Alan Wake 2 review: Flexibly frightful fiction

I think one of my favorite parts of the original Alan Wake was how hard it leaned into the idea of a paranormal thriller story being told to the characters who were experiencing its events and consequences. I’ve wondered about how Remedy was going to expand that concept further since we first learned of a sequel. I was also worried that in a year that has already had some very impressive horror games, Alan Wake 2 might not have enough to stand out and truly be different from other stellar options. I was happy to find both of my biggest concerns thoroughly addressed. Alan Wake 2 is a special kind of terror. It guides you into familiarity, gets weird, and leaves you scrambling to keep up. And the characters, concepts, and ideas are all so engrossing that I always felt compelled to see the story through.

The story has not ended

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of Alan Wake 2 is that it doesn’t kick off with Mr. Wake at all. Instead, we join FBI agents Saga Anderson and Alex Casey as they enter the town of Bright Falls near Cauldron Lake. The same town where famous writer Alan Wake went missing many years before. Reports of cult-like activity have left someone rather important dead, and Anderson and Casey must figure out what has caused it. Unfortunately, it isn’t long before they find themselves sucked into the paranormal world that once plagued Wake. They discover manuscript pages that narrate perils in their future that have yet to happen like a supernatural thriller novel. When those events come to pass and all of the rules of logic become bent, the two find themselves needing to find Alan Wake to make sense of the case and the forces surrounding it.

It felt bold to me to jump right into a new set of characters that displace Alan himself as our point of entry. With a character that has been through the terror before, there’s a danger of familiarity dulling the fear. Alan Wake 2 does a great job of introducing us to new characters that get to experience the rules of this special terror for the first time. It goes on to get even better when Wake himself finally enters the story, only for everyone to find out that even as the veteran of this situation, Wake is no more in control than any of them are.

The darkness and “Taken” also return as recurring enemies, but they feel so much more surreal this time. If you haven’t played Alan Wake, there is a dark presence that infects characters and animals and turns them violent. This time around, their very presence is distorted to the point where it’s almost impossible to see a physical shape in the distortion until they are on top of you attacking. Sometimes, they don’t even have physical forms. There were numerous times where I tried to focus the flashlight on a foe (the primary means to weaken them) only for the distortion to fade to nothingness even as whispers of imminent violence towards my characters continued.

Those whispers and the surreal imagery are all part of what makes Alan Wake 2 a viscerally terrifying adventure. This game gushes atmosphere and keeps it thick and meaningful throughout the game. The sound design, visuals, dream-like scenarios mixed into reality, and even fourth-wall breaking moments all blend incredibly well to create a sense of confusion and dread that was never so brutal as it was an effective attack on the senses. I particularly like how far Remedy has come with blending live-action into the game. TV and drama serials were always an interesting part of this franchise. In Alan Wake 2, live-action segments are meshed so well into the ongoing events that there’s often seamless shifts between those moments and the gameplay. I don’t think you could sell that feeling so well if graphics hadn’t come so far as to make that transition back and forth such a seemingly effortless one.

The story demands continuation

Gameplay is also a place where Alan Wake 2 has improved tremendously. A huge part of that is in the blend of investigative and action gameplay that this sequel has taken on. Throughout the game, you’ll play as either Saga Anderson or Alan Wake and have access to a “mind palace” mental room from which to sort out the details of the story as you know them so far. For Saga, this means piecing together clues and concepts to create the sequence of how an event (usually a crime) played out. For Alan, it means something far more interesting that we’ll get to in a bit.

Outside of that mind palace segment, players will also explore the region of Bright Falls, Cauldron Lake, and other related settings once again. Firearms and flashlights once again remain at the core of combat. As mentioned prior, Taken enemies are infected with darkness that distorts their being and turns them violent. To defeat these foes, you have to shine your flashlight on them and then shoot them while they are stunned. The dodge button also returns to help you avoid their attacks with a bonus if you time it just as their strike would hit you. Road flares and other light-based weapons and gear also return to give you options against groups of foes or even more dangerous Taken.

The Taken were always awesomely creepy and Remedy bumped that up another notch this time out. Often times, they are distorted heavily to a point where sometimes there isn’t even a physical figure in the shadows. It’s like trying to focus on something you can’t quite make out, but by the time you make sense of it, it’s faded away. Unfortunately, these fade-aways will kill you if you’re not quick on the reflexes. They include townsfolk with all sorts of weapons such as axes and wrenches, wolves and other wildlife that become violent under the Taken influence, and even nastier beings. Every new threat was intense, confusing, and made me anxious of entering new areas.

Sometimes, if you don't like the path given to you, you just have to make a new one yourself, and that’s where one of Alan Wake 2’s most interesting mechanics come in. Alan’s mind palace is a writer’s room. He has control over the fake world around him through his writing. What that amounts to is that as Alan picks up clues and concepts, he can rewrite the world with them. A collapsed subway tunnel is initially unpassable for him, but once he gains knowledge of Agent Alex Casey, he can use the character’s investigations as a plot point to rewrite the world. After slotting Casey in, the collapsed tunnel becomes a murder scene investigation, and it might open a door or path that Alan couldn’t previously cross. A later concept of a ritual turns the collapsed tunnel into a dreadful summoning circle with different avenues.

I absolutely loved how Saga and Alan’s mind palace mechanics changed the world around them in real-time. It made for such an interesting setup where it was difficult to determine what was real, what wasn’t, and the nature of what was to come. It also made for some intensely terrifying moments and bits of dread as the realization of what the game would be asking me to accomplish hit me. This game’s action and narration bounce off each other in a way that’s just incredible, and I loved how the world bent with the revelations each character experienced.

If I had to say anything bad about this game, it would have to be that the sheer bounce between real and unreal, as well as live-action and gameplay, is sometimes hard to keep invested in. Alan Wake 2 did a good job of keeping me on guard, but there were definitely some moments of self-awareness or zaniness that took me out of the moment. Death can also come far too easy in this game when there’s a threat. One moment you’ll have it under control and the next you get caught by one shadow and all the others dog-pile you with zero chance of retribution. Combat is far from terrible in Alan Wake 2, but it’s most certainly not the forte compared to story and atmosphere.

The story is the key to all doors

Trying to make sense of Alan Wake 2 before its narrative has been told is an act of futility, but it’s some of the most interesting futility I’ve faced in a horror game. You don’t come here for blazing action and brutal gore. That’s Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space. You don’t come here to stretch your items and survive a known malevolent force. That’s System Shock. You come here because there’s a story to be told, and that story will bend and break its rules as much as it needs to in order to reach its conclusions. Alan Wake 2 builds upon a foundation that I felt was effective, but missing something in the original. In narrative, atmosphere, and gameplay, this sequel captures the sense of a self-aware, fictional world that’s always contorting itself in real-time to move forward, and the result is a surreal horror/thriller masterpiece.

This review is based on a PC digital copy supplied by the publisher. Alan Wake 2 comes out on October 27, 2023, on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.