Don't expect a horror game. Spooky, maybe, but certainly not horror. I must say that at no point of the game did I experience fear like I did in Clive Barker's Undying or the original F.E.A.R. The baddies are mostly hill billies with axes and a severe case of photophobia. What Alan Wake does very well is create a rich and intriguing world were the battle between light and darkness is almost palpable. The story is compelling and absorbing. Alan is very well portrayed as a man desperately trying to solve the mystery of his wife's disappearance. Sure, there's way too many of those let's-cross-through-the woods moments and the level bosses (if you can call them that) don't pose much of a challenge, but the game as a whole is much more than just the sum of it's parts. Alan is just a man trying to fight something he doesn't understand. Bottom line, Alan Wake failed to scare me, but utterly succeeded in entertaining, baffling and even surprising me. This is a game that stayed long with me after finishing it.
