 1/6

ODIN ANDERSON

The all-father! The trickiest geriatric with the wittiest gimmick! The deranged patriarch with the trademark tangent! Crazy…like a fox. Dig?

The enduringly popular star of the hit reality series, “Barry Wheeler Presents: “New Tricks for Old Gods,”Blasts out his latest masterpiece, guaranteed to please gourmands everywhere — “Moonshine: It’s What’s for Dinner” is available in all fine bookstores! Also available as a modestly priced limited edition with annotations and commentary by Barry Wheeler. Phlegm fans, take note: coming soon as an audio book!

Carry on forward. There’s not much else to find in the garden. You will see a fence with a bunch of boxes and such. Hop on the boxes so you can climb over the fence. Follow the words. Walk to the left and make sure you get the flash sticks and other supplies. Burn all the words with the flashlight. Go down the road and you will find another Cardboard Cutout 2/6

SARAH BREAKER

Bright Falls’ Finest! The red-hot cop chick with the lightning-fast boomstick!

Her debut book, “The Only Girl in the Bookhouse,” delves deep into the double life of having a successful law enforcement career while being involved in a secret society. How does daddy’s little trooper fit into an old-fashioned fraternity?

Go back to the fence and cross the broken road to the other side. Go into the park. Beware you will be attacked by a bunch of Taken when you get over there. Fight them and go towards the light.

You will come to another isolated road. Cross it and go towards the flickering light. Hop onto the wood planks and garbage bin and go over the fence.

Once you are at the street covered in carnival stuff. Go to the church entrance. You will need the key to open the door. The truck with the giant reindeer will break apart and start flying at you. Use your flashlight to burn away the darkness that’s controlling it. After killing the reindeer pieces and truck pieces you will find the word “key”. The cop (Sarah) will appear in a very grainy dream-like state, and she will open the church doors for you.

Go inside and to the left you will find another Character Cutout 3/6

BARRY WHEELER

The literary agent with the constant ailment! The frantic sidekick with the hectic rhetoric!

The owner of the most fashionable jacket ever made and the author of the indispensable guide to would-be agents everywhere, “Blood From a Rock: When The Goose Starts Goldbricking,” presents a new collection of short fiction by Alan Wake! Included are classics like “Errand Boy,” as well as numerous mortifyingly clumsy early works buried deep in the disappeared writer’s files. Never intended for publication? That’s not the Wheeler way! Get yours now!

Walk through the church. On the right you will find the word “tools”. Burn it away to release some necessary supplies. Go through the door on the right of the stage. Watch the television for a moment then kick open the wooden door.

Alan keeps getting these dark, yet light filled waves that make him shutter. Another one appears here. Go through the door.

This brings you to the basement. There has to be about 100 furnaces here. No wonder it’s an achievement if you turn them all off. Wow. But they do omit a second of flame which kills the Taken so that’s good 🙂

ACHIEVEMENT: “Words Will Never Harm You” for 25G

All the way at the back on the left there in an Alarm Clock 2/10 an armchair.

In the middle of the room, at the far back, you will find a set of stairs. There is the word “climb” there. Burn it away so you can climb up a ladder and get out of there!

As soon as you reach the top and go outside, you are suppose to find the manuscript page. It is conveniently laying in the middle of the road in front of you. Ooohhh that was hard!

Once you read the manuscript, it will blow up and there will be a bunch of words scattered around you “best-seller”, “scream”, “friend”, and “wall”. By burning the word “friend” you release Barry.

ACHIEVEMENT: “Friend in Need” for 25G

Barry tells you to follow the signal. He is now in your head to help you through the episode.

Walk up the stairs and through the door. You will see the word “flashlight”. Kick down the platform then burn away the word to get the lantern. It’s way better than the heavy duty flashlight.

Alan needs to get to the sawmill. He has to cross some steep looking rocks through the darkness to get to it. Use the words “boom” to blow up the Taken. Just burn them at the right time and you won’t have to use your ammo.

When you go around the corner which has a television sitting on a pink loveseat, you will have to fight a bunch of Taken. Let me correct myself. A WHOLE bunch of Taken. There are a lot of words to use “boom”, and “fireworks” which are floating all over the place.

You will have to use the turret to burn the 3 floating words “bridge”. Once that happens you will see 3 new platforms so you can progress towards the sawmill. When you go through the train cart, jump down through the opening and go to the right. You will find another Character Cutout 4/6

CYNTHIA WEAVER

The lady of the light! The cloud of gloom in the Well-Lit Room!

