Think of Alan Wake as a story that really wants to be told in a movie, but is instead transplanted into a computer game. While I found the story it tells compelling enough to finish the game, the gameplay can't be called anything but poor. The battles are repetitive: walk a few meters and wait for enemies to be teleported in. Each time there are just fractions of a second to react to being surrounded by opponents that move at light speed. When Doom 3 came out, it was criticized heavily for this kind of gameplay, but unlike in Alan Wake, you could at least accurately control your movements. Here, due to the 3rd person view, you always have to wait for some movement animation to finish, and whether the game reacts to your mouse clicks or keyboard input is a bit of a lottery. The detailed terrain made possible by a modern 3D engine also introduces problems that didn't exist in past shooters, like the insurmountable ankle-high obstacle. Worse, often you can't see at all what's going on since you're standing with your back to a tree or a rock, which fills the screen and obscures the action. Instant death invariably follows. Saves are only possible at checkpoints, and while on the whole this works smoothly, there are about half a dozen points in the game that become intensely frustrating. Each time you die, you have to pick up items and ammo again, occasionally watch cut scenes, then die again after a one-second fight that you lost because while you reacted, the character you're controlling didn't. As a game, it's a failure, but an interesting one. There is the intriguing mystery of what's going on, impressive scenery, and a lot of atmosphere and attention to detail. On the whole the game is still worth checking out if one likes the genre.
More than ten years ago I wasted countless hours playing SMAC (and the expansion, Alien Crossfire, which inexplicably seems to be missing from the GOG version). It's essentially "Civ in Space": the tech tree is futuristic, instead of barbarians you encounter alien life forms, and there is even a story about the effects the humans have on their new planet, and vice versa, that unfolds while you play. This is an incredibly addictive game. There's always something more to do, producing a strong "just one more turn" effect. Even if you know the background story after playing to the end for the first time, replayability is immense due to the variety in factions and possible playstyles. A few issues should be mentioned. Even after numerous patches, Firaxis never managed to eliminate all the bugs. Also, the AI is weak and doesn't really understand how to play the game - unsurprisingly, as there are just too many game elements which a human can intelligently play with. Not all of these game features are well-balanced. None of this, however, detracts from the enjoyment.
