Summary
Going intoAlan Wake 2it was always a given that Remedy would instill its signature brand of live-action and surrealism into gameplay. Taking a look at everything Remedy has achieved since the originalAlan Wakemade these features patternable and it was no longer a question of if they would be woven intoAlan Wake 2, but how. Rather, what was meant to be a massive selling point of the sequel was that it would be a survival-horror game as opposed to an action-adventure game.
This was exciting for multiple reasons, especially considering how the original already lent itself perfectly to a survival-horror story with many of the same tropes on display. It’s arguable that the first game was more of a bizarre, supernatural thriller leaning heavily intoTwin Peaksinspirations, but the same could still be said about the sequel. Therefore, while it is a survival-horror game, it doesn’t seem to achieve a different brand of horror than its predecessor did, which was already impressively scary.
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Alan Wake 2 is Hardly Any Scarier Than the First Game
Alan Wake 2 was Heavily Marketed as Remedy’s First Survival-Horror Game
Besidesfrequent jump scaresthat occur as the same flashes of angry, screaming faces, there isn’t much toAlan Wake 2’s horror that the original did not already possess. The first game had the same enemy ambushes that encouraged players to sprint toward Safe Haven beacons of light and even made environmental light sources a way to combat enemies in most instances.
Murders of shadowy crows were a horrifying enemy type supplanted by wolves in the sequel, and although wolves are definitely cunning in how they sneak up to players the crows take the cake in being a pestering nuisance. It’s unfortunate, then, that Remedy didn’t take this sequel as an opportunity to truly be terrifying in substantial ways. It hit the right notes when it comes to survival-horror as a genre by taking a lot of inspiration fromResident Evilwith regard topuzzles and inventory management, but almost all other mechanics it has come from the originalAlan Wake.
Alan Wake 2 Could’ve Afforded to Dive Deeper into the Dark Place’s Horror
The sequel is much gorier, and its cult aesthetic certainly helped maintain a horror atmosphere—the opening of the game and its following crime scene investigations are superbly representative of horror, for example. However, the cult turns out to be a group in Bright Falls that is actually defending the town against the Dark Presence, which takes away from that initial horror tone once learned.
Alan himself states that the story written needs to be in the horror genre and with this loose guideline resembling a rule for the Dark Place’s realm it would’ve been exciting to see Remedy throw itself into something much more frightening that its protagonists must confront. Alan’s sequences are oriented around him connecting plot points to scenes, and while they do become more macabre as certain scenes progress they’re never as gruesome as when players explore the subway and theOceanview Hotel.
Alan Wake is Not Bound to Horror
Moreover, it’s difficult to saliently argue thatAlan Wake 2is fully horrifying when it has a ~15-minute musical number that swiftly cuts away any tension that previous scenes might have accumulated. There’s also nothing stoppingAlan Wake 3from switching its genre now.
There’s nothing wrong with the way the sequel presents itself regardless, but between bothAlan Wakegames there is hardly a definitive distinction in how the sequel dishes out its own horror.
If Remedy wanted, it could say that the Dark Presence is rewriting Alan’s manuscripts to turn them into any genre imaginable—its popular musical number could lead to a whimsical musical genre if Remedy was so inclined—and stray even further away from horror.Alan Wakewas surprisingly not considered a horror gamewhileAlan Wake 2apparently is, and a third entry taking on a different genre could be refreshing for the zany franchise.
Alan Wake 2
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A string of ritualistic murders threatens Bright Falls, a small-town community surrounded by Pacific Northwest wilderness. Saga Anderson, an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases arrives to investigate the murders. Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true around her.Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare beyond our world, writes a dark story in an attempt to shape the reality around him and escape his prison. With a dark horror hunting him, Wake is trying to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.Anderson and Wake are two heroes on two desperate journeys in two separate realities, connected at heart in ways neither of them can understand: reflecting each other, echoing each other, and affecting the worlds around them.Fueled by the horror story, supernatural darkness invades Bright Falls, corrupting the locals and threatening the loved ones of both Anderson and Wake. Light is their weapon—and their safe haven — against the darkness they face. Trapped in a sinister horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
