SUMMARY
- Alan Wake 2 is a much awaited sequel to Remedy's original Alan Wake.
- The sequel improves upon the original in almost every way, considering they are over a decade apart.
The 2023 survival horror game Alan Wake 2 has been developed by Remedy Entertainment and released by Epic Games Publishing. The narrative, a follow-up to Alan Wake, centers on best-selling author Alan Wake, who has spent the last thirteen years imprisoned in an alternate realm. Wake tries to get free by crafting a terrifying tale featuring FBI special agent Saga Anderson.
Remedy postponed the game’s release date from October 17, 2023. It was finally launched on October 27, 2023. The Xbox Series X version of Alan Wake 2 was met with “universal acclaim” while critics gave it “generally favorable” reviews, according to review aggregate Metacritic.
In contrast to its predecessor Alan Wake, which was an action-adventure game with a horror theme, Alan Wake 2 is a third-person survival horror game. In two distinct single-player tales, which can be played in whatever order the player pleases, players take on the roles of Alan Wake and Saga Anderson, respectively. However, only Saga or Alan can be played during the opening and ending sequences.
The inspiration behind Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 isn’t afraid to experiment with eccentricities. The game can instantly transform into a full-fledged musical or allow players to alter a level’s layout with a single button push. Making a game that purposefully puts itself out there must thus be nerve-wracking.
However, Sam Lake, the creative director of Alan Wake 2, claims that during development, Remedy’s faith in the game was strengthened by a strangely wonderful film. Sam Lake said the sci-fi picture that won an Oscar “gave us confidence”.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Lake said that while developing a game that experiments with the concept of reality, observing the favorable reception that the sci-fi film Everything Everywhere All At Once received was reassuring. It is a movie that tells the story of a middle-aged Chinese woman’s adventures in the multiverse.
Sam Lake built a career on making games that question the nature of reality, most notably this year’s “Alan Wake 2” by his studio Remedy Entertainment. For Lake, the mysterious nature of reality is serious business. https://t.co/HX6kWnPEMB
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 17, 2023
“We were already really far into making this, but it gave me confidence into understanding that what we’re doing here, we are doing these things at the right time”, Lake added. Lake was specifically referring to the movie’s transcendence of traditional genre frameworks, something Remedy has always played around with but has become particularly interested in doing since working on 2019’s Control.
“We are very, very eager to create rules and laws and define things,” Lake further stated. “In fiction and art, it’s important to try and break out of that”.
It now appears that Alan Wake’s 2 experiments with genre and dimension hopping have been positively received. This year’s The Game Awards saw the game nominated for eight awards, finally getting the best narrative.