A game about a writer? I’m there. After a few bumps along the way, I enjoyed Alan Wake more than I thought I would. And I noticed a few game mechanics I believe will return in future games.

Horror isn’t my favorite genre, mostly because the subject matter rarely moves me. And indeed, this game’s attempt to build tension and apprehension was lost on me. Around Chapter 2, I almost lost interest in the game as I felt it repetitive. By Chapter 3, I was hooked on the larger elements of the plot.

What I liked the most about the game’s structure were the chapters akin to television episodes, which included quick-intro scenes where you were caught up on the relevant points occurring prior to that point. I liked this because it meant I could have put the game away at the end of a chapter–or rent it again later, as I had in this case–then return to the game world without losing much of my investment in the game.

Furthermore, with the episodic structure where each chapter essentially had it’s own three-act story, I could better appreciate the tension curve and flow of the story. Instead of awkward lulls in the game story to lower tension after a big fight, I was treated with creditless outros. That being said, there were several levels during the daytime where all you did was travel a looong distance without enemy presence. While the scenes were important to tension control in a major way, I think the scenes could have been much shorter.

The modern, media-hungry mind is well embossed with the ritual of after-story afterglow. As I scrambled to skip the outro and intro, it felt a lot like watching a season of my favorite show. I could see other games incorporating this recap structure during loading scenes, to help the player reinvest themselves into the game without wasting time inside the game reconnecting with the world.

The horror aspects of the game were light, relying heavily on slow-motion reveals of the enemy’s entrances and deaths. After a handful of times, the generic bad guy’s voice with it’s choppy, octave-jumping voice become commonplace. I think this was realized by the game’s developers, as later on, the bad said some pretty funny things. When you are surrounded by the most bad guys to date one quips, “Maybe I should get a job. Or a hobby.” Maybe that was supposed to be freaky, but I laughed.

The story had typical horror genre problems, such as the final moments before the climax. [SPOILER] The Dark Presence knew what The Clicker was and its purpose, so why would the bad guy stand there and let Alan shove it in the one place the object would do the most harm? Answer: It wouldn’t. [/SPOILER] So yeah, that always gets to me, because you see it all the time in horror. Oh well. And though there’s the typical question mark ending, I wouldn’t mind a sequel at all.