Thirteen years ago, the renowned detective thriller writer Alan Wake mysteriously disappeared in the peaceful town of Bright Springs, located in Washington D.C. Along with his vanishing act, the highly anticipated sequel to his novel “Departure” also disappeared. However, after thirteen long years of waiting, the sequel to “Departure” has finally materialized in the form of “Alan Wake 2,” a survival horror game developed by Remedy. Each year, the gaming industry sees the emergence of standout titles, and in 2023, we have witnessed several remarkable releases. “Alan Wake 2” distinguishes itself and returns triumphantly as one of the standout titles of 2023.
Remedy has demonstrated its prowess in creating unique and unconventional games, and “Alan Wake 2” is a testament to their expertise. Building upon their past experiences, the studio has crafted a game that can be best described as a work of art. With the opportunity to explore the lush jungles and serene landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, generously provided by Remedy Entertainment, players are introduced to two distinct realities and two different protagonists. This game offers a well-paced, intriguing horror mystery that will keep you engaged without a moment’s respite.
A Horror Story Demands Its Protagonist
“Alan Wake 2” masterfully establishes its horror ambiance right from the start with a ritualistic murder involving a character familiar to fans of the first game. The narrative then smoothly transitions to the introduction of the new protagonist, Saga Anderson, an FBI profiler, and her partner, Alex Casey. Notably, Alex Casey is a nostalgic nod to Remedy’s iconic character, Max Payne, and his presence carries significant relevance to the unfolding story.
The plot unfolds as Saga and her partner are called to investigate a series of murders in Bright Falls. What initially appears to be a routine profiling case takes a nightmarish turn as the deceased transform into malevolent entities known as the Taken. To compound the terror, Saga’s reality undergoes surreal alterations, plunging her into a darker and more sinister world. She is compelled to embark on a harrowing journey to rescue Alan Wake, kickstarting a gripping 20-hour-long horror experience.
In “Alan Wake 2,” the narrative truly shines through its exceptional art direction, sound design, and masterful pacing. The game’s narrative opens with a pace reminiscent of the acclaimed “True Detective” TV show, skillfully capturing its atmospheric and deliberate pacing. This stands in contrast to the pacing inconsistencies present in the first game, showcasing Remedy’s commitment to addressing past issues and ensuring a progressively escalating sense of urgency throughout.
What’s particularly remarkable is that the game never falls victim to dragging on, maintaining a consistently immersive experience. As the story delves deeper into its eerie horror themes, the spotlight shifts to the evocative sound design and art direction. The integration of real-time cutscenes with in-game engine interactions works seamlessly, creating a captivating and seamless experience that will be frequently witnessed throughout “Alan Wake 2.”
Characterizing the story of “Alan Wake 2” as merely “impressive” would be a gross understatement. It is a narrative so remarkably peculiar and captivating, especially when considering the standards set by the studio. The title’s compelling storyline is so enthralling that I’ve found myself revisiting it multiple times to uncover the subtle intricacies within the plot.
The NYC section of “Alan Wake 2” stands out as particularly eerie and surreal, to the extent that I had to pause the game on several occasions to fully comprehend the unfolding situation. The narrative feels like a deep dive into the labyrinthine recesses of Alan’s mind, a journey marked by vivid imagery and masterful screenplay. These elements serve as a means to vividly convey the theme of psychological turmoil and insanity within Alan’s mind, elevating the horror elements to the forefront of the experience.
Drawing comparisons between “Alan Wake 2” and other works, I would draw parallels to “Twin Peaks” and “Twin Peaks: The Return.” The original David Lynch show is renowned for its iconic characters, distinctive visuals, and intricate plot – qualities that “Alan Wake” shares in common, as these games draw inspiration from Lynch’s work. However, Lynch encountered some creative interference during the production of the series, which impacted its quality. In contrast, “The Return” saw Lynch fully unleash his unbridled vision, resulting in one of the most exceptional sequels to a legacy series.
