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

Alan Wake 2 on PS5

2023 has been a tremendous 12 months for sequels, particularly sequels which have taken a decade or extra ( you, Dead Island 2). Alan Wake 2 continues this pattern and provides a singular expertise wrapped up in acquainted mechanics. The sport doesn’t search to reinvent the wheel however needs you to journey round and luxuriate in a hefty splash of that Treatment Leisure allure.

The opening of the sport appears like one thing out of Demise Stranding. You play as a unadorned man who washes up on a seashore. I don’t imply slightly bit bare; his ass is principally all the time in body. For enjoyable, I turned the ‘Present Nudity’ setting off and restarted the sport to see what modified. It put the man in some horrific, ratty underwear. So, actually, I don’t know what’s worse. This can be a brief however memorable part, the least of all, since you should have a look at his bare physique for necessary story stuff a number of extra occasions after it ends.

Regardless of being the titular character, you don’t begin the sport as Alan Wake, which I assumed was a pleasant contact. As an alternative, gamers are immediately launched to FBI agent Saga Anderson and her companion, Max Payne. Wait, no. I imply Alex Casey. Critically although, as a longtime Treatment fan, I couldn’t have been happier with the companion character being modeled after Sam Lake and voiced by James McCaffrey. Though it was jarring to have Sam Lake so effectively rendered, there’s nothing that James McCaffrey’s superior voice can’t repair.

The 2 of them are in Vibrant Falls on account of a string of murders and, by unusual coincidence, one has simply occurred as they arrive. Nevertheless, as they examine, issues solely change into stranger. All of it begins with them discovering a random manuscript web page that in some way describes precisely what they’re doing proper as they learn it.

Saga isn’t your common agent, both. Her deduction expertise are insane as a result of she makes use of her “Thoughts Place,” a location devoted to conserving investigation data straight. This Thoughts Place could be visited at virtually any time. Whereas inside, you possibly can place proof similar to one of many sport’s varied circumstances or hearken to music.

Whereas this looks as if a terrific solution to escape a number of the extra anxious moments of the sport, the tutorial makes it very clear that getting into her Thoughts Place doesn’t pause the sport. I can’t let you know what number of occasions I exited the Thoughts Place to have an enemy within the distance watching me. You possibly can’t keep away from utilizing it, however it may be spooky while you bounce in, figuring out enemies are round.

Alongside the just about mystical qualities of her Thoughts Place, she will additionally Profile characters to get an thought of their internal ideas. Treatment protagonists usually have some superpower, and peculiar clairvoyance is certainly what Saga brings to the desk. There’s all the time a manner via along with her expertise/powers, be it putting the proper clue or discerning the reality a personality is making an attempt to hide.

Utilizing the Thoughts Place is superior, although. Attending to appropriately stick proof to the wall as you progress the sport and examine undoubtedly made Alan Wake 2 really feel like a detective sport as a lot as survival horror. This was particularly heightened when collectibles turned their very own case. At that time, I used to be searching for them out for the Polaroid assortment as a lot as I used to be doing it for the rewards.

I used to be proud of the laborious lean into survivor horror, although. It felt as if Treatment was very a lot proudly displaying off the Resident Evil inspiration. It’s additionally a good way to promote the sport: Alan Wake meets Resident Evil.

Survival horror was really the best way to go, contemplating how grounded the sequel feels. It’s not even solely within the third-person survival horror side that the RE connections could be discovered, both. There’s a entire stock administration mechanic that feels just like the merchandise packing containers within the Resident Evil 2 and three remakes. It’s not that these comparisons are in any manner detracting from the sport. If something, it helps make Alan Wake 2 really feel snug and acquainted proper from the beginning.

Persevering with the grounded ingredient, that’s the easiest way to explain the fight too. Every thing has a big weight to it. This might be considerably owed to taking part in on a PS5 and experiencing the DualSense haptics, however each gunshot feels vital. Each time I pulled the set off whereas holding the shotgun, it was like I might really feel the recoil of it.

Contemplating that is Alan Wake and all the pieces has to do with darkness, your flashlight is simply as necessary as your gun. This time round, merely utilizing the flashlight doesn’t drain batteries. As an alternative, that’s solely while you use the Flashlight Burst capability. The flashlight will get 4 makes use of per battery, however I by no means as soon as ran out. Nevertheless, the sport does prioritize reloading the flashlight for some motive, so I’d usually use the final cost after which be caught reloading it because the enemies rushed me, which was annoying.

Going again to their inspirations, it’s clear from the start that Treatment loved crafting the Management fashion, as a number of design decisions carry over into this. Maybe the most important is that impact the place you see somebody speaking, however they’re like a ghostly hologram being overlaid onto the environment. When you loved the FMV (Full Movement Video) sections from Management, you’ll love the frequent (and enjoyable) live-action cutscenes.

Treatment has been doing that live-action/FMV stuff because the first Alan Wake, and there was mixture of it in Management, however it appears like it’s all over the place in Alan Wake 2. Contemplating each character within the sport seems to be simply as they do in actual life, all live-action scenes are fascinating. The one draw back is that the actors who aren’t utilizing their very own voices don’t all the time nail the lip sync. Nevertheless, it’s neat to really feel like you’re watching an Alan Wake film.

Maybe probably the most outstanding factor about cutscenes and dialogue is that your PS5 has an choice to toggle controller vibration when a personality speaks. I began the sport with this on to strive it, and I don’t assume I might ever flip it off. You get a way of bass via your controller that retains you engaged at each second and on each phrase.

The largest complaints geared toward Management have been all centered across the map, which Treatment has taken to coronary heart, and the maps in Alan Wake 2 are straightforward to learn. Nevertheless, that’s to not say you possibly can’t get misplaced. The forest sections all look the identical, so getting misplaced is straightforward. Opening the map each few seconds to double-check you’re on the proper path isn’t probably the most immersive expertise.

The 13 years the sequel took have resulted in a sport that’s enjoyable to play and furthers not solely the Alan Wake lore but additionally makes me extremely excited for the place this universe goes with Control 2. Whereas my playthrough hit a snag that’s since been fastened, I can nonetheless actually say the remainder of the sport was a delight to play. When you’ve achieved all you possibly can within the Resident Evil 4 remake and are searching for the following nice survival horror to dig your enamel into, Alan Wake 2 is it.

In regards to the writer

Cameron Waldrop

Cameron is a contract author for Twinfinite and often covers battle royales like Fortnite and Apex Legends. He began writing for Twinfinite in late 2019 and has reviewed many nice video games. Whereas he loves shooter, his coronary heart will all the time belong to JRPGs.