Alan Wake 2 Review

calling a game ambitious can come with an implied caveat a game with great ambition can be something that reaches high and far but can also be one that doesn't quite get there alen WG 2 is one of the most ambitious games I have ever played but don't misconstrue that as it doesn't fall short of its lofty goals on the contrary alen W 2 achieves virtually everything developer remedy entertainment set out to do it's a game that feels novel and risky that is executed with confidence and a clarity of vision the end result is a one-of-a-kind sequel that redefines the series blazes trails in video game storytelling and stands as the monument to a studio that has unlocked its potential to the fullest I'd use my writing to project myself out of this room like a deep sea diver to go deeper and explore the depths of this prison for a way out this room was my boat riding was my lifeline I would start again at the talk show [Applause] picking up 13 years after the original games events alen wake 2 is made with two audiences in mind those who may be new to its mystery Laden plot and those who have been decorating figurative cork board with red strings in their minds for over a decade this is a smart way to broaden appeal to a bigger audience that Remedy executes by splitting the game into two campaigns both unfolding using an unconventional structure in one campaign FBI special agent Saga Anderson arrives at the once quaint bright Falls Washington to investigate a series of disappearances and ritualistic murders Saga is joined by her partner Alex Casey and becomes the perfect proxy for the uninitiated As she is soon enveloped in the ju position of brightfalls as understated but haunting atmosphere and its quirky and often upbeat towns folk turning over crime scenes in an unsettling Forest rich in folklore Saga storyline combines The Rustic forboding feelings of the Blair Witch Project with the unflinching grit of a feres dark crime drama the other campaign meanwhile sees you play as the titular alen wake and picks up in a nightmare realm called the dark place where alen has been trapped since the end of the first game this malevolent space feeds off of Art and memories alike creating a personalized prison for all who enter it sagas and alen's stories bleed into one another at times and somehow remedy has ensured that the tonal shift never detract from the overall experience and instead offer more texture depending on the order in which you experience each chapter you might have one sequence come across a Sinister and foreshadowing while another player that has taken a different path may see the same events as dramatic irony knowing the hero is walking into wickedness by playing all angles the full story comes into view while 2010's alen wake had horror elements to it alen wake two is a true survival horror experience complete with many of the genre's established touch points as either character you'll need to manage a puzzle likee inventory find reite from approaching monsters in safe rooms and try your best to line up head shot with a variety of guns you typically unlock from some sort of lock display case in the original game combat encounters were meant to be tense but not exactly scary as eviden by its frantic gameplay that consisted of bobbing and weaving around half a dozen monsters at a time here the action slows down and tends to involve fewer but harder enemies a recipe that'll be familiar to horror fans managing a small horde of different taken enemies often each with your own attack patterns becomes an engrossing exercise in survival I enjoyed how these taken look and largely still behave like the ones I'd seen in the original animal wake but each is spongier and smarter meaning instead of dispatching perhaps multiple enemies with one round of ammo like I could in the first game in Allen wake 2 i' more often have to evade and buy myself time to reload just to take out one enemy in the first game you could also hit an enemy with a quick burst of light at no inventory cost in order to stun them and gain some separation now though batteries are much more limited and this flashlight technique though it still critically removes their Inky Shields doesn't do much to W them off after that enemies can also regrow their Shield of Darkness meaning you have to choose when to put the pressure on and very intentionally see it through or else you've burned through precious resources for nothing the original games combat Loop had a lot of style but not so much substance elen wake 2 strikes a better balance in a way that lends itself to its shift towards being a survival horror game in that sense Allen W 2 doesn't redefine the gameplay leanings of the genre but it uses them definitely nonetheless I typically had just enough ammo to get through an encounter which may have left me limping to the next Safe Haven light that would let me catch my breath and plan my next move through the Lush but intimidating Forest surrounding cauldron Lake Sometimes the best decision was to flee a scene which would shift the encounter from gunfight against wispy shadowman to something more akin to a slasher Chase while foundational survival horror mechanics are shared across both timelines their moods Aesthetics and themes are quite different Saga story plays like a police procedural allowing the expert Criminal profiler to use her almost Supernatural deductive reasoning skills to work through a twisted case of cult murders and bewitched folklore the backdrop of the gloomy Pacific Northwest is more The Killing than the original games Twin Peaks though the region is still full of peculiar Denis some of whom are genuinely hilarious seriously everyone is going to love the Cella brothers' tv ads many local attractions have recently become fenced off by the government and that's why at COA Brothers Adventure Tours we say the government we have both Cutters to further immerse you in the investigation aspect of her Mission you'll fill out saga's case board which winds up having an additional benefit not only does it fulfill the detective fantasy of linking Clues with taught red strings and cracking the case but it serves very well as a helpful visual guide through the twisting and twisted story