Alan Wake 2 is to the first Alan Wake what Silent Hill 2 was to Silent Hill 1 - an innovative, bolder, and scarier sequel that pushes the survival horror genre forward. Remedy Entertainment has always been known for its high-concept arthouse games with trippy visuals and world-building, but in Alan Wake 2, they’ve cranked the dial to 11. Psychedelic, unusual and every bit as strange as you’d expect, it’s that rare sequel that manages to reinvent itself and deliver the most bewildering surprises that I’ve played in a game all year.



Note: This review is completely spoiler-free.

For the sake of keeping things mysterious, I’m going to briefly go over the main story points without delving into specifics. Players assume the role of Saga Anderson, a genius FBI agent looking into a series of ritualistic murders by a rising cult. The trail leads her to the strange disappearance of the writer Alan Wake, who is caught in a personal, otherworldly conflict that could threaten the fabric of reality as we know it.



Alan Wake 2 is very much a slow burner. The first few hours of the game are intentionally slow-paced to introduce you to its various mechanics - of which there are many to grasp. Saga has a high track record of closing cases and you get to see her ingenious way of thinking by literally jumping into her head. At the press of a button, players can enter an isolated room called the Mind Place that lets you piece together evidence on a Case Board, profile suspects and killers, and listen to audio recordings. Each step of the investigation becomes a subconscious photograph or note in Saga’s Mind Place that can be placed on the Case Board and linked with other events to progress the case.

Remedy Entertainment has always been known for its high-concept arthouse games with trippy visuals and world-building, but in Alan Wake 2, they’ve cranked the dial to 11.

When players step into the shoes of Alan Wake, it’s a similar process. Alan has his own Mind Place but it only contains a Case Board and a typewriter that advances the story. While out in the world, Alan can literally shift the realities of certain locations by grabbing sources of light with a lamp and linking new evidence up with the crime scenes, causing the landscape to morph and unlock shortcuts or even open up entirely new areas.



What blew my mind is how instantaneous the reality-shifting transitions are. There isn’t a single loading screen as you bounce between realities. Getting into your Mind Place, which sounds like it would require a loading screen, is also instant. You simply tap the touchpad on the DualSense and you’re immediately in another room in the blink of an eye, and out of it just as fast. Remedy uses the fast and instant load times of modern hardware to great effect in Alan Wake 2, benefitting the story’s more kaleidoscopic and mind-altering scenarios, especially where horror elements are involved.

On that note, the first Alan Wake wasn’t as much of a horror game as it was an action/adventure with light horror elements. However, Alan Wake 2 fully embraces its new survival horror identity. Every bit as atmospheric and suspenseful as Silent Hill with the monstrous scares of Resident Evil, Alan Wake 2 finds a pitch-perfect middle-ground with those franchises as key sources of inspiration. Gameplay plays out from an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective like Resident Evil, and you even have inventory management similar to Capcom’s games. When dense fogs roll in and the environments come alive, the Silent Hill influence is noticeable. Remedy wisely chooses to use these templates while injecting its own blend of psychedelic horror into the mix. The results are mesmerising.



You get to explore a handful of large areas in the game including quaint countryside towns, swamps, an isolated amusement park that's literally one giant Twin Peaks reference, its heavily-wooded surroundings and even New York, which is possibly the most visually striking noir-inspired rendition of the city that I’ve ever seen. The streets are desolate, misty and infused with light from the buildings to suit a feverish nightmare, which was exactly Remedy’s goal here. Using your portable lamp as a source of light, you’re able to grab the flicker of lights from nearby street lamps and transfer them to other sources of dim light around the world - which essentially changes the environment to unlock new doors or pathways. Again, this happens instantly in real-time.

Every bit as atmospheric and suspenseful as Silent Hill with the monstrous scares of Resident Evil, Alan Wake 2 finds a pitch-perfect middle-ground with those franchises as key sources of inspiration.

