An immensely satisfying story, atmosphere and setting seem almost completely wasted by questionable gameplay decisions. Levels are overly long and linear, leading to many repetetious combat segments barely broken up by any other mechanics. Alan Wake's main new mechanic, the use of light to make enemies vulnerable is overused and while there is some variety to it, these segments are often just as edious as they require you to take on larger waves of enemies. While the developers do such a splendid job weaving the story into the actual game portion of the game, creating rich ephermera in the form of Manuscript pages, radio programs and a Twilight Zone-esque TV show, these are often extremely far apart, as combat and walking are the main focus of the game. For such a story driven game, it seems a shame that the developer seems to pad the runtime out and not introduce more stry elements or cut scenes to make it feel fresher.