Alan Wake 2 Review – Its Dark Is Worse Than Its Night

Alan Wake 2 on PS5

2023 has been an amazing year for sequels, especially sequels that have taken a decade or more (looking at you, Dead Island 2). Alan Wake 2 continues this trend and gives a unique experience wrapped up in familiar mechanics. The game doesn’t seek to reinvent the wheel but wants you to ride around and enjoy a hefty splash of that Remedy Entertainment charm.

The opening of the game feels like something out of Death Stranding. You play as a naked guy who washes up on a beach. I don’t mean a little bit naked; his ass is basically always in frame. For fun, I turned the ‘Show Nudity’ setting off and restarted the game to see what changed. It put the guy in some horrific, ratty underwear. So, honestly, I don’t know what’s worse. This is a short but memorable section, the least of all, because you must look at his naked body for important story stuff several more times after it ends.

Despite being the titular character, you don’t start the game as Alan Wake, which I thought was a nice touch. Instead, players are instantly introduced to FBI agent Saga Anderson and her partner, Max Payne. Wait, no. I mean Alex Casey. Seriously though, as a longtime Remedy fan, I couldn’t have been happier with the partner character being modeled after Sam Lake and voiced by James McCaffrey. Although it was jarring to have Sam Lake so well rendered, there’s nothing that James McCaffrey’s awesome voice can’t fix.

The two of them are in Bright Falls due to a string of murders and, by strange coincidence, one has just happened as they arrive. However, as they investigate, things only become stranger. It all starts with them finding a random manuscript page that somehow describes exactly what they are doing right as they read it.

Saga isn’t your average agent, either. Her deduction skills are insane because she utilizes her “Mind Place,” a location dedicated to keeping investigation information straight. This Mind Place can be visited at almost any time. While inside, you can place evidence corresponding to one of the game’s various cases or listen to music.

While this seems like a terrific way to escape some of the more stressful moments of the game, the tutorial makes it very clear that entering her Mind Place doesn’t pause the game. I can’t tell you how many times I exited the Mind Place to have an enemy in the distance watching me. You can’t avoid using it, but it can be spooky when you jump in, knowing enemies are around.

Alongside the almost mystical qualities of her Mind Place, she can also Profile characters to get an idea of their inner thoughts. Remedy protagonists typically have some superpower, and weird clairvoyance is definitely what Saga brings to the table. There’s always a way through with her skills/powers, be it placing the right clue or discerning the truth a character is trying to conceal.

Using the Mind Place is awesome, though. Getting to correctly stick evidence to the wall as you progress the game and investigate definitely made Alan Wake 2 feel like a detective game as much as survival horror. This was especially heightened when collectibles became their own case. At that point, I was seeking them out for the Polaroid collection as much as I was doing it for the rewards.

I was happy with the hard lean into survivor horror, though. It felt as though Remedy was very much proudly showing off the Resident Evil inspiration. It’s also a great way to sell the game: Alan Wake meets Resident Evil.

Survival horror was truly the way to go, considering how grounded the sequel feels. It’s not even only in the third-person survival horror aspect that the RE connections can be found, either. There is a whole inventory management mechanic that feels like the item boxes in the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes. It’s not that these comparisons are in any way detracting from the game. If anything, it helps make Alan Wake 2 feel comfortable and familiar right from the start.

Continuing the grounded element, that’s the best way to describe the combat too. Everything has a significant weight to it. This could be somewhat owed to playing on a PS5 and experiencing the DualSense haptics, but every gunshot feels significant. Every time I pulled the trigger while holding the shotgun, it was like I could feel the recoil of it.

Considering this is Alan Wake and everything has to do with darkness, your flashlight is just as important as your gun. This time around, simply using the flashlight doesn’t drain batteries. Instead, that’s only when you use the Flashlight Burst ability. The flashlight gets four uses per battery, but I never once ran out. However, the game does prioritize reloading the flashlight for some reason, so I would often use the last charge and then be stuck reloading it as the enemies rushed me, which was annoying.

Going back to their inspirations, it’s clear from the beginning that Remedy enjoyed crafting the Control style, as several design choices carry over into this. Perhaps the biggest is that effect where you see someone talking, but they are like a ghostly hologram being overlaid onto the surroundings. If you enjoyed the FMV (Full Motion Video) sections from Control, you’ll love the frequent (and fun) live-action cutscenes.

Remedy has been doing that live-action/FMV stuff since the first Alan Wake, and there was a good mix of it in Control, but it feels like it is everywhere in Alan Wake 2. Considering every character in the game looks just as they do in real life, all live-action scenes are fascinating. The only downside is that the actors who aren’t using their own voices don’t always nail the lip sync. However, it’s neat to feel like you are watching an Alan Wake movie.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about cutscenes and dialogue is that your PS5 has an option to toggle controller vibration when a character speaks. I started the game with this on to try it, and I don’t think I could ever turn it off. You get a sense of bass through your controller that keeps you engaged at every moment and on every word.

The biggest complaints aimed at Control were all centered around the map, which Remedy has taken to heart, and the maps in Alan Wake 2 are easy to read. However, that’s not to say you can’t get lost. The forest sections all look the same, so getting lost is easy. Opening the map every few seconds to double-check you are on the right path isn’t the most immersive experience.

The 13 years the sequel took have resulted in a game that is fun to play and furthers not only the Alan Wake lore but also makes me incredibly excited for where this universe goes with Control 2. While my playthrough hit a snag that’s since been fixed, I can still honestly say the rest of the game was a delight to play. If you’ve done all you can in the Resident Evil 4 remake and are looking for the next great survival horror to dig your teeth into, Alan Wake 2 is it.