"Alan Wake 2" Review

Publisher: Epic Games Publishing

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Available for: Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows

Reviewed for: Playstation 5

Unlike a lot of folks, my first foray into Remedy Entertainment as a studio was not the Max Payne series. Rather, it was with a much-hyped little game called Alan Wake: a 2010 horror/thriller game about a writer who has to face the forces of darkness after his wife is kidnapped while the two are on vacation. Most of you likely don't know this, but Alan Wake is one of those games that I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely cherish. I reiterate the most important word in that sentence: cherish. I loved that game so much back in the day. I played it over and over and over again because it struck a truly perfect balance: a solid story, somewhat-solid gameplay, and the most unique concept I'd seen at that point in my short tenure as a person who enjoys games as a hobby (I don't call myself a "gamer"). And you know what? Time has only made the heart grow fonder. See, when I was a teenager, everything I've already said was true...but I didn't understand that there was a delicious camp factor to the game. The game takes itself way too seriously with writing that is way too bad to be taken that seriously. As a teenager, I didn't pick up on that, but as I've aged, that little bit of campy charm has done nothing but endear me even further to the game. After Alan Wake, I didn't really pay much attention to Remedy's work until Control a couple years ago. That game showed the same kind of capital-V Vision that made Alan Wake so great, but it had a couple of truly unforgivable flaws. Then, Alan Wake 2 was announced. I never expected a sequel to be made, nor did I necessarily want one. Furthermore, I didn't leave Control feeling like I needed to see more from the studio. So...it's safe to say that Alan Wake 2 came into the ring at a serious disadvantage.

So....what's my opinion, with all of that out of the way?

Well, if you'll show me the champion of light, I'll show you both the herald of darkness and my thoughts!....you'll understand if you played the game...anyway, my opinion will probably become clear as we go along.

In Alan Wake 2, you play as FBI Agent Saga Anderson, who finds herself and her partner, Alex Casey, called to the podunk town of Bright Falls, Washington. Their purpose? To investigate a series of ritualistic murders with only one point of commonality: all of the victims first went missing in 2010, 13 years ago. The original game came out in 2010, took place in Bright Falls, and the first victim you examine is a boss fight character from the original game...so it's not hard to tell how the two games tie together. If you noticed that the opening sentence of this segment didn't start with "In Alan Wake 2, you play as the titular Alan Wake," congratulations on being observant! If you did so without taking a massive dump in your diaper, slamming your fists on the desk, and screaming about it...another round of congratulations for being a better put-together human being than 99% of people who bring the main character status of this game up. See, not only is Saga a woman...she also commits the cardinal gamer (this is why I don't give myself that label) sin of being black. As a direct result, the Quartering and Synthetic Man types of the world have taken to giving this game the eye-rollingly predictable yet legitimately, legitimately, legitimately, legitimately funny moniker "Alan Woke."  It's ridiculous for obvious reasons, but yet another reason why it's ridiculous is that I only spoke half the truth at the start of this segment in order to set up this bit. You play as both Saga and our titular tortured writer, and the runtime is split equally between them. You can switch between the two protagonists at will, playing through each of their stories at your own pace. 

Each protagonist's side of the game is different from the other in both gameplay and story, so here's the story breakdown. Saga's story takes place in the real world and sees her continuing to investigate the murders and other things that I've decided not to spoil. Alan's story takes place right where we left him: in "the dark place": a purgatory-esque surrealistic landscape ruled by "the dark presence": an evil entity hell-bent on using Alan's tortured psyche and imagination to conquer the world. His story involves navigating the nightmare-like landscape looking for ways to make contact with Saga in the real world to give her hints on what to do next. Alan's story is far more wrapped into gameplay than you'd ever guess, so I'll leave that unspoiled, even though other reviewers like to delve into it. But despite how different the two stories are in every conceivable way, they both feature enough interesting points to be noteworthy (again, for entirely different reasons). But what I will say is that you should absolutely alternate between the stories at the end of each chapter. In fact, I kind of think leaving it up to the player was a misstep. Frontloading all of Saga's content, like I did, isn't much of an issue in and of itself. But it does mean that you get all of Alan's content in one go, which can be a biiiit much given how surreal it all is.

