5/5 ★ – Krypt2k's review of Alan Wake.

Alan Wake is a great psychological/ horror game that offers a captivating experience that is both thrilling and thought-provoking. It is very cinematic and it feels like a horror movie that you get to immerse yourself in. In this universe, Alan Wake is a famous, bestselling book author that writes horror novels. He visits the town of 'Bright Falls' where mysteriously, his beloved wife 'Alice' has suddenly disappeared, all whilst experiencing the plot of his latest novel coming to life. It's a very good story that is split up into episodes. Every episode has twists and cliff hangers that leaves you with eagerness to continue playing to solve the mysteries swarming around this eerie town. The characters are well-written that put on good performances, the story is fascinating and riveting and the setting is sinister. Everything you could ask for in a horror game. I am glad I decided to try this one out as I am not usually a fan of survival horror games, but this one certainly did not disappoint. In fact, this has convinced me to dive more into this genre. After completing the main game, the ending showed us that everything has a price. You can't just write a happy ending, because the dark presence will use the plot holes to its advantage. Barbara Jagger drowned, so Thomas Zane wrote a "happy ending" of her just coming back to him, and she came back possessed by the dark presence. So he then had to write himself and her out of existence, and drowned them both at the bottom of the lake. Now he is forever trapped in the dark. Alan understands that and essentially takes Alice's place in the dark. She swims out of the lake, but Alan is now trapped in the dark in her place, attempting to someday write his own escape out. Also in the real world, dark presence had no host now (no face to wear), and the lamp lady also stopped guarding the light, so Alan writes Rose to be the new lamp lady, and uses the fact that Nightingale was taken away by dark presence and then never mentioned again to make him the new face for the dark presence. I also played the DLC's. 'The Signal' takes place right after the ending of Alan Wake's main story. Alan is still stuck in the Dark Place finding himself in a deja vu situation where he is living in the events of the past whilst simultaneously writing the story and being guided by Thomas Zane who is a regular name you will hear throughout the story. I thought it was pretty unique seeing the passages of texts float in front of you where shining your flashlight on them would bring them into existence, furthur creating that illusion of being in the mind of Alan Wake. It felt a lot more intense. Enemies seemed tougher, sometimes even being invisible. I like the 'boom' effect, rounding enemies closer and then shining the light on the 'boom' text to clear the pathways. Ending was good too, destroying the TV's that showcase the mental state of Alan to try and end it once and for all. I didn't have trouble doing this unlike many others, although luckily I had a few flares left to use which made it a lot easier. And by the end of the writer DLC, we were shown that Alan has started working on a new manuscript in order to use the rules of The Dark Place to get out. Everything is well thought-out and well written.