Rage

When I first saw previews for Rage, I was enthralled. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

Rage won 20 separate awards when it previewed at E3, including the highly coveted “Best of E3” award. This is made all the more impressive considering the caliber of games released, or soon to be released, in 2011 (Portal 2, Arkham City, Dead Island, Gears of War 3, Skyrim, etc).

Developer Id, alleged father of the first-person shooter genre and groundbreaking franchise, Wolfenstein, designed Rage to challenge what gamers perceive as “good graphics.” By using a newly-developed graphics engine, Id crafted an echelon of visuals and AI that will undoubtedly rival games over the next several years.

Rage stars a nameless survivor (you) of the “Ark Program,” an attempt by society to preserve chosen individuals in cryogenic sleep for a future era. Upon emerging from your cryogenic capsule, you find that the earth has not fared well over the past several years. A meteor has destroyed society as you knew it, leaving only a few scattered remnants of civilization amid a mutant-infested wasteland, ruled over by something known only as “The Authority.” As you make your way from one dusty steamwork town to the next, you must battle through hordes of mutants and Authority enforcers in an attempt to unveil a deeper mystery and potentially the key to the world’s salvation.

If this explanation of Rage‘s story sounds concise, that’s because it is. Rage is not heavy on story or plot, instead hopping on the “sole survivor” bandwagon of countless video games before it. I found this interesting, especially considering Id had promised to weave a unique story into the game prior to its release. However, Id had also promised “not to release Rage until it was awesome.” Was it as awesome as Id promised it would be?

I’ll start with what I enjoyed about Rage. As I’ve already mentioned, Rage is a graphical masterpiece. The wasteland through which your character traverses is both expansive and strangely beautiful. Colors are sharp and textures flawless. Level design is varied and easy to enjoy from beginning to end. The countless NPCs you encounter throughout the campaign are all unique and exquisite to behold. Skin textures are perfect and clothing styles typical of something you’d expect to see within a town crafted solely of metal and steam pumps.

The graphics are so impressive that Rage actually had to be released on 3 separate discs for the XBox 360. Downloading it to your hard drive will cost you no less than 22 gigabytes of memory space. Yikes. However, if you have the space to spare, I highly suggest doing it. I downloaded Rage before I played it and never once experienced hitching, lag, or frame rate issues that often plague games of similar graphical quality.

The only thing I found more impressive than Rage‘s graphics was the behavior of the AI. Without a doubt, Rage has the smartest enemies, the most crafty foes I’ve ever fought in a video game. Enemies literally react to every little movement and decision you make. Draw your gun’s cross hairs over an enemy, it will combat roll away. Kill enough enemies in a room and the remaining few will retreat to regroup with others. Enemies rarely charge at your character directly. Instead, they leap with remarkable agility from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and side to side.

Enemies also react perfectly to being shot. Hit one in the leg and he will stumble forward or crawl to the nearest cover. Hit one in the arm and he will reel backwards, clutching his wound. Injure one further, and he will drag himself across the floor, shooting a gun haphazardly in your direction.

This level of artificial intelligence extends beyond the realm of enemies. NPCs in town constantly mill about, preferring to visit various points of interest rather than being confined to a single spot. NPCs react accordingly to quests you’ve completed. Finish first in a dune buggy race and they’ll complement you for it. Raise too much of the Authority’s attention and they’ll question your motives.

Gameplay within Rage is, at its core, fun and frenzied. Your character is given a small selection of guns that don’t stray far beyond the typical pistols, automatic rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. However, most guns have several different types of ammo that vary combat in unique ways, from darts that allow you to briefly take control of an enemy’s mind to shotgun shells that emit EMP blasts. Proper use of these ammo types will grant your character the greatest chance of survival on the field of combat. You can only assign four separate guns to your D-pad at any one time, but switching between these guns and their respective ammo types can be done on the fly during combat.

Ammo, as well as several other items, can be crafted at any point in the game using Rage‘s engineering system. By combining recipes and components, such as gears and cables, players can craft not only ammo, but gizmos that unlock doors, bind wounds, and temporarily increase health and attack power. Chief among the items you can craft in Rage are automatic turrets and spider drones. These, once deployed, will shoot any hostile force in the area until they run out of bullets or are destroyed by enemies. The spider drones, in particular, are very entertaining. They not only fire at enemies, but will physically pounce or swat at any mutants that come too close to them. They can also vault over obstacles, skitter across vertical levels, and follow you from room to room, guarding your back from rear attacks.

