Alan Wake 2 is the last major video game on the schedule for the busy month of October 2023, and it has to be admitted that the new title from the creators of Max Payne arrives at the best time to play the perfect role of Halloween game. It must be said that he rose from the dead 13.5 years after the first adventures of the most famous tortured video game author. Is “Alan Wake 2” perhaps even more focused on survival horror than its predecessor? Is Alan Wake 2 the sequel fans were hoping for, or does it suffer from blank page syndrome?
Before we dive in Alan Wake 2, the brand new title from Remedy, A little reminder of the facts is necessary. This Finnish studio, led among others by the charismatic Sam Lake, has distinguished itself over the last twenty years with action games with a universe that is as mature as it is fascinating. Between the first two, Max Payne and Control (nominated in the Game of the Year category at the 2019 Game Awards), Remedy notably enjoyed a certain romance with Microsoft, producing a certain Quantum Break and in 2016 exclusively for Xbox consoles (and PC). most notably Alan Wake in 2010.
First announced at E3 2005, at a time when development times were not what they are today, this psychological thriller, particularly inspired by the works of Stephen King, caused a stir both before and after its release. Oh, Despite its critical success, Alan Wake was a relative commercial failure. which led to the cancellation of the planned sequel. Surprisingly, and in contrast to the life cycle of most major productions, Remedy’s game enjoys success over time and thanks to word of mouth.
Although Alan Wake eventually reached 4.5 million copies over the years, the long-awaited sequel was no longer relevant as Remedy focused on developing Quantum Break, an Xbox One exclusive. It wasn’t until the “AWE” expansion of their next title, Control, that the Finnish studio resurrected the character. Released in the summer of 2020, this DLC was actually an opportunity for Sam Lake to formalize a connected universe between the developer’s various titles, fueling a number of theories. At the end of 2021, during the Game Awards ceremony, Alan Wake 2 is finally a reality.
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A new saga
Even though it’s a sequel, Alan Wake 2 has no intention of being one of those stupid, nasty “Episode 2s.” are content to take the formula of a successful title and (slightly) improve on it to justify their existence. With this second part of a franchise that has returned from limbo, Remedy wants to mark a break and clearly distinguish the sequel from the original. The studio’s intentions are clear: if we need to provide answers after the terrible cliffhanger that ended 2010’s Alan Wake, we can’t just take control of the author where we left him…
The promise of Alan Wake 2 is based on the supposed desire to make something new out of something old: of course, if we control the eponymous character of the game released thirteen years ago, The title Remedy also puts us in control of Saga Anderson, an FBI agent who we get used to so quickly that we wouldn’t even have been shocked if she had been the only playable character in the plot. Like Scully and Mulder (The X-Files), the detective duo she forms with Alex Casey is also very endearing and we quickly prepare ourselves to spend the whole adventure with them. Note that Casey is modeled on the characteristics of Sam Lake: This is not a first for Remedy, as he had already lent his characteristics to Max Payne and other characters created by the studio. Enough to put Alan Wake 2 on the rails of fan service that it will exploit and perhaps abuse a little too much.
Everything under control
The game begins with a short, very disturbing and suspenseful introduction, which we prefer to keep quiet for the sake of suspense before we take control of our new heroine. Anderson (no relation to Gillian, we assure you) and Casey investigate a more than mysterious murder in the Cauldron Lake forest complex. Well-known universe that was already explored in the first game. This is the opportunity to get used to many elements that very quickly lay the foundation for a title that immediately sets the tone on all levels. Firstly, “Alan Wake 2” is stunning in terms of production. The nature explored in the first sequences highlights the play of light and shadow, which sets the tone from the beginning: we are in a real “next generation” video game, perhaps the first, with (almost) nothing to envy has from The Last of Us Part II on a purely graphical level. However, it doesn’t even run on Unreal Engine 5, but rather on the Northlight engine developed by the studio.
By exploring the forest and then the small town of Bright Falls – another familiar location from the first Alan Wake – We can only bow before the attention to detail and realism of Remedy’s die-hard sets, in proportions that certainly justify comparison with Naughty Dog’s masterpiece. This makes even more sense when you focus on the concept of staging. Every cutscene, every exchange between characters, secondary or not, is accompanied by a level of facial modeling rarely seen since the PS4 title Testament and which is still relatively unrivaled in its field. The further we progress in Alan Wake 2, the more we discover new universes (and the game turns out to be much more varied and surprising than it seems), the more obvious and legitimate this laudatory comparison becomes. This is even more true when we focus on the animation down to the smallest details, especially when an NPC hands over a quest item (e.g. a key) or the playable character charges one of their weapons. It may be a small detail to you, but to us it means a lot.
