Alan Wake’s writing is it’s biggest shortcoming. While the B movie style is charming at first, the bloated run time wears down its charm. Alan Wake himself is a highlight as his relatable grouchiness reflects his stressful situation and makes him come off as refreshingly human. This allows an interesting contrast in his interactions with the more eccentric characters. The effect works even more effectively because of his noir like way of speaking. The plot as a whole is not very well done. It gets lost in its attempts to capture the twilight zone magic, coming off more as a convoluted mess rather than a grand conspiracy unfolding. In summation, it’s uninspired and poorly executed. This can not be said of the gameplay which is delightfully tense and has a few neat gimmicks. Again comes the problem of pacing as the games runtime hinders the memorability of sequences as there’s are just so many that are too similar to one another. Where the game really shines is in its audio and visual design. The setting is well realized and the atmosphere is thick because of this. That is what ties Alan Wake together and makes it worth your time.