Rage has several mini games scattered throughout the wasteland that players can engage in when breaking from the main story progression. Most are short games of chance where players can bet in-game money in the hopes of winning it big. Other mini games include races, demolition derby style combat, and a unique card game that utilizes the collectibles found throughout the game. This latter mini game most resembles Magic the Gathering in that it allows you to customize a deck of character cards with their own individual stat points and abilities. Combine the right amount and kinds of cards to increase your chances of winning more money.

Sound quality in Rage is excellent. Guns fire and motors rev with deep intensity. Mutants growl and shriek while swinging on pipes dangling from the ceiling. NPCs are voiced beautifully, each with their own inflections and personalities. Voice syncing is perfect and doesn’t detract from overall gameplay. Music in Rage is also excellent, mostly consisting of twangy guitars and harmonicas reminiscent of the Old West. Music picks up dramatically during combat and racing sections, which it should, and slows down whenever you’re in town or away from enemies. The song that plays during the ending credits, “Burning Jacob’s Ladder” by Mark Lanegan, fits the style of Rage quite well.

These are all complements to the core of what makes Rage a fun, fast-action game. Before I even picked up the game, I was ready to call it my favorite addition to my video game library this year. Unfortunately, the game ended up having a few major issues in my opinion.

First, there is the fact that you can’t customize your character beyond choosing one of three initial classes. There are no stat points to distribute or skills to upgrade. Even the character classes don’t have a lot of variation between them, adding only a few perks to certain aspects of gameplay.

Second, there is no overworld map. Maybe I missed it during my playthrough, in which case please correct me in the comment section below. This issue didn’t detract from gameplay at all, but there were a few times when I got lost in town or during a dungeon sequence because I couldn’t remember where the exit was.

Third, Rage is short for a game of its scope. Despite being split across 3 discs, the campaign took me less than 15 hours to complete, and I did every side quest, mini game, and errand I could find.

Fourth, the inventory system is drab and generally confusing. The entire menu looks like something created from MS-DOS and consists only of gray, brackish colors. There is hardly any organization for the component section of your inventory, leaving you to cycle through a high number of random junk before you find a specific item.

VERDICT

Rage is, overall, a great game and a lot of fun to play. Yet, after beating it, I am left only with the sensation that the game could have been much more. For how much hype it received over the past year, more detail could have been given to certain aspects of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it the first time, but there is nothing that convinced me I would ever find the unshakable desire to pick up and play Rage in the near future.

SCORE 8.8/10

Gears of War 3

*CAUTION: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS*

The long-anticipated finale to Epic’s gory, testosterone-fueled trilogy has finally arrived. The tales of Marcus Fenix, Dom Santiago, and their band of tough-as-bones COGs are finally brought to a gritty conclusion.

Gears of War 2 left with the humans of Sera sinking their capital city in a last ditch effort to drown the remnants of the Locusts, a feral species no longer content to dwell in caves beneath the surface. At the conclusion of Gears of War 2, players were still unsure as to the Locust’s endgame. Had they invaded the surface of Sera for selfish gain? Or did they, like the humans, have survival at the forefront of their minds?

Turns out the latter explanation best describes the Locust’s actions. An underground fuel source, known as emulsion, has infected many of the Locust’s members, turning them into a rapidly-mutating, enraged subspecies called Lambent. In an attempt to save themselves, the Locusts broke the surface of Sera and declared war on humanity. Now, with the Lambent at their front and the Locusts at their back, humanity is taking its final stand against what appears to be inevitable doom.

The last hope for survival lies at an resort nestled on a Locust-occupied island, hidden for years behind an artificially-created storm, known as the maelstrom. Here, Marcus Fenix’s father, Adam, thought to be dead for the past two installments of Gears of War, has developed a catastrophic weapon that he believes will end the Lambent invasion for good. Hope rests solely on the success of Marcus Fenix and his fellow COGs to invade the island, free Adam from Locust control, and unleash the weapon in one, final strike against the growing threat of human extinction.

If that introduction didn’t hint at the violent nature of Gears of War 3, I’ll say it up front: Gears of War 3 is a violent game. Whether its ripping a Locust’s chest cavity in half with a chainsaw or curb-stomping an enemy into mush, players will get their share of blood and guts. Anyone who has played the previous installments already knows this. Epic wanted this game to appeal to the more visceral nature of gamers, and it certainly does.