So, with that discussion finished, how about gameplay? Well, it's a little different from the original game. Whereas that one was kind of a standard third person shooter if you took the flashlight mechanic out of the equation, Alan Wake 2 is kind of a standard Resident Evil clone if you take the flashlight mechanic out of the equation. Like in the original game, you have to burn away the darkness around an enemy with the help of your flashlight before you can damage them. However, this time around, the combat is more close-ranged and over-the-shoulder, and the emphasis is more on carefully placing your shots and aiming for the head. Yeah, given what I've already said, it should be clear that nobody ought to be coming to Alan Wake 2 for the combat. I started the game on Normal difficulty but found it frustrating, so I switched to Easy and regularly flip-flopped between the two. On easy you have way too many resources and can kill most enemies in one hit. On normal, you're constantly running out of resources and it takes something like 5-8 hits to kill an enemy. I can't even imaging what it's like to play on any harder difficulty. So, the gameplay isn't bad, but it's definitely not good. And that's what I came in expecting, but if you're on the fence, let this section serve as a way of keeping your expectations in check. Anyway, like in the original game, you have other methods of burning away shadows from enemies than just the flashlight. You have road flares, flashbang grenades, etc. Furthermore, you have a variety of weapons at your disposal from a pistol to a crossbow. The difference between this game and the original, though, is that there isn't a max amount of any given resource. Rather, there's a limited number of squares in your inventory, with each item taking up a certain number of spaces (think Resident Evil or Deus Ex). Weapons take up the most space, while boxes of ammo and batteries take up the least space and alternate light sources take up a mid amount. So, your loadout is up to you and your confidence. Do you use smaller weapons so you can carry more ammo? You might if you find you have a hard time landing your shots just right or if you just want to play it safe and leave some extra room for flares that you wouldn't have otherwise. Do you use one or two big weapons with limited space for ammo? If you feel like you're good at the game or you want to give yourself a bigger challenge, you might. 

But now to what Alan Wake 2 gets better than pretty much every game I've ever played in my life: its technical quality. Solid 60fps, some of the best graphics I've seen all year, high-quality textures, uncanny audio design, no visual or audio glitches of any kind, the gang's all here! But it's not just about what it doesn't screw up...rather, the discussion here should be about what the game does that elevates the technical standard. First things first, the game takes what Control did in terms of its supernatural effects and takes that to a whole different level. The little semi-rainbow shine around supernatural entities as they get blown into oblivion is somehow even more impressive in this game than in Control (and without the horrendous framerate drops and glitches). The name of the game here is art direction, and this game has it with a capital A and D, respectively. The effects used to create the surrealism of Alan's segments are simply unparalleled, making the whole thing feel like a realistic nightmare. I'm particularly blown away by how scary the game tends to be. The little cutaway jumpscares do start to get grating as the plot progresses, but in the Alan sections, the walking shadows are surprisingly scary. Something about the way they look and move is just inspired. I've heard some opinions that vastly differ from mine on this topic, but I can only report on my own experience. 

Folks, this is the last review I'm writing for 2023 before the main event, so if this one seems a little rushed, that's likely why. Pair that with the fact that enough time has passed since I beat this game and when I'm writing this conclusion to start to feel conflicted, and you've got a recipe for ending out the year's worth of proper reviews on a weaker note. But c'est la vie! As I already said, I wasn't chomping at the bit for a sequel to Alan Wake, and I went into it with basically no expectations. Even with that as my bar to clear, Alan Wake 2 is impressive beyond what I would've imagined. It doesn't innovate in any conceivable gameplay sense, but if you're like me and you can forgive that kind of thing if there's some classic Remedy capital-V Vision involved, you owe it to yourself to give Alan Wake 2 a try!

Let us review:

Serviceable gameplay - 1.0

The final score for Alan Wake 2 is...

9.0/10 - Fantastic

Excellent work, Remedy, excellent work!