During Microsoft’s press conference today, fans of the survival-horror genre received some very appetizing news. The long-awaited title from developer Remedy, Alan Wake, will be coming in Spring of 2010.

A gameplay demo was offered during the conference, which included some incredibly striking moments. Besides a highly-stylized visual tone overall, one section of the demo featured Alan lighting up a flare and charging through a group of devilish creatures, the light of the flare burning away their ghostly silhouettes. The camera spun around Alan during this section in a whirlwind of, for lack of a better term, "awesome cinematography."

Set in the town of Bright Falls, Washington, the game will be missions-based and feature a dark story that’s promised to be full of unexpected twists and turns. It begins with Alan’s wife going missing, and he begins to notice connections between his writing and the horrors surrounding him. To move through the story and defeat enemies, Alan will use a variety of weapons as well as light sources.

During the demo we got an opportunity to check out how light actually affects the game world. From a third-person perspective Alan moved through dark environments with a flashlight in hand. By shining the light at foes, they’ll take damage and weaken somehow. In addition to his handheld light Alan can utilize environmental lighting sources to his advantage.

Alan Wake’s mission-based story will progress in episodic fashion, which a press release likened to The X-Files or Twin Peaks. From what was shown in the demo, it also appears there’ll be some kind of slow-motion effect that could be similar to Remedy’s "bullet time" in Max Payne. Alan Wake appears to be pretty heavy on action, with multiple enemies attacking at once in some sequences and utilizing bits of the environment as weapons, like tossing cars. Settings included dilapidated cabins and dark forests, and an official release states that changes in daylight and weather will have dramatic effects on the gameplay.