Aside from being sublime and having a “postcard” aspect that borders on the contemplative and polished like PlayStation productions of the last decade, Alan Wake 2 rarely lacks pure technology. Control’s successor offers the ability to switch between “Graphics” and “Performance” modes on PlayStation 5 (without returning to the main menu, thank you very much!), and is significantly more stable than the latter, which struggled to offer an optimization worthy of the name on consoles. Apart from a few frame rate drops during combat phases, we had almost nothing to complain about. We recommend that you switch to “Performance” mode (aiming at 60 frames per second), even briefly, during these sequences to achieve more dynamism and less slowdown, and maintain fidelity for the rest of your experience. Mode to enjoy at 30 frames per second, very immersive and very cinematic. Finally, but it’s a safe bet that a patch will fix this quickly, the subtitles in certain cutscenes go completely wrong, to such strange degrees that we wonder if that’s not part of the delirium this one is sending us into grueling psychological thriller crashes.
Doctor Wake and Mister Lake
As everyone knows, technology is far from everything. As we’ve described it to you so far, Alan Wake 2 could very well be the The Order: 1886 of its generation, namely a sublime but completely empty shell. Fortunately, this is anything but the case. Let’s first concentrate a little on the question of the scenario, because such a game can only be expected with extreme anticipation at the turning point. Based on the story of a writer suffering from blank page syndrome who sets out to find his missing wife, Alan Wake, the first of the name, ended with a cliffhanger that ended the hopes of an entire fan base thirteen years later wanted to finally be fulfilled, justified even more.
As expected, Alan Wake 2 has a pretty crazy narrative power, Driven by a genuine desire to pay homage to the concept of narrative simply by regularly referring to the world of literature and quoting Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway or … Alan Wake, a truly successful writer in his world. We won’t go into too much detail to avoid embarrassing spoilers, but the way the two games connect is genius, not to mention brilliant. The further we progress in the plot, the more we sense that Remedy desperately wanted this long-awaited sequel to exist one day, and that he went out of his way to write a complex, sometimes disturbing scenario that would be present in both Twin Peaks and in Twin Peaks bleeds into The X-Files, The Shining, Silent Hill… and draws heavily on the studio’s interconnected universe.
In fact – and this may confuse more than one – Alan Wake 2 does not settle for countless (legitimate) references to its predecessor in order to appreciate its true value. The concept of switching between game engine-based cutscenes and real footage is used to great effect Live action While Quantum Break experiments somewhat clumsily, this new title regularly seems intent on paying homage to Control. Alan Wake 2 references the universe of its previous game through countless Easter eggs that are generally very well integrated, which of course people who haven’t played it will never notice, but fans of Jesse Faden (the heroine of Control) will identify with pleasures, especially when they are subtle. We’re thinking in particular of a particular NPC who we won’t name but who will make you say “Well, of course!” If you meet him and he talks to you…
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Alan Walker
As far as gameplay is concerned, Alan Wake 2 has no intention of reinventing the wheel, as it would still be time to talk about it… in terms of its original concept. There is something very contemplative about the exploration phases, which take advantage of the original game’s somewhat modernized perspective in The Last of Us style; the walking (and running) rhythm of the character played is “a terribly realistic slowness”. This increases the tension that is constantly felt, especially when nothing scary seems to be happening, since we feel unable to escape at very high speed. However, we take the opportunity to explore some pretty fascinating environments. and, thank goodness, stingy enough with grotesque invisible walls to collect equipment and a few collectibles that aren’t just scattered there to look pretty (no more thermoses of coffee from the first Alan Wake!).
