This is a game that I initially found incredibly lifeless. The acting and characters reminded me of Heavy Rain, but not bad. Not very good, but not bad. The gameplay felt tedious and everything about the experience of playing it felt so hollow. Until it didn't.

I don't know when exactly things started clicking together for me. Somewhere around the end of Episode 2, but there was no real specific section or moment that made it all snap into place for me. It just sort of crept into me, but I'm only realizing now what it was; sincerity.

There's a lot in Alan Wake that can be described as underwhelming. The combat loop doesn't get shaken up very much throughout the game, undercutting the clever idea that it's essentially built around. There's several cool and unique ideas that the game dabbles in, but never commits to. I could list off more gripes, but I just don't want to. Perhaps it's just me, but the more you play it, the more you see just how much Remedy loved what they were making. The entire game wears its influences on its sleeves, while never feeling too reliant on those inspirations. It's all these little things that just make you realize how much they cared about making this thing, and eventually those little things began overshadowing the flaws for me, no matter how big they might've been.

Perhaps my hindsight is making me biased, since I know that Remedy apparently went all-in when making the relatively recent sequel, a game that was seemingly always on the back of their minds while working on their other titles. I've yet to play anything from Remedy besides this and the Max Payne games, and I don't plan on playing Alan Wake 2 until after getting through Control and maybe Quantum Break. However, I can't help but feel excited to see what they made, using this as a foundation and springboard of sorts.