Alan Wake

Innovative and engrossing psychological survival horror set in the fictional town of Bright Falls, where darkness is your most recurring enemy. Alan Wake is a writer taking a break, but must inevitably return to his profession and solve the mystery surrounding Cauldron Lake.

It's a third person adventure and shooter where an interesting theme of light versus darkness is playing. While progressing through, you must cover yourself into shining areas and use your flashlight, flare gun, flashbangs and environmental objects in order to dispel the Taken.

The Taken are most of all consumed human beings by the darkness, but it can also possess inanimate objects as poltergeists, and occassionally there are also consumed birds which are a nod toward Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

While referencing other horror media, there are collectibles to be found, of which the manuscripts provide extra background story. The story itself plays out exactly like Alan Wake's latest script called Departure, and the narration of the main character is also there to fleshen and make the story even more obvious.

This can be bothersome at times, but the game's true strength lies in the atmosphere of the many forest landscapes you will see. Despite a lack of diversity in the locations, this is what stood out the most, and the pacing is well designed too because there is motivation to keep going.

Other areas where the game could had been better are the facial animations and the conclusive ending, as I was expecting more from that revelation. The Night Springs bonus videos are a nice reference to The Twilight Zone however.

Alan Wake is well worth playing through, but it's not replayable for me. It toys with some nice idea's and settings, and the length is moderate. It's not that scary, but it fits the genre because it's about reality and fiction merging and emerging together in order to confuse audience and the protagonist.

Rating: 7.5