Alan Wake 2 is a mind-blowing game that was worth the 13-year wait
Remedy has always been an interesting games studio. Led by the calming yet enigmatic energy of Sam Lake, they’ve slowly but confidently built a reputation as one of the more singular creative teams out there. From the iconic Max Payne series through to Quantum Break and Control, the team are trendsetters and storytellers.
Alan Wake 2, a sequel 13 years in the making, is not only an impressive experience that meets fans' expectations and then some, it’s also a generation-defining moment. The game is brave enough to take big risks with a confidence we don’t often see in the gaming space and blends everything Remedy has learnt through the years to create something unique.
It doesn’t stop at trying to recreate the experience of a big movie in the gaming medium, while also embracing the medium itself and pushing the boundaries of what it can do.
It’s a landmark title that will have the survival horror community dissecting it for years to come in much the same way Silent Hill 2 has endured.
Alan Wake 2 is a truly ingenious experience that offers something for everyone, from the True Detective-esque case-solving to the tough survival-horror action and the spooky threads littered across Alan's story. And that's not even mentioning Remedy’s own brand of humour and loveable weirdness. Want a 15-minute short film or full-blown rock opera? Yep, it's in there.
Related: The Talos Principle 2 review
Set 13 years after the original story, Alan Wake 2 sees you investigating a strange murder in the forests of Bright Falls as Saga Anderson, along with her partner Alex Casey.
As you unravel the mystery in an initially grounded HBO-style detective procedural, eventually things begin to stretch the universe around you and soon fly off into the weird corners you might expect after playing Control.
Remedy, however, have such mastery over their idea that even in the game's weirder moments, it never stops feeling like a gritty murder mystery full of tension and begging you to explore the world around you.
This is thanks in part to the Mind Place – a way to stop for a moment and organise all your clues and plot threads on a fully fleshed-out ‘Pepe Silvia’-esque investigation board. The simple act of sifting through your clues and finding their correct place amongst the evidence is extremely satisfying, much like how organising your inventory was for the first time in Resident Evil 4.
In this fully realised cabin of Saga’s mind, you can rewatch videos, read manuscript pages, upgrade weapons and profile key characters, using Saga’s powerful hunches to get inside the mind of key characters to uncover new clues and next steps in your investigation. The catch, however, is while this world feels safe and homely, it doesn’t pause the real-time action going on in the 'real world'. So you’ll need to be careful where you decide to take a moment and review the case.
Eventually you’ll be able to switch between different sides of the story, following the threads from the first murder as Saga in Bright Falls and moving deeper and deeper into the Dark Place as Alan Wake himself.
There’s obvious similarities in the core gameplay as you can imagine, but with Alan’s experience, it’s a much slower burn as you unravel his madness and explore a slice of New York you’d expect in a hard-boiled detective novel.
Related: RoboCop: Rogue City review
Light as a mechanic is explored further here, not just as a tool to weaken the enemies around you, but also in the way it crafts and warps the world itself, revealing doorways, stairs and much more thanks to Alan's new lamp, which can absorb light and set it free elsewhere. As you explore the more humble puzzle space, Alan will uncover potential plot threads to his new story, which you’ll need to finish in order to escape the Dark Place.
The world often shifts around you as different plot elements are explored. Maybe the hotel you’ve entered was haunted by a poltergeist that left nothing but blood and destruction in its wake, or perhaps a cult held meetings there and liked things more organised than you'd imagine.
Each choice uncovers something new to explore and evolves around you in real time. Alan's Mind Place, rather than a cosy cabin, is the same writer's room we left him in all those years ago, but much as the same as Saga, he has a board to work from as he fleshes out the chapters of his novel and prevailing plot threads.
As you wander through New York, you’ll see and hear shadows around you at all times, but they won’t always engage unless you do first, leaving you to decide how to handle potential threats as you move deeper into the city. You could waste valuable resources to take them down early, though maybe they never would have been an issue. On the other hand, if you leave them all alone, when something big happens, they could gang up and overwhelm you sharpish.
It’s an interesting and delicate tightrope you’ll walk and something survival horror as a genre has been missing for a long time – actual fear from not being prepared to handle what horrors are thrown at you. You can’t brute-force your way to a solution every time, there just aren’t enough resources available for it.
Visually, Alan Wake 2 is a filmic spectacle – almost every paused moment could produce what looks like a shot from a Hollywood blockbuster. The level of creativity is also mind-blowing when you throw in the way Alan Wake 2 combines live-action and computer-generated visuals. It’s a truly cinematic and rewarding experience that often had us lost in its mixed meta world, genuinely forgetting we were playing a game.
The sound design is spectacular in its own right too, not least of all because of the swelling tracklist of original songs you’ll be greeted by at the end of each chapter, but during even the most seemingly innocuous moments, the tension and drama built from distant crashes and cackles or the buzz and hum of lights is palpable. Getting to hear more classics from The Old Gods of Asgard is certainly a treat in and of itself, too.
Nothing's perfect, and on some occasions the threads of ideas within the game can tear and tangle leading to some clunky moments, but in a world so bold and surreal, nothing ever detracts from the momentum or enjoyment.
Alan Wake 2 is a bold and confident follow-up to its original, and worth the wait in every way. Remedy has crafted something timeless that will be talked about for a long time and has unexpectedly become the game to beat in the survival horror genre. Surreal, tense, funny, absurd and nerve-wracking all at once, Alan Wake 2 is a game all of its own and one you really should experience.
Platform reviewed on: Xbox Series X
Alan Wake 2 is out now on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
You Might Also Like
