The most disappointing game I have ever played. Bad performance, cheesy combat, inane story, and the protagonist looking like a submissive sex doll for absolutely no reason except to bring in thirsty teenagers is just the absolute lowest, creepiest marketing ploy I can possibly imagine. This is the kind of stuff those people who make blanket statements about how video games are stupid and degenerate point at when they want to dismiss the medium as a whole, and I hate it for making me agree with them even if just once.

"Oh, but it is so deep and complex". Yeah, if you're a horny teenager who never managed to stop fapping for long enough to read a book or watch a movie. "You're just being a sex-hating puritan!" No, Bayonetta is awesome, you can sexualize your characters as much as you want if you do it right. Bayonetta is also about a billion times more fun than this garbage. Go play Bayonetta instead.

There's a line in Alan Wake regarding how a story has to be paced just right. That events have to flow properly. I wish the actual design of the game reflected this idea.

There is a lot to like in Alan Wake. Namely the lighting and how it is put to use. There is effectively no HUD as the flashlight functions as a crosshair in a way that fits within the context of the game seemlessly. Checkpoints can come in the form of well lit areas and waypoints are represented as lights in the distance. These factors combine to give a strong sense of believability within the game world. As an aside this immersive quality is only strengthened by the connected geography of Bright Falls, I was under the impression this game was designed with completely seperate levels but this isn't strictly true as there are times where you can travel between areas that facilitate some of the games set pieces.

It's a shame that much of this good work can be undone when the game yanks the perspective from the player to show them an enemy or point of interest. This seems to happen consistently if enemies appear behind you but often it will happen when the camera already has them in frame. Sure getting hit out of nowhere from an off screen enemy is something the developers understandably want to avoid however there are better ways to set up encounters that give the player a multitude of ways to respond while retaining a semblence of scares and immersion. It just feels like a huge missed opportunity to have a game set in unnerving locations that has almost no tension during enemy encounters.
There does seem to be a missed opportunity in that all gameplay at night is accompanied by a lot of moonlight, it would have added some much needed variety and paranoia for a level to be in near pitch darkness.

The Taken are Alan Wakes main enemy type and you will get to know them far too well. There is a strategic element to gameplay where managing enemies that attempt to circle or rush you can be done through a variety of methods, all involving the use of light to slow, stun and eventually expose enemies for damage. I particularly found it enjoyable to block off enemies approaching from behind using a flare in order to focus on those in front or to try and funnel enemies into an area to use one of the more effective weapons like a flashbang or flare gun. Weapons have satisfying feedback, especially the revolver which has a distinctive crack when fired.
The problem being that there isn't enough depth in the mechanics or enemy variety to support the amount of combat thrown at you. There are no melee options, shotguns limited spread coupled with the high chance more than one enemy won't be susceptible to damage makes the rifle almost analogous to them. Location based hits dont seem to matter, shooting non exposed Taken is very rarely beneficial. The fact you have to wear down the enemies also seems like a mechanic suited to a shorter game, simply holding your light on an enemy hundreds of times is clearly going to be prone to becoming tedius. A few hours in you will mostly have it down yet you will be forced to go through very similar fights over and over and over again. This is what I meant at the beginning of this review. The ebb and flow just isn't there and I found myself becoming increasingly fatigued by the core gameplay.

Episode 2 was probably my low point in that there's a scenario which introduces the flare while relying on an npc to do damage as you have no weapon. Now granted I did use them too liberally but in my defense I wasn't entirely sure how they worked, whether they could outright kill a Taken, the fact that tapping R2 drops the flare and I had no foreknowledge an additional onslaught of Taken would be coming when I had to wait for an npc to open a door. To cut this short if you use up all the flares by the time the checkpoint triggers, if you die you will still be left with non and no way to re stock. This forced me to try in vain to stun lock the enemies for long enough with the flashlight to escape. Eventually I had to restart the entire chapter.
A counter argument to this is that this incentivises recourse management and it's true, I did take my ammo more seriously from this point on which is a positive however it's hard to see the value in having to repeat story segments which was the case in Ep2. It also doesn't feel like intentional design on the devs part. Thankfully I never had to repeat an episode again.

As convoluted as the story is I still found myself engaged by it for the most part. The biggest issues being the sometimes odd whiplash of tones but this often helps reinforce the shaky ground Alan finds himself in. It can be difficult to parse exactly what is going on. Small footholds are left in the form of manuscripts you find dotted around and these do a decent job of connecting the story to the game world, sometimes even foreshadowing events which gives a small taste of tension the game sorely needs. Alan himself delivers many of his lines in a grandiose fashion and has generally quite a grating personality. Alice whose disappearence is at the heart of the game is pleasant enough yet her character model and stiff animation give her an extreamly unnerving presence which makes it all the harder to care for what is ironically the most unnerving part of the game. Barry is much maligned and I understand why yet he comes through as having the most distinct personality and his loyalty that shines through his brash persona is actually fairly endearing. Seeing him wrapped in christmas lights is one of the more memorable parts of the game.
Cards on the table I'm not the best at analysing stories which probably shows but for what it's worth in the end I was more on board with Alan Wake than I expected even if I got pretty fatigued at all the "go from A to B and something goes wrong, repeat".

In summary Alan Wake has some genuinely good qualities, the lighting is still impressive, the combat has some worthwhile qualities and the story kept me intrigued but it's also poorly paced, with unneccesary hand holding wrapped up in a combat system and enemy roster better suited to a game half it's length.