Among the more interesting aspects of the video-game world is that sequels are often better than the originals. There are plenty of franchises that have not come into their own until a second title addresses the flaws of the first. ("Assassin's Creed II" and "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" provide examples.)

I hope that is what happens with "Alan Wake," a new suspense game for the Xbox 360. I hope the inevitable "Alan Wake 2" delivers the emotional depth and game-play range this first title so clearly despairs of.

Playing "Alan Wake," I kept encountering a great concept suffocated by bafflingly narrow and unimaginative design and embarrassingly derivative and rote storytelling. "Alan Wake" bills itself as a "psychological action thriller," but it falls short on the psychology and the action. What is so frustrating is that its visual production values and overall polish are impeccable -- this is a game that desperately is trying to be a TV show à la "Twin Peaks" or "Lost," and looks like it -- but "Alan Wake" simply does not deliver where it counts: in the mind and in the gut.

First, the mind: The plot is a mash-up of horror and suspense clichés. The setup is straight from "The Shining."

Alan Wake is a famous novelist plagued by writer's block who decides to visit the small mountain town of Bright Falls, Wash., with his wife, Alice. Why Alice, who has a pathological fear of the dark, would even consider spending time in a small cabin in the middle of the woods (making a mockery of the game's entire premise) is presumably not one of the mysteries the writers want you to fret about.

Of course, the lake that the cabin is set on was considered haunted by the local American Indians, and before long the villagers are being turned into bloodthirsty, ax- and chainsaw-waving wraiths. Or maybe Alan is going nuts and just thinks the wraiths and possessed refrigerators, truck tires and harvesting combines are after him. Or maybe it is all just a dream.

When "Alan Wake" isn't trying to be a TV show, it is trying to be a Stephen King novel or perhaps a TV adaptation of a Stephen King novel. But the problem is that the game never creates any empathy with Alan Wake, the character. He is not a nice guy; in fact he's obnoxious and condescending to his fans. The town of Bright Falls is populated by what appear in momentary interactions to be interesting characters, but the game never takes the time to let the player get to know them or care about them.

"Heavy Rain," the masterly mystery game for the PlayStation 3, packs more emotional weight and psychological meaning into every five minutes than "Alan Wake" manages over its 10 to 12 hours. Of course, the deficiencies of "Alan Wake" in occupying the mind could be forgiven if the "action" part of the "psychological action thriller" were of the top rank.

Sadly, it isn't. At least 90 percent of the game play in "Alan Wake" is you running through the woods at night, shining your flashlight at the wraiths and animated farm hardware to weaken them before finishing them off with a handgun, a shotgun, a hunting rifle, a flash-bang grenade or a flare gun. The game play never evolves beyond that, and the settings are all so dark as to make them monotonous.

Publisher Microsoft and developer Remedy have earned my faith that the next game will be a lot more interesting. I hope the next game will let the player explore Bright Falls during daylight and expose them to the town's creepiness and secrets through more nuanced and subtle encounters with its inhabitants. I hope the story will also turn inward to the characters of Alan and Alice. I hope the game play will involve more puzzle-solving and exploration.

I have faith that Remedy can pull that all off. Naturally, that is what sequels are for.