I was 12 years old. It was a Monday morning. I had been reading about Pokemon in Nintendo Power for months now. My mom let me go to school late and took me to Wal-Mart right when they opened to get Pokemon on Game Boy. The only other people outside waiting for the doors to open were another mom and son. We both went right back to the video game section. I don't know what he got, but for some reason I picked Pokemon Blue. I think my best friend at the time said he was going to get Red so we could trade.

What followed was weeks of playing it non-stop: in the car, under the covers with a flashlight, in school when I could get away with it. I picked Bulbasaur as my starter and never looked back.

Amazing game, truly a revolution at the time. If you're reading this and have never played Pokemon before, just play it. Stop reading this! Go now!

wake me up

wake me up inside

can't wake up

Is it too late to change my game of the year?

I won’t be the first person to compare the two, but I find that the experience my time with Alan Wake II mirrors most closely is, of course, my time watching Twin Peaks: The Return. I know they’re apples and oranges, as Alan Wake II being a mixed-medium survival horror detective videogame makes it a different beast altogether, but the way I experienced both was similar: I had a good ol’ blissful, sacrosanct binge which commanded my full attention and which I could not stop thinking about.

I went into both armed only with my knowledge of the previous entries and the works of their creators… and that musical number at the game awards.

In short, Alan Wake II is operating on such unprecedented levels of Conmancore that I feel overwhelmed. I’ll have more specific and properly composed thoughts on the adventures of Owlan Wake and Saga Andeerson once I eventually play through The Final Draft.

Yes I was trying to figure out how to shoehorn in that symbolic pun but kinda gave up.

I'm seriously not sure how to start this.

Alan Wake 2, the notorious sequel and award-winning continuation to a 13 year old game finally released. It's safe to say that the original's lasting impact on Remedy and players alike has been felt for a while now. AW1's blend of TV inspired episode structure with meta-narrative commentary on writing seamlessly gave way to a unique experience which has, I think, aged quite well. It was something I found quite interesting in their catalog of games and whilst playing them in order grew to enjoy, even with its shortcomings in gameplay. Where that and the side story Alan Wake's American Nightmare left off gave way to a lot of questions and theory crafting for the next couple years.

Well... You know the rest, let's cut the bullshit.

As someone who's only recently given Remedy's games a go-around it's pretty obvious that their identity, that is multi-media storytelling, is so integral to their games. It's the difference between them and other triple A developer I feel; utilising the "cinematic feel" these developers now try to go with but to a whole other level.

Remedy has always pushed boundaries to try mix these sorts togethers, Max Payne tried to imitate Noir cop stories with comic book panelling, Alan Wake with TV aesthetic and in-game live action cutscenes with the TV's, Quantum Break's inclusion of an actual TV show in between story chapter, Control's Darling videos and Hotline. You get the memo, it's something Remedy has tried to push for and I think with Alan Wake 2, they've finally surpassed what's possible within the confines of its story.

Their creative vision can be seen bleeding into everything in this game with scenes like Herald of Darkness and most, if not all the scenes in this game. Yötön Yö for instance, a short film created in-universe by a character, looks so incredible and had me so locked in. It also being in Finnish just a nod to all sorts, as one of my good friends discussed to me throughout the game, and the studios origins is quite cool even for someone who isn't from there.

The inclusion of a FUCKING MUSICAL section is just... genius. One which works so well because of how goofy it is but also how amazingly written the lyrics were (I was singing it so much at work after seeing it). Poe- cough The Old Gods Of Asgard are a band that have been with Remedy for a very long time and each new song they've made have been great, but they went above and beyond with not only this but Dark Ocean Summoning and Anger's Remorse. They only have gotten been with The Poet and Muse and Take Control. It's just so nice to see a band so integral sonically for their games, hoping they also come back for future games.

So musically and visually, Alan Wake is just the evolution of what's been before them? Transcends pfftttt what about the actual game, I'm here for the game!!! The story!!!

Well, the story is good. I'm gonna be quite frank here, it's been call mind-bending and whatever adjectives to describe its story, none of which does it justice I feel. I don't think I can do it justice without writing an essay of an essay about it, something even longer than this. I will though give a small tidbit about one aspect I found cool.

The story's usage of Alex Casey is something I've thought about a lot recently. Inspired by Remedy's most iconic character, voiced by the legend himself (RIP), reused and spun for a completely different purpose whilst written by a the main protagonist makes it alone something quite special. His interactions with Alan is short, but gives you an understanding of how tired he is, not of the jokes around him being related to Alan's fictional character, but of his own existencial crisis which is echoed near the end of Initiation. It makes you question about Alan's writing, how many lives he's using for his own gain even when it's not out of malicious intent. Casey's own existence being fictional or not, and why he's so interlinked with the story just left so much to talk about. I love Casey and throughout the game, it uses him so differently that I expected which left impressed with how Sam developed as a writer.

Alan and Saga are cool, I'm just REALLY not wanting to write too much on them but I'm quite happy about how they were handled. Saga was someone I didn't think much about before coming in but came out impressed with how her story linked with the events with Bright Falls. Originally, AW1 was supposed to be Alan and Nightingale as protagonist before being canned but I'm glad they didn't let that idea go to waste with this attempt.

Alan Wake is nothing without the Bright Falls and its characters. All the previous characters were done even more justice like Odin and Tor (genuinely happy about their focus) and new characters like Saga, WARLIN DOOR, Koskela Brothers, Tim Breaker were all fun. There's a character I feel has also been in the back of my mind since the ending of AW1 and all I can say about them is I was impressed with the handling of her.

Aspects like the "Remedy-verse" were also handled naturally. It does a lot for what was established with Control, AWE, House of Dreams and QUANTUM BREAK??????????? HUH??????? There's plenty more with the next two DLC's that I have hope will be cool.

Another aspect I love was the genre shift, something that should be whatever to most people, is such an huge thing I feel not only thematically perfect for the story but the gameplay loop as well (see what I did there). Survival Horror is a cool genre I feel and outside of me being ass (thanks oomf) it's one I genuinely have fun in. Everyone under the replies I know hates the combat shift and change from the simplistic AW1 but I don't know man.... I liked it a lot more BECAUSE I felt like it more tense, BECAUSE it was more about resource management, BECAUSE it'd take a while to kill someone. It didn't feel bullshit a lot of the time, I did though feel scared shitless. Something I'd say is genuinely cool about this game sometimes is the enemies. The taken previously were quite goofy but wow the redone have been quite fun to fight against, when I'm not having someone in my ear scream about running away.

Alan's sections in the dark place having you try stay in the shadows, not using your flashlight, flipped a lot of what I thought from the previous games in a nice way. The plot board and mind place were brilliant ideas though, especially with Alan's writing changing areas on the fly. It was technically impressive and having no sort of loading screen inbetween made it more cool, I loved the detective side of both of them, Alan's through Casey's echo's and writing return but also Saga's own deductions and piecing together notes.

There's a lot I'm intentionally leaving out, why? I have way too much to talk about that it'd look like a dissertation on a developer and not a review because at the end of the day, you know that I like this game. What I believe is nice though, is I'm able to express it here in the most unedited way possible. I'm just THAT happy about Remedy hit a home run and now all eyes are on them.

So what did we learn from this? Alan Woke is a localiser, Sam Lake has been mewing and lookmaxxing since the 90's and I am the champion of light. Go play Alan Wake 2 if you haven't, not sure why you'd read this if you did and goodbye!