"Show me the Champion of Light
I'll show you the Herald of Darkness"
How do you even review a game like Alan Wake II? This is a game that has been 13 years in the making. A game that many (including me) never thought we'd actually see in our lifetime. The fact it exists at all, let alone in its current state is a miracle in itself. However I ask this question for more reasons than just that. Yes, how do you even review a game like Alan Wake II because simply put there's absolutely nothing else like it in the medium of video games.
You can call Alan Wake II a postmodern detective murder mystery, an atmospheric psychological horror fever dream and a meta 4th wall shattering narrative with enough mind-bending twists, turns and revelations and layers upon layers of metaphors, meta commentary and cryptic symbolic messages to make even David Lynch, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Christopher Nolan proud. You can also clearly see influences and elements pulled from TV shows like Twin Peaks, True Detective and The Twilight Zone or movies like Inception, Se7ven, Hereditary, Midsommar and The VVitch, alongside games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill and even theater and rock opera, but even saying all this still doesn't do Alan Wake II justice because nothing else has ever blended all these various elements together in the same kind of way that Sam Lake and Remedy have done here and it's something you can't truly explain and just need to experience for yourself because that's what Alan Wake II is. An experience like no other.
Hell, nothing else even has the same kind of visual presentation or tells its story in the same way Alan Wake II does either. The closest thing to it would be Remedy's other hit game Control, but even then that game is so vastly different from what Alan Wake II accomplishes. We're talking in-engine graphics and cutscenes mixed with pre-rendered cutscenes mixed with tons of entirely live action sequences as well. With plenty of times when all 3 of these techniques are utilized and blended together all at once flawlessly to create a truly unique experience that only the medium of video games could ever provide.
If I could describe Alan Wake II in a single word, it would be "love" because you'd have to be blind to not see how much love went into this game at every turn while making it. The mind-blowing, revolutionary audio and visual presentation alone are proof of that, but that's far from the only thing Alan Wake II should be praised for, every single aspect of this game is mind-blowing in its own way. The budget for the game was £70 million which makes it one of the most expensive cultural products in Finnish history and it clearly shows in the sheer scope of the game and the insane and creative set-pieces, but don't let this massive budget fool you because Alan Wake II is also clearly a passion project in every sense of the word as well. A massive AAA game with the level of passion, soul and love put into it that an indie developer just starting out would put into their game.
Remedy Entertainment as a developer however aren't just starting out, no, they've been around for 20+ years and Alan Wake II is a game that truly shows this feeling like a culmination of everything Remedy have learned and done in those past 20+ years. You can clearly see elements and shades of all their previous games from Max Payne, the OG Alan Wake, Quantum Break and of course Control, but it all pales in comparison to Alan Wake II which is Sam Lake and Remedy's magnum opus and best game to date in every way possible. It's also the most Remedy game that ever Remedied and if you're a fan of the studio you'll understand what that means. Especially since this is the first Remedy game since the Remedy Connected Universe has been officially established and it has so much in-depth world-building and lore for die-hard fans who have played Remedy's other titles like Max Payne, Quantum Break and Control.
And while Alan Wake II is much more than a game, it IS still a game at its core and just like every other aspect of this experience, the gameplay is top notch as well. From the level design to the atmosphere and tension to the incredible boss fights and mind-boggling puzzles and exciting exploration which always rewards you for going off the beaten path with much needed supplies or valuable manuscript pages for extra added lore or manuscript fragments to upgrade your weapons, Alan Wake II is a master class on how to make a true blue survival horror game and feels like the closest thing we'll ever get to a modern Silent Hill 2.
Ambitious is a word that's thrown around a lot nowadays. Everyone wants to release the next game changing piece of media, but few ever do reach that level. If there's one single game that was released this year and truly deserves to be described as ambitious, it's Alan Wake II. Not only is Alan Wake II a technological marvel and the best looking game I've ever seen from a graphical standpoint, but Alan Wake II is more than a game, it's a truly one-of-a-kind multimedia EXPERIENCE that blends together cinema, literature, music and gaming all into one package in a way never before seen in this medium, but also in a way that could only ever be done in THIS medium.
Alan Wake II is simply a boundary pushing, genre defying, tour de force of creativity and innovation that would take decades of time to ever fully replicate in this same way again by anyone other than Sam Lake and Remedy and even though it took 13 years to release, the wait was more than worth it because this is the best possible version of the game we could've gotten and it was only made possible because of Remedy's own experiences making games like Quantum Break and Control leading up to Alan Wake II, which is not only a game, but an EXPERIENCE unlike any other and one that I know will stick with me for as long as I live.
