This text accommodates spoilers for occasions that happen inside Alan Wake 2’s narrative.
I began 2023 not figuring out who or what Alan Wake was, not to mention {that a} sequel was on the manner.
This was a blessing in disguise, since I did not have to attend 13 lengthy, arduous years to find whether or not Treatment’s favorite tortured author made it out of the Darkish Place.
As a substitute, it was a matter of discovering this October that Alan Wake was certainly a factor, spending every week ploughing by way of the first recreation, then booting up the second at launch.
However the magnificence of Alan Wake 2 is that it is made for newcomers and returning followers.
The sequel incorporates a secondary protagonist, FBI agent Saga Anderson, who acts as a vessel for brand new gamers. She’s drawn to the Pacific Northwest along with her companion Alex Casey to research a string of murders in Vivid Falls, the small city Alan disappeared from over a decade in the past. Saga is aware of little or no about Alan exterior of his success as a bestselling creator, and is experiencing the unusual, paranatural occasions shrouding the city at the similar tempo as these taking part in the recreation for the first time.
Alan, on the different hand, remains to be trapped in the Darkish Place, the place we left him at the finish of the first recreation. On this dream-like alternate dimension, fiction can turn into actuality when pushed by a inventive thoughts.
Alan struggles to recollect what has and hasn’t occurred in his efforts to flee, and has to piece collectively the proper method to write down a narrative that can finish his everlasting nightmare. His sense of what’s actual and what is not consistently adjustments as he spirals deeper and deeper into the Darkish Place, and his makes an attempt to vary the story have an effect on the exterior world with terrifying penalties.
The sport itself is a loop, starting and ending with the similar shot. And with every playthrough after the first, you bear in mind plot factors and perceive the world extra deeply than its characters who’re frequently caught in the similar cycle. The actions of Saga and Alan both mirror, echo, or foreshadow occasions relying on which order the intertwining tales are skilled. Because of this, the narratives weave and bleed into one another, which means no two playthroughs are ever the similar even when the story is following the similar beats.
I’ve all the time been drawn to tales that make your thoughts spiral together with its characters, however Alan Wake 2 makes you’re feeling as a lot a component of the story as Alan and Saga. This surreal meta expertise is what hooked me throughout my first playthrough, and is additional exemplified by its story being informed by way of blended media.
Treatment is understood for mixing filmed segments into its video games, however Alan Wake 2 seems like the pinnacle of these efforts. The ratio of live-action to gameplay is not uncanny or out of place, particularly since these scenes are principally relegated to the dreamscape of the Darkish Place, with some of its characters solely ever showing by way of this lens.
At its core, Alan Wake 2 is a love letter to storytelling and artwork in all types, whether or not that is video video games, tv, movie, music, literature, poetry or images – it is all in there.
I imply, the place else are you going to discover a hidden 20-minute arthouse movie, or a rock opera, and it making complete sense? I am unsure a developer aside from Treatment might pull this off as half of a survival horror recreation.
The cinematic and environmental storytelling of Alan Wake 2 made me respect the mixed-media method much more, with its misty depictions of the Pacific Northwest and Alan’s neon-soaked imaginative and prescient of the Darkish Place oozing fashion and substance.
It is these points that made me traverse this world extremely slowly, taking in each bit of element from the beautiful vistas to seek for objects that will or might not be associated to the total lore, from the all essential manuscript pages to unusual nursery rhymes, lunchboxes adorned with affirmations, or stashes of important loot left by a disorganised cult.
There’s additionally the concern of not figuring out what’s round the nook, with the recreation being a survival horror in any case. The suspense of making an attempt to distinguish pure and unnatural sounds had me consistently on edge, slowly dragging my flashlight round darkish corners of dense forests or making an attempt to keep away from menancing shadows in a labyrinth of subway tunnels.
Petri Alanko’s hauntingly lovely rating solely provides to this want to cease and take all of it in. Every chapter additionally ends with a tune particularly written to mirror the narrative and total theme of the story. And Poets of the Fall return as the Outdated Gods of Asgard, offering two of the recreation’s most memorable moments with rock and roll prowess.
Alan Wake 2 is not a protracted recreation – it takes round 18 hours to finish the story with out sidetracking for hidden lore and collectibles. However Treatment invitations gamers to take their time with its narrative, whether or not out of concern or curiosity.
And as somebody who has spent practically 100 hours on this world, I believe a number of playthroughs is unquestionably the manner that Alan Wake 2 ought to be skilled.
The narratives weave and bleed into one another, which means no two playthroughs are ever the similar
Vibes apart, the cause Alan Wake 2 is my Sport of the Year is a deeply private one. Alan’s darkish, inside struggles have all the time been at the forefront of these video games. However this time, Treatment has dug even deeper into Alan’s troubled thoughts which, in flip, has made me do the similar. As somebody who experiences debilitating nervousness, melancholy, dissociation, and depersonalisation, I linked to how misplaced Alan feels as he spirals additional into his Darkish Place.
There’s one scene specifically, a video tape entitled “Drowning”, that resonated with me. I knew how trapped Alan felt in that second, drowning in paralysing concern and having to cope with a darker, extra cynical model of himself that sees no hope, no manner of getting out. Ilkka Villi and Matthew Porretta’s heartbreaking efficiency of Alan’s deteriorating psychological state made me really feel validated and seen – that it was completely believable to really feel like I am caught in my very own Darkish Place.
I might all the time seen my psychological well being as a loop, a cycle that I might by no means be capable to escape from. However the final line of Alan Wake 2 helped me realise that what I expertise in my darkest moments is definitely a spiral – one thing that I can both descend into or ascend out of. It made me acknowledge that there is all the time a manner out, even when I do not all the time imagine there’s at a given second.
That is one thing I have been needing to listen to for a very long time; it simply took the story of a troubled author trapped beneath a lake to assist get me there.
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