In comparison to the first two games, Gears of War 3 exceeds in every department. Characters move with great agility, graphics are sharper, story plot is more intriguing, and blood flies and splatters with greater intensity. Action is fast-paced and enjoyable. Characters are voiced accordingly and complement the plot throughout the campaign.

Gears of War helped make popular the system of cover-based combat. The efficiency of this system is made prominent throughout both the single player and multiplayer aspects of Gears of War 3. Characters duck, slide, and roll with relative ease from cover to cover. Walls, overturned tables, and sandbags become your closest allies when battling with familiar weapons as well as a few new additions to the COG arsenal. These few new weapons, such as an ultra-powerful sniper rifle known as the oneshot, aren’t groundbreaking, but they do add a tad more diversity to the already-effective system of combat. In particular, the digger, a gun that fires an explosive round underground to seek out its enemy, changes up combat enough to differentiate it from the system used in Gears of War 2.

The single player campaign rounds off the story of the COG beautifully. Epic has had a knack for crafting stories and developing characters in the Gears trilogy that tug on the most human aspects of player’s hearts. One scene in particular, which I won’t spoil for those who haven’t watched it, is so soul-crushingly despairing that I couldn’t help but get a little choked up over it. Epic succeeds in weaving enough emotion into the story for players to root for the COG, whose individual personalities can seem stand-offish at first glance.

The multiplayer section of Gears of War 3 is where Epic really succeeded. Matchmaking is quick and easy. The new leveling system is addicting, and there are always new characters, weapon skins, and executions to unlock. The updated horde mode, complete with a fortifications system, really pushes the necessity for strategy and teamwork. Beast mode, the newest addition to multiplayer, is also entertaining and gives players the chance to experience the newest members of the Locust horde firsthand.

Sound quality in Gears of War 3 is as satisfying as ever. Heads squish, guns fire, and explosions rock the earth in convincing fashion. There’s not a lot of difference between the sounds of the third installment and those of the second, but there doesn’t need to be, seeing as not a lot has changed in terms of story or action that would require it.

The music of the Gears trilogy has always been a highlight for me. Epic brings back the commanding “Hope Runs Deep” theme from Gears of War 2, which is definitely one of the most memorable video game tracks of the past few years. Strains of Michael Andrew and Gary Jules’s “Mad World” are also strategically placed throughout both the single player and multiplayer modes, which adds beautifully to the air of hopelessness and struggle.

There are not many things I would have liked to see improved within Gears of War 3. I had to search long and hard to find complaints, which were very few and far in between. The one prominent complaint I had with Gears of War 3 was in the color palette. The Gears trilogy has been known for using three primary colors: grey, brown, and red (for muzzle flashes and blood). These bring across the sensations of despair and death quite well, but don’t add much to the overall beauty of the game.

It was my hope that Gears of War 3 would have added a few more lush environments to balance out this issue. Granted, the resort levels of the single player campaign did this to a small extent, but it wasn’t near enough in my mind. Levels like the ash-encrusted cities of Sera were simply too drab to overlook.

VERDICT

If you played the first two installments and are at all hesitant about playing Gears of War 3, don’t be. It is the perfect conclusion and epic finale the trilogy needed. Games of the future will be hard-pressed to equal the finesse and gut-wrenching action contained within this saga.

SCORE: 9.5/10

Dead Island

Techland’s zombie survival/horror game recently hit shelves across the United States, bringing with it hours of fast-paced hack-n-slash. On the surface, Dead Island is exactly what consumers might expect it to be: a bloody trek from point A to point B that pits the player against hundreds of shambling zombies just begging to be maimed and decapitated. Under the surface, Dead Island offers a level of character and weapon customization previously unseen by games falling under the umbrella of zombie survival/horror.

Dead Island borrows from several different games of similar genre, most notably Dead Rising. Like in Dead Rising, players can craft weapons out of random brick-a-brack found almost anywhere in the tropical paradise of Banoi, New Guinea. Players can then combine these items with a foundation weapon, such as a baseball bat or knife, to create devastating modifications. Want to burn zombies with a flaming axe? You can do that. Want to crush skulls with a morning star pulsating with electric current? You can do that too.

