I finally finished Alan Wakes last DLC "The Writer", and here are my thoughts. For the main game I thought the story was really good, but I got really, really tired of the combat mechanics by the end. I just wanted to get through the encounters so I could experience the next part of the story..

"The Signal" had a good story, and the ending was great. But the combat was even worse in my humble opinion. The difficulty was ramped up and certain sequences was extremely annoying to complete. Especially since the combat mechanic isn't that good in the first place.

So I had a lot of doubts about the second DLC, but gameplay wise it was a big step up. Less combat and more weird dream sequences are just up my alley. Story was quite good, but the ending wasn't as good as all the other episodes' cliffhangers. Well.. that was my two cents on that game.

I liked the story and setting of Alan Wake but like you found the combat tedious after a short while. I didn't like the fact that at the end of every chapter you would lose your flashlight and guns through some dumb narrative way. When The Signal came out and I got the code to download it I was skeptical that I could even be bothered with the game at all anymore and when like you point out the ramped up the difficulty I put it down and haven't cared to ever play it again. It's alway a shame when a game ruins the whole point of itself through feeling the need to incorporate unnecessary things.

This is the way I've started to feel about more and more games. As I get older and my life gets busier, I'm more interested in the story than the gameplay in a lot of series. I still love some multiplayer Halo or Borderlands, but It's nice to have game with a great story that moves at a brisk pace.