Never Too Old To Play™

The Signal is the first of two downloadable episodes for the magnificent Xbox 360 exclusive psychological horror thriller Alan Wake. People who purchased the original game brand new received an insert in the package with an Xbox Live code to download the content absolutely free, which is an awesome bonus to a superb gaming experience. Unfortunately, The Signal doesn’t quite live up to the expectations set by the main game despite using the same game engine, the same game play elements (with a clever new twist) and the same lovingly crafted world. Maybe it’s because of some of those things that the episode shines less brightly.

After loading up The Signal, you find yourself once again in control of Mr. Wake essentially right after the events of the main game. However, the action in this episode takes place entirely within the mind of our titular hero, who is experiencing a mental breakdown thanks to everything he endured at the hands of the Dark Presence. Thus while you find yourself navigating the town of Bright Falls in which the game proper took place it’s not exactly the same Bright Falls but rather a mental representation of it, nor are the enemies you face or the items you discover anything more than figments of Alan’s demented imagination. In fact, there are no standard item drops at all but rather Alan’s typed words floating in the air waiting to be realized with the shine of the flashlight and an explosion of light and typewriter sounds. It’s a creative departure from the “real world” and really effective in conveying the idea of the nightmare existence Alan is stuck in.

The problem is that it really seems like you’re just backtracking through environments you’ve seen (in some cases many times) before. Because of the nature of the scenario, the designers are able to speed you from location to location without a lot of the more rudimentary exploration aspects from the original game (which would be pointless in the episode since as I said before you’re not really discovering much of anything new) so the action sequences seem much more frequent, but that doesn’t leave much room for plot development which is one of the things that really makes the main game so great.

People who thought that Alan Wake didn’t have enough action or maybe had too much “downtime” in between combat encounters will probably enjoy The Signal very much. I’m not one of those people, though – the wonderfully disturbing story and the way the plot progressed are core reasons I enjoyed the game so much, and by the time the episode is complete you’re essentially right back where you started. The Signal is a fun few hours for sure, but it’s really pointless fun.

Final score: 3 out of 5

Parent to parent

This is just an expansion of Alan Wake, so my recommendation is no different than it was for the main game. This is not a game for young children.

Experience this for yourself!

• Alan Wake: The Signal (Xbox Live Marketplace)