Alan Wake II surpassed my expectations. Thirteen years later, Alan returns, and it more than lives up to the time passed. If you've seen Twin Peaks and played Alan Wake 1, you'd be hard-pressed not to draw comparisons between them. This sequel delves into the darker side that its inspiration also drew in the third season.
Night Springs exists as a fictional TV show within the world of Alan Wake, and it's heavily implied that it's fiction within that universe but could also be reality. This separation between the real and surreal realm is what this game excels at by putting you into the roles of two protagonists this time around. You are thrust into the experience with a rude awakening as you control a bloated naked corpse of a detective sent to Cauldron Lake in Bright Falls to investigate the disappearances of Alan and other persons since.
The introduction sets the tone instantly with a cult ritual, which looks like it would fit in well with 2010-era music videos. We are then given a winding road shot of our new protagonist, Saga Anderson, and her hard-boiled partner Alex Casey, whose face is based on Sam Lake, the director, writer, and iconic face of Max Payne.
Saga is slowly taken up to speed with the supernatural events occurring in Bright Falls, as is the player—both new or returning—in a way that doesn't beat you on the head with exposition. Everything unravels as you piece together separate clues that you assess on the case board, which also acts as a guide in case you forget what to do or have a few missed items you want to look into.
You will find manuscripts and lunchboxes that let you upgrade your weapons, and it is all so familiar if you've ever played Resident Evil 2 Remake. Even the item box mechanic is borrowed here with the shoebox that allows you to store extra supplies that you can't hold. The puzzles are quite intuitive and rely on intuition and exploration to figure out the solutions, which is something Resident Evil could learn from.
The obnoxious yellow paint dilemma that bothers some people is here but only when you shine the torch, which doesn't detract from the game as it fits diegetically. You might be wondering, what is the purpose of having two protagonists? In this game, you'll be traversing the real world and the dark place; this is where Alan has been tortured by his inner demons and quite literally a demon lookalike in the form of Mr. Scratch, who was mentioned in the Writer DLC of the first game and shown in Alan Wake: American Nightmare.
The Dark Place can be altered by different plot board adjustments that you can shift between, making the scenery change as well as adding enemies and items that weren't there originally. This would be a terrible gameplay system if it wasn't instant, but due to the nature of modern consoles and PCs being able to load areas fast, it makes a seamless transition that really makes this game shine in this area. No other game utilizes the speed of an SSD for an interesting use case such as Alan Wake 2.
The appearance of the Taken also differs between the Dark Place and reality as they will be dreamlike and hard to see in Alan's campaign, whereas in Saga's, they are completely visible, like waking nightmares. The tone shift from the first game to pure horror focus is a welcome change, and it's reflected in the gameplay. You'll need batteries for the flashlight to allow you to damage the Taken, bullets, and escape items such as flashes to escape if you get overwhelmed. You also need to be careful not to overdo the flashlight boost as there are shadows that are not always guaranteed to be Taken but there to put you on edge, and it works. They whisper and move sporadically, adding to the unease factor.
I was not expecting to be that in love with Alan Wake 2, but it has somehow overthrown Resident Evil 4 Remake for me. The Herald of Darkness performance was also stellar.
The final Draft:
Inital gameplay bugs and oddities have finally been ironed out. A cult stash crossbow floating above the road is something alan would come up with.
Sad to hear about the passing of alex caseys va James McCaffrey. Looking forward to the nightsprings dlc whenever it drops.
I liked the revised ending as it seemed to clear what the symbolism meant at the end.
Night Springs exists as a fictional TV show within the world of Alan Wake, and it's heavily implied that it's fiction within that universe but could also be reality. This separation between the real and surreal realm is what this game excels at by putting you into the roles of two protagonists this time around. You are thrust into the experience with a rude awakening as you control a bloated naked corpse of a detective sent to Cauldron Lake in Bright Falls to investigate the disappearances of Alan and other persons since.
The introduction sets the tone instantly with a cult ritual, which looks like it would fit in well with 2010-era music videos. We are then given a winding road shot of our new protagonist, Saga Anderson, and her hard-boiled partner Alex Casey, whose face is based on Sam Lake, the director, writer, and iconic face of Max Payne.
Saga is slowly taken up to speed with the supernatural events occurring in Bright Falls, as is the player—both new or returning—in a way that doesn't beat you on the head with exposition. Everything unravels as you piece together separate clues that you assess on the case board, which also acts as a guide in case you forget what to do or have a few missed items you want to look into.
You will find manuscripts and lunchboxes that let you upgrade your weapons, and it is all so familiar if you've ever played Resident Evil 2 Remake. Even the item box mechanic is borrowed here with the shoebox that allows you to store extra supplies that you can't hold. The puzzles are quite intuitive and rely on intuition and exploration to figure out the solutions, which is something Resident Evil could learn from.
The obnoxious yellow paint dilemma that bothers some people is here but only when you shine the torch, which doesn't detract from the game as it fits diegetically. You might be wondering, what is the purpose of having two protagonists? In this game, you'll be traversing the real world and the dark place; this is where Alan has been tortured by his inner demons and quite literally a demon lookalike in the form of Mr. Scratch, who was mentioned in the Writer DLC of the first game and shown in Alan Wake: American Nightmare.
The Dark Place can be altered by different plot board adjustments that you can shift between, making the scenery change as well as adding enemies and items that weren't there originally. This would be a terrible gameplay system if it wasn't instant, but due to the nature of modern consoles and PCs being able to load areas fast, it makes a seamless transition that really makes this game shine in this area. No other game utilizes the speed of an SSD for an interesting use case such as Alan Wake 2.
The appearance of the Taken also differs between the Dark Place and reality as they will be dreamlike and hard to see in Alan's campaign, whereas in Saga's, they are completely visible, like waking nightmares. The tone shift from the first game to pure horror focus is a welcome change, and it's reflected in the gameplay. You'll need batteries for the flashlight to allow you to damage the Taken, bullets, and escape items such as flashes to escape if you get overwhelmed. You also need to be careful not to overdo the flashlight boost as there are shadows that are not always guaranteed to be Taken but there to put you on edge, and it works. They whisper and move sporadically, adding to the unease factor.
I was not expecting to be that in love with Alan Wake 2, but it has somehow overthrown Resident Evil 4 Remake for me. The Herald of Darkness performance was also stellar.
The final Draft:
Inital gameplay bugs and oddities have finally been ironed out. A cult stash crossbow floating above the road is something alan would come up with.
Sad to hear about the passing of alex caseys va James McCaffrey. Looking forward to the nightsprings dlc whenever it drops.
I liked the revised ending as it seemed to clear what the symbolism meant at the end.