Alan Wake 2 is a paradox. It’s inspired by television shows like Twin Peaks, books like Paul Auster’s Book of Illusions, and games like Resident Evil 2 Remake. Yet it feels like nothing else out there.
With its FMV scenes, mind-bending plot, and references to Control, the game is easily identified as a Remedy one, but it manages to do things even the most avid Remedy fans won’t anticipate.
I happen to be one of those avid Remedy fans and after spending several hours with the game, I feel like Alan Wake 2 may be one of the most interesting and experimental games in recent years, both in terms of its metafictional plot and unorthodox gameplay.
Alan Wake 2 (PC, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Publisher: Epic Games Publishing
Released: October 27, 2023
MSRP: $59.99
I write to escape
Though Remedy has stated that you can jump into Alan Wake 2 without playing its predecessor first, I tend to disagree and struggle to imagine what little sense the plot will make to players who are completely unfamiliar with Alan Wake. The game does attempt to bring you up to speed on Alan’s story (I’ll let you discover that one for yourself) but it’s not the same unless you’ve spent time with Alan and understand his relationship with his wife.
As a quick recap, Alan is a famous horror fiction writer who travels to Bright Falls to overcome his writer’s block and mend his marriage. Here, his wife goes missing, leading Alan to uncover the mysteries of the Dark Presence which dwells in Cauldron Lake. The adventure culminates with Alan entering the Dark Place to rescue his wife, but in the process, he becomes stranded there instead.
The sequel kicks off thirteen years later. Detective Saga Anderson, along with Alex Casey, are visiting Bright Falls to investigate cult murders. Her search takes a supernatural turn when she discovers pages of a manuscript that seem to be telling her story. She finds the person behind them – Alan Wake – which kicks off a quest to stop the writer’s evil doppelgänger, who wants to alter Alan’s story to give it a bad ending.
The story is split between Saga and Alan’s stories which are intertwined but can be experienced somewhat separately. So far, Alan’s tale has been a metafictional rabbit hole that blurs the line between fiction and reality. This feeling of fiction spilling out into reality is heightened by the liberal use of live-action scenes within the game world, as though two dimensions have intersected.
To say the plot is weird is an understatement, and at times it can be hard to keep track of. Despite how absurd things get, I haven’t felt like the story devolves into nonsense. Quite the opposite, I’ve found it to be a very heady game that interrogates the creative process and its relationship with the Dark Place, as well as the role of the author within a work of fiction.
It’s not a lake, it’s an ocean
Though Alan Wake was well-received, many complained about its combat which quickly gets tedious and is somewhat shallow. This is a criticism I agree with, which is why I was surprised with how much gameplay has improved in the sequel.
You still have to burn away the Darkness Shield with your flashlight before you can attack enemies, but it’s not nearly as tedious any longer. The Resident Evil inspiration shines strongly on this front, and everything from the inventory management system to the dodge maneuver seems lifted from the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3. This isn’t a bad thing, as the game pulls it off well, though depending on who you play as you won’t be spending too much time in combat.
On that note, one of the features that had me intrigued is the ability to switch between Saga and Alan’s perspectives. You don’t get the ability straight away – I unlocked it after about six hours of play – but when you do, you can switch protagonists by entering one of the several Break Rooms (they function like the Safe Rooms of RE) scattered everywhere.
When you play as Alan, you gain access to the Writer’s Room inside his head. Here, you can organize all the manuscript pages in your quest to piece the story together. When Alan visits different locations, he can head to his Writer’s Room where, by changing plot elements on the board, he is able to alter his surroundings. It’s not easily explained and it’s better to experience it for yourself, but it complements the plot well.
Alan also gains a cool new tool that allows him to absorb sources of light and use them elsewhere. When light is snatched up, the Dark Presence changes things, which may open up new pathways for Alan.
Instead of a Writer’s Room, Saga has a Mind Place where she works on her clues and pieces them together to solve the mystery behind the murderous cult. The detective theme fits perfectly in a game like Alan Wake 2 which is chocked full of mystery and suspense. Admittedly, I’ve been spending far more time with Alan than Saga, simply because the themes of his story appeal to me more, but I’m itching to unravel more of Saga’s character.
The Remedy experience
When it comes to its visuals, Alan Wake 2 attempts to break boundaries. The game looks near photorealistic at times, and character models are emotive and feel weighty. On PS5, you’ve got two options when it comes to visuals.
Quality mode favors visuals, giving you a 4K output experience at 30 FPS. Switch to Performance mode and the game will target a 1440p output at 60 FPS. I tested the mode in Bright Falls when playing as Saga, and it managed to stay relatively stable at 60 FPS with a few dips into the low 50s.
Thanks to the game’s use of SSD storage, it’s able to pull off complex tasks nearly instantly. Switching between the regular world and Alan’s Writer’s Room, for example, happens in a flash, and environments change before your eyes when Alan steals light or adds a new plot point to a scene.
My impression of Alan Wake 2 thus far is that it is Remedy at its most self-indulgent. The studio’s love of FMV is intensified and implemented innovatively. Once again you have a plot that is trippy and self-referential, but Alan Wake 2 takes things a step further by attempting to rip through the border between fiction and reality in absurdist ways.
If you’re a fan of Remedy’s work, Alan Wake 2 is going to feel like the culmination of everything the studio has learned over the years. For first-timers, brace yourself, because there’s nothing else quite like it.
Alan Wake 2 is still throwing surprises my way, and I can’t wait to see how it all ends. I’ll need more time with the game before giving my closing thoughts, but so far, the game has been everything I’d want and more out of a sequel.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]
