Alan Wake 2 Review

Alan Wake 2 was finally released last week on Friday the 27th and published by Epic Games. I’ve been looking forward to this sequel for 13 years and it was well worth the wait. More importantly, it was better for the game itself that it was put on hold for such a long time due to how Remedy makes games. Since the original release of Alan Wake back on the Xbox 360, Remedy had time to release other major titles that received praise like Control and Quantum Break. Inside of those games we started to see this larger, grander universe evolve around the player. Phrases like AWE (Altered World Events/Alan Wake Experience) were tossed around and used as graffiti. Control was the grand addition of supernatural experiences with a twisted story. Inside of Control, while at the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), we can read short snippets that mention Objects of Power (OOP) and many files link to the “Bright Falls 2010 event,” and even the DLC that focused on Dr. Hartman from the first game. In Alan Wake 2, we see all these stories we’ve been told start to mingle in odd ways. The lead character of Quantum Break is our new Sheriff of Bright Falls and I’m not sure if it’s a double up on roles or tied to the connected story. Tim is related to Sarah Breaker from the first Alan Wake game and does briefly speak about her. Ahti, the Janitor from Control, is also here in Bright Falls fulfilling his part of the story as it is written.

                For those who have missed the chance to play the first in the series, Alan Wake is a writer with a liking to Stephen King’s novels in addition to Twin Peaks and Twilight Zone. In 2010, he had to save his wife and trapped himself in The Dark Place. This place is not a part of reality, but a place in between. It’s as if you’re in the Twilight Zone and struggle with remembering how the story has unfolded so far due to it being changeable. Alan was under constant attack and pressure to keep writing to give the ‘Dark Presence’ more power. The Dark Presence feeds off art that is created and turns it into a darker artwork and has motives to spread. Alan, being a writer, gave the Dark Presence the opportunity to grow beyond just the lake it resides in by attempting to write himself out, making matters worse. The plot of Alan Wake 2 is just that with a multitude of twists that occur. The lake levels are rising in areas, and we are to solve the mystery of the cult tied to ritual murders that take place in Bright Falls. Both characters are playable, Saga Anderson and Alan Wake.

                I will avoid spoilers for the story for the rest of the review, but the story has not concluded even with the release of this game. We also don’t know if it will conclude after the two paid DLCs, since we will only return as our two main characters in one of the paid DLCs coming later down the road. I personally believe this could be a set up for a third installment, which I welcome openly.

                In Alan Wake 2 we play mainly as Saga Anderson, an FBI agent sent to Bright Falls with her partner to investigate the cult. The cult starts performing rituals as we arrive at the opening scenes. After about 4 hours, you’ll be able to control Alan and be allowed to explore some areas of the Dark Place. Once both characters have been unlocked, the player may choose how they wish to progress the story by either playing as Alan or Saga and finishing each of their stories. It can be played in any order, but I stuck with Alan until it forced me back over to Saga. Saga is also supernatural in a way that allows her to see what the truth is. This allows for the ease of story telling by utilizing her skills to visit her “Mind Place.” In her Mind Place we can view the map, her case board of all active cases, profiling of suspects and characters, and reviewing collected media through TV, manuscripts, and radio.

                The visuals in Alan Wake 2 left me stunned. Remedy has learned and grown from their past games, but I have never seen lighting like this before in a game. The game feels immensely dark, even with your torch/flashlight. I had the settings set to the highest option, but when I played as Saga Anderson, I felt lost in the woods. The incredible amount of foliage in the woods makes it feel more realistic. Light in the game can really reflect and cast shadows off the high-resolution assets. When you’re running your flashlight is more accurate of someone running. That feeling amplified the combat mechanics which have also been altered. Walking around Bright Falls has never looked so good before. There is also heavy usage of FMV (Full Motion Video) cutscenes with a full cast of the characters who perform the motion capture for non-FMV cutscenes. As I spent three days enjoying this game, I slowly began to learn the maps available. There are larger areas Saga can explore like Cauldron Lake, Bright Falls, and Watery. As you go through these areas, time changes to fit the area. If you’re exploring the woods, it will be dark enough to call it night. Once you run back to a street or town, the sun will return illuminating more of the visible area. This allows this title to remain an open world for the player to enjoy as they wish. Alan is mainly playable in the Dark Place and his area is a rendition of New York streets. The layout of this map is a square with a couple blocks of buildings. As you progress through his story, the layout changes. His lamp acts like a “deluminator” from the wizarding world and allows him to move light sources to a different location. Once light is moved, the environment is affected by the change. The best showcase of the ability of the game is shown with larger areas. There were very minimal texture pop-ins as you moved, noticeably with graffiti on buildings.

