Alan Wake 2 Review

"It's an Ocean"

Campaign

November 8, 2023 at 8:49pm
By Jason Stettner

It’s been a long thirteen years of waiting, but Alan Wake 2 has finally arrived. In all honesty I never expected to see this follow-up considering Microsoft and well Xbox didn’t support the original much. They also didn’t support a sequel, hence having to wait thirteen years.

Well, every single minute along the way was worth the wait for what’s truly a remarkable gaming experience. It’s not without some faults sadly, but for the most part this is an incredible experience and Remedy continues to elevate gaming with their creativity. It’s a game that continues their trademark development around the integration of TV and or film with gaming.

The two come together beautifully here for a surreal psychological thriller that dips its toes into the darkness of the horror genre. Remember, it’s a horror story. The game itself reminds us that time has gone by, thirteen years and Alan Wake has vanished. We step into the shoes of an individual named Saga.

She’s a FBI agent tasked with exploring the situation behind a series of gruesome cultist murders. We begin picking up pieces of evidence and trying to unravel what’s happening. It’s a setup that begins the overall story and journey of Alan Wake as our titular character is of course stuck in the dark place.

An area of unimaginable horrors, and strangely well setup typewritten murder scenarios. Whatever the case, our lead character has been stuck there for thirteen years and has written himself a hero to help him escape. It’s not only the journey of Wake however, as this also comes across as a love letter to Remedy’s other games and you see that through many very obvious character appearances.

Moving past that, I did find it strangely odd that the title character doesn’t appear for a couple hours and isn’t playable until a few hours in. I did wait thirteen years to see the character in action and it does feel as though he’s slightly sidelined for a portion of this.

You do get more than a fair bit of time with Wake, but I can’t help but feel it might have been even more intensive to do some investigative type work as Alan Wake like in the original. Whatever the case, it works and it’s such a surreal experience. It’s one that is filled with twists, devastating turns and by the end I was very pleased with what I had played.

They beautifully continue one of the greatest games ever created and largely nailed the landing. It’s long, expansive and filled with secrets. There are collectibles for those that look, and a lore filled world to discover. There’s a new game plus to follow post launch and outside of that, honestly a chapter select would have been great as the auto saves aren’t the best.

Gameplay

The elements that do hold this game back from perfection are largely technical. I had issues where audio wasn’t working, areas where progression was blocked and some other smaller bugs here or there. It was enough to impact my experience and from what I do understand these are being worked on.

I also had some issues with checkpoints and a lack of resources at times made things a bit grueling while going through on normal. The game is a setup filled with puzzles and with that at times, the logic was a tad open to interpretation in solving them.

Sometimes I was slightly confused though eventually I did solve each task I came across, I couldn’t help but feel that some sort of further direction might have been helpful in some scenarios. The style is that of a third person narrative drive venture. You’ll be guiding characters through the scenarios and dealing with light bouts of combat along the way.

You’ll have the handy sources of light and other healing choices mixed within a Resident Evil like sorting system. It’s strange though as your pause area, which while awesome didn’t pause the world. Saga in particular had a mind melting map that helped setup and frame the many cases which I thought was excellent.

It was just difficult fending off foes while trying to use it as your map was always a few taps away every single time. Going back to mixing elements of film and game this truly does match them perfectly. You’ll see the two separately yet combined together constantly as well.

There was a musical segment in particular that blew my mind, very well executed. It’s such a strange mix and it’s hard to hit that in a way that is satisfying. No one else in the industry is doing anything like it and I hope Remedy continues evolving upon that concept. The performances here are excellent, as is the character design.

The world is gorgeous, and really does push the visual boundaries of current technology. The instant switching of the world in puzzles or narrative was great. The visual style was impressive for either performance or quality modes. The latter being 4k 30fps and the former being 1440p 60fps.

Now, with that heavy use of FSR 2 is deployed which does cause environmental shimmer on Xbox Series X. You do get more exact details of the quality mode being actually rendered at 1270p to 4k and then performance being 847p to 1440p. It works largely outside of minor performance dips.

The Conclusion

Alan Wake 2 was well worth the long wait, it continued the story I loved with exciting new twists and developments. I certainly hope I don’t have to wait quite as long this time around to see the story continue. I certainly feel there’s more to do with these characters, and in general this well crafted universe that Remedy has created.

They continue to be perhaps my favorite developer, and without a doubt one of most talented studios in gaming. This was visually impressive, pushed technical boundaries and delivered being their most expansive offering yet. I would have liked more time with the title character however. Past that, I did find that some of the technical problems held the game back a tad from hitting perfection but I’m sure those will be sorted in due time.

They did truly nail this one though. I never thought I’d see a sequel and I’m ever so glad that it happened. Time may have passed, yet Remedy with that time has come to craft and even more impressive follow-up. I can’t wait to see what comes next as there’s still more work to do against the darkness.

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Alan Wake 2 Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by Tara Bruno PR

Rating Overall: 9.5