Well, shit. That’s the end of Alan Wake 2 for me.
At least until New Game Plus comes out.
Tons of lingering questions, tons of answers and continuations from the original game, so much interpretive writing, music, and characters.
But I enjoyed every second of this game.
This is such a cool merging of video games and artistic vision!!
It took 13 years (well, for me only 8-9 years since I first played) but damn did they finally deliver on a worthy sequel.
The first game was a good cult-classic. Very far from perfect, as the main gameplay loop was extremely shallow, long, and repetitive. But was held up by a fairly engaging supernatural mystery and a tease of greater surreal ambitions, should a sequel ever come…
And that sequel has delivered on that surrealism in ways I could not have ever expected.
The writing for the main plot in AW2 is wonderfully cyclical. There are so many connecting pieces to this story that reference, reflect, echo, repeat themselves and offer many different interpretations of events, due to their vagueness.
This can either be a good thing or a bad thing for some people, but as an artist I am blown away.
All of the strange live-action pieces in the game were so strangely captivating and only added to the weird mystery, deciding what could be trusted as Fact vs. Fiction…
And for fans of Finland, they put a lot of their own culture in this too, which I find pretty cool for a developer team to do.
Saga Anderson, introduced as the newcomer’s insert to this tale, is a cool, mysterious protagonist, who seems unaffected and unsurprised by the really weird supernatural happenings of the town, as she pushes forward into the mystery.
Her gameplay is very claustrophobic as the forest environments can get a little confusing, but that adds to the spooks. Enemies often hang around different areas during/after missions while exploring, makes for tense encounters.
She also has a really engaging Case Board that we don’t see enough of in detective games.
Sure, some of it can be pretty basic “question and answer” linking, but it’s a very fun way to piece together the weird elements to the plot, act as a way to recap yourself, and see what conclusions come from it.
There are also a lot of side-collectibles that were fun to hunt down, and I found abiut 60% of each, I decided to follow a guide to get the rest before jumping into Saga’s ending 
so, I got the platinum trophy already too! Cool!
Alan Wake’s side of the story is for the Remedy die-hards. He’s inhabiting a nightmarish, noir-styled New York, and things get WEIRD. Paths to your objective don’t follow logic, as you’ll find doorways on top of roofs that open to the ground floor. You’re constantly haunted by groups of shadows, taunting you and making you question which ones are hostile and which are simple illusions. (There’s a minor bit of stealth you can do by turning off your flashlight, but it can make running into one all too easy…)
He is my favourite part of this sequel going full M-rated survival horror. He can finally drop F-bombs! And ohhh boy does he deserve it. Trapped in a nightmare, full of relentless torture from his own mind and the darkness around him, it was great to hear him and other characters swear in fear when the tension gets to be too much.
I will say, that the game relies on full-screen unavoidable jumpscares too much. It always gets me. Sure, that means it works, and it can tie into the game’s psychological themes, but I think it’s used too much for what the game’s horror hook already works without, or much less…
You feel constantly under threat when you come across shadows. The environment is gorgeously dark, with neon and light echoing off of the environment.
You meet strange characters like Alex Casey, his legally-distinct Max Payne, engage with strange but neat Live-action cutscenes that further the plot, but can also confuse you even more… it is a place of dreams, nightmares, and illusions.
I’m going to be very interested in seeing what other fans have theorized so far.
There are also plenty of other connections to Control’s FBC, plus some sneaky “Not-Quantum-Break” connections using some similar actors/characters. I loved Mr. Door’s mysterious nature, and David Harewood echoed the really great late Lance Reddick – though his portrayal was still all his own.
Overall, this was a great purchase. A game that truly looks Next-Gen, with a production that far outshines what Remedy did back in the first Alan Wake. It’s impressive, and I can’t wait to see what comes next with its expansions. Didn’t get the Deluxe version, but I sure will now.
Oh yeah, and one last thing: Where the fuck is Barry Wheeler, my comic relief, Remedy??! How could they make a sequel without him, even a little? He was so fun in the original!
MEGA SPOILERS TO NOTE:
- I really enjoyed how Saga and Alan’s stories connected, both in how their “investigations” played out, and in how Alan’s connection from the Dark Place played around with time, not always running in tandem with the real world…
- Saga’s story was very long and engaging, and I really liked how it revisited a lot of the key characters from the original game – and how all Boss Taken of her story were key characters somehow in the original game.
- Alan’s story revolving around loops, repetition, and a never-ending self-torture was fun in a twisted way. Yes, I get that we kinda already had this in AW:AN but due to this darker sequel it brought some great, sad mind-fucks to this one.
I had called it after the 2/3rds of the game that he’d loop in and shoot himself trying to fix the story in the writers room, and I’m glad to have been unfortunately right. - The side-story involving revisiting Alice was very sad, though I’m glad there seems to be a silver lining in that she’s willingly trapped herself into the Dark Place to help Alan. Hopefully this means in DLC, NG+, or a sequel, we’ll see more of her have some agency in helping Alan find the right art to escape?
- it’s intereting this game once again has a scripted “dark-reflection” climax involving Saga at the end, where her doubts trap her in her own mind, much like the Hiss try to trap Jesse in Control.
- a whole lot of lingering questions about who Zane is, what’s with the possible retcons about him being a director instead of a poet, and how he looks just like Alan, or Scratch.
I’m betting that he’s some dark reflection of Alan, Scratch in disguise, trying to get Alan to work together if his plan of “take over Alan’s mind” doesn’t. He behaves in a similar laid-back way to Scratch from American Nightmare… Or, its another case of “history repeats itself, and Alan must not become Zane”. - There’s just so many layers to cut into here. I love it SO much. I really hope it gets recognized this year for some very bold writing and artistic presentation.
- I found the game to get a little bit Kojima-like in the end, with how wild and strange it got with its own plot, but that’s kind of the appeal with it, I guess?
Now to get into Spider-Man 2, in another dark-ish streak…
But man, it’s going to be really hard to find another game that can give me the same vibes and presentation as Alan Wake 2 though… this game, for good and bad reasons, is one of a kind. Great job Remedy. More people need to make games as weird and experimental as you…