                The audio for Alan Wake 2 is superb. The game does have an OST, but also utilizes the soundtrack from the first title with some hits returning. They only use these to amplify moments when you are controlling Alan and is a brilliant touch. The new OST does add fear to the combat tracks making the player feel rushed and searching for space as enemies close quickly in on you, some can even teleport forward closing large gaps. Peeling off a layer of Darkness off the ‘Taken’ (enemies) is now known as a burst of light but sounds similar to the first game. The sound effects play less of a role in combat as they did in the first, removing sneak attacks and replacing them with jump scares from frontal attacks. They no longer spawn sneakily scattered through the woods but in more fixed locations. Alan Wake 2 also does have various artists that made music for the in-between songs that play after a chapter ends. These songs are a fusion of Rock, Pop, and Alternative with lyrics that tie directly to the story and chapters the player finishes. This addition to the title adds immense value and provides depth beyond just a song. After roughly 10 hours of playing, as Alan you get to experience a musical to the likes of the chapter near the end of Control. A full rock concert with the threat of enemies you must fight through. There is a FMV scene apart of the musical with dance choreography from the cast so you may enjoy it without threat of death after fighting. The sounds for guns and combat are just as killer. The only issue I really had with audio was a bug where all audio cut out. The only fix I had for that bug was to relaunch the game. It happened during the opening cutscene, so was quick relaunch. There was a lip-syncing issue, but Remedy already updated the game twice (about 4gb) on the 30th. The developer noted they fixed issues with lighting (which I never had), various progression bugs, and touch ups with AI scripting.

                The gameplay has evolved to play more like Control than the original Alan Wake with gunplay and aiming thanks to Remedy’s new generation engine used in Control & QB. We do use the torch to burst off layers of darkness, which will return if the player doesn’t kill the taken. The running feature does not include a cool down phase, Alan can run more than 15 steps now without a break. The movement speed overall has been reduced and it can feel like a newer Resident Evil game at moments during combat. The ammo is scarce making you search around for more resources, there is less combat overall in comparison to the first game even though this game is longer. I played on Normal difficulty, but there is a Story mode and a Hard mode. The main enemies the story builds up act like bosses and must be defeated to end certain chapters. The bosses were the hardest challenge of the game and all the other combat felt lesser. You also can’t jump in this sequel. There are new CREEPIER enemies added. My favorite was the Taken that moves around as if it’s in water. The invisible water reflects their face making them look like a two-torso body attacking you with no legs. You can even damage it through the reflection. Once that specific type is out of commission, their normal body shows as they fall to the ground. Those types move a little slower but deal deadly hits. Most of the enemies in the game are easy to skirt by with the new dodge, but the later enemies can easily kill you setting you back a few minutes or more. Death scenes are a way for you to ‘rewrite’ the outcome. If you ever get stuck, the case board for Saga or the plot board for Alan will help push you along with your objectives. Checkpoints are more of a rarity and are tied to story progression, so saving often is encouraged which the player may use three slots to save and then two autosave slots. Especially save if you are just exploring the open world portions or travel between areas. Safe rooms are just like those in Resident Evil allowing you to store resources you found to use at a later time. Pressing select to access the mind place is different for each Alan and Saga. Each have different rooms and a unique Mind Place. Alan can only access his Mind Place in the Dark Place which is the Writers room. Guns can be found as optional pickups and aren’t required to beat the game, but typically require a simple combination puzzle. During major combat scenes, resources become more abundant with bodies dropping resources to gather or chests given, but not all the time. The core of this title is the story telling abilities using multiple forms of media. Any fact you think may know could be chalked up to the dark presence changing that said detail like the Mandela Effect. Alan and Saga can collect forms of power-ups to unlock new abilities and power buffs to their skill trees. Health is more like that found in a survival horror game with limited resources given and item management plays a new role. This is a welcome change from finding all caches in the first installment to only lose it at the end of every episode. The flow of the game changed from feeling episodic to being more like that of a novel which is more fitting. There are nineteen chapters plus the intro, so a lot more content has been given in comparison and meets the quality we expected from Remedy Entertainment.

