Review of Alan Wake 2. No wonder I waited 13 years, my personal game of the year

The official release of the long-awaited sequel to one of the most intriguing games of the last decade – Alan Wake II.

It is unknown exactly what kind of game is in development. However, 13 years have passed since the release of the first part of the series. This is a long period of time during which some people managed to forget about the classic series, but many fans waited and believed in the best.

And now Remedy has finally released the exciting continuation of the story about an otherworldly writer who one day showed up in the wrong house.

Let’s figure out why the game is so good and why it’s definitely worth playing.

13 years of waiting both here and there

We saw the first hints of the game in the well-known Control from the same studio. A separate AWE addition was dedicated to the sequel to the beloved horror game, which gave the first understanding of what awaits us.

Some time later, the company announced a grand return to the world of Alan Wake.

Remedy Entertainment approached the development of the game with the utmost responsibility. They moved the story to 13 years later, like a slice-of-life show. This studio knows how to create high-quality stories and a unique atmosphere. This was the case in all projects, and it remains the same here.

This time we have to play immediately after two heroes – Alana Wake and Saga Anderson (writer and FBI agent).

In the small town of Bright Falls, a series of mysterious events occur, including a murder, with the help of which the world cannot figure out the police. For this reason, two FBI agents are brought into the investigation: Saga Anderson and Alex Casey (Sam Lake, game designer and head writer of the game).

They quickly come to the conclusion that a cult is involved in the murders. And they all somehow manifested themselves as missing Alan Wake.

In parallel with this, the story of Wake himself unfolds, but not in our world, but in the other world, Dark Abode.

There was nothing else to say about the plot. This can really hurt your gaming experience. I’ll just say one thing – The story is intriguing and keeps you in constant suspense from the first minutes until the very end. This is not another horror film, but a truly adult horror story that hides references. As before, its essence is reminiscent of the work of Stephen King.

There are a huge number of meta references here. Just look at Sam Lake with the voice of Max Payne in Alex Casey’s videos. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

When you first step into Bright Falls in the second Wake, you’ll immediately notice… great attention to detail. I recently resold the original part and instantly noticed how the developers lovingly moved the lower first cafe, in which you provide what is in the first part and what is in the second part.

The interior hasn’t changed much in 13 years, it still has Rose working there, and there’s still the same record machine you used to pick out the music for Old Gods of Asgard. They even remembered the same song that was played 13 years ago.

And there are just a lot of little things in the game. There are also plenty of references to Control. There are references here to the Bureau of Control itself, and even to a character from this project, who also plays a role.

Two heroes. One story

As I said above, we have to play for two characters at once – Alana and Saga. Each of them has its own storyline, but together they make up one whole story, shown from different sides.

The differences don’t end with the plot. Gameplay-wise, these are also two different heroes, although they have a common structure.

After about 5 hours of play you will be given the opportunity freely switch between characters almost at any time. Each of them takes up approximately 50% of the time of the entire game. And the switching occurs with the help of, attention, a cleaning bucket (Is the dispatch clear?). It changes reality and allows you to play either as Saga or Alan.

The difference between the heroes lies precisely in the streams of their minds. So, in his head Anderson builds complex chains of investigations. In this case, there is a separate office in which boards with streets, personal files of suspicious persons, maps and other small items, such as a radio, are located.

Behind it you can collect cassettes with songs and lunch boxes. The latter came to replace the thermo from the original game. These boxes were also aimed at upgrading weapons, but more on that later.

The thermoses themselves, by the way, were used to hold them at certain points.

So, back to the reasonable FBI agent. Investigation board is a separate mechanic, tightly tied to a detective story. You can literally hang all your evidence, quotes and photos, linking them together and ask clear questions that relate to the evidence group issues.

As you progress, new riddles and clues will be revealed to you, which should ultimately lead to a solution. Each piece of evidence can be viewed in detail, something and even rehearsed.

Alan has writing experience on his side. The point is what’s going on in his mind Writing the current story. He literally outlines the characters first.

