13 Severely Underrated Horror Games You Must Play For Halloween

7. Alan Wake

Alan Wake is a best-selling novelist who's suffering from a particularly nasty bout of writer's block - the river's been dammed, and there isn't a thing that Alan can seem to do about it. Hoping to get the juices flowing again, Alan and his wife take off to a secluded cabin situated somewhere between the back of beyond and middle-of-frigging-nowhere (or Bright Falls... if you want to get technical). One thing leads to another, and before you know it - Alan's wife's gone missing and it's up to him to track her down. It's an intriguing setup, but what's truly impressive about Alan Wake is not the story that's told, but how it's told - you see, it eventually dawns on Alan that he's living out the events of a manuscript he can't recall writing, and how this ties into the gameplay is particularly fascinating: collectible manuscript pages scattered throughout Bright Falls serve as a means of conveying backstory as well as foreshadowing future events, and this has the effect of keeping you on edge from one moment to the next. And it doesn't get any easier once the sun sets as your survival is dependent upon your ability to locate a light source. With the darkness inching closer with every passing second, holding a flashlight steady becomes a test of sheer will.