Weaver’s difficult and uncompromising life is illuminated in “Cynthia Weaver: Carrying the Torch,” an enlightening and occasionally harrowing biography by Ellen Adams, who was an intern at the Bright Falls Record under Weaver’s editorship.

If you follow the path to the right, you will come across a field covered in “bad words”. Avoid these words. Run along the edge or keep your flashlight down. Evil flying Alan Wake books will try to attack you while you make it across the field. There isn’t much to get by going through and facing the Taken, so just run!

Kick open the door at the end of the path and you will find a bunch of street lights. Barry is there to greet you. The lights will flicker on and off. This should help to kill the Taken while you move through this area.

When you make it through, you will notice an Alarm Clock 3/10 in the middle of the path. Be sure to pick this up. I dropped a flare just before bending to pick up the clock. Remember to keep moving! It’s a brutal run to the next checkpoint. The lights can be helpful to kill the Taken but there are so many of them.

After the checkpoint go to the right and you will see a Character Cutout 5/6

TOR ANDERSON

The god of thunder! The boozing geezer with the anger and the hammer! Come one, come all, face the age of murder and storm!

Discovered by Barry Wheeler, this fresh new voice from a bygone era suggests new and innovative solutions to old problems. Don’t you are leave your bookstore without the best-selling self-help book, “You’re All Nails to Me”! Foreword by Barry Wheeler.

Climb over the broken machinery and burn away the words “wheels” – to release a car, and “red box” -for some batteries and revolver ammo.

Uh wow. 2 Huge cars start trying to run you over. Run straight ahead and hide in a corner. You can burn the darkness away from the cars but it takes a while. You will have to kill some Taken at the same time.

There is an Alarm Clock 4/10 at the back of the yard on the right. Go to the left and burn away the pump for a wicked little automatic shotgun, and use the light to open the garage door. Your exit away from possessed objects flying at you.

This is your opportunity for another ACHIEVEMENT. If you don’t climb into any of the many cars/trucks for you then you will get:

“Licence Revoked” for 20G.

Run back to where you started the last checkpoint, and kill all the Taken that await you in the door way. Head upstairs and outside. To the left you will find a hunting rifle, flare, and some supplies in a red box (burn away the words).

When you burn away the memory, you will hear Alan’s wife talking about her side of the bed. Kinky!? Nah… not really.

There is no way across the top of the deck. When you go under the deck, you will notice a flickering television and a whole wack of Taken ready to attack you. Kill them and carry on.

Climb up the ladder and stock up on supplies. You will get a new heavy duty lantern. I don’t recall having this in the original Alan Wake. Hmmm… something really dangerous must be lurking around the next corner.

Go to the end of the deck/dock area on the left, and you will find an Alarm Clock 5/10. Go back to where the flashlight was and head into the maze of wood planks. You will be approached by 1 regular Taken and another brutal one. He has an insane chainsaw and a lot of darkness around him. Burn away the darkness and keep back. Shoot him after the darkness is gone.

There is a light post to checkpoint and a red box to get supplies. If you want to find another Alarm Clock 6/10, go to the far left along the fence before breaking the door down at the light post.

Go back and kick open the door. You will be attacked by 3 regular Taken. Carry on down the path in the wearhouse and you will be attacked by 4 rather swift Taken. Kill them as usual 😉

You will come across Barry, who is complaining about his allergies! Wow… of all things at a time like this eh. There are a couple “flares” to burn away and collect. Go on upstairs and burn away the word “red box” for some more supplies.

I believe that 5 Taken will attack you as you walk into the next room. Go back outside and hop down.

There will be a memory about Alan hitting on his wife while company awaited them downstairs. Awe…love :3

There are 2 words “bridge” to burn. Go around the right side of the building and you will find a Character Cutout 6/6

ALICE WAKE

The nyctophobic beauty with the muse-ariffic booty! The soothing oasis in a seething crisis!

The renowned and award-winning photographer’s new coffee table book features intensely personal and intimate images from a life haunted by a husband who was never there. “Writer’s Muse” — pre-orders accepted now.

ACHIEVEMENT: “Cardboard Companions” 25G

Push over the piece of wood from one of the words “bridge”. Go use the green flashing light to make a crane move over to you. Run quickly up the ramp and over onto the moving flat. When you get across, there will be 3 Taken waiting for you.

Climb up onto the roof and then hop down into the building from the hole with a flashing light.

You will come upon a memory of Alan and Alice doing a photo shoot. Go through the door behind the backdrop and you will end up in their apartment. Collect the supplies scattered on dresser tops. Go into the office room and there will be an Alarm Clock 7/10 there.