“Alan Wake 2” appears to follow a comparable path, with Remedy drawing upon their extensive repertoire of techniques and expertise to craft a masterpiece. Words alone cannot adequately convey the brilliance of this game’s narrative, which, much like the first installment, has left an indelible mark on my psyche. It’s a peculiar horror experience for a wide audience, and a significant part of this is attributed to the diverse cast of characters in “Alan Wake 2.”
However, Every Protagonist Also Requires a Supporting Cast
The characters within “Alan Wake 2” shine at engrossing players. New characters like Saga Anderson and Alex Casey are charismatic and expertly crafted. Saga exudes a calm demeanor amidst the chaos, which evolves into a determined yet concerned attitude as the story unfolds. Casey, portrayed by Sam Lake, the game’s creative director, and voiced by James McCaffery, pays homage to Max Payne, another iconic Remedy character. He exudes a noir, hard-boiled cop vibe. When I say that Casey’s character is peak fanservice, I mean it.
Similarly, Ilkka Villi and Matthew Poretta deliver outstanding performances as Alan Wake. Matthew’s familiar voice and Ilkka’s facial expressions transported me back to the yesteryears. Even during the first game, Alan Wake’s facial expressions left a lasting impression on me. In “Alan Wake 2,” you can witness their exceptional acting skills and full range of facial expressions. Alan’s transformation from bewilderment to distress and outright horror is masterfully conveyed. Ilkka effectively conveys the message of Alan’s gradual descent into madness after spending thirteen years in the Dark Place.
The supporting cast also excels in bringing the game’s weirdness to life. Returning characters like Rose, Tor, and Odin are enigmatic figures that Saga is deeply concerned about. New characters such as FBC agent Kiran Estevez and Sheriff Tim Breaker play their roles effectively. Janina Gavankar and Shawn Ashmore also deliver remarkable performances in their limited screen time, leaving players eager to see more of their acting in the shared universe.
Earlier this month, I pointed out that the characters in my review of “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” weren’t particularly memorable. Contrarily, when it comes to “Alan Wake 2,” the scenario is quite different. These characters are imbued with soul, quirks, and distinctive personalities. It’s these characters that make each plot point intriguing and give each part of the game a free-flowing quality. Remedy leveraged their strengths effectively in “Alan Wake 2,” as they did with every other aspect of the game.
Classic Gameplay Enhanced by Artistic Refinements
The gameplay has received some minor facelifts, although it remains similar to the original Alan Wake. Since the game has shifted towards the survival horror genre, it draws inspiration from titles like the Resident Evil remakes to fine-tune its gameplay. Players need to be concerned about inventory management and limited resources. However, it’s worth noting that even in the normal difficulty setting, ammo management is forgiving, and I rarely ran out of ammunition during my gaming experience.
The combat sequences follow a similar formula to the 2010 gameplay. As you explore various locations, Taken enemies will ambush you in an attempt to kill you. You need to eliminate the protective darkness around them using your flashlight and then take them out. There have been a few changes to accommodate the new gameplay style. For instance, flashlights no longer serve as your aim-down-sights (ADS) reticle and are now a separate entity.
Gun accuracy has been significantly reduced in Alan Wake 2 to increase the challenge in combat. In the original Alan Wake, our in-game writer displayed impressive gun-handling skills, shooting accurately even under pressure. However, in this game, realism takes over during intense situations, causing a drop in accuracy, as characters may panic. Perhaps Alan finally wrote some flaws into his protagonist.
When it comes to enemy variety, the game largely retains the same types as before, with the addition of two new enemy types. You’ll encounter the usual grunts, heavy brutes, and fast knife throwers, but now there are also Taken wolves that stalk and attack Saga, along with mirrored Taken. The gameplay remains relatively simple, a feature I greatly appreciate. It’s easy for anyone with basic third-person shooter knowledge to pick up and start playing, which is especially helpful in a story-heavy game like this.
