Alan Wake II is surprising, brilliant piece of horror gaming and easily one of the best games of the year | Review
A horror game worthy of a great writer
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Review Platform : PlayStation 5 - Developer : Remedy Entertainment - Release Date: October 27, 2023
Review by: Levi Barner
I picked up the piece of paper that was lying on the table and as I illuminated the page with the flashlight, I realized that it was a manuscript for the Alan Wake II review that I was in the process of writing. Had I finished the review? I could not recall the brief feeling of relief that came with the completion of my task. No, I was certain that I had not even begun to write the review which in turn brought my anxiety to the forefront. My chest tightened; my shoulders tensed up. My heart pounded as I read the words on the paper to myself. The story on the page was describing what I was doing at that very moment. Awash in waves of fear that drowned all my senses, I knew that the review needed an ending if I was going to bring a conclusion to the nightmare I currently found myself trapped within. I sat down and began to write.
I always feel so bad when we don’t get a review code for a game, and I must buy the game on its release day and then try to squeeze in time to play it and then write and edit together a review in a timely manner. Sorry this review is coming out nearly two weeks after release. Alan Wake II was developed by Remedy Entertainment and released on October 27, 2023. I never played 2010′s Alan Wake or 2019′s Control but the two games are in a shared universe. This being my first experience with the franchise, I didn’t go in with any expectations whatsoever for this game. I was honestly blown away by the story, especially the framing device that they utilized to present it. The game is sort of framed differently depending on which character you are playing as well. Alan Wake II also weaves live action portrayals of all the characters into the game making for a cornucopia of interesting visuals. It’s just a wonderfully weird little game. I’m Levi from Hardwired and I watched a video explaining the story from the first game to prepare for this game.
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Alan Wake II picks up thirteen years after the events of the first game (much like the real life thirteen-year gap between the first game and this game.) You play the intro of the game as a naked fat dude emerging from Cauldron Lake and stumbling through the woods in flight from cultists before being caught and ritualistically killed. You then are introduced to FBI agents Saga Anderson and Alex Casey; the former is one of the two characters you play as while the latter is played by the creative director of Remedy Entertainment in addition to being the lead writer and director of this very game. He was also the face of Max Payne. (Remember Max Payne? That game with the Matrix bullets. Yeah, you remember.) They’ve come to Bright Falls to investigate the murders that have been turning up recently. But things start unravelling when they begin finding manuscript pages for a new Alan Wake novel where the characters are them and the situation is what they are currently living. As if things couldn’t get any stranger, Alan Wake has also been missing for the past thirteen years as well, so where could these manuscript pages be coming from?
When playing Saga Anderson, you can use her mind place which is a safe space in her mind where she can review clues or try and profile people with evidence that she finds through her investigation. You can also upgrade her weapons here using pieces of manuscripts found in lunch boxes strewn about the Washington State wilderness. This is the framing device that I was referring to earlier. I loved the case files wall, and how you get more and more of the bigger picture as you piece evidence together. Saga is just an interesting character that only gets more intriguing as the game progresses.
The other character you play as is of course Alan Wake, fresh back from the dark place, where he has been trapped since the end of the first game. His framing device is the writer’s room where you can use different story ideas to warp reality around him and change his surroundings. Changing the story is a vital part of the game so that you can find all the various plot threads that lead him to the conclusion of the story he is crafting. It’s super meta. The whole game is meta, and it still feels like a surprisingly fresh idea, even when you consider that everyone is trying to make their content meta and self-aware nowadays.
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The acting in the game is great, with exceptional voicework and mo-cap that you would expect from a triple A game. The characters are all fleshed out well, and it feels like a living breathing small town in the pacific northwest of the USA. I really like the Koskela brothers that were both played by Peter Franzén (who played King Harald Finehair in Vikings.) They are on TVs all over the early portion of the game hocking all manner of weird products and services. Melanie Liburd does a great job as Saga Anderson, she makes her seem tough as nails, but with an underlying vulnerability. David Harewood is rightfully mysterious as Warlin Door. Sam Lake does an exceptional job playing a gruff detective as Alex Casey. Ilkka Villi is marvelous in the title role as Alan Wake. There’s also a stretch of the game where it becomes a musical and it is surreal watching a bunch of these characters dance and sing. Quirky things like that just add so much personality to the game.
The combat in the game is a lot like the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, though ammo and batteries are scarce which forced me to try to just dodge around enemies and run to try to conserve them. That being said, combat seemed much the same as Alan Wake Remastered, at least from the short bit of that game that I played. The improvements to the way characters actually controlled is a welcome one, as the intense moments of dangerous encounters were never cut through by awkward player movement or tanky camera controls.
The graphics in the game are magnificent and showcase just how far video games have come as a medium for storytelling. The character models all look great and look like the actors they are modeled after. The environments are exceptionally detailed and help add to the creepy vibe of the game. I love how rooms can loop endlessly, or how you can see a room, turn around, then turn back around and the room has changed. It certainly feels like the game is always toying with your mind.
The sound design is impressive. The music in the game is good. The game plays music for you at the end of each chapter tat always seems to fit with what you just saw. The songs that play between chapters are by some of Finland’s top artists. Alan Wake II’s score is well done, providing a tense and atmospheric sense of anxiety. I especially enjoy the tense notes that seem to drag on forever to add tension to the room when there is an enemy nearby. You always know when something is about to go down.
There are also some effective jump scares in the game. I nearly jumped out of my skin several times throughout the game as the visual and the acoustic sting of the jump scares jolted my headphoned ears. It was especially effective when I was already on edge from that tense tone ringing out, so my eyes were darting around the room already looking for incoming threats and suddenly BOOM...holy crap.
Alan Wake II is a mind-bending triumph. I was not looking forward to playing this game initially as I had never played the first game or Control, but this game surprised the hell out of me. With its creative use of live action elements blended with the graphics of the game, it truly felt unique and strange. The story was very well written, and the ambiguous ending left me ready for whatever piece of this franchise we get next whether it be Alan Wake III or Control 2. I give Alan Wake II a 10. It’s a masterpiece. For Hardwired, I’ve been Levi Barner. If you liked this video don’t forget to stab that like button, and maybe even shank that subscribe button to get more content like this. Perhaps you could even shiv that bell button to be notified of new videos. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you for the next spooky game.
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