3/5 ★ – ephemeriis's review of Alan Wake.

Ultimately, I don't think I can recommend Alan Wake. I'm a huge horror fan. And I especially enjoy Stephen King's stories. So a horror game about a writer sounded great. But it just wasn't an enjoyable game. I really like the way light is used as a weapon and a source of safety. It leads to some dramatic visuals. But the intense use of darkness and shadow also makes it hard to tell where you're going at times. It was easy to become disoriented or lost. The biggest problem for me, though, was the responsiveness of the controls. They felt vaguely mushy. Clumsy. This is fine when you're just navigating the world... But there were occasional platforming sections that were made far more difficult by the mushy controls. And combat was often painfully impacted by the controls, too. It genuinely took me years to finally muscle my way through this game. The narrative is interesting... The setting is beautiful... But the actual gameplay is frustrating.