The game’s relative slowness, clearly designed to emphasize its realism and a strong sense of immersion, However, it sticks very well to its all-new and frankly well-crafted investigation system. Saga Anderson can access his mental palace at any time, in the form of a plush chalet transformed into an investigative office where countless elements need to be examined and linked together. Undoubtedly, here Remedy brings to life David Cage’s time dreams through Inspector Norman Jayden’s investigations in Heavy Rain (contemporary to the first Alan Wake), with infinitely more credibility and immersion, to which both console generations that have now passed clearly contribute. In these phases we collect clues, investigate the profile of the victims or suspects and if everything fits, conclusions are required to advance the scenario. Oh, and be careful: if the mental palace looks like a giant pause menu, the game advises against accessing it when Saga is in potentially hostile territory…
If Alan Wake 2’s investigation system isn’t revolutionary in itself, it proves to be quite effective in its context. The (already slow) pace of progress isn’t unnecessarily slowed down and, above all, you really feel like you’re adding something to the story, as if it wasn’t deep enough anyway. Note that when you control Alan Wake, he will have a similar, albeit less decorated, hideout where he can also influence the progression of the scenario, but also the gameplay and even level design. Specifically, he uses Bristol cards to add parts of the scenario to the (apparent) reality of the adventure in which we develop… which therefore changes accordingly, be it the sequence of events or the decoration. In summary, and not to go too far astray, remember: Alan Wake influences the game’s progress, writing the pages of a tormented, disturbing and immensely immersive plot, as Agent Anderson and himself reluctantly agree to To become heroes .
Look for the light
When we talk about “heroes,” it’s because Alan Wake 2, despite everything, offers its action phases. Like any self-respecting Remedy game, Its basis is that of a third-person shooter that refuses to sink into established conventions and wants to bring its own vision Protect. Since it is a survival horror game, the objective is, when ammunition is scarce, to force the player to search the darkest and most disturbing corners in the hope of finding an abandoned basket diner with two pistol cartridges… but not only that. In “Alan Wake”, the first of the name, it was necessary to regularly recharge the batteries of the flashlight, necessary for the author’s survival, and its continuation remains in this directive. Because as long as we are in the light nothing can happen to us and above all we use it as a weapon to expose the vulnerabilities of the supernatural beings who want our skin. After that, it’s time to shoot them.
This is probably where we were least impressed with Alan Wake 2: If the level of execution of the so-called “combat” sequences matches the rest of the game, this is the case Play style What we envisioned in 2010 has barely evolved, apart from its staging and handling. Certainly it tries to evolve as the adventure progresses to surprise us a little, but Remedy’s game didn’t really seduce us the most in its pure action phases. To be clear: it remains effective, it is controlled and pleasant to play, but these sequences are not very modern and probably represent the “weak point” of Alan Wake 2… a bit like the gunfights of the two episodes of The Last of us, finally. The “action” part of the Alan Wake universe is probably the least advanced of all the studio’s games, and for good reason: it’s the atmosphere and survival horror aspect that it focuses on the most.
Survive until the end of the night
In this psychological thriller, which more than justifies its ban on viewers under 18, the visual effects that distort the world and the characters surrounding it are once again very present, because Remedy has always loved it and has mastered it very well. Alan Wake 2 has something of a nightmare as we succumb to the irrational, and the night takes over a world where the search for light is the only way to survive. If you liked the infamous “PT” demo of Silent Hills, which was canceled in 2015, you will sometimes find certain atmospheres, as if Sam Lake wanted to play the “Western Hideo Kojima” in a way that was more than necessary in his own game indicates.
However, it’s never over-the-top or ridiculous, and most of its interventions (not to mention a host of small details in the script and/or locations) serve to break a fourth wall that’s as shattered as the alien world within it is we live. The more we progress, The more we question where and who we really are, the more the abysses into which Remedy plunges us seduce with their unsettling mastery. especially when it comes to mixing live-action stages and video game characters. If Twin Peaks is clearly the source of inspiration for the Alan Wake universe, it is the creative mind of David Lynch that pays vivid homage in this title, one of the rare Western productions that truly understands what survival horror is Is.
In fact, let’s not be afraid of words: Alan Wake 2 is a Survival horror Frankly amazing, restoring the nobility of the genre. In a way, it’s what Silent Hill would be if the license wasn’t artificially kept alive… but most of all, it’s what Resident Evil has been striving to be for fifteen years: a true action-adventure game based on Horror and horror based survival, in (very) high resolution, that beautifully exploits the power of the machines of its generation. By looking almost like a psychological thriller version of “The Last of Us”, Remedy’s game redefines the contours of a genre that has sought for too many years and only shines on the side of independent creations, both the big ones and the productions, the ones that really struggle scare us with their predictable jump scares and their indigestible summaries (yes, we know, Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 shined this year, but they’re remakes!). Yes, it was necessary to wake up Alan Wake and perhaps this time the general public will finally understand that there is a real reference of this kind, if it does not suffer from too great a deficit of exposure due to its merely dematerialized status. Ultimately, the biggest challenge to overcome remains finding your audience, because it has everything that makes an author’s game that appeals to its fans by whispering in their ears all the words they have heard for more than have dreamed of for a decade.