Inspiration points are scattered throughout the maps, through which the player discovers ideas for plot development. These are the ones you add to your story board. These elements change reality and open up previously unexplored routes; they move you forward in the plot.

Also in Wake’s arsenal is a small light bulb, a “nutcracker,” which the writer lost from 13 years ago. It collects light and emits it in specific places to also measure the space around you. A lot of puzzles (not just plot ones) are based on this.

The developers have added small aspects to the main tasks, which allow you to better penetrate into the ENT of the game and solve new mysteries. They often turn around while performing basic tasks by simply pushing them slightly in the other direction.

The world is partly open here

In the sequel, Alan Wake decided to follow the path more open world. As the plot progresses, new locations open up for us, through which we can move freely. Each location has points of interest that you can visit.

There is no one big open world, it is divided into zones. And you can move between them by car (cutscenes). I can’t name the locations themselves that are small. relatively compact, there are also larger sizes. But how saturated they are with various points of interest and mini-events. And you can reach them at any convenient time.

The differences between Alan and Saga lie precisely in the puzzles, the “mind” style, and the locations. AND the same areas can look completely different both heroes, which allows you to look at them from a different angle. These mechanics reminded me of Silent Hill at its best.

The basic combat mechanics are the same for both heroes. It is directly carried over from the first part: you shine a flashlight at the enemy, it protects against resistance, and you shoot at him. There are also other firearms that interfere with this process. For example, a flare.

And the flashlight itself constantly needs to be plugged in with batteries, because it has a habit of quickly running out in high power mode. And if earlier the battery could slowly recover, now this is not the case.

There are also enhanced bosses that wear unique mechanics during battles with them. I won’t talk about this, these are external spoilers.

Weapons, as before, need to be found independently. It is often hidden in the most hidden corners, but there are also those hung right in plain sight. However, even after I managed to miss the shotgun at the very beginning of the game, I had to resell clothes from the game in order to get it and kill the first boss.

Characters and weapons can now be sway. For this Saga, he collects lunch boxes, and Alan searches for the cultist drawings contained within himself. These “upgrades” increase your weapon, increase the chance of recovering ammo from thin air, increase your health, and so on and so forth.

Health itself is now restored not only under the rays of light (and even not a doctor, you need to download), but also with the help of bandages and painkillers. The principle is the same as in any other game. And each of them spends time. During combat, it is best to dodge and immediately step aside if you decide to heal.

The game is not replete with a variety of enemies; there are quite a few types of them: weak, stronger, faster, throwing axes and bosses that combine everything else (and their own unique weapons).

However, there are fewer battles in the game than in the first part. And at the expense of this enemy, they don’t appreciate you getting bored.

This is the most beautiful game of 2023

I won’t write too much here, I’ll just give you a gallery of screenshots so you can check out the graphics in the game for yourself. Even the high-tech Cyberpunk 2077 takes its place from Alan Wake II.

Much of this success was achieved not only through high detail, stunning facial animation with truly life-like facial expressions, but also through path tracing technology (an advanced version of ray tracing that significantly improves lighting).

Overall, the look of Alan Wake 2 is simply stunning.

What about optimization?

I’m playing through the game on PlayStation 5, so I’ll only share my impressions of the console version.

There are two modes: Quality and Performance. Here is a clear difference in graphics between them:

The game looks even better on PC, as it doesn’t cut back on path tracing capabilities. Reflections and various glass surfaces look noticeably better.

As for bugs and conditions, in all my time I have encountered only one bug, when Alana Wake’s hand went right through a coffee mug. That’s all. There were no glitches, artifacts, or images.

But I noticed that occasionally the game lost its frame in forested areas, where too many details were drawn. In quality mode this was especially noticeable. I think this flaw will be corrected with the upcoming patches.

Remedy was able to surprise

After the release of the controversial Quantum Break and the dynamic but similar Control, the studio managed to surprise me beyond belief.

This project is high quality in almost every aspect. And the chilling plot often causes a state of brain explosion from what you see. It’s only possible that you’re replaying #this is the twist in your head.

In general, this is my personal TOP 1 among all recent releases.

Alan Wake II is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S/X. I highly recommend it to everyone!