Thirteen years. That’s how long we’ve been waiting for a sequel to Alan Wake 2. That’s how long Remedy Entertainment has been waiting to make one. And though the road has been an incredibly long and bumpy one, we’re finally arriving at the destination. Alan Wake 2 is right around the corner, and everything that Remedy has shown of the long-awaited sequel so far has looked extremely promising. Whether or not the game will end up being worth the interminably long wait remains to be seen, but as we’re counting down the days to its launch, here, we’re going to take a look at all the key details that you should know about it.
STORY
Time seems to be passing in real-time in the Alan Wake universe, because by the time the sequel kicks off, it’s been thirteen years since the events of the first game, at the end of which best-selling novelist Alan Wake is able to free his wife from the horrifying mystery dimension known as the Dark Place, but only at the cost of trapping him in there himself. Thirteen years later, he remains missing, but in the Pacific Northwest Town of Bright Falls, chaos is stirring up again, thanks to a string of ritualistic murders that attracts the attention of the FBI.
SURVIVAL HORROR
Alan Wake 2 is set to be Remedy Entertainment’s first full-fledged survival horror game. The original Alan Wake obviously featured some horror elements, but by and large, it was an action experience, while the developer also injected plenty of horror vibes in Control. With Alan Wake 2, however, the developer is diving fully into the survival horror genre. Taking inspiration from the likes of Resident Evil 2, Alan Wake 2 will put a great deal of emphasis not only on atmosphere and scares, but also things such as puzzles, exploration, resource management, and ammo conservation.
TWO PROTAGONISTS
Duality is going to be a key theme in Alan Wake 2, and that’s going to be primarily represented through the game having two playable protagonists- Alan Wake himself, and newcomer Saga Anderson, with both of them sharing equal billing in the story and in terms of how much time you’ll be spending in their shoes.
SAGA ANDERSON
Remedy says it has written Saga as a stand-in for those who’ll be playing Alan Wake 2 without having played its predecessor (which, presumably, will be a significant chunk of the game’s audience). What exactly is her story though? Saga is an FBI investigator and profiler, who arrives in the town of Bright Falls to look into the aforementioned string of ritual murders. As you might image, these murders have plenty to do with what’s going on in the Dark Place. Speaking of which…
ALAN WAKE
Thirteen years after the events of the first game, Alan Wake is still stuck in the Dark Place, and has been constantly hunted and stalked by all manner of nightmarish shadows and beings. Now, desperately trying to escape, Alan is attempting to write himself out of prison by trying to influence the Dark Place and the real world by writing a horror story. That horror story is also tied to the murders in Bright Falls, which is how the stories of the game’s two protagonists are going to converge.
CHARACTER SWITCHING
How exactly is Alan Wake 2 going to handle switching between its two characters? Well, rather unconventionally, it must be said, though “unconventional” is usually the Remedy way. As the game begins, players will be playing as Saga, but after a certain point, you’ll be able to freely switch between the two any time you’re at a save point- and you’ll be able to do it as little or as often as you want. If you wish, you can switch back and forth between Alan and Saga at every save point, or after every few save points, but if you’d rather play almost to the end of the story of one character and then the other before moving into the game’s conclusion, you’ll have the freedom to do that as well.
ALEX CASEY
Another key character that Alan Wake 2 will feature is Alex Casey- a name that fans of the first game will be quite familiar with. Alex Casey is, of course, the fictional protagonist of the detective series that Alan has built much of his success as a writer around (and originated as a not-so-subtle tribute by Remedy to Max Payne). In Alan Wake 2, through his writing, Alan managed to manifest Casey into the real world, as well as the Dark Place- yes, Casey will have a role to play in both Saga and Alan’s stories, and will also have different personalities. In the real world, with Saga, he will be a much more grounded character, while in the Dark Place, with Alan, he’ll be a more exaggerated hardboiled detective personality.
James McCaffrey, who provided the voiceovers for the Alex Casey novels in the first game (and, incidentally, is also the voice of Max Payne), is returning to voice the character in the sequel, while his likeness is based on writer and creative director Sam Lake himself (who also provided his likeness for Max Payne). Essentially, this is as close as Remedy can get to putting Max Payne in an Alan Wake game without owning the IP.
REMEDY CONNECTED UNIVERSE
Control established the Remedy Connected Universe, or the RCU, a shared universe that both Alan Wake and Control are set in, and Control’s AWE expansion brought the two franchises even closer. As you might imagine, Alan Wake 2 will continue to expand that shared universe. Remedy has stressed a few times that you can jump straight into Alan Wake 2 without having played any other RCU game (including Alan Wake 1), but if you have, you’ll find plenty of strong narrative connections. For instance, the Federal Bureau of Control from the Control will have a role to play in the horror title’s story. Meanwhile, Remedy has also confirmed that, just as AWE set up the events of Alan Wake 2, so, too, will Alan Wake 2 set up the events of Control 2.
SAGA’S MIND PLACE
Back to Alan Wake 2’s gameplay, one particularly unique mechanic the game will feature is being able to dive into Saga’s Mind Place, a location in her subconscious that she can walk around in and interact with, and more importantly, do some nifty detective work. Using the case board, Saga can connect documents and clues together after finding them in the word, revealing new information and details to her that, in turn, will allow you to progress further in the game.
ALAN’S WRITER’S ROOM
Similar to Saga, Alan will also be able to dive into his subconscious, though he, of course, will be doing so from a writer’s perspective. Alan’s mind palace is called the Writer’s Room, where he’ll be able to do using the plot board what Saga can do with the case board in her Mind Place. With Alan, however, every time he connects elements together, he will be doing so to add new things to his story, or change existing elements, which the Dark Place will react to by changing and shifting its environments.
COMBAT
Alan Wake 2 is making use of an over-the-shoulder perspective inspired by the Resident Evil 2 remake, which, of course, means the flow of combat is going to be different from the first Alan Wake game. Some mechanics will still be familiar though, primarily using a flashlight to stun enemies, and then using your weapon to kill them. Additionally, you’ll be dodging attacks, dealing with different enemy types, and managing your ammo, which will be much scarer than what fans of the first game will remember.
SLOWER PACING
With Alan Wake 2 switching lanes to survival horror, you can also expect it to be a much more deliberately paced experience. Rather than going from one shooting gallery to the next, the game will often eschew all-out action in favour of slowly building up tension and putting you on the edge with its use of psychological horror. That will include exploring environments (more on this in a bit), solving puzzles, and talking to NPCs, among other things. Remedy has also confirmed that NPC conversations will feature dialogue choices.
EXPLORATION
Remedy put a great emphasis on exploration in Control than it ever had in any other game in the past, and it looks like Alan Wake 2 is set to continue that trend. In fact, not only will players be encouraged to properly scour environments to look for resources, the game will also feature several open areas that you’ll be able to freely explore, which will include several locations from the original game (like Cauldron Lake, for instance).
LIVE ACTION ELEMENTS
Remedy Entertainment making use of live action in its games in some form of another, and Alan Wake 2 is set to continue that tradition- though you can expect it to be much closer to Control in this area than Quantum Break. We’ve seen live action silhouettes similar to Control in some of the gameplay that’s been shown off so far, while it’s also been confirmed that, during cutscenes, the game will often switch back and forth between live action and in-game cinematics. How frequently it will do that (and how effectively) remains to be seen, though we’re certainly intrigued.
LENGTH
Control was the longest game Remedy Entertainment had ever made when it came out, though Alan Wake 2 is set to be even longer. Remedy has confirmed that the game is going to be more than 20 hours long, which, for a survival horror title, is a very meaty runtime.
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