The kitchen is blocked. Go into the living room and you will find Zane floating there. Zane tells Alan that he is trapped in his own nightmare and fighting himself. There was no more darkness.

Zane disappeared.

Alan is left to destroy the television sets that start floating in the room. They are possessed so a flashlight is sufficient.

ACHIEVEMENT: “A Friend Indeed” 50G

Epic Final Battle … enjoy!

Apparently I am missing 3 Alarm Clocks. I will continue playing it and hopefully find them! 🙂

Thanks for reading ❤

Midnite Faery

Alan Wake DLC… check your emails!! O.o

So I was checking my email before bed and I found the code for Alan Wake: the Signal DLC. Woohoo!! It is the first DLC for Alan Wake. Apparently Alan has to wait for the signal to avoid a threat unlike anything he’s encountered yet! … but he’s intimately familiar with it.

Well, I can’t wait to play this! 😀

Alan Wake: The Lumber Yard

There is a book called “The Creator’s Dilemma” in the back of Alice’s car. Is it another thing worth looking at? There is the option to look at it…so perhaps. It appears that I am going to have a scary trek through the woods to reach the gas station. I know what to expect, but I ran through it pretty quickly the first time.

As you take the trail down the mountain, goodbye car!! It goes smashing down the cliff side.

Further down the path, a piece of the manuscript magically floats down in front of Alan. I’ve found all the manuscripts in Episode 1 except the pages found on Nightmare difficulty. There’s a glowing manuscript page close to the fence to the lumber yard. My first page on Nightmare! Woo! 😀

…of course it’s about Rose. The stupid girl from the coffee shop!

Just after a cut scene with Stucky, on the right hand side is another manuscript page!

Ah ha! Another coffee thermos is hiding behind a log near the logging machine on the left hand side. But you can’t go much further there…so to the right it is!

HOLY CRAP! … up till this point I thought doing it on Nightmare was a joke cause I didn’t die yet. The taken are finally a lot more difficult to kill. Even with headshots… it takes a few shots!

I found a chest with a flare gun and just found another one with batteries. I will have to use the weapons with more consideration because there are large swarms of Taken and a rifle doesn’t cut it.

Once you make it across the log bridge (which you create by moving a stack of logs), there is a little picnic area that has a stack of cans to shoot! (I’ve got 2 of them now!) Then head towards the light and in the little cabin is another radio to listen to (I’ve listened to 2 of those now too!!). There is another chest just behind the shack (on the left) and it has another flare gun in it! Apparently there is an achievement for finding all the chests.

I’ve noticed that the manuscript pages that I’ve already collected appear collected when I press the shift button to look at the pages. But I can still find them scattered all over the world. Interesting. They could be there to light the path so you know what direction to go to. The game is fairly dark and there isn’t a glowing trail or anything to show you where you have to go…except for light. Find the nearest glowing patch of light and run to it!

Alan Wake…second time around

The Dream:

I am playing Alan Wake again on the Nightmare difficulty so I can get the rest of the achievements that I missed the first time I played.

I love the overall game play! The graphics are very well done and the soundtrack fits perfectly.

I may die a whole lot more, and become even more frustrated, but I’m pretty sure it will be ok! 🙂

When I started playing the first time, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I heard Alan Wake was a combination of Silent Hill and Resident Evil. The big difference was that a flashlight was going to be my saving grace? Really? A flashlight?!

…turns out that it is actually a fairly cool and unique feature to the game. It adds a new element because you have to first burn away the darkness with the flashlight and then shoot to kill.

The beginning has a pretty slow introduction. You are chasing a kidnapper through your own dream and trying to kill him. There’s a higher light “god” thing that gives you the first flashlight and gun and you get to learn the controls of the weapons. You learn that light offers a safe haven from the darkness. The “monsters” are called the “taken” and they have the darkness within them.I think that everyone has a bit of the darkness within them, its just if they are consumed by it or not?

There are a few things in the Alan Wake world that I missed the first time so that’s why I am going through it again from the start.

I am trying to find all the coffee thermoses I can to make sure I collect all 100 (for the achievement hypercaffeinated for 30G). I noticed that the ones I previously collected on Normal difficulty were already gone and collected. I didn’t know if I was just missing them so I tried loading a couple times…and sure enough everything I collected was still considered collected. I already got the Damn Good Cup of Coffee achievement (20G) for finding 25 coffee thermoses.

I was looking through the manuscript pages and everything I collected was still there too! Except the ones I missed and the ones that you find on Nightmare difficulty of course! So now I just have to find the remaining pages. That will be a slow and adventurous mission to lurk away from my main course to search for them! Hopefully there are not too many taken attacking me!

