Alan Wake 2 review: a modern survival horror masterpiece

I’m hard-pressed to remember a game with as shockingly effective an opening as Alan Wake 2. Remedy Entertainment is explicit about its intention from the beginning: to enhance and expand on every element of its 2010 horror-action cult film, while subverting interactive storytelling at every opportunity. Astoundingly, the studio’s grasp meets its reach, delivering an experience far darker, deeper, and weirder than anything it has crafted before.

“This is not the story I wanted it to be,” Wake gravely warns in an opening monologue. “This is not the ending that I wanted.” Indeed, this is not the original aborted sequel to Alan WakeThe idea was born in 2010 Alan Wake 2It is something completely different, and in a ‘post-“Control The studio would never have been able to produce something of this scale and production quality all those years before.

The game picks up thirteen years in the past, after the original. Alan Wake 2Saga Anderson is a FBI profiler assigned to Bright Falls, Washington. She arrives there to look into the mysterious murders and disappearances that have been linked with a deranged religious cult.

Upon arriving, Saga and her partner, Alex Casey — a jaded yet affirming mentor with an affinity for coffee, and the likeness of creative director Sam Lake — deduce that the murders may The following are some of the reasons why you should consider hiring someone elseWake’s disappearance, which occurred over a decade ago, is linked. Both are thrust into the center of an eerie mystery which threatens not only their own lives, but the fabric of the universe as a entire.

Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing

Original Alan WakeIt is well-known that the series draws heavily on the works of Stephen King and serialized dramas of Lost, and the surrealist humor and aesthetic of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. The sequel is no different, though the game’s emphasis on survival horror systems pulls from a far stranger concoction of inspirations. To put it broadly, the game’s story and tone consist of a combination of the first season of True Detective, Twin Peaks The Return, and John Carpenter’s The Mouth of MadnessA slow-burning detective thriller which gradually escalates to a full-blown horror nightmare.

Following 2016’s Quantum Break and 2019’s Control, Remedy’s newfound talent, experience, and design acumen are on full display here. What is the first? Alan Wake It was linearly and level-based. Alan Wake 2Similar to The Evil Within 2 — The game requires players to explore additional areas as they become available.

The combat system has also been redesigned. Alan Wake 2 It is based on the philosophy that less-is more. Smaller groups of Taken enemy ferocious enemies try to sneak up and outflank Alan or Saga. Light sources such as flares and flashlights are essential to burn away darkness, which shields enemies, just like in the original game. However, there have been some changes.

Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing

While lampposts continue to temporarily protect players, they do not regenerate any health. Instead, you’ll have to scavenge for med packs and painkillers along with ammunition and other story-critical items, which can be accessed via a grid-based inventory system à la Resident Evil 4. The puzzle design in the game also shares a lot in common with Capcom’s horror franchise, specifically Resident Evil 2’s remake, with hidden caches of supplies scattered throughout each area that require keen observation and deductive reasoning to unlock.

This survival horror only scratches the surface. Alan Wake 2’s most ambitious innovations. The original storylines can be broken up by switching between Saga’s and Alan’s stories at any given time (after or before certain chapters that are crucial to the plot). The two halves, despite sharing the survival horror kinetic vocabulary, feel as if they are separate games. They overlap and blur at the edges, just like the darkness that has encroached on Bright Falls. Saga’s half follows her as she unravels the connection between a deadly cult and the mysteries of the supernatural Cauldron Lake, while Alan’s sees him desperately fighting to escape the Dark Place, a nightmarish dreamscape of New York City that he can sometimes literally rearrange by adjusting “plot elements” he finds throughout the world. These jumps are exhilarating as well as jarring.

Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing

It is this shared 3D interactive space, the Mind Place that drives these journeys. You can explore the various clues, upgrades and collectibles each character uncovers to further the story. It’s a bold gambit, design-wise, one that bears out what might be one of the most gratifying experiences the game has to offer. What’s more, there is absolutely no delay in jumping from the Dark Place or Bright Falls to this liminal space and back. The game doesn’t even technically pause while you’re there. The Mind Place is inaccessible during combat, too, so you’ll never have to worry about accidentally activating it while you’re in the heat of battle.

It opens up an array of story and gameplay options that are unique to every character. Saga’s Mind Place lets her collect clues that can then be assembled on the evidence map at the other wall of the game room. The Mind Place allows Saga to collect clues, which she can then use on the case board at the far wall of her room. Saga must profile the suspects after gathering enough clues to reach a conclusion. This is a skill that Saga seems to possess. These sequences take the form of fugue-like visions à la Will Graham’s empathic episodes in HannibalIt combines live-action footage with in-game clips, much like the messages on hotlines in Control.

For Alan, the Mind Place takes the form of a writers room — one wherein he can assemble plot beats on a chalkboard using “echoes” of inspiration scattered throughout the Dark Place’s nightmarish caricature of New York in order to conjure up new pathways through previously inaccessible sections of the world. The Angel Lamp, a new gadget that Alan can use to achieve this feat is also available. It allows him to transport portable flashes of light to be used in creating passages similar to those found in the Oldest House From Control.

Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing

Crucially, you won’t need to have played the original game to understand this new installment, though a passing familiarity with both Alan WakeThe following are some examples of how to get started: Control This will allow you to gain a better understanding of Alan Wake 2’s implications for the future of the Remedy Connected Universe. This story interweaves alternate dimensions, metafiction and recursive resets to create an existential horror that had me on edge right until the end.

Alan Wake 2 is a monster of a game — the culmination of 28 years of experience, from a studio whose funding and scale finally seem to have caught up with its grandiose ideas and boundless ambition. It’s at once a love letter to fans of Alan WakeA daring reinvention of survival horror. In a year that’s seen remakes of such venerable horror titles as Dead SpaceThe following are some examples of how to get started: Resident Evil 4, Alan Wake 2 stands tall as one of the year’s best in the genre.

I already consider it a modern horror classic, one that opens up a veritable ocean of possibilities for Remedy’s future. It will be another 13 years before a new game is released. Alan Wake 2’s caliber to come along again, it will have been well worth the wait.

Alan Wake 2Release date is October 27, on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. Xbox Series X will also be included. Epic Games provided a PS5 pre-release code for the game’s review. Vox Media partners with affiliates. Vox Media can earn affiliate commissions, but this does not affect editorial content. This is where you can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.