Alan Wake: The Signal Review

Developer: Remedy Entertainment / Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios / ESRB: Teen (Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence) / Played on: Xbox 360 / Price: Free

Let’s be frank here: love it or hate it, Alan Wake was a very one-dimensional game. The enemy variety was rather low, the weapon selection and shooting gameplay never really changed through the 10 hours it took to trek across Bright Falls. Once you got to the end, you were left with a cliffhanger of an ending. Now Remedy has released the first DLC episode for the game, entitled The Signal. What we’ve got here is a new chapter of Alan Wake covered by a layer of fail.

Story

The Signal is labeled as a “special feature” in the nomenclature of Alan Wake’s episodic layout. “Special feature” doesn’t really mean anything here, as there’s nothing special about The Signal. The DLC for Alan Wake is supposed to bridge the gap between “season one” (the first game) and a possible sequel. What The Signal succeeds in doing is delivering the same Alan Wake gameplay you love/hate with zero success in continuing the original game’s superb narrative. You’ll be treated to a tenuous plot about Alan stuck in a nightmare state after the events of Alan Wake, and an unhealthy dose of sarcastic dialogue from Barry Wheeler. Really, the plot of The Signal doesn’t go anywhere and even at the end, nothing has been solved or answered.

Gameplay

Remember playing Alan Wake? Good. Because it’s the exact same.

Graphics

Perhaps the biggest transgression in The Signal, aside from the nauseating product placement – actually, let me stop here. Not five minutes into the episode, Alan finds a Verizon phone (and believe me, they went to great lengths to let you KNOW that it’s a Verizon phone; club meet head). He then receives a call on that phone from an in-game character, who then literally asks Alan “can you hear me now?” Seriously, what the hell is this, besides groan-inducing ad integration?

Anyway, the second biggest transgression in The Signal is the number of recycled environments from the original game. For about 60% of the episode, you’ll be trekking through the town of Bright Falls and nondescript woods. We’ve already done this ad nauseum, why would we want to go back for another 60-90 minutes? Never mind the terribly unsatisfying final encounter…

Bottom Line

Seriously, the only saving grace here is that The Signal is free if you bought Alan Wake and that you can pad your gamerscore with new achievements. There’s no reason to play through it, unless you absolutely haven’t had your fill of the original game. And don’t get me wrong, I loved Alan Wake, I thought it was a flawed-yet-enjoyable game with a novel story. But The Signal is a prime example of DLC done wrong. It adds nothing, it’s boring, and it feels like a compilation of events that were cut from the original game.

4.5/10

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