Never has a game like this been made before, and never could a game like this be made until now.
That hasn't stopped Remedy from trying though. Ever since the original Max Payne their efforts to blend cinematic gameplay with storytelling devices that are trademarks of non-gaming mediums has been apparent. Sometimes for the better, like Max Payne and Control, and sometimes for the worse like in Quantum Break. Every game, they've pushed further and further, trying different tactics to marry disparate elements into a cohesive whole that punches above its weight because of the sheer force of its combined elements. With Alan Wake II, for the first time, they have succeeded.
Alan Wake II, most importantly, plays well. It's a genuinely good survival horror game with weighty combat and tense situations. The enemy variety leaves a little to be desired, but there really isn't a whole lot of combat in the game overall so it winds up not really marring the experience too much. Even on Hard Mode resources felt too plentiful, and I had a shoebox full of flares and excess med kits by the time my journey was over, but limited inventory space meant that I could never reliably have too much on me at one time which kept the actual battles nerve-wracking and tense. Some of the early bosses are great examples of this, particularly Nightingale and Cynthia.
This game is also scary as HELL. One of the best looking and sounding game's ever made, Remedy shows no restraint with the scares here. From dreadful buildups of atmosphere, to enemies surprising you from around corners, to straight up screen-filling deafeningly loud jumpscares, every type of scare is here and they are used to great effect. The game is utterly overwhelming in its employment of horror, like Resident Evil 2 Remake mixed with a giallo, and it keeps the player engaged and terrified during every moment of its 30ish hour narrative. And yet while the game rubs up against being "too long," it's smart enough to thrust you into the endgame and change up the flow of gameplay right when you're ready for what you're doing to end. It's a long slow burn, but one that plays to the strengths of that style of pacing and doesn't fall apart the way many games like it do. Some of the most disturbing and inventive sequences are saved for the endgame, with similarly terrifying and memorable moments sprinkled in from start to finish. The game will let you get bored if you just wander around for trinkets every time the option opens up to you, though I felt the game was very good about clueing you in on when you should actually be going back around to locations via both story progression and item procurements. It's an extremely smartly designed game - a blessing after Control fumbled some of its metroidvania elements.
Writing-wise, Alan Wake II is probably 2023's best game. Baldur's Gate 3 has more writing, and better developed characters, but Alan Wake II has what I'm looking for: that headswimming shit that sticks in you and makes you perceive the game's visuals and audio in new ways. Seeing the light of the FBC's bunker on Cauldron Lake flashing the tops of trees caused me to flashback to the very beginning of the game where you see a similar visual employed in the game's first overlap. Little things like this are littered all throughout the game in both its dialogue and its visual design, leading an inventive player to pin up case boards in their own Mind Place to try to sort through the weeds of the game's many themes. It's plot actually gets a little too explained for me by the end, but Remedy was smart enough to dangle many more mysteries in front of us with the very end of the game to keep us thinking and wanting more.
I spent most of Alan Wake II loving it but thinking it was one of the least replayable games in recent memory. After finishing it, I'm foaming at the mouth for New Game+ to be added in a future update so I can go back in and experience it again. It's not often that a 30 hour narrative adventure with minimal combat can accomplish that feat, and that AW2 pulls it off is a real testament to its writing and inventiveness. I want to spend more time in Bright Falls. I just need a good reason. I wasn't as big on Control as most people were, and the first Alan Wake definitely shows its age now even more than many other 2010 games do. But with its sequel, Remedy has finally made THE Remedy game, and cracked their own future wide open. They have become one of video game's premium developers, and Sam Lake one of its great auteurs. I hope this road keeps looping for a long time to come.
That hasn't stopped Remedy from trying though. Ever since the original Max Payne their efforts to blend cinematic gameplay with storytelling devices that are trademarks of non-gaming mediums has been apparent. Sometimes for the better, like Max Payne and Control, and sometimes for the worse like in Quantum Break. Every game, they've pushed further and further, trying different tactics to marry disparate elements into a cohesive whole that punches above its weight because of the sheer force of its combined elements. With Alan Wake II, for the first time, they have succeeded.
Alan Wake II, most importantly, plays well. It's a genuinely good survival horror game with weighty combat and tense situations. The enemy variety leaves a little to be desired, but there really isn't a whole lot of combat in the game overall so it winds up not really marring the experience too much. Even on Hard Mode resources felt too plentiful, and I had a shoebox full of flares and excess med kits by the time my journey was over, but limited inventory space meant that I could never reliably have too much on me at one time which kept the actual battles nerve-wracking and tense. Some of the early bosses are great examples of this, particularly Nightingale and Cynthia.
This game is also scary as HELL. One of the best looking and sounding game's ever made, Remedy shows no restraint with the scares here. From dreadful buildups of atmosphere, to enemies surprising you from around corners, to straight up screen-filling deafeningly loud jumpscares, every type of scare is here and they are used to great effect. The game is utterly overwhelming in its employment of horror, like Resident Evil 2 Remake mixed with a giallo, and it keeps the player engaged and terrified during every moment of its 30ish hour narrative. And yet while the game rubs up against being "too long," it's smart enough to thrust you into the endgame and change up the flow of gameplay right when you're ready for what you're doing to end. It's a long slow burn, but one that plays to the strengths of that style of pacing and doesn't fall apart the way many games like it do. Some of the most disturbing and inventive sequences are saved for the endgame, with similarly terrifying and memorable moments sprinkled in from start to finish. The game will let you get bored if you just wander around for trinkets every time the option opens up to you, though I felt the game was very good about clueing you in on when you should actually be going back around to locations via both story progression and item procurements. It's an extremely smartly designed game - a blessing after Control fumbled some of its metroidvania elements.
Writing-wise, Alan Wake II is probably 2023's best game. Baldur's Gate 3 has more writing, and better developed characters, but Alan Wake II has what I'm looking for: that headswimming shit that sticks in you and makes you perceive the game's visuals and audio in new ways. Seeing the light of the FBC's bunker on Cauldron Lake flashing the tops of trees caused me to flashback to the very beginning of the game where you see a similar visual employed in the game's first overlap. Little things like this are littered all throughout the game in both its dialogue and its visual design, leading an inventive player to pin up case boards in their own Mind Place to try to sort through the weeds of the game's many themes. It's plot actually gets a little too explained for me by the end, but Remedy was smart enough to dangle many more mysteries in front of us with the very end of the game to keep us thinking and wanting more.
I spent most of Alan Wake II loving it but thinking it was one of the least replayable games in recent memory. After finishing it, I'm foaming at the mouth for New Game+ to be added in a future update so I can go back in and experience it again. It's not often that a 30 hour narrative adventure with minimal combat can accomplish that feat, and that AW2 pulls it off is a real testament to its writing and inventiveness. I want to spend more time in Bright Falls. I just need a good reason. I wasn't as big on Control as most people were, and the first Alan Wake definitely shows its age now even more than many other 2010 games do. But with its sequel, Remedy has finally made THE Remedy game, and cracked their own future wide open. They have become one of video game's premium developers, and Sam Lake one of its great auteurs. I hope this road keeps looping for a long time to come.