Alan Wake 2 Review
In the opening moments of Alan Wake 2, you find yourself controlling a naked, middle-aged, balding man who stumbles through a forest in a daze. After a few seconds of guiding him and staring at his hairy backside, it became clear to me that this wasn’t going to be your typical big-budget game.
Even by Remedy’s unique standards, Alan Wake 2 is eccentric. You might even call it self-indulgent, as it fully embraces all of its bizarre ideas. The game takes you on a playfully meta journey through the studio’s entire lore, and at times, it feels like watching Remedy revel in its own creativity.
And that’s exactly what makes it so captivatingly brilliant. The game resumes 13 years after writer Alan Wake’s disappearance at the conclusion of the first game, following his ongoing struggle to escape the eerie Dark Place—a realm of psychological horror—while introducing a new protagonist, FBI agent Saga Anderson. Anderson is sent to the quiet town of Bright Falls to investigate a string of ritualistic murders. Players control both characters, each with their own narrative paths that run parallel and intertwine. You can switch between them at specific points, giving you the freedom to experience their journeys in your own distinct order.
In the original game, combat was designed to be tense but not necessarily frightening, characterized by frantic gameplay where you’d dodge and weave around half a dozen enemies at once. In Alan Wake 2, however, the pace of action slows down, focusing on fewer but tougher enemies—a familiar setup for horror enthusiasts. Managing a small group of Taken, each with distinct attack patterns, turns into a gripping survival challenge.
These enemies often try to flank and overwhelm you, with some hanging back to hurl axes at your head, requiring precise timing to dodge. I appreciated how the Taken still resemble and behave like those in the original Alan Wake, but they’re now more resilient and intelligent. Instead of easily dispatching multiple enemies with a single clip like before, in Alan Wake 2, I frequently had to evade, buy time to reload, and focus on taking down just one enemy. Previously, you could stun an enemy with a quick flash of light without consuming inventory, creating some distance. Now, with more limited batteries, while the flashlight still strips their dark shields, it doesn’t do much to keep them at bay afterward. Enemies can also regenerate their shields, forcing you to carefully choose when to apply pressure and fully commit, or risk wasting precious resources.
This change heightened my awareness of my environment and available items, as tight forest paths or cramped cabins often gave enemies an edge. I found myself retreating through doorways to funnel them into traps, but this required a slower, more deliberate approach, making me carefully consider when to use flares, flashbangs, or the Safe Haven light fixtures. While the original game’s combat had plenty of style, it lacked depth. Alan Wake 2 strikes a much better balance, supporting its transition toward survival-horror gameplay.
The idea of what Alan Wake 2 could be has changed so much over the years, but in playing the game, I was reminded of Sam Lake saying how he was so happy that all the previous versions of this game never worked out, and how excited he was that this is the Alan Wake 2 the world has finally received. I have to emphatically agree. The mere existence of an Alan Wake 2 would have, at different points over the years, felt like a minor miracle, but for it to be this one, that feels singular in its achievements, and coming from a studio that refuses to shy away from the paths less traveled, makes Alan Wake 2 a miracle illuminated.
