Our lives here in the Western hemisphere are obsessed with duality. Perhaps it can be blamed on religion for obvious reasons: light and darkness, healthy and sick, sinner and saint, good and evil. In reality, life is full of gray. Very little of life is set completely in stone. I was recently inspired to get Alan Wake: The Signal, the first downloadable content pack for Alan Wake.
The Signal follows Alan as he explores the darkness around him. And it quickly becomes apparent Alan isn’t exploring literal darkness but himself. To write anything else would spoil the episode.
In fact, The Signal shouldn’t be played until the main game is completed as it contains a major spoiler summarization of the game. (This isn’t any different than any other beginning of the game’s main chapters.) Furthermore, it drops the manuscript mechanic and relies more heavily on its surreal demeanor. And it works beautifully. What makes the original game so addictive is still present in The Signal.
Furthermore, the gameplay is still exactly the same. Shine the light on the Taken and blast them into oblivion, pick up alarm clocks, find cardboard character cutouts and observe plot points. This time, the level design could be considered “weird.” Most of the previous levels from the main story are mixed and matched to create a jumbled feel. At the same time, it is hard not to wish for fresher areas.
The one aspect that could be considered “new” is the fact your flashlight has to shine on words. The words then explode, and a visual representation of the word appears on screen. This is how you supply Alan with gear and sometimes release opponents. It’s an interesting mechanic, and I’m glad it has more presence in this episode than in the last.
Sound design is exactly as it should be: the same high quality that sold the original story. Instead of new tunes, we get new dialogue. This is what drew me deeper into Wake’s nightmarish world. Here, the emphasis is on Berry and his wife. This tripartite structure keeps the story feeling like a short story.
And like any good short story, The Signal can be completed in a sitting or two. In other words, it is as long as a chapter from the main story (one to two hours). Furthermore, this DLC costs $7 (or about 540 Microsoft points). Although it is a high-quality addition to the game, I still feel it costs too much. So when it was on sale for $4, I grabbed it. That’s the perfect price for it as it accurately represents how much time will be spent with it. That was the sign for me to plunge into this content. So what signs are you waiting for?
