13 years of waiting. Over a decade, that was worth every single minute as Remedy Entertainment delivers a true masterclass in survival horror with Alan Wake 2. The most ambitious project yet for the Finnish studio, which is saying something considering its pedigree, this is a game of bold undertakings and uncompromising vision that isn’t afraid to sever some ties with the original work. It’s a less deliberate action and more brooding atmosphere, a tale of impressive proportions… scratch that, make it two tales of remarkable care and immersion. This is the complete package for fans of survival horror, the game that Silent Hill fans have been waiting for decades but never got.

Murders on the Dark Place

Seemingly drawing inspiration from works that go beyond the threads revealed in the first game, Alan Wake 2 is a potpourri of the good and the great. The beginning feels like the best parts of True Detective and Twin Peaks blended together, while later on, it throws some Stranger Things into the mix. Fans of any of these television shows know just how gripping they can be, and Remedy made sure not to skimp on any details – here’s a colossal, jaw-dropping, often mysterious adventure that grabs you by the throat and creeps into your thoughts and dreams until you reach the end of the tales.

Alan Wake 2 is a continuation of the first game but having played it isn’t a requirement to understand the events. It surely helps, and playing Control is a good idea as well since both games work in a sort of interconnected Remedy universe, but what you have here is more than enough to live a thrilling story with good knowledge of what is going on.

This time, players will step into the shoes of FBI agent Saga Anderson, not to mention the titular Alan Wake. At one stage, you’ll be able to switch between stories at will via your safehouse – read save point – but to fully understand the mystery, you have to complete both.

However, the adventure begins as you briefly take control of a naked, obese man, completely confused and lost in Cauldron Lake, wandering around the forest until some key events happen. One of the things that the game uses – some might say overdoes – is sudden flashing images with a startling sound akin to jump scares, an effective way of intimidating the player, and while there’s an epilepsy warning at the beginning, it’s a debatable tension vehicle nonetheless.

When you gain control of Saga, your job is to investigate the ritualistic murders at Cauldron Lake, accompanied by your partner Alex Casey, who many fans will quickly identify as Remedy’s creative director, Sam Lake. Although not his first appearance in a game – his main claim to fame being the unforgettable Max Payne, but he also briefly appeared in Control – this may come as a great Easter Egg for fans, although his presence also brings a distracting effect since his face and squint-eyed manners are very much unmistakable.

Since this investigative moment, Alan Wake 2 has shown its chops by delivering on world-building with a supernatural focus, unfolding more as a detective game than what fans of the original might have been expecting. It’s a bold move, a significant change of direction to focus on storytelling that pays off with enhanced immersion and unease. By limiting the action scenes to some impressive set pieces and a few offbeat moments, they become more memorable and exciting and give you leeway to explore the fantastic locations and soak into the atmosphere, meet the locals, find some references to the first game, and wonder what is going on with the main duo, who will inevitably cross paths and try to help each other with their own personal mystery.

Investigations of the Mind

Being an FBI agent, Saga has a lot of reasoning and investigating to do. Most of it is done inside her head, in what the game calls the Mind Place. This small room swiftly fills up with clues and all kinds of findings, collectibles included, and is often a mandatory passage to find a vital trigger and advance the story.

The clue board is where all elements of the investigation go. Countless photos are linked by strings as we make the connection between cause and effect, sometimes by deduction, other times by chance. It’s not a tough challenge, and ends up being interesting to see how the cases are unfolding and the key events that led to each one.

Another aspect of the Mind Place is profiling, which works less as the real thing and more as some sort of foreshadowing. Think of Saga as a psychic, capable of looking into the minds of the subjects and discovering things that weren’t spoken of. This is a recurrent aspect in Alan Wake 2, intrinsically tied to the way the plot is written – in both senses, as you’ll soon find out – especially when you pay close attention to the manuscript pages that you often find. Far from being a cheap plot mechanic, it plays out as an intriguing setup that keeps you guessing, waiting to see if things truly are what they are expected to be.

Alan Wake also has his very own Mind Place called Writer’s Room. More than interpreting clues from murders, his focus is on trying to escape the Dark Place by rewriting the story and changing events in ways that will hopefully return him to reality. The rest of the room is similar to Saga’s in the sense that it stores collectibles, upgrades, television events to review, and more.

Saga and Alan have their own means of upgrading their abilities. The former should be on the lookout for nursery rhymes in the most ambiguous places, finding dolls of various types that are used to reinterpret the short story and slightly change the environment. Sometimes unfolding into combat, other times into brief investigation, the outcome is the same: finding a charm that gives you some sort of perk.

On the other hand, Alan has to search for sigils with the precious help of his flashlight, resulting in obtaining Words of Power. Each one of the seven words offers three choices of different types, from restoring a bit of health when using the flashlight boost to increasing damage dealt by the last bullet in the chamber.

Saga will also find Alex Casey lunchboxes, another element that encourages free roaming through the few regions. Although Alan Wake 2 is a linear game at heart, nothing apart from the occasional story roadblock is preventing you from straying off the predicted path and searching the surroundings, and it is absolutely worth it due to the staggering beauty of it all.

Fighting Shadows

Being a survival horror at heart, Alan Wake 2 isn’t constantly throwing you into combat, but it inevitably happens. Enemies don’t show up very often, and that’s one of the ways to make each confrontation feel more impactful and fun without ever bordering on tediousness. From wolves to axe-wielding creatures of supernatural speed, surprises come at just the right pace and keep you on the edge, tickling your desire to see what is coming next.

