If you’re looking for spooky games in October, you won’t encounter a shortage, as the month is stuffed with more than you could possibly play. Alan Wake 2 is one of the most anticipated upcoming horror titles, and though it’ll be taking us back to Bright Falls, it is evident that there’s plenty of new content awaiting.
Recently, Remedy’s Sam Lake, dressed in a dapper suit, visited Kinda Funny Games and discussed a lot about Alan Wake 2, the Remedy Connected Universe, and the gaming industry as a whole. A lot of interesting information was unearthed, including the fact that developers once considered a first-person perspective for the upcoming horror game.
This idea was sparked by Resident Evil 7‘s successful use of the perspective. As Lake explained, in many ways first-person is ideal for horror games, as it puts you up close with the monsters that’ll jump out at you. However, the team decided that it wouldn’t be the right fit for Alan Wake 2 due to the game’s heavy focus on its characters and story. Consequently, they concluded that “seeing the character on the screen” feels too important to the game to ax.
The many influences of Alan Wake 2
Remedy has been quite open with how deeply it has been inspired by Resident Evil‘s take on the survival horror genre. Gameplay footage from IGN has illustrated how much Alan Wake 2‘s gameplay feels like Resident 2 Remake, and the comparison is only made stronger by the fact that both games feature two story campaigns.
The first Alan Wake game took great inspiration from 90s teen horror like Twin Peaks. This time around Remedy looked to a slew of horror, suspense, and crime films such as Silence of the Lambs, Midsommar, Hereditary, and the works of David Lynch.
The interview is also worth listening to because of what Lake reveals about the ever-growing Remedy Connected Universe. He explains that the Remedy Connected Universe is limited to games owned by the studio. Hence, Max Payne isn’t part of the world, as it has found a new home with Rockstar. Quantum Break is also not part of the universe because it was developed for Microsoft.
Alan Wake and Control are certainly part of the universe, and the franchises will further intertwine in Alan Wake 2. Though he is careful to not reveal too much, including whether we’ll see Jesse Faden, Lake does state that “there are connection points to Control” in the upcoming game. We may have already seen hints of this, as gameplay footage has shown Ahti the FBC janitor in Bright Falls.
It is exciting to imagine what Alan Wake 2 would look like as a first-person game, but Remedy’s decision for not going in this direction makes sense. We’ll finally get to see the next chapter of Wake’s adventure on October 27 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