Combat was heavily criticised in the first Alan Wake for being quite stiff and clunky. Remedy took that criticism to heart because Alan Wake 2 features vastly improved combat and tighter controls with weapons that have a satisfying kick. You’ll often engage with the cult, crazed locals, blurry spectres and a variety bucket of nightmare-inducing terrors throughout the game that can be staggered by shining your torch on them to dispel a sort of dark aura shield, letting you line up your headshots - and make it count, because this is a survival horror game and you’ll be constantly pinching your ammo. Once you get access to other weapons like the shotgun or crossbow, combat really opens up and gives you several options to tackle encounters.



Combat actually doesn’t play a huge part in the game until the halfway point. Leading up to that, the bread and butter of gameplay is mostly about puzzle-solving with short bursts of action. On paper, that doesn’t sound very exciting but in execution, Alan Wake 2 conjures up some of the most creatively fascinating puzzles and solutions. As a true detective (pun intended), you’ll need to investigate gruesome murder scenes, interrogate civilians, ask the hard questions and begin piecing together the evidence to solve the supernatural mystery at its core. These puzzles are often baked into the environment, constantly testing your investigative skills and perception.

All of Alan Wake 2’s unique detective gameplay features work effortlessly together here, from Saga’s process of elimination to Alan’s supernatural methods of tampering with light and dark spaces. Admittedly, there are a handful of head-scratchers that left me utterly stumped, but with a little observation and deduction, I was eventually able to come up with answers - and I can’t begin to tell you how rewarding it feels when you get that “eureka!” moment. Best of all, characters will make helpful remarks but never blurt out the answers because Remedy actually trusts players to be intelligent.



Story progression works in two ways: through the perspectives of both Saga and Alan, who take turns throughout the narrative following their personal journeys. The foundation of Alan’s strong character development was already laid in the first game and you don’t need me to tell you that he’s once again an absolutely captivating protagonist with a constant air of mystery and intrigue surrounding him and his work. Saga, on the other hand, is a fantastic addition to the game. Initially coming off as a bit cold and calculated, she slowly begins to unravel her personal history which paints her as a sympathetic, three-dimensional character deeply rooted in the central plot. Remedy’s Sam Lake plays Saga’s FBI co-partner Alex Casey, who also has some great moments but I’ll never get his grinning Max Payne face out of my head.

The foundation of Alan’s strong character development was already laid in the first game and you don’t need me to tell you that he’s once again an absolutely captivating protagonist.

Alan Wake 2 is just a rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. Completely unpredictable and unhinged, it will often take sudden sharp narrative turns and twists that I never saw coming. Naturally, this will make for a very jarring experience for players unfamiliar with what they’re getting into. It’s not as straight-forward as other survival horror games and can overwhelm you with its web of complexities that spiral into borderline insanity during its peak chapters. It constantly demands your undivided attention but the rewards for sticking with it are magnificent - I don’t think I’ve seen a video game present a story in this way; a way that only Remedy could pull off this ambitiously and succeed.



On a technical level, I can only sing Alan Wake 2’s praises. This is, by far, the best implementation of fast loading and seamless transitions in a game to date. I assume it’s going to be the next big benchmark game because (excuse my language) holy sh*t, dude. The visuals and graphical fidelity is jaw-dropping. Not only is the art direction especially strong, the vistas are gorgeous; the way fog lingers over a dark lake, the way the wind makes trees and leaves rhythmically dance, the claustrophobic audio design that suffocates you during horror segments while letting you rarely breathe during moments of respite - it’s utterly insane what Remedy has achieved with Alan Wake 2 on a technical level.

As a side note, the music choices in this game are outstanding and perfectly capture the tone of the experience. When the full soundtrack becomes available, I implore you to listen to it.



Alan Wake 2 is Remedy Entertainment’s best game yet and a masterwork in survival horror - a carefully curated but equally chaotic fever dream that takes you to the deepest trenches of evil and the human soul. It demands your attention which might deter some players looking for a less involving horror experience, but for those willing to ride the wave and roll with its absurdly weird premise, you’ll be rewarded with one of the best, and undoubtedly most unique, games of the year.

*PS5 Review code provided by Remedy Entertainment