Alan Wake DLC The Signal Review

Alan Wake The Signal DLC Review | May 5, 2014
Xbox, Windows

Alan Wake is far from your typical video game. It has one of the best stories we have ever played through and it is one of the few survival horror games that are rated T for Teen. Spoiler!! At the end of Alan Wake you save your wife from the Dark Place that has invaded the town of Bright Falls but Alan has to stay behind trapping himself inside with the Darkness. Alan Wake has six total episodes, the first four deals with him trying to find his wife Alice and dealing with the people in the town who think he is involved with her missing and the weird stuff happening in the town. The other two The Signal and The Writer are DLC episodes dealing with Alan being trapped and trying to find his way out. The Signal starts out with Alan eerily reliving the early scenes from when he first arrives in Bright Falls. Thomas Zane another writer who has been taken by the Darkness and Barry Alan’s agent are the only ones who can guide Alan out.

The Signal brings some new things to the series. This DLC does not take place in the real world so things are a little different. The world is filled with words floating in the air that are covered by the Darkness. Some of the words have tools like weapons, ammo, better flashlights and batteries. Other words are there to help you like uncovering bridges cross and ladders to climb. Some of them are the taken and each word is covered in the Darkness so the words can hurt you if you touch them before you free them. The camera, aiming and controls have no issues and Alan still runs kind of funny. This DLC plays just like a rest of the series so pay attention. The entire time you are either trying to figure out where to go or you are fighting for your life, running like crazy or listening to Barry or Zane explain what is going on before the chaos.

This DLC is harder than the Alan Wake video game, much harder. You will die many times and when you do you start back pretty far. The checkpoints are few and far apart with many things you have to do between them. Even with the game being so hard the replay value is really high. The Signal is really fun and the story is full of great turns. Barry is as funny as he has always been and this DLC leads directly into The Writer the sixth and final part of the Alan Wake story. This DLC is free with new copies of Alan Wake with a code but it is not free with used copies. It took us almost 4 hours to get through the game and The Single is worth $7 and is a must buy if you own Alan Wake. The best thing we can tell you is that both games Alan Wake and Alan Wake American Nightmare and both DLC packs The Single and The Writer go on sale all the time. You can get all four for a price of $10 to $20 several times a year and even at times less than $10, so watch for sales.

9.0 out of 10
Worth Your Money