I'll show you the Herald of Darkness"
How do you even review a game like Alan Wake II? This is a game that has been 13 years in the making. A game that many (including me) never thought we'd actually see in our lifetime. The fact it exists at all, let alone in its current state is a miracle in itself. However I ask this question for more reasons than just that. Yes, how do you even review a game like Alan Wake II because simply put there's absolutely nothing else like it in the medium of video games.
You can call Alan Wake II a postmodern detective murder mystery, an atmospheric psychological horror fever dream and a meta 4th wall shattering narrative with enough mind-bending twists, turns and revelations and layers upon layers of metaphors, meta commentary and cryptic symbolic messages to make even David Lynch, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Christopher Nolan proud. You can also clearly see influences and elements pulled from TV shows like Twin Peaks, True Detective and The Twilight Zone or movies like Inception, Se7ven, Hereditary, Midsommar and The VVitch, alongside games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill and even theater and rock opera, but even saying all this still doesn't do Alan Wake II justice because nothing else has ever blended all these various elements together in the same kind of way that Sam Lake and Remedy have done here and it's something you can't truly explain and just need to experience for yourself because that's what Alan Wake II is. An experience like no other.
Hell, nothing else even has the same kind of visual presentation or tells its story in the same way Alan Wake II does either. The closest thing to it would be Remedy's other hit game Control, but even then that game is so vastly different from what Alan Wake II accomplishes. We're talking in-engine graphics and cutscenes mixed with pre-rendered cutscenes mixed with tons of entirely live action sequences as well. With plenty of times when all 3 of these techniques are utilized and blended together all at once flawlessly to create a truly unique experience that only the medium of video games could ever provide.
If I could describe Alan Wake II in a single word, it would be "love" because you'd have to be blind to not see how much love went into this game at every turn while making it. The mind-blowing, revolutionary audio and visual presentation alone are proof of that, but that's far from the only thing Alan Wake II should be praised for, every single aspect of this game is mind-blowing in its own way. The budget for the game was £70 million which makes it one of the most expensive cultural products in Finnish history and it clearly shows in the sheer scope of the game and the insane and creative set-pieces, but don't let this massive budget fool you because Alan Wake II is also clearly a passion project in every sense of the word as well. A massive AAA game with the level of passion, soul and love put into it that an indie developer just starting out would put into their game.
Remedy Entertainment as a developer however aren't just starting out, no, they've been around for 20+ years and Alan Wake II is a game that truly shows this feeling like a culmination of everything Remedy have learned and done in those past 20+ years. You can clearly see elements and shades of all their previous games from Max Payne, the OG Alan Wake, Quantum Break and of course Control, but it all pales in comparison to Alan Wake II which is Sam Lake and Remedy's magnum opus and best game to date in every way possible. It's also the most Remedy game that ever Remedied and if you're a fan of the studio you'll understand what that means. Especially since this is the first Remedy game since the Remedy Connected Universe has been officially established and it has so much in-depth world-building and lore for die-hard fans who have played Remedy's other titles like Max Payne, Quantum Break and Control.
And while Alan Wake II is much more than a game, it IS still a game at its core and just like every other aspect of this experience, the gameplay is top notch as well. From the level design to the atmosphere and tension to the incredible boss fights and mind-boggling puzzles and exciting exploration which always rewards you for going off the beaten path with much needed supplies or valuable manuscript pages for extra added lore or manuscript fragments to upgrade your weapons, Alan Wake II is a master class on how to make a true blue survival horror game and feels like the closest thing we'll ever get to a modern Silent Hill 2.
Ambitious is a word that's thrown around a lot nowadays. Everyone wants to release the next game changing piece of media, but few ever do reach that level. If there's one single game that was released this year and truly deserves to be described as ambitious, it's Alan Wake II. Not only is Alan Wake II a technological marvel and the best looking game I've ever seen from a graphical standpoint, but Alan Wake II is more than a game, it's a truly one-of-a-kind multimedia EXPERIENCE that blends together cinema, literature, music and gaming all into one package in a way never before seen in this medium, but also in a way that could only ever be done in THIS medium.
Alan Wake II is simply a boundary pushing, genre defying, tour de force of creativity and innovation that would take decades of time to ever fully replicate in this same way again by anyone other than Sam Lake and Remedy and even though it took 13 years to release, the wait was more than worth it because this is the best possible version of the game we could've gotten and it was only made possible because of Remedy's own experiences making games like Quantum Break and Control leading up to Alan Wake II, which is not only a game, but an EXPERIENCE unlike any other and one that I know will stick with me for as long as I live.