Remedy Entertainment·Released Oct 27, 2023·Single player
Alan Wake 2 marks Remedy Entertainment’s first foray into the survival horror genre. Ritualistic murders in a small town. A writer trapped in a nightmare. An FBI agent looking for answers. Two realities. Two hero characters. One horror story that wants them dead.
Alan Wake 2 is hardly some flawless masterpiece. It sometimes overindulges in easy jump scares, and while its narrative highs are very high, the momentum also flags from time to time. But I’d argue that it’s a game in which even the flaws contribute to its texture as a fresh and original experience, not a focus-tested product but a work that has a vision and really goes for it. You don’t need to be a writer for the struggles that Alan Wake and Saga Anderson face here to resonate with you. You just need to be a person who has ever looked inside yourself and faced doubt, fear, some deep uncertainty about your own value or your ability to handle the challenges ahead. And then done it anyway.
Alan Wake 2 is a stylistic tour de force and one of the most unique and confident horror games in recent years. It might not hit every beat perfectly, but Remedy's daft and over the top sense of humour help bring much-needed levity to its genuine thrills and jump scares.
Remedy's boldest experiment yet is a beautiful storm of surreal storytelling and genuinely frightening survival horror.
In its quest to be the most meta game ever made, Alan Wake 2 becomes a spectacle about writers and writing that badly needs an editor.
Where Alan Wake was a very good idea executed with a few too many flaws, its sequel serves up a survival horror masterclass. Yes, the combat is still not 100% there, but this one slight misstep aside, what we've got with Alan Wake 2 is superlative stuff. This is an incredibly clever, refreshingly grown-up and wonderfully well-made slice of psychological horror. The acting, writing, sound design, graphics... every aspect has been nailed in a game that makes for another addition to 2023's incredibly long list of absolute bangers.
Alan Wake II is a superb survival-horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.
For longtime Remedy fans and those who want to see what happens next for Alan Wake, the sequel is a success, but making it to the end includes unnecessary hurdles.
"Whenever I thought I had a handle on where Alan Wake 2 was leading me it upended my expectations"
Like a mystery once thought solved, Alan Wake 2 reopens the case for what's possible in its genre. It's a delight to relive classic horror titles through modern remakes, but what Remedy has cooked up here is something special - a gust of fresh air aiming to revitalise video game horror. There's expansive lore and a twisting story that might not be for everyone, but the developer packs so many exciting and unique ideas into this ambitious sequel that you can't help but play along with a nervous smile on your face. With stunning visuals, pitch-perfect tone and atmosphere, brilliant pacing, and a fascinating mystery to sink your teeth into, there are no twists or turns about it: Alan Wake 2 is an all-timer.
Remedy delivers its greatest game to date by turning a long-awaited sequel into a uniquely meta multimedia masterpiece.
I already consider it a modern horror classic, one that opens up a veritable ocean of possibilities for Remedy’s future. If it takes another 13 years for a game of Alan Wake 2’s caliber to come along again, it will have been well worth the wait.
