Night time sections are combat-heavy, involving you chasing down an objective – usually trying to reach a specific point or person – while day time segments drip-feed key narrative points, and at times, give you more freedom to soak up the sights of Bright Falls. The concept of light and dark also assimilates itself with Alan Wake’s plot progression.

The controls work great too, making focusing your beam before switching to your chosen firearm a seamless task.

Meanwhile, Wake’s standard pistol is complemented by shotguns and rifles, although flare guns and flash bags also come into play, albeit in limited supply, so you also have to consider when to expend these resources too.Īll in all, combat in Alan Wake is punctuated by moments of panic-inducing terror, micro-managing, and a rewarding sense of accomplishment your shadowy foes are dispatched in a flashy spectacle. It’s not just about knowing when to conserve your flashlight’s power or when to use it enemies swarm you on mass, so you need to learn how to prioritise your foes – do you target the hulking, chainsaw-wielding nutter first or go for his weaker, faster axe-wielding accomplices? You quickly realise that this deceptively simple mechanic hides a rewarding layer of strategy pulsing beneath its surface. Your flashlight is most effective by holding L2 to focus the beam on your target, but this burns through battery life fast, meaning you’ll have to hit Triangle to slap in a fresh power source or risk having it slowly recharge, leaving you vulnerable. This mechanic is the beating heart of Alan Wake’s gameplay. Armed with a flashlight (you later upgrade to more potent light sources), you’ll have to burn away the darkness surrounding your enemies as they slowly but inexorably close in on you, before finishing them off with your firearm. Wake’s primary weapon against the Taken is light, a concept that stretches beyond just combat. While Alan Wake doesn’t rewrite the rule book for third-person horror games – everything from its Resident Evil 4-style over-the-shoulder perspective to its cinematic qualities has been done to death in the past 15 years – it does add some interesting wrinkles to the formula that differentiates itself from the hair-raising rabble.

Download alan wake ps5 gameplay