In this section I will tell you the basic set up of the game and how to play it.
You can fall of cliffs and you can’t touch water in the big lakes or you’ll die.
You can run for about 10 seconds before you get tired.
You can only drive cars with the lights turned on in the inside.
The cars you drive can get damaged, and if they’re damaged enough you’ll have to leave it.
Game Controls
Basic Controls
START = Pause Menu/Start Game
BACK = Manuscript Page Menu
LS = Move
Click LS = Focus (makes the camera go to a certain objective)
RS = Camera Movement
Click RS = Change the shoulder the camera looks over.
D-Pad = Switch Weapons
LT = Aim(lightly press)/Boost Light(press hard)
RT = Fire Your Weapon
LB = Sprint (Hold, up to 10 Seconds)/Dodge (tap)
RB = Throw (flashbangs and flares)
Y = Insert Batteries
B = Interact/Back/Skip Scenes
X = Reload Weapon
A = Select/Jump
Driving Controls
RT = Accelerate
LT = Reverse
LS = Directions
A = Hold to Boost the light (you have a certain amount of battery to use)
B = Exit and Enter Car
Safe Havens and Health
Your health is not regenerative at all time and lowers when being attacked by an enemy just like in any other game. Your health is separated into 4 bars in a half circle around your compass. Once it reaches the last segment then you’ll hear a heartbeat and the screen will turn black and white.
To regenerate your health you either stop getting attacked and your health will come back slowly, around 88 seconds for full health, or you must get to Safe Havens in light sources such as street lights and you’ll most likely get a checkpoint and full health.
Sometimes there will be generators next to light sources that aren’t lit up just yet. You can recognize these by flashing green bulbs. To start the generators get close to them, press B and a wheel will appear, then you must press A each time the indicator in the wheel reaches a green zone. A few times should do it and your light source will be available.
Enemies
Alan Wake is a game where you have to face enemies in the dark. They are invincible unless you have some sort of light source like your flashlight or torch on them. This takes away their shield of darkness basically. You can tell how much darkness shield they have by the size of the circle around the light beam and sparks flying off the enemy.
Once the shield is gone a bright flash will appear, now they’re vulnerable! Once they’re vulnerable you can use regular weapons and kill them. You can also boost light sources to take down their shields faster and stun/blind the enemy for that time. However, the battery power is used up faster.
Most Enemies fall under four categories:
Taken
The human like enemies of Alan Wake are called the “Taken.” They were once humans that are now possessed by a “Dark Presence.” Taken have a shield of darkness that protects them from injury. Use some type of light to take away this shield and then you can kill them with normal weapons.
There are different sizes of Taken:
Regular Taken: Just regular people that use axes for melee and pick axes for throwing. On Normal they can take about two shots from a revolver after their shield is down.
Quick/Fast Taken: These Taken are a lot faster and melee you. They will teleport around and you won’t be able to see them much. They will slow down to stab you. Once their shields are gone they will stop speeding around. On Normal, once their shields are down, they take one shot from a revolver to take down.
Strong Taken: The strong taken are usually bigger than most taken by a bit and carry sledgehammers that hurt you real bad. With the addition of using a sledgehammer they can charge at you like a bull to do some damage. They have bigger shields than the other taken and can take more damage. About 4 times more damage I’d say.
Boss Taken: These can vary with size and speed. They’re usually both strong and fast and some can teleport across the screen. They all have high shields and even higher damage resistance, by about 9 or 10 times.
Ravens
Ravens aren’t very strong by themselves, but once they’re in flocks they can destroy you. They are very hard to hit with regular weapons so it’s best to kill them with boosted light or a flare gun.
Poltergeist Objects
Even objects can be enemies in Alan Wake. Various objects like barrels and gates and other scenery can be possessed by the darkness and fly at you to injure or even kill you. To destroy them you need to use a light source. If you don’t destroy them the first time they fly at you then they’ll come back again and again. If they’re within a certain range of you using a flare then they’ll stop moving until the flare ends.
Black Goo
Hardly an enemy but it can hurt you! You’ll find black goo all over and if you touch it then it damages you. Just keep your light on them and they die quickly without moving.
Items
There are a few items in Alan Wake. After each story section in the game you will lose all your items you obtained, so don’t stock up just use them.
When reloading you have to manually reload every time. There is no automatic reload unless you count tapping the fire button over and over until it reloads. Tap x to reload and keep tapping it to reload faster.
When choosing weapons you will have one slot for your flashlight (whichever type_, one slot for a flare gun, one slot for your revolver, two slots for flashbangs and flares, and one spot to switch between a shotgun or rifle.
Light Sources
Needed to take out any enemies in Alan Wake. Light Sources come in various items and intensity/power. Boosting the light source with LT stuns an enemy so they can’t attack you, it also takes down their darkness shield faster.
Flashlight – Basic Flashlight that lights your path. 6 seconds of light boosted. 16.3 seconds for the flashlight to fully recharge on it’s own. Takes two batteries to recharge it.
- Heavy-Duty Flashlight – Better flashlight with more batteries for longer boosting of light. 9 seconds of light boosted. 25 seconds for the flashlight to fully recharge on it’s own. Takes three Batteries to recharge it.
- Lantern – Stronger than the HD Flashlight but can’t boost for long. Has a wider beam too. 6 seconds of boosted light. 15.5 seconds for the flashlight to fully recharge on it’s own. Takes Two batteries to recharge.
- Heavy-Duty Lantern – The strongest of the hand held lights. 9 seconds of boosted light. 24 seconds for the flashlight to fully recharge on it’s own. Take Three batteries to recharge.
- Searchlight – The strongest of all light sources. The smaller yellow search light lasts 26 seconds before powering off.
- Giant Searchlight – The giant search light lasts about 4 seconds boosted and takes another 4 seconds to recharge. This searchlight is capable of killing all taken with boosted light alone.
- Flare – Flares are bright but only burn for 8 seconds. Effective when surrounded. Hold RB to hold the flare in your hand. If you find more flares then they only count as one addition flare to your stock. Max amount you can carry is 20.
- Flare Gun – Single Shot gun that fires bright flares which can destroy weaker taken and flocks of birds with one shot. Reload Time 1 second.
- Flashbang Grenade – Flashbangs are little grenades you throw that burst in a flash of light that destroy regular taken instantly. Best when surrounded. Takes about 1.5 seconds to blow up from when you throw it unless it hits a taken, then it blows up instantly. Max amount you can carry is 20.