Alan Wake 2 Review

Can your brain handle the weirdness?

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Platform: PS5 Xbox X|S PC

Reviewed on: PS5

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Publisher: Epic Games

Release: Oct 27, 2023

Time Played: 20 Hours

Genre: Survival horror

ESRB: M

Have you been looking for a game that can scare and confuse you at the same time? A game full of tough enemies and minimal amounts of protection against them? Then it sounds like you want to check out Alan Wake 2! I guess why would you be here other wise, right? If that’s the case, then sit back and allow me to give you an overview of what to expect before giving this game my own personal rating and placing it on a shelf behind me.

Where it starts

Set thirteen years after the happenings of the first game, Alan Wake 2 begins with mysterious murders happening in Bright Falls. Enter Saga Anderson, an FBI agent who excels at solving the toughest cases. But shortly into this one, Saga is immediately met with paranormal monsters and experiences, quickly turning into the most bizarre case she has ever taken on.

Can the kids watch?

Oh, this is quite a graphic one right out of the gate. The opening scene involves a naked man running around the forest and the game is full of strong language and copious amounts of blood. With a well-earned mature rating this game is best played when the kiddos aren’t around, and you probably don’t need any distractions while trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Playing Saga & Alan

You will be playing this game from two different perspectives, that of Saga the FBI agent in Bright Falls trying to solve the case, and Alan Wake himself, caught up in the Dark Place trying to figure out how to leave. Shortly into the game you will get the option to swap between the two via a special bucket, following their stories in whatever order you want.

The Mind Place

Saga has a special ability allowing her to enter her own mind and sift through any information she may have found and upgrade her guns. Inside her mind place she will organize case files and interrogate important characters to her case. While interrogating the people she’s profiling they will flicker around behind her and answer questions, allowing her to see through lies and get the facts she needs.

Solving cases

To close out a case Saga will need to organize all the clues found in their proper place. As the game goes on you will discover more cases and they will be organized in a drawer with the connected clues tucked inside. When looking at a case the questions will be pinned up on the wall in front of you, requiring you to pin the clues you’ve found next to the appropriate question. Usually obvious where the clue goes, but I found a couple times where it didn’t seem to fit anywhere, so I would pin the clue everywhere until it stuck where it belonged.

So many cases

You will find a lot of cases as you play the game, but not all of them are main story related. There were a few collectibles to find, like special caches full of loot, or nursery rhymes puzzles to figure out. Thankfully every single one you find becomes a clue for that case and you can pin it on the wall, an amazing way to keep track of what you’ve already discovered.

Writer’s Room

While Saga has her Mind Place, Alan gets a Writer’s Room, very similar but not as intense. In there he can keep track of the current story he’s writing and upgrade a lot of different things like how effective his weapons are or how well he can heal, but only after he finds words of power hidden throughout the Dark Place. Every now and then you’ll find painted yellow arrows, follow those and Bam, you got a word of power.

Re-Writing the story

While in the Dark Place Alan will find different roadblocks keeping him from moving forward, these areas are usually a Scene he can re-write after inspiration hits him. While in a scene he can enter the Writer’s Room and re-write the scene with different ideas, causing the entire area to shift. Sometimes it will open the way forward or reveal optional secrets.

Tough Enemies

I played the game on Normal and still found a lot of the enemies to be tough to take out. Before you can damage an enemy you first have to super charge your flashlight to burn away the darkness surrounding them, then you can start shooting. If an enemy get’s close you can dodge their attack or try and push them away before shooting some more. Healing took some time, so it was difficult to keep health up while fighting multiple enemies, but if it was really bad, running was always an option.

Expanding world

If you haven’t had a chanced to play Quantum Break or Control I would recommend you check those games out. Those games are in the same world as Alan Wake and this multiverse Remedy Entertainment has created will add some fun confusing questions for you to think about as you try and connect the various characters and uniqueness of this world. You don’t have to play those to understand this game, but it will help alleviate some of the weirdness.

Outro:

I can’t count how many times this game had me speechless with the twists and turns and shifts it would make, visually and verbally. There was a lot of weirdness to take in while pushing my way forward. At the start the jumpscares and freaky storytelling were exciting and fun, but somewhere around the middle it started to feel overdone. The story was phenomenal, but the fear and confusion were a one trick pony so to speak. The game would usually catch me off guard at the start of playing startling me, but the subsequent jumps weren’t as effective.

I found it a little jarring when the game would jump from real actors and scenes back into the game, but still really cool to meld that sort of media in with a game. The biggest graphical issue I had was when it was getting really spooky the characters surroundings would get blurry and almost meld together, making it difficult to see. That was probably the intention but I didn’t care for it.

There was a short period where I wasn’t enjoying myself, just kind of going with the flow until the game moved forward. I would try every possible solution multiple times, making the game longer than it should have been. There were small puzzles and hidden treasures to sniff out, but the rewards rarely felt worth the effort, I ended up skipping a lot. And there were areas where I would be overwhelmed by enemies, forced to run by everything and get lost or miss something important. But when I finally finished the game, it made the whole experience feel worthwhile. If you can power through some of the low points, it’s definitely worth getting to the end.

There was a new game plus option after I beat it, and from what I understand if you get through that, there is a little more added to the story. So if you get all the way through and want more, there is a pull to do so. I beat the game in twenty hours, skipping a few of the optional things, and after knowing what’s coming up it shouldn’t take near as long. I don’t really want to go through everything again though, there’s not quite enough pull for me to get back into it.

And now, it’s time to place the game on a shelf.

Visuals coming out to a 4

An excellent story deserving a five

Gameplay had it’s ups and downs, coming out at 3

Replayability adding a little more to an already great story I’m giving it a 3

I wouldn’t say I had a whole lot of fun, the story was the biggest thing pulling me through, I’m handing out a 2

Giving Alan Wake 2 an average score of three point four, placing it up there on the Top Shelf.

I was skeptical of all the praise this game was getting at the game awards, seeing as how it was released right before all the voting being so fresh in everyone’s mind. But I see now it’s good game, worthy of it’s praise. If your into psychological weirdness, jumpscares, and an amazing story that can twist your brain into knots, you’d be into this game.