This collector's edition is really good! It contains a bonus disc, the soundtrack, a book and of course the game itself and all of them packed in a book-like case. The bonus disc contains artwork, trailers, making of and two themes and gamerpics to customize your xbox!! All of this for a decent price!
So I played the first chapter and here are my first thoughts on the game. It doesn't really contain spoilers, because I mostly only write about the gameplay.
The game is really addictive, once you've start it, you really can't let go and have to continue playing !! I had the feeling that I was stuck in the game myself and had to look away from the screen a few times to realize that I was still on planet earth.
Another point I realized is that it’s trying to make something new with the battle system or story telling and it really succeed at doing this! The story is very interesting and you might get confused a lot but in a good way of course. Let's only hope that everything will completely be revealed until the end. But also: it is scary!! Not like Silent Hill scary but I wouldn't recommend playing it in the dark, believe me!!
The two only negative things I have to say about it is first of all the camera which is maybe too sensible… But also the controls during battle. First you have to use your torch to take the darkness out of your enemies and make them vulnerable, then you can use the gun to make the finishing move. This works fine as far as there is only one enemy on the screen!! But as soon as more enemies attack you… it can get really frustrating. Your torch needs to reload or you can insert batteries but of course only if you have enough of them and you have to reload your gun too which takes a lot of time and enemies are just welcome to attack you. Or maybe that's because I'm just being too slow and don't have enough practice.
I guess these are the two only negative points I realized while playing the first chapter. I hope that you will be able to go around the nicely designed city during the day but I’m not quite sure if they will give you that opportunity. The first chapter was quite linear but not really in a bad way because you could still go around and search for hidden items that will help you survive.
All in all, this first chapter was a very good surprise and left you with an interesting cliffhanger which makes you want to play even more.
I can only recommend this game, especially the collector's edition which is really good looking and a nice bonus for fans!! Alan Wake is available on the Xbox 360 and PC and will be released May 18th in the US.
