Alan Wake: Official Survival Guide

It is rare that a guide book for a video game almost comes across as a valid novel but this book manages to do just that. Sticking with the theme of "writing from the game the author of the guide book has managed to fit every little detail into the book in a story format. It is an interesting way to get information across and is way more fun that staring at charts and maps. If you aren't in the mood to "read" you can just skip to the highlighted portions to find your collectibles and important information. I used this book during my three playthroughs on XBOX and I am glad to use it again now that I get to play Alan Wake on my PC.

My original draft of this review apparently had too much pep for Amazon so I’ll be more boring lol: very fun book. The product image is a different guide so I was worried about ordering at first but it’s what I wanted, very excited about it. Little bit of damage but I was expecting that as it’s second-hand, nothing that makes it unreadable.

I was looking forward to getting this, so that I could play my Alan Wake game. I don't like being lost in games like these. I'm glad to say that the guide is a good read, but since it's layed out like a book, it can sometimes be a bit confusing. I'm used to glancing at the guide and getting the information I want. Here, I have to really dig and search for the info that I want. It can be a bit frustrating for some.

Just received it. Though I bought it used it was in excellent condition, and arrived early! I haven't used it yet, but what I really like about it is that it's written in the form of a novel to go along with the story line! Very different from other guides that I have used. Seems like it will make it much more interesting, as well as informative. I'm in FO4 mode now, but I look forward to getting into it!

Absolutely a work of art; if you can't get enough of Alan Wake, this is definitely for you even if you've already played the game. Helpful and insightful, this walks you through the game in the form of a novel.

If you plan on surviving this game and getting your wife back than you are going to need this survival guide because this game right here is really hard beings you have to pick up your papers that are from your novel and plus you have to find clues because this game is 5 episodes long it's split into like a tv show like lost so if you don't have this you're going to get lost for sure unless you take the easy way out and go on you tube to see what to do i know i would

first let me say that the first review i read on this guide lead me to believe that the maps were not very good,so iwound up getting the collectors edition also. just to find out that they are the same!! no difference in the guides themselves, but i haven't had a problem with the maps or locations in the game yet. it comes in very handy with all aspects of the game. anybody need a new guide? let me know, cheap,lol

I understand what the author is trying to do. It's cute, but it's not necessary nor is it terribly useful. The most useful part of the book is the last 10 pages, where they list appendices of achievements, coffee thermoses, manuscript pages, etc. With a game with so many collectibles, this is definitely handy. However, the first 230 pages are trying to emulate a newspaper or magazine article about the events of the game. It's clever, but not very handy. Using color coding in the middle of a long paragraph to denote a collectible, achievement or difference in the difficulty settings isn't very intuitive for the reader. What's more, due to the newspaper/magazine format, the pages are far too busy, and cluttered with fake advertisements that sometimes detail collectibles, and other times simply hog up some real estate on the page. In the future, the author should probably follow the old "KISS" rule (keep it simple, stupid). The actual walkthrough is needlessly long, and difficult to navigate, and the clutter on the pages doesn't help. For completionists, the appendices could be useful, but for everyone else, you might find more help from an online FAQ. The game is about a writer, it has a tie-in novelization, I get the theme. However, I buy strategy guides for a quick answer to a problem, or detailed maps, or quick advice. If I wanted to read a full story, I'd just read the novelization.