Ammo isn’t abundant, so it’s not advisable to spend it at every opportunity, and your flashlight is going to be your best friend – both Saga’s and Alan’s – as it burns through the shadows and turns enemies, the Taken into vulnerable beings. Batteries are as valuable as bullets, so save them as much as possible.

Avoiding combat is something to consider most of the time, but when there’s no option but to face the opponent, you have some solid movements and ingenious battles. The dodge movement feels weighty and fine, enemies choreograph their attacks with enough feedback for you to time your move, and the scenes deliver both on punch and the feeling of being endangered. Weapons aren’t too diverse, but between a shotgun and a bow, the results are often very weighty and satisfying.

Along the way, you may find some stashes, often providing a few interesting types of puzzles. The recurrent one is to look nearby for numbers and some sort of hint, giving you an idea of the correct order for the lock, but others are more creative. For example, one safe puzzle requires you to decipher the code based on the designations of the staff, which may not be very obvious until you realize how to tackle it.

An Angel of a Lamp

Alan’s main twist – that is, the one apart from the occasional ability to rewrite parts of his story to change a few locations where he is standing – is the use of an Angel Lamp. This is another gadget to switch some aspects of a given place, opening pathways that weren’t previously there, but for it to work, you must store light from a light source into the lamp, up to a handful of these at the same time.

Sometimes this can be a confusing mechanic as locations switch; you may feel disoriented and wondering what exactly has changed and in what way we are supposed to progress, as there are some awkward puzzles using this mechanic. It may force you into some backtracking and close inspection of your surroundings, and since there are no true directions apart from the general goal, it may frustrate you every once in a while.

Alan also stumbles upon echoes, these orbs that reveal parts of his own story and that allow you to progress, but first, you are required to solve these. Staring at it from the right direction and distance is the only way to do so, not quite obvious for the first time, but it becomes second nature later on.

Awake to Some Jaw Dropping

Running on Remedy’s proprietary Northlight Engine, Alan Wake 2 is the kind of game that will make jaws drop with a loud noise. All the latest tech is in here, the protagonists look as real as can be, with Saga being a major achievement. From the hair flow to the facial details, this 3D model is spellbinding, uncanny, and oddly enough quite more realistic than Alan Wake – who is doing his best Keanu Reeves impression – not to mention miles ahead of Alex Casey’s often distracting looks. The rest of her model follows suit, with clothing and textures as credible as can be and animations that just feel natural and organic.

Other characters aren’t quite at the same level, but most of them are of high quality, and other games would kill for the attention to detail that we can see here, including some of the secondary NPCs.

The environments are mind-blowing, ranging from the “realistic” metropolis and subway tunnels to the quaint areas of Bright Falls and Watery, including a fully detailed and very abandoned carnival fair. The Cauldron Lake area is mesmerizing, especially when the sun is setting down, and the light shines through the tree foliage, bouncing on the puddles and creating a beautiful orange reflection.

Physics, however, is the poor cousin of the game. That much is visible in some places, such as the morgue or the General Store, as items scattered across the floor are nudged to the side in an abrupt way, with a very unrealistic and odd feeling considering the quality of pretty much everything else. Not that Alan Wake 2 needed a robust physics system, but it did deserve one, including a higher potential for destructibility when shootouts happen.

Another conflicting aspect is the recurrent mix of 3D models with real-life footage. The latter can be spotted mostly in television skits or during visions, but the effect burns into your mind and ends up in this odd place, almost as if unnecessary and strange to have, especially during transitions. Could the game be better if completely excluding the real-life footage elements and opting for computer-generated models instead?

Naturally, all of this comes at a price, and it’s advised that you check the minimum and recommended requirements if you want to run the game to its full potential.

Obsessed by the Dark Place

Alan Wake 2 shows a developer at the top of their game, caring for details that many other studios wouldn’t pay much attention to. Take this ravaging rainstorm when you enter the General Store – close the door, and suddenly, the sound outside becomes muffled, just like it would be in real life. Or the beautiful songs at the end of each chapter, some of them extremely catchy and immersive, almost dreamlike – or should I say nightmarish – and they also give you a glimpse of what you’ve been going through as if putting the events into context in song form. Skipping these shouldn’t really be an option, as they are both enjoyable and useful.

With a playtime that deserves all praise, easily clocking in at over 20 hours if you don’t rush through it, Alan Wake 2 is absolutely worth the time and money. It’s a remarkable achievement that is meant to be both devoured and enjoyed slowly, despite what this sounds like, plunging into all the details, exploring every beat of the locations without rushing through the main goals, as to appreciate the colossal work that has gone into it. This is a terrific television series gone videogame, with a sophisticated plot that grips every fan of survival horror and never lets go. The fantastic looks help, but the perfect pacing and intriguing mysteries keep you going despite some frustration that may arise from the Angel Lamp puzzles.

It’s one of the greatest survival horror games ever made, this shouldn’t be skipped. A fantastic example of how different types of media can crossover and create a very special outcome, it was absolutely worth the wait for Alan Wake to come up with a plan to escape the Dark Place and write an outstanding story about it for us to read, watch, play, and above all, enjoy.

Score: 9.5/10

Pros:

• A terrific mix of the best detective shows with a supernatural twist
• Two characters to control, two gripping stories to unravel
• It’s survival horror with the perfect pace, making combat even more impactful when it happens
• Graphically jaw-dropping
• Stunning soundtrack
• Great length

Cons:

• Angel Lamp puzzles may be frustrating and confusing
• Echo puzzles, though are easy, can become bugged.

Alan Wake 2 review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.