From the exciting and foreboding opening lines to the blood-curdling revelations just before the credits, Alan Wake is a nonstop thrill ride. Remedy Studios, the developers behind the acclaimed film-noir series Max Payne, has put five long years of hard work into this story-driven horror project since its announcement in 2005. Many were skeptical that Remedy would ever deliver an actual game, much less a good one. Luckily, I can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that those skeptics were dead wrong.

Alan Wake’s story is the strongest aspect of the game: it twists, it turns, and it drives you ever forward. Without giving too much away, it all centers on the popular horror writer Alan Wake. He visits the sleepy mountain town of Bright Falls to take a much-needed vacation and possibly conquer the writers’ block that has been plaguing him for years. After a brief midnight stroll, he comes back to his cabin to find his wife, Alice, missing. Not only that, but pages of a manuscript he doesn’t remember writing begin popping up all over town. What’s worse is that the events described by the manuscript start actually happening.

The game world is populated with a multitude of unique and interesting characters that naturally drive the narrative of Alan Wake forward. The script written for these characters is top-notch and is delivered convincingly by the voice-acting cast. The action is punctuated by the procurement of manuscript pages from Alan’s new book that flesh-out the horrors happening around him. The game also sports an episodic structure with the game split into six episodes, each with a “Previously on Alan Wake” segment. These natural breaking points do wonders for the pace of the game and help keep the combat and exploration fresh. Most episodes end with a tantalizing cliffhanger that makes it extremely difficult to press the power button after each conclusion.

The combat revolves around the balance of light and dark. Enemies know as “the Taken” are shrouded in darkness and must be weakened by light before they can be finished off with traditional weaponry. Along the way, you’ll pick up various tools to fend off the darkness including flares, flashlights, and flash bang grenades. You must defend, evade and attack in order to best these slaves of the Dark Presence. Combat is incredibly tense, especially when dealing with multiple Taken as they can easily sneak up on you and jam a sickle into your shoulder. However, a flare can give you some breathing room while you find a light switch and a well-placed flash bang can clear out the entire forest. The level design allows for some challenging spots, but the game always gives you the tools you need to put up a solid fight. I don’t want to spoil anything, but a set-piece battle in the middle of Episode 4 is easily my favorite moment of the game and one of the most personally memorable moments in gaming.

While nighttime combat will take up the majority of your playtime, there are also several daytime segments where you can explore the town and learn more about what the hell is happening. Most of these scenes start each episode, giving you a pretty good idea as to what you’ll be doing for the next hour or two. You’ll meet various new characters and be enlightened on major plot points. Lending to Alan Wake’s brilliant presentation and strong story, I found these portions of the game to be just as exciting as the combat sections. These segments also prove to be a welcomed relief from the horrifying scenes that come with the night.

Barring a few stiff animations and cases of character lockjaw, the game is gorgeous. The forest, despite being a fairly linear path, seems as though it expand into the distance forever. The mountain scenery and lush lakes feel as though photocopied out of a brochure for a sleep town in the Northern Pacific. Furthermore, the disturbing imagery and clever use of light and shadows gives Alan Wake a distinctive look and feel. The developers spent a lot of time on this graphics engine, making it run like a well-oiled machine, and the quality of their work shines.

The game’s six episodes may seem to go as quickly as they started, but each one is a delight to play. While the action doesn’t have the longevity one may hope, going through the story a second time around can bring clarity to any questions you may have had. Furthermore, the harder difficulties require you to frequently change your approach to combat and can turn seemingly easy segments into quite satisfying challenges. There are also various collectibles scattered throughout Bright Falls just begging to be collected during multiple playthroughs. Coupling all of this with the promised downloadable episodes to continue Alan’s story, Remedy has provided quite a ride for the price of admission.

Alan Wake is a rare game that comes around once every few years; it provides a deep story, superb writing, exciting thrills, legitimate chills and overall staying power. With the slick, atmospheric presentation and engrossing story, Alan Wake is a must-play if you own an Xbox 360.

My name is Marty Hess and I am an undergrad student at The Ohio State University looking to get into video game journalism. Originally published on my personal gaming blog http://www.pixelrated.com.