Alan Wake is a hard game to describe, and some people will love it, while others will resent it.

The game is awesome in every technical department, from graphics, to sound, everything is top notch, and doesn't disappoint. It's technically one of the best games i've played on the Xbox 360. 

The graphics are in most part beautiful to watch and the framerate is steady, still the characters sometimes have some akward body expressions. The scenarios, unlike other games, don't look like fighting arenas, and instead appear as normal locations of any village by the montains. Each detail on the scenarios is carefully placed to intensify the mood of each scene. 

The sound department is top notch, with a good soundtrack, solid voice acting, and a cool voice-off effects. Interesting is the fact that you can hear Alan Wake (the character) reading some of his own writings, immersing you in them. You can also see some very well made tv programs made especially for the game.   

The gameplay follows closely the third person shooter mechanics implemented by Resident Evil 4, with some small quick time events for intensifying the mood, and driving sequences. The focus in combat has been taken from the damage made by the weapons to the exposition to light they offer, with the best weapons being the ones that expose enemies to deadly doses of light (example: flashbangs), still weapons with high damage (example: handguns) are useful when combined with flashlights or other light sources.  

The story is very good, with unexpected twists (also expected ones) and a tender pacing, being closely inspired in Stephen King's and H. P. Lovecraft's fictions. It takes about 10-12 hours to finish, although some people take less or more to complete. 

I haven't reached the end yet (being past midpoint), still the game doesn't seem to offer greater replayability than finding all the works written by the author (Alan Wake) and other colectibles, watching all the tv programs, exploring further the enviroment and experiencing the story again.    

Still there are some (small) development options taken that will be hard to get used to, and some people will find them game breaking. These are: 

• The lack of a minimap with which to guide ourselves by, having only visual aids, like lamp posts, and a small compass on the top left. In most games this wouldn't matter, still despite not being a sandbox, the levels are very large and life like what leads to a lot of desorientation, getting lost and frustration. People with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and/or who love to cover all the terrain will dislike this aspect of the game.

• There are no invisible walls, but a combination of both natural obstacles and an over population of enemies in the edges of the playable area (making it impossible to traverse) are used to control your progression, which can lead to disorientation and frustation, especially to completitionists. 

• The story is broken in six parts - like a miniseries - but each episode is considerably long, possibly taking more than two hours to complete, and with only auto-save to keep your progression, making login out in the middle of a chapter, unless you see the saving icon, lose some of your progress. What isn't all that worrying since save points are quite often in the game, still leaving the game before ending the chapter can be quite annoying.

I resent anybody who resents Alan Wake. Those people have no imagination and cannot appreciate a work of art :) 
 
Good write-up dude I did a similar review day before release, I can see how some of those issues might effect enjoyment for a select few people, but, i'd argue they are really less than you make them out to be (which isn't to say you are over-playing them, just that I consider them incredibly minor) there's no minimap, sure, but the artists have done an incredible job of leading the player by eye, it's almost never not obvious where you need to go.  
 
As for over-population of enemies, yes, unfortunately in the larger areas enemies will spawn infinitely if you wander around too much on the very borders of the maps. Fortunately for those completionists, almost everything you need to find can either be seen from a vehicle, or is inside a building/cave/other area where enemies will not spawn randomly. Quite often there is a set event, or a set amount of enemies, or none at all. Very few collectibles are just out in the middle of nowhere (aside from the nightmare mode pages! :D But those are supposed to be a complete nightmare to both find and collect) 
 
And yeah, it does suck a little that the game runs on an autosave checkpoint system, but fortunately I don't think I saw one checkpoint that was more than 3 or 4 minutes from another (other than a couple of long conversations with no combat) 
 
One thing that really got to me though, and is continuing to do so as I take on the higher difficulty modes, is those fucking axes the enemies throw. They make you stumble for far too long imo, you take so long to recover from them that the other enemy (very very rarely will you fight just one enemy) has closed the ground and is right in your face. I'm finding this a major annoyance once you start facing 5 - 6 enemies at a time. As well as the lack of ammunition on the higher difficulties, with normal enemies taking 3 shots a piece from the revolver (Hard mode, don't even want to think about Nightmare yet) so it will be a considerable challenge. 
 
That and the poltergeist items in some areas kinda pissed me off, I just don't think they are a very enjoyable enemy to fight in a tight space, which becomes particularly evident in the very last chapter on that bridge. 

 I resent anybody who resents Alan Wake. Those people have no imagination and cannot appreciate a work of art :)     

I can see how some of those issues might effect enjoyment for a select few people, but, i'd argue they are really less than you make them out to be (which isn't to say you are over-playing them,  just that I consider them incredibly minor)   

 here's no minimap, sure, but the artists have done an incredible job of leading the player by eye, it's almost never not obvious where you need to go.      

 As for over-population of enemies, yes, unfortunately in the larger areas enemies will spawn infinitely if you wander around too much on the very borders of the maps. Fortunately for those completionists, almost everything you need to find can either be seen from a vehicle, or is inside a building/cave/other area where enemies will not spawn randomly. Quite often there is a set event, or a set amount of enemies, or none at all. Very few collectibles are just out in the middle of nowhere (aside from the nightmare mode pages! :D But those are supposed to be a complete nightmare to both find and collect)     

And yeah, it does suck a little that the game runs on an autosave checkpoint system, but fortunately I don't think I saw one checkpoint that was more than 3 or 4 minutes from another (other than a couple of long conversations with no combat)     

One thing that really got to me though, and is continuing to do so as I take on the higher difficulty modes, is those fucking axes the enemies throw. They make you stumble for far too long imo, you take so long to recover from them that the other enemy (very very rarely will you fight just one enemy) has closed the ground and is right in your face. I'm finding this a major annoyance once you start facing 5 - 6 enemies at a time. As well as the lack of ammunition on the higher difficulties, with normal enemies taking 3 shots a piece from the revolver (Hard mode, don't even want to think about Nightmare yet) so it will be a considerable challenge.     

That and the poltergeist items in some areas kinda pissed me off, I just don't think they are a very enjoyable enemy to fight in a tight space, which becomes particularly evident in the very last chapter on that bridge.     

I think not including an mini-map would make a game like Alan Wake more immersive since cluttered HUD's are gamey as hell.

" I think not including an mini-map would make a game like Alan Wake more immersive since cluttered HUD's are gamey as hell. "