Modifications also extend to small arms (pistols, shotguns, rifles). You can imbue your bullets with fire, lightning, and even the ability to make zombies puke their guts out on contact. Small explosions and splash damage can also be crafted using specific components. Want to blow away hordes of the undead in one fell swoop? Simply string two empty deodorant cans together with duct tape and you have yourself a genuine homemade bomb. Classics like the Molotov Cocktail can also be crafted should you run out of melee weapons or are simply in the mood to cause mass destruction.

In addition to the innumerable choices available regarding what weapons to use, players can outfit their characters with certain skills. By adding points to three different skill trees – combat, fury, and survival – players can further build and craft their character toward individual tastes. Although each playable character has the same three skill trees, each tree will affect its respective character differently. For example, the survival tree will allow one character to regenerate health over time and another more efficiency with med packs. Combine effective use of skill points with a fully-upgraded, modified weapons and you have yourself a lean, mean, zombie-killing machine.

This doesn’t mean Dead Island is easy in any sense of the word. Characters do not have a large vessel of health to draw from, meaning the level of danger when surrounded by zombies (and you will get surrounded) is very high. Health can be restored using med packs or food found scattered amid the remains of Banoi. However, these will not save you if you go into combat unprepared or happen to get too close to a suicider, a zombie with the ability to explode violently, instantly draining your character’s health to zero.

Zombies are fairly diversified, ranging from your typical slow, shambling zombie to extremely fast, agile zombies with bone scythes for arms. This helps keep combat from getting dull and ensures there’s always a surprise waiting around the next corner. Zombies also increase in health and scale the more players are involved in a single game. Since Dead Island supports up to four players in a single game, the potential for challenge and the necessity of teamwork is increased.

The multiplayer aspect of Dead Island is something for which I applaud Techland. The game will notify players every time they come within close proximity of another player with the same or less level of story progress. Simply press one button and you can join the neighboring player’s game in seconds. Dropping out of another player’s game and back into your own is just as quick and easy. The game thus ensures players the opportunity to play in a manner that suits their individual tastes.

Dead Island also capitalizes beautifully on what zombie games do best: give their players the opportunity to kill zombies. And if you play through Dead Island, you will kill a lot of zombies. Killing is ultimately satisfying and fun to watch. Decapitated heads fly after being separated from their shoulders. Limbs break and are severed with realistic gluts of blood and gore. Zombies react accordingly to being set on fire or electrocuted. All in all, Dead Island excels at creating a environment in which players can enjoy dispatching the undead in creative ways.

Sound effects in Dead Island are great. The sound of a sledgehammer turning a zombie’s head into pulp is grossly satisfying. Voice acting is good and fairly diversified across the board. Zombie’s moan and scream in a way that complements the tedious nature of combat. The music in Dead Island is mostly soft and reminiscent of a tropical paradise. It’s not amazing, but it certainly does not detract from the overall feel of the game.

My biggest complaint with Dead Island lies in its graphical qualities. Banoi looks beautiful in all the right places, but that’s where the good graphics end. Voice syncing during cut scenes is downright terrible and all the in-game characters have this weird quality about their faces that makes them look older than I imagine Techland wanted to depict them. Graphical glitches plague every corner of Banoi. Several times, I notices palm tree leaves jutting through scenery or zombies magically dropping through the floor. The moment I realized Dead Island had some serious issues was shortly after a zombie lobbed a knife through a concrete wall and into my character.

I am a firm believer that graphics do not equate to gameplay. I still enjoyed playing Dead Island regardless of its obvious flaws. Nevertheless, Dead Island had the feel of an unfinished game, one that was released prematurely. I know Techland is working on fixing some of these glitches, but the fact that they were not fixed earlier lost the game some points in my mind.

VERDICT

Despite a few issues, I still rate Dead Island my favorite zombie game to date. I have been waiting a long time for a zombie game that allowed players to customize characters and weapons in such a detailed manner. I would have liked to see even more customization options, but overall, Dead Island succeeded in paving the road for what I hope will be a pattern for zombie games to come.

SCORE: 8.5/10

Bioshock

*WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS*

The 1960’s were a simpler time. Scratchy records crooned soulful music to the ears of Americans and chivalry had yet to kick the bucket. However, according to 2K’s successful action game, Bioshock, the 1960’s were far from perfect. Located beneath an abandoned lighthouse nestled in an indiscreet section of the ocean lay one man’s attempt to recreate paradise on earth: Rapture. Thus underwater city was the result of the efforts of a man known as Andrew Ryan, a visionary who dreamed of a place separated from the greedy clutches of the outside world, where the working man could earn his wages free from any sort of tyranny or government intervention.

