There's something sublimely unsettling about flying half way across the world, being jetlagged and then walking into a darkened room only to be confronted by Max Payne. I don't mean some cardboard cutout of the character, a screenshot of the fame or something as mundane as that. I mean Max Payne. In the flesh. Sam Lake, lead writer for Remedy was the face of the original Max Payne. Sure he might not look quite as constipated in real life as he does in the game but he is still unmistakable. Speaking in his rather melodic Finnish accent, Sam reiterated what we already knew about their all new IP, as “intense psychological thriller” and will be using an episodic format like a TV series. Pretty words for sure but we didn’t travel for so many hours for simple words. We wanted to see the game itself. We came in not knowing anything substantial about Alan Wake aside from the fact that Alan really isn’t a leading mane kind of name, aside from is you’re Alan Alda or that delightful Alan Thicke (no offence to all the Alans out there) so we had no real expectations for the game. To say that the ten or so other journalists I went into the session with left with the same kind of awe and wonder that I did would be something of an understatement. Alan Wake simply blew us away from the first moment the demo began to roll.

After a beautiful credits sequence complete with moody music and hand written titles we were given some of the back story to the game. Players take the role of the titular Alan Wake, a formerly successful horror novelist who has hit on hard times. Wake’ fiancé and muse disappeared without a trace in events that eerily echo those in his best selling novel, and since then he has been plagued with crippling writers block, insomnia and terrifying nightmares when he finally does get back to sleep. To make matters even worse, Wake begins to find himself blacking out and awakening to find passages in his notebook that he has no memory of writing, all of which seem to be coming true in real life. In an effort to combat his psychological ailments, Alan decides to seek treatment at a renowned sleep clinic located in Bright Falls, Washington.

The demo began with a few quick pans over the town of Bright Falls and the surrounding areas, a rather massive area measuring 10km x 10km. It’s a beautifully detailed game world from the gently undulating trees that look like actual trees than spiky modern art, gentle rivers, an amazing day/night cycle and real weather. After zooming around the terrain for a few moments, more than willing to show off their amazing engine (reportedly running DX10) the camera finally came to alight on Alan Wake himself, another of the wonderfully evocative looking character models that Remedy seem so good at creating. Slightly hunched, dressed against the cold and the wind, and with eyes ringed by bags and personal demons. Wake stands on a hilltop surveying his surroundings. It’s as good an introduction to a character as you could hope for.

The game is played form a third person perspective similar to that of Max Payne, although the screen is devoid of the usual HUD. Instead players get the occasional hand writing mission briefing and Wake’s own internal narrative to let them know what to do. Although we have only seen a brief amount of gameplay the use of first person narrative looks as though it will work very nicely for both exposition and immersion. After a little running around and showing off the character animations and cloth physics of Alan’s flapping coat, the first actual gameplay segment of the demo began with Alan talking to a gas station attendant who tells him to head on up to the cabin in the nearby mountains. Jumping in a 4WD, Wake begins the drive up the mountains. We haven’t had any hands on time with the game but from what we were shown the driving engine looks solid and realistic. More importantly it was also explained to us that as well as utilizing the episodic narrative, Alan Wake is going to be an open world game in which players can approach the story as they see fit and will have ample opportunities to explore the mysteries of Bright Falls and be rewarded for their inquisitiveness.

During the drive up the mountains the voiceover kicked in, explaining how the drive seems to mimic a passage in his notebook, if only a hitchhiker would appear. Lo and behold a stranger with his thumb out does turn up and, contrary to conventional wisdom, Wake picks him up. Just as we begin to internally groan at the “coincidence”, the voiceover, with immaculate comic timing laconically says “creepy”. Alan comments to his passenger that in his book a man picks up a strange hitchhiker. The hitcher assumes he’s meant to be the killer in the story but Wake sets him straight telling him that in fact it is the hitchhiker who dies. A little further up the road Alan comes across what appears to be the scene of a hit and run accident. A body lays bloodied in the centre of the road (a body that seems to be dressed almost identically to Alan Wake) and our hero goes to investigate. Shortly after he gets out of the car an out of control truck slams into it killing the hitchhiker, proving more of the mysterious written notes to be true. To make things even stranger the body on the road is no longer there and Alan remembers the next part of the writing that says that the hitchhiker will stalk him in some fashion, before finally passing out.

It’s dark when Alan finally comes to, a time where things in the game are going to get exceptionally creepy. With nowhere to go but the cabin, Wake sets off up the road to a rope bridge. The only illumination aside from Alan’s torch is streetlights casting little motes of brightness in the inky black, but every time Alan nears one they explode and die. Running towards the cabin (the windows are illuminated for a place that is supposedly empty) with the lights exploding around him, Wake turns to see a shadowy figure following him. Is it the hitchhiker somehow returned from the dead or something else? We won’t know for a while because that’s where the demo ended. What we do know is that light will be your greatest ally during the game. Apparently only Alan can see the mysterious shadowy figures and the beam of a torch can show something as it really is. We’re not sure how this mechanic will work but we’re more than anxious to find out.

Although it was only talked about briefly during the demo and wasn’t actually shown, one of the most intriguing aspects of Alan Wake is the structure. Whereas Max Payne and it’s sequel utilised a heavily plotted and rather linear filmic structure to tell the story and keep players intrigued, Alan Wake is going to use a more television styled structure. What this means is that the action is going to be broken down into a number of chapters or episodes, each with a beginning, middle and (cliffhanger) ending. Remedy has been criticized in the past for making short games – Max Payne 2: The Fall of May Payne could be finished within around eight hours – but such is the downfall of a filmic approach. The episodic approach has the potential to greatly increase gameplay time as well as allow for more exposition. As each episode is essentially self contained, the story of Alan Wake can be dealt in measured bursts rather than force fed to the player.

Along with Assassin’s Creed and BioShock, Alan Wake is one of the few games we’ve seen that practically screams “next generation”. The engine is effortlessly beautiful with massive draw distances and no popup (that we’ve seen anyway) and the physics integration is incredible, as demonstrated to us via a twister set off in a trailer park. Instead of just picking up objects and hurling them around, the twister acted like they do in real life, picking up smaller objects but tearing up buildings, sucking them up piece by piece until they are destroyed. Even larger objects were tossed around in a realistic and chaotic fashion. If Remedy can achieve a story as good as the technology then they are onto a winner. Signs so far are definitely positive; what we’ve seen of the story makes us think of Twin Peaks by way of Lovecraft (or maybe silent Hill if you’re not of a literary bent) and Sam Lake has a pretty dam good track record with the scripts of Max Payne and its sequel. So far there is no set date for Alan Wake but don’t expect a finished product until most probably late 2007 or early 2008. We’ll definitely have more by then.