Alan Wake 2 Director Says Silent Hill Was “a Key Point of Reference” for Atmosphere Building

Remedy Entertainment is set to deliver its first full-fledged survival horror title when Alan Wake 2 launches later this month, and there’s no shortage of excitement around the brand of horror that the acclaimed studio will deliver. Remedy has previously said that its primary focus has been on building atmosphere and slow-paced dread rather than peppering the experience with jump scares, and in a recent interview with GamingBolt, game director Kyle Rowley touched on that once more.

When asked about how he would describe Alan Wake 2’s style of horror, Rowley said, “For Alan Wake 2 we are much more interested in the type of horror that is a slow burn- where the atmosphere and audio does a lot of the heavy lifting. If I recall correctly, one of the bullet points on our core game pillars is ‘atmosphere over jump scares’ – which says a lot.”

Rowley went on to add that where its psychological horror elements and atmosphere building are concerned, Alan Wake 2 also takes plenty of cues from the Silent Hill franchise. Previously, the developer has also spoken about how the game takes inspiration from Resident Evil’s brand of survival horror.

Meanwhile, something else Remedy wanted to focus on was blending the game’s psychological horror style with the actual design, with the world design reflecting the narrative experience, something we’ll see plenty of in the Dark Place.

“The Silent Hill franchise and how it utilises atmosphere and the sense of dread that builds up slowly over time was a key point of reference,” Rowley told GamingBolt. “As we are a more psychological horror experience, we knew we wanted to include a lot of audio-visual design to showcase our hero characters state of mind and have that reflected in the world design. You know, Alan’s experience in the Dark Place manifests itself from his mind. His demons are all laid out to bare there, so we can use that as a means to create an emotional response in the player. Instability, a sense of paranoia – these are all psychological horror elements manifesting in gameplay mechanics and our world design.”

In the same interview, Rowley also discussed how Alan Wake 2 differs from its predecessor where its combat is concerned, and how its dual protagonist structure is something Remedy Entertainment has been trying to implement for quite some time. Rowley also spoke about how the success of 2019’s Resident Evil 2 remake gave Remedy more confidence in its decision to develop Alan Wake 2 as a survival horror title.

Alan Wake 2 is set to launch on October 27 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Our full interview with Rowley will be going live soon, so stay tuned for that.