Yet, Rapture did not stay the paradise Andrew Ryan had once envisioned. With the introduction of unique elements known as plasmids – substances with the ability to alter people’s genetic codes and grant superhuman capabilities – Rapture quickly became a mausoleum inhabited by only a few survivors and a plethora of mutated, violent, plasmid-addicted creatures known as Splicers. The only sense of order left in Rapture lay in the relationship between two key players: the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies. Little Sisters are children programmed to recover the remnants of plasmids (something known as Adam) from the corpses of Splicers. The Big Daddies are hulking automatons programmed only to protect the Little Sisters as they harvest Adam.

As the protagonist, you play a young gentleman known only as Jack (whose face you never see). You are the sole survivor of a plane crash that takes place directly adjacent to the lighthouse under which Rapture was constructed. As you stumble from the wreckage of the plane and into the lighthouse, you discover a submarine-like device that delivers you straight into the bowels of Rapture. Once within the dark interior, you find yourself being guided by the voice of a man who identifies himself as Atlas. Atlas directs Jack to arm himself with a variety of weapons, including several guns and a wrench, as well as inject himself with a dose of plasmids, ultimately granting Jack several superhuman abilities, such as the ability to throw bolts of lightning, bursts of fire, and swarms of bees (yes bees) from his hands. Armed with these abilities, Jack pushes ever deeper into the Splicer-infested confines of Rapture in search of Andrew Ryan and the means to return to the surface world.

Bioshock was one of those games that defined a genre. It was equal parts class and fashion and equal parts horror and fever dream. One moment you could be reveling in the unique art style and design of Bioshock and the next be battling for your life against waves of marauding mutants. The best part was that these two sides of the equation never seemed to be at odds with one another. They flowed seamlessly together like milk and Hershey’s syrup to create a delicious concoction of style and gameplay that I still enjoy today. The most memorable section of the game for me exemplified this beautiful dichotomy. There is a moment in Bioshock when you are pitted against the minions of a maddened connoisseur of the theatre. As they run toward you wielding pipes and shrieking their hatred, strains of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker echo through the decrepit halls. I never get tired of playing this section of the game. For me, there’s something deeply satisfying about bashing in the head of an onscreen mutant while listening to classical music.

Needless to say, the art style of Bioshock was second only to its impeccably crafted story. Seriously, the plot in Bioshock is next to none. To spoil it for those who have yet to play the game would be blasphemous, so I won’t. Nevertheless, I will say that I have yet to witness the climax of Bioshock’s plot without getting gooseflesh (and I have played through Bioshock at least half a dozen times). As you progress through the game, you can pick up radio recordings of conversations from key characters that provide adequate back story and information on the founding and fall of Rapture. These recordings serve only to punctuate the ultimate climax of the game, but they are well worth the time it takes to find them all.

Music and sound quality fit the style of Bioshock perfectly. The soundtrack isn’t anything to write home about, but its soothing strings and smattering of classic songs from the 50’s and 60’s support the overall feel of Bioshock without detracting from the action. Sound effects are great. Footsteps echo across metal floors with surprising accuracy. Water splashes and flows across the submarine-like interior of Rapture with realistic quality. The voices of Splicers are genuinely creepy and tend to keep players on edge.

Graphics in Bioshock are reminiscent of original Xbox games of its time. Quality isn’t superb next to today’s standards, but it isn’t distracting in any sense of the word. I suppose someone who picked up and played Bioshock for the first time could find something to complain about graphics-wise, but it would likely be a small complaint in comparison to the overall excellence of the game.

VERDICT

I personally cannot find any complaints with Bioshock. I didn’t find the soundtrack or final boss fight to be spectacular, but such things are petty in the grand scheme of things. Anyone who has not yet played the original Bioshock is missing out on an experience that both defined a genre and set a standard by which future games would follow.

SCORE: 9.5/10

Alan Wake: The Signal

*CAUTION! THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS*

The first DLC for Remedy’s horror/thriller game entitled “The Signal” once again puts the player in the shoes of the renowned author and protagonist, Alan Wake. When we last left our hero, he had succeeded in hunting down and defeating his wife’s kidnapper, an enigmatic woman clad in funeral garb revealed to be the manifestation of something known only as “The Darkness.” Alan Wake momentarily dispels The Darkness long enough to write his lost wife back into existence and himself out of the story. The game ends with Alan Wake seemingly lost under the murky waters of Bright Fall’s Cauldron Lake.