remembering names events and locations becomes much easier when it's laid out in her mental map the Mind Place given how gorgeous and detailed the game is I'm curious how some of its technical Feats are possible such as moving seamlessly between the mine place and the real world it seems a testament to the Studio's in-house North light engine that the game can run well look incredible and somehow still at times defy my admittedly limited understanding of video game Tech and for a game about light and darkness it's downright hypnotic and how it uses each scene to create a virtual portrait of its settings with Amber sunlight reflecting through the thick trees around cauldron Lake as heavy rain soaks the forest effectively creating a dreary mood though we've seen other iterations in previous Games alen's version of the dark place today manifests as a haunted Noir Metropolis where neon signage and hotel lobbies soaked in smooth jazz are offset by shadowy asants that lurk menacingly throughout the ever shifting City all the while alen finds Echoes of Alex Casey condu an investigation this is a different Casey than saga's partner with this one coming from alen's own crime fiction novels that made him famous before alen sunk out of the physical world and this is one of the many intentionally crafted points of intrigue and confusion that remedy expertly plays with new to the series alen's plot board serves as something of a gameplay analog to saga's caseboard albeit with different effects it allows him to alter Reality by discovering different story details in a level that are then used like an ability tool or weapon upgrade for example in the ocean view hotel you might arrive in a hotel lobby discover an echo of a Casey story that Clues you into how you can alter the scene and then instantly do so as alen rewrites his story which is reflected in game with a technically impressive instant switch in the environment it uses a subjective puzzle mechanic that asks the player to consider narrative Merit but its rules are clear even as the pathing can be purposely dizzying so no instance ever balloons too big using a stunning blend of liveaction scenes that often spill into the game's rendered World alen wig 2 frequently offers some of the most elaborate and beautiful imagery I've seen in the medium remedy has always been in favor of liveaction elements in its games but it's never been used to this extent or in this particular way far from the stop andgo nature of quantum breaks live action episodes pulling players out of the game here it's more of an evolution of a style remedy first used to create effect with controls hotline segments where superimposed visions of characters and Echoes of voices from another time and place creep into a scene giving it a layered audio visual flourish that strangely no one else in video game seems to attempt further enhanced by an intense focus on music that builds upon and actually outshines controls ashtray maze alen WG 2 stretches the definition of what a video game is and becomes an arresting multimedia fantasy that few Studios would likely dare to attempt there are multiple scenes in this game in alen's campaign especially that will surely be poured over and talked about with reverence much like controls ashay maze was even if you've been waiting for this sequel for a long time and think you know every Theory and have explored every inch of the story Universe you are simply not ready for what alen wake 2 has in store for you that's another wonderful thing about elen wake 2 not only is it a gorgeous eccentric and immersive game it's also meta as hell that's very meta indeed you see initiation tells the story of a fictional writer named Alan Wake who is trapped in a nightmare desperately trying to find the manuscript of a novel he has forgotten he has written alen we 2 wraps nightmares inside time Loops tied to a distortion of the monomyth inside a metaphysical world that bleeds into reality blurs fact and fiction and Spins out doppelgangers in every which way and it does it all not just to be weird but to tell an elaborate story about writing balance irony and so much more as perplexing as it certainly is and as hazy as some of its answers to Mysteries may be elen 2 feels like it wants to be understood it just wants you to sweat a little in getting there and it doesn't intend to give away everything yet anyway there are parts of this game that I interpret to be remedy talking about its own journey and returning to the world of alen awake after such a long time away it does this in such a lared and lovably strange story that even after control which felt like remedy had stepped up its narrative ambition significantly and now seems as though remedy has found yet another new Benchmark for itself while creating new avenues that we may see replicated by other teams in the future at one point I worry that Sam Lake remedy's creative director may be retiring after this because it feels so Vision complete and full of purpose like a last harah and having finished the game I wonder how the studio will Top it the Remy connected Universe RCU also comes into view like never before in Allen wake 2 making the game not just an allen wake sequel but also includes a continuation of control story some legally transformative nods to max pain and Quantum break and an apparent setup for the next RCU game the details light my brain on fire with the bewildering possibilities and implications Ellen wik 2 creates the idea of what alen wake 2 could be has changed so much over the years but in playing the game I was reminded of Sam LS saying how happy he was that all the previous versions of the game never worked out and how excited he was that this is the alen Wake 2 the world has finally received I have to empathetically agree the mere existence of Allen Wick 2 would have at different points over the years felt like a minor miracle before it to be this one that feels singular in its achievements and coming from a studio that refuses to shy away from the paths Less Traveled makes awake 2 a miracle [Music] [Music] illuminated

Channel: GameSpot

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Id: Z6zhG5IfJO4

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 26 2023