                The longevity of this game is 25 hours for a full story completion with all collectibles and current achievements/trophies on normal difficulty. There currently is no chapter select and about 5 missable collectibles. I did miss some of the collectibles, so I must return to clean up. Remedy Entertainment has also mentioned that the game will receive updates on top of paid content. The first update they gave more details on was adding Nightmare difficulty and a New Game+ mode to carry over all collectibles and power ups. I wouldn’t be shocked way down the road if they were to also add accessibility options since they did that to Control. Collectibles and exploring are great ways to find more healing items, but isn’t required to enjoy the full story. There is a map feature to the liking of Resident Evil games showing what containers you still have left to open or Echoes (pieces of the story) to experience. Alan Wake 2 and all the future content coming is well worth the current price tag. The story telling abilities that Remedy have evolved are unlike any to compare to. They use all of their skills when approaching a new game and grow beyond it. Sam Lake, the creator of Alan Wake, played a role in this game as Alex Casey. The screenplay writers, Sam Lake and Clay Murphy, created such a mind-bending story that you’ll be questioning as it unravels.

                In conclusion, Alan Wake 2 in my eyes is Remedy’s grand masterpiece. Yet it only feels like the beginning after seeing the ending cutscenes. The audio was immaculate with songs tying directly into the story unraveling rather than iconic classic songs picked. These handcrafted songs add to the value with groundbreaking lighting used as the player walks between areas flipping time to night or day seamlessly. Saga’s story was more of a thrill than I was expecting and felt like a true crime detective show. Even after 25 hours of content added to Alan’s story, there are still some loose ends I hope they will address. The fact they have so much left to touch on gives me hope for a third installment in another 10 years. I’m sure Remedy will continue to grow their connected universe between their games and cross paths to the likes of Marvel. Control 2 is their next slotted title for release that would be a part of the connected universe and is only in the concept stage. I was more impressed by the in-game graphics than the FMV scenes. 

Conclusion

Alan Wake 2 masters the art of storytelling, and how that can reshape reality around us and push the boundary of lighting in videogames. The game is physically dark as it is thematically. The story is a lot to grasp, but simple enough with how many times things are repeated, so playing the other connected titles is not required. The developers have already fixed 200+ issues with update 1.0.0.8, most being minor things but some more rare crashes or progression issues. The creators of this game have immense passion for what they do, and it clearly shows in a variety of ways. Onward to the DLC.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.
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Good
  • Stunning visuals and audio
  • Best feeling gameplay in a Remedy title yet
  • Story full of intrigue and call backs to prior games
Bad
  • Some technical bugs
10
Incredible
Written by
Hello, my name is Ross, I live in the United States and love playing Xbox games. There’s almost no better feeling than finishing a fun game and unlocking all the achievements provided. My achievement addiction has led me to play a large variety of games and I love to play any open world or sandbox games. I have a soft spot for survival horror games ranging from Alan Wake to Outlast. I wasn’t always on Xbox, I started back in the summer on 2008 with simply Call of Duty 4 and World at War. Before that, I grew up playing Mario and Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation which is a strange, but a welcome combo. I’m currently 24 years young and also attend undergrad school working on earning my BA in Accounting.

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