But, as Alan Wake: The Signal reveals, Bright Falls is not yet through with him. The DLC begins with Alan Wake returning to the center of Bright Falls with the uncanny sense that something is not quite right. As The Darkness creeps back into the town, Alan Wake is once again catapulted into his previous nightmare. Armed with nothing but a few guns and an arsenal of light-inducing weapons, including his trusty flashlight, Alan Wake is forced to battle his way through hordes of shadowy, ghost-like manifestations of the town’s residents in pursuit of answers to his mysterious situation. Along the way, Alan Wake is subject to several images and video clips of himself writhing on the floor in agony, clutching his head and muttering nonsensical phrases like a madman. This leads the player to believe that Alan Wake has lost his mind, due likely to the events within the story’s previous installment. Are Bright Falls, the disappearance of his wife, and The Darkness real? Or are they simply the ravings of a very disturbed mind?

Guiding Alan Wake is the personage of Zane, who appears as a floating man in a diver’s outfit, as well as the doppelganger of Alan Wake’s agent and comic relief, Barry Wheeler. Both point Alan Wake toward a GPS location given off by something they call The Signal. Alan Wake never reaches The Signal, however, as the DLC ends with him once again collapsing on the ground, holding his head and spouting off sentences riddled with mystique and general paranoia. The screen fades to a tantalizing TO BE CONTINUED, thus setting up the story to be concluded with the release of Alan Wake’s next DLC, “The Writer.”

I commend Alan Wake: The Signal on several accounts. First and foremost, the DLC stuck to what made Alan Wake great in the first place: gritty, suspenseful action set in a haunting environment and beautifully narrated. Shadows still burn away to the sound of shrieking strings. Light and shadow stills respond to Alan Wake’s movements with exceptional realism. Waves of enemies wielding chainsaws and harvest scythes still create an atmosphere of futility and panic as Alan Wake is forced to run from one safe haven to the next. Barry Wheeler still lands the occasional joke and vocal jab, although this time around he seems intent on establishing a more dominant role in his and Alan’s writer/agent relationship.

Matthew Porretta returns as the voice of Alan Wake, narrating the author’s progress through the treacherousness twists and turns of Bright Falls. This narration, as in the first installment of Alan Wake, truly gives players the sense that they are part of an overlying plot, an intricate story weaved into the very actions and ambitions of the protagonist. Because Alan Wake: The Signal is a game inspired by the writings of horror novelists, such as Stephen King, the narration becomes imperative to the overall gameplay, which itself is excellent.

Gameplay is, for the most part, smooth and simple. Battling enemies boils down to little more than point and shoot with the occasional dodge mixed in. However, since Alan Wake must first dispel any darkness surrounding his enemies before they can be harmed, choices like what sources of light to use and how to best conserve your flashlight’s batteries become increasingly important. Because light = survival, the occasional lack of flashlight batteries or external sources of light quickly add to the overall suspense and tension of the game.

Sound quality and music in Alan Wake: The Signal are good, although nothing exceptional caught my attention. Scratchy violins and vocal moaning typically herald the approach of shadowy enemies, which fit the dark nature of Alan Wake: The Signal very well. Voice acting and narration is also worth mentioning. Overall quality of voice is good, although I did notice several moments when the character’s words did not line up with the general shape of their mouths (a small complaint).

Graphics in Alan Wake: The Signal are fine, but I would have liked to see more from the occasional cut scene. Scenes interspersed among the overarching story and gameplay fit the game, but appear graphically dated. Textures and facial expressions appear somewhat fake and colors are often bland and uninteresting. It doesn’t detract from the overall likability of Alan Wake: The Signal, but it cost the game a few points in my mind.

VERDICT

Alan Wake: The Signal accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: progress the captivating story of Alan Wake. All the things I liked about the first installment are still there and it seems as though it will effectively connect the story between Alan Wake and Alan Wake: The Writer. The game should provide its players with at least an hour of intriguing gameplay (2 hours if players take the time to discover all the collectibles and back story). I would highly suggest purchasing this DLC, although chances are that if you purchased Alan Wake recently, you’ve already downloaded the DLC for free off of Xbox Live.

SCORE: 9/10