Alan Wake II review

It’s Not a Sam Lake Game, it’s a Sam Ocean Experience

Remedy Entertainment is fixated on the metaphysical. Revisit 2001’s Max Payne and you’ll inevitably curse at the stages situated inside the eponymous character’s headspace. As Max navigates a labyrinthine trail of blood, you’re given a reprieve from the tense, bullet-time driven gunplay. In its place is a depiction of the character’s harrowing nightmares, punctuated by the screams of his deceased wife and daughter.

Sure, the sequences are mechanically frustrating since a single misstep ended the game. But they are also remarkably disturbing. Reconnoitering the psyche of an emotionally damaged character probably wasn’t something gamers had confronted before.

Mind Games

Thirteen years after Alan Wake found its own protagonist trapped inside his own dreamlike dimension, the sequel has surfaced. Unsurprisingly, Alan Wake II still loiters in the unconscious, with the lead character now trapped in a nightmarish interpretation of New York City. But this time out, the writing team riffs offer the same adage that Quintin Tarantino dispensed in both Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: reality can’t compete against skilled storytelling.

In the original game, Wake discovered that his fictional writings could influence reality. Having spent over a decade in the Dark Place, it’s evident that captivity is wearing down his sense of sanity. While Alan’s urban environment is soaked in the vibrant glow of neon light, its dilapidated state mirrors the character’s own crumbling mental state. Play Alan Wake II with a suitable headset and you’ll face the sporadic whisper from shadowy entities, making a lights-off playthrough mandatory for those who appreciate getting creeped out.

The Fragility of Reality and Other Lessons

As an author, Alan Wake revises scenes from his metaphysical writer’s room, taking ideas and injecting them into ‘real world’. Witnessing the influence of Wake’s wordsmithing is undoubtedly novel, with his prose often changing things in unpredictable ways. However, the regular reminders of the power of narrative can feel a bit redundant, especially when the pulpy narration and dialog toy with cliché. So, while that means we get Sam Lake’s likeness and James McCaffrey’s acerbic voice-over, we are also compelled to hear Remedy’s writing team repeatedly boast about their metatextual prowess.

Intersecting with this plotline is Saga Anderson’s story, allowing players to spontaneously switch between the two protagonists. She’s an FBI agent investigating a series of murders in the town of Bright Fall that share a similar cause of death. Paralleling the Dark Place is Anderson’s own Mind Place, which visualizes pictures and facts associated with the crimes. Here, you’ll place crime photos and data on a massive evidence board, with the game automatically linking clues with red threads and pushpins.

As a Procedural, the Game Sporadically Stumbles

While some gratification in constructing the case and generating personality profiles, Anderson’s labors can feel a bit like busywork since it’s all painfully simple and often reiterates testimonies that you’ve just heard. But that’s not to say that Alan Wake II is a cerebral pushover. Across its 16-to-18-hour trek, you likely encounter a puzzle or two that will test your critical thinking skills and quite possibly your patience.

While the game might lack a bit of symbolic sophistication, Alan Wake II delivers some first-class environmental exposition. Both Alan and Saga’s worlds are thoroughly fascinating to explore, whether it’s the long-expired optimism of a cityscape or venturing into the dense foliage that surrounds a sleepy but unsettling small town. Although the two biomes aren’t spacious, Remedy built them densely. There result means that you won’t notice much asset recycling. Streets and paths feel organic than the usual cookie-cutter patterns, which helps offset visual fatigue.

And while some might balk at the tackiness of a few jump scares, Remedy undoubtedly knows how to craft an unnerving atmosphere. Throughout Wake II, there you’ll find reoccurring occurrences of symmetry. Beyond the obvious link between Wake and Anderson’s realities, pairings are plentiful, as if mitosis went into overdrive just like Kubrick’s The Shining.

Light Arms

And largely, the action is entertaining. Wake and Anderson both carry flashlights and firearms, in addition to flares and flashbangs in their effort to destroy The Taken. Even though you’ll rarely encounter more than a couple of enemies, your adversaries pull few punches, maintaining a taut level of tension against basic foes. Here, the Northlight engine demonstrates its abilities as hunks of pulpy viscera provide plenty of visual spectacle.

And while the fights against elevated enemies don’t radically change the rules of engagement, they are set in distinct spaces between realities that are persistently eye-grabbing. The sole downside to combat is that Alan Wake II lacks any kind of indicator for imminent attack. As such, dodging the assaults of off-screen antagonists can be frustrating.

Conclusion

“This is not the story I wanted it to be” laments Wake in one of his in-game monologues. But save for a few modest missteps, Alan Wake II is the culmination of Remedy’s ambitious storytelling, masterful environmental design and time-tested action mechanics. Watching the game steadily shift from simmering police procedural to existential horror is one of the more fascinating interactive experiences of the year. Hopefully, the studio won’t make us wait another thirteen years for the next chapter.