Relish Saunas and Tranquility in Bright Falls
Alan Wake 2 places significant emphasis on world-building. It features two distinct realities: the Bright Falls and Pacific Northwest that Saga explores, and a rendition of New York City created by the Dark Presence for Alan.
Saga’s sections are notably more open than Alan’s, and players can switch between both scenarios at the start of a section. The game allows you the freedom to follow the story as you choose. Towards the end, the plot points converge to create a more linear epilogue, but until that point, the game offers a non-linear experience.
Exploring Bright Falls and Watery in Alan Wake 2 reveals an impressive attention to detail. Conversations between the citizens, in-game advertisements, and references like the Koskala Brothers ads contribute to making Bright Falls and Watery feel like a believable and immersive setting. On the other hand, Dark Presence NYC is a smaller and more linear location, intentionally designed this way to fit with the game’s themes. The dark presence has manipulated this reality to keep Alan confined.
Bright Falls and Watery offer a larger and more open map for exploration. This design allows players to deviate from the main path to discover cult stashes containing ammo and occasional inventory slot upgrades. Additionally, given the game’s connection to Control, the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) has been investigating the supernatural reality-altering powers of Cauldron Lake. Players can find poems left by the FBC at various points on the maps, and solving these riddles grants Saga charms that provide minor gameplay improvements.
The gameplay enhancements for both Saga and Alan can be further improved in Bright Falls and Dark Presence NYC. For Saga, these enhancements are achieved through Alex Casey’s lunchboxes, which are scattered throughout the maps. As for Alan, players can find words of power, marked by the familiar illuminated arrows from the torchlight.
It’s worth noting that these items are integrated into the overall story of the game to provide context and meaning, and they are entirely optional. Players can choose to skip finding the lunchboxes or words of power and still have an enjoyable gameplay experience.
The Mind’s Domain or the Writer’s Workshop
Alan Wake 2 introduces the Mind Place for Saga and the Writer’s Room for Alan. The Mind Place is a unique concept, resembling the Mind Palace that Sherlock Holmes famously used. It’s a separate reality within Saga’s mind, taking the form of a lodge. In the Mind Place, players can access the game map, revisit the soundtrack and in-game radio lores, read Alan’s story manuscripts, and explore the Koskala Brothers ads.
The most significant aspect of the Mind Place is the case board and profiling feature. The case board allows Saga to piece together the mysteries in the game, creating a detective show atmosphere. Throughout the game, players will come across clues that they must combine to unravel the story and determine their next steps. However, a drawback of this system is that, at times, the story won’t progress until specific cases are solved, which can feel limiting.
Another notable addition is the profiling system, where Saga questions certain characters to gain answers. This system showcases Remedy’s commitment to merging real-time cutscenes and the in-game engine render of Saga in a remarkably artistic and tasteful manner.
For Alan Wake, there is a writer board that contains ideas he draws from the echoes around the Dark Presence for his Initiation and Return manuscript. Players can use these limited ideas to modify particular aspects of the NYC to progress the story. This approach cleverly utilizes the location change feature introduced in Control, where you pull the light cord near the hotline to alter the area.
Beyond these aspects, you’ll find similar elements in the Writer’s Room. It includes a television with various shows, a radio with different music, and manuscripts to read.
Both the Mind Place and the Writer’s Room offer distinct experiences. Saga’s Mind Place is a small mini-game, adding an engaging element to the gameplay. Alan’s Writer’s Room serves as a plot device to advance the story. Both of these innovative additions contribute to the game’s overall quality, highlighting Remedy’s expertise in creating unique experiences. It’s a feature I’d like to see more of in their future titles, especially in a potential Control 2.