I am also looking for all the can structures so I can shoot them. I found the first one after killing the first hitchhiker. I looked to the right beside a large rock and there it was! The first time I played, I noticed the cans but I didn’t think to do anything with them. Unlike the coffee… which me, being the addict I am… went straight to them!

Bright Falls:

Examining the stuff around Bright Falls is another thing I didn’t think about doing unless it was something I was interested in reading. There was a few signs and artifacts that I read, but I didn’t look at all of them. BTW I can’t believe how much Rose hits on Alan in the coffee shop…what a book groupie!

I didn’t get a chance to look at the island from a bird’s eye view until just now… almost looks like a chicken foot… creepy!

I am really exploring everything now. I want to find all the little things I missed on the first go through. The cabin is called “Bird Leg Cabin” so I suppose it makes sense to have the island around it shaped like a bird foot.

I am trying to listen to the local radio stations and watch the television shows more too! I got the boob tube achievement but not the radio one! Basically I’m missing half of the achievements 😦 On the deck of the cabin is the 1^st of 11 radios I have to listen to!

There is a box full of Thomas Zane books on a computer desk in the common room. I don’t know if I needed to look at this.. but I suppose I will find out later! Also, there is a chopped down tree root that has initials carved into it. Alan thinks that the island used to have an old love story!

Its nice to see how the smallest details I missed in the beginning the first time, help put the story together.

Alan Wake

So I’m basically terrified of playing this game at home alone (and especially in my bedroom with the door closed and the lights off!). For example, at a random point in the game, I was attempting to leave a house after watching some dude die in the upstairs bedroom. I went down the stairs and I could see the front door so I started heading towards it. I heard the smashing of a window breaking in the kitchen behind me so I walked back towards the kitchen. Yes.. I know that’s the stupid thing people in horror movies do right before they die: walk towards the scary sounds. I stood in the middle of the kitchen and a Taken came running at me. This was at the same time as lll KiRa lll opening the front door of our house. So naturally … I screamed!

I had the girly, high pitched, actually afraid of something scream!

…and lll KiRa lll came into the bedroom laughing at me.

I love being scared. I love the jump factor of the game and the unknown moments when a Taken is going to appear. Once you get into the game a bit, the Taken possess worldly objects too, and they come flying at you! A great addition. Rather frustrating when I can’t move out of the way fast enough. But such a good idea and it makes me keep my guard up because I never know Who or What could be attacking me around the next corner.

Needless to say, lll KiRa lll was surprised to see me playing Alan Wake when I was alone because I said I wouldn’t play it alone. I haven’t played it alone since… but dammit I want to play!

I suppose I could leave the lights on and the bedroom door open, but that would defeat the point! Alan Wake is suppose to be played in the dark. It is suppose to be scary. It is suppose to make the player jump and fear the unknown. It has it. Alan Wake scares the crap outta me when I’m alone. Well… specific scary moments do! LOL I’m not that girly 😛

Maybe I will leave the lights on and the door open the second time I play. I will likely play the game again to finish getting the achievements, and of course to see what the “free” downloadable content is in July. I know I’ve missed a few achievements cause I haven’t even found all the manuscript pages.

Dreaming

I was having a dream similar to the story line in Alan Wake. I know am playing a good game when it actually haunts me in my sleep!

Oddly enough I was riding a bicycle down an isolated residential street towards a house where a murderer was living. Upon entering the house, I peered into one of the bedrooms and saw a girl laying on the ground tied up. She had long luscious brown hair. In the side of her mouth there was an IV sticking out and blood dripping down. We made eye contact and I could feel her fear. I was on a mission though. I was looking for a man. I left her there and walked around the hallway.

There was no one else there. The man I was looking for was gone. Then I questioned my motives for going there in the first place. Weird that I would venture alone into a known murder’s home. I left the hallway and walked into the kitchen. There was nothing there so I turned back down the hall to exit the house. The door of the room where the girl was flung open and 2 rather large men stood inside of it. Before I had time to think. The man on the left lifted his hand and pulled the trigger on his gun three times. I was dead.

…and as dreams often make no sense. I ended up being the narrator of a story I was writing. I was at a writer’s block and I didn’t know what to do with the characters. I was an old, fat, balding, drunk guy sitting alone in my basement.

Seriously!? How messed up is that…

The alarm clock woke me up and I was happy to find myself cozy in bed. Where else could the whole writing thing come from? I love the storyline of Alan Wake.