Intro: Lakes turn into oceans, loops turn into spirals Alan wake Two, a third person horror survival action game takes on two perspectives, Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. Alan Wake Two plays like a horror movie, cutting in-between game play and real people making this game dynamic and filled with surprises laced throughout the story. When the first game came out in 2010 I thought the pacing was off and the story, confusing. Now fourteen years later Alan Wake 2 is a refined performance that griped my mind and my senses in a way I never thought a game could. It’s Just a Story, Right? In the world of Alan Wake two, we see a mesh of psychological horror and realism that overtakes the experiences in a way that is special, refined. Visions from Saga, psychotic breaks from Alan, distorting what reality is and what he needs it to be. The balance between telling an incredible story and the game play is done in such a beautiful way where I didn’t feel a harsh split between the two. Everything felt well woven and crafted taking this well embroidered blanket and covering me in all its darkness, blinding light, and haunting story telling. Alan Wake shows the gaming industry that everything starts with a good story. The story in this installment of Alan Wake is more thought out than in the first game. Gone are the days of heavily relying on Stephen King as a trope, and bad fight mechanics. This game learned from what it missed the mark on with Alan Wake and Control, subtlety only works when the story has strength. In Alan Wake two the story is strong, refined and clear. The strength of this story brings strength to both the first Alan Wake AND Control. When I was playing through, I saw Alice in a new way entirely that refined her character from the first game and now in Alan Wake 2. Also, the utilization of areas from the previous installment was a nice touch, bringing things to more of a fuller circle. Taking Notes from the Classics: Alan Wake accomplished something that we see only, really from indie studios now a days, the ability to make me feel emotion in a horror game. The only other bigger titles that managed to do that were The Evil Within, Resident Evil One Remake, and Amnesia the Dark Decent. Very seldom do we see bigger studios capture the essence of psychological horror in a the most human way possible not just with Alan’s struggle with loss, or even Sagas battle internally, but with Alice and her battle with depression. Every character in this game is going through their own Everest, their own struggle. Even down to the simplest NPC. I saw a lot of inspiration from The Evil Within in this game with the changing scenery, and how the character slowly but surely goes insane from trying to find answers. Mechanical Makeover: The mechanics in this installment are the best I’ve ever seen from Remedy. They were smooth, polished and truly were a joy to experience. In the first Alan Wake game I didn’t feel like I had control over the flashlight, and the running mechanic felt strange to say the least. Alan wake two's running mechanic while it still felt like I was wading through water a tad, it was still eons better than the first game. The mechanics work in tandem with the games story and feel which is very hard to have that kind of balance where everything works in tandem. The only thing I would highly recommend with the mechanics is to turn off the motion blur, as someone who get motion sickness and vertigo very easily it was making me feel woozy during the game until I turned it off. Another thing, this doesn’t have to do so much with the mechanics as it does with the visuals, but when there are strobes of light across the screen when I was in the safe zones, it was truly uncomfortable to look at the screen with how bright it was. Now this might be completely different for someone who is visually impaired and can use that light to their advantage. I feel there could be more accessibility options so it is met in the middle for those who can see well, and those who cannot. The jump scares as well I felt were overdone and got to a point where they didn’t surprise me. I get why they did them in that way to possibly showcase the downward spiral of both characters and how they experience the world they’re in mentally, but it became annoying after experiencing it over and over. It's a Spiral: From We Sing’s mental desperation and beautifully crafted story within a song, to Sagas mind Place, Alan wake two takes gaming to a whole new level of immersion, helping Alan craft the perfect narrative that helps him get one step closer to the truth, freeing him from the spiral of his own mind.
Alan Wake Two took me by surprise at how much I loved this game. The experience and overall time I spent playing it was fun, immersive and made me respect the first title more because of the story clarification, and overall tidying up of concepts. Going through someplace that once was home to find that its changed, morphed into an unknown is a terrifying thought. As a dark vibrancy washes over this game, I felt at home in the hell this game was creating and truly fell in love with Remedy’s storytelling and morbid poetic nature. My personal score: 4.7/5
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