Alan Wake 2 Performance Analysis
We played Alan Wake 2 on a PC to experience the full range of available in-game technologies. Remedy has consistently pushed the boundaries of visual quality with their Northlight Engine, starting with Quantum Break. While Control was one of the early adopters of full Ray Tracing, Alan Wake 2 became the second game to incorporate NVIDIA’s path-tracing technology and DLSS 3.5. As a result, it’s a visually stunning game, but it demands substantial computing power to maintain acceptable frame rates. We conducted our testing on the following hardware:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5600, running at base clock GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SSD: 512GB WD SN570
Let’s be clear from the outset: this is an extremely demanding game in terms of performance, especially when you enable in-game path tracing. However, the visuals are so impressive, thanks to Remedy’s exceptional art direction, that you’ll likely want to experience the game with ray tracing turned on at least once. Regarding performance, our CPU utilization ranged from 16% to 26%, while the GPU consistently stayed between 98% and 100%. This confirms that the game is exceptionally GPU-intensive, particularly when ray tracing is enabled.
I’d like to highlight one crucial point. When Remedy initially stated that their target resolution for ray tracing with DLSS was 30 FPS on 1080p graphics with a 4070Ti, they may have overestimated it. In practice, this game performs significantly better than those figures with DLSS enabled. With DLSS and RT set to medium, you get the expected performance boost. The game consistently maintained at least 30 FPS, with peaks of 42 FPS in the Cauldron Lake jungles. Frame rates were even higher in the Bright Falls, Watery, and NYC sections, averaging between 47 and 64 FPS.
These frame rates saw a significant boost when using the impressive Ray Reconstruction and DLAA technology. In the Cauldron Lake area, frame rates reached almost 56-78 FPS, which is quite an improvement considering the dense foliage. In town areas and NYC, we consistently observed an average of 100-118 FPS.
The frame rates nearly doubled when we enabled DLSS 3.5, which runs at an internal resolution of 720p and then upscales it. The Cauldron Lake area consistently ran at 90-100 FPS, and the rest of the game performed even better, with frame rates well above 150 FPS for the most part. The performance gain with DLSS 3.5 is remarkable, and the usual issues associated with DLSS technology have been significantly reduced.
We rarely noticed fuzziness around Saga or Alan during movement or camera sway. The upscaled textures looked good overall, but some distant textures lacked refinement. It’s worth noting that DLSS sharpness is missing in the game, and its addition would be beneficial. Now, when it comes to non-raytraced performance, it’s a whole different story. Disabling ray tracing results in a substantial performance boost. Without DLSS or RT enabled, the Cauldron Lake area averaged 110 FPS, while the towns and NYC sections ran between 96 and 110 FPS, with the lowest point hitting 64 FPS.
If you prefer not to use ray tracing, you have that option. The game’s art direction is truly remarkable, and even without ray tracing enabled, it still maintains a visually impressive appearance. Alan Wake 2 has certainly pushed the boundaries of technology, delivering one of the most visually stunning experiences in gaming in quite some time. It’s worth noting that this is the first game where even the lowest graphics settings manage to look visually impressive.
Alan Wake 2: Did It Satisfy Our Horror Cravings?
Remedy Entertainment is a studio known for its penchant for experimentation and its ability to create mystifying and captivating titles. Whether it’s Quantum Break, the original Alan Wake, Control, or even older classics like Max Payne, each of their games exudes a distinct personality. Alan Wake 2 stands as Remedy’s magnum opus, the culmination of years of technological research, experimentation, and a commitment to storytelling.
With its impeccable art direction, impressive sound design, well-crafted characters, and straightforward yet effective gameplay choices, Alan Wake 2 offers a complete and compelling package. To borrow a phrase from Jesse Faden in Control, “It Feels Sane, Or Just The Right Kind Of Insane.“
Alan Wake 2 manages to address the shortcomings of the original game, such as gameplay and pacing issues, resulting in a title with almost negligible flaws. It’s a game that invites deep exploration of its themes and is likely to become a subject of discussion for years to come. Alan Wake 2 has the potential to secure its place alongside iconic titles like Silent Hill 2 and Grim Fandango in conversations about video games as an art form.
Alan Wake 2
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