Alan Wake 2 Review: Waking Up From the Bright Falls Nightmare

Alan Wake 2's system requirements article was our promise to share our own experience with the game afterward. Now we'll share everything you want to know about the game with you. Starting from the first Alan Wake game to see the full picture is an important part of understanding Alan Wake 2. If you're ready for our indie game Alan Wake 2 review, let's get started...

Alan Wake 2 Game Review 2024 and Everything You Want to Know About the Game!

Our story began about 13 years ago with the release of the first game. Alan was a writer struggling with writer's block. To overcome it, he came to the town of Bright Falls with his wife Alice. Bright Falls was a natural wonder isolated from the outside world, with dense forests, wildlife and a beautiful lake.

As it turned out, Alan's wife Alice went missing in Bright Falls, and Alan had to face the town's strange truths. He encountered supernatural, mystical situations and monsters. After a long, drawn-out adventure, Alan sacrificed himself to save Alice, and he became trapped in the Dark Place for many years to come.

After many long years had passed, our story picked back up right where it left off, in the town of Bright Falls once again. A ritualistic murder had been committed in the town. The victim was a name that players of the first game would recognize. The way the murder was carried out gave the game an intensely gothic atmosphere. A naked body and its torn-out heart...

Alan Wake 2's New Character Is an FBI Agent: Saga!

Alan Wake 2 opened with exactly this scene. With some important differences, of course. We had a new character: her name is Saga! Saga was one of the main characters we controlled in the game alongside Alan. Saga was introduced to us as an FBI agent.

After roughly 2-3 hours of mandatory gameplay with Saga, we met up with Alan Wake. If you're wondering why it's structured that way, we can offer this answer: it's because of the game's concern with properly explaining itself.

For those asking where Alan had been all this time, it's worth pointing to the Dark Place. In those dark realms, he was fighting his own battle within an alternate reality.

If we're going to touch on the in-game mechanics of our two characters: Alan mostly appears through the writer's room feature, while Saga appears through the mind place. To break these features down, Alan looks back at events that happened through a writer's eyes, examining them from every angle, while Saga proceeds by connecting small clues together. Saga's mind place progresses through concrete events and questions. Every clue we come across lets us get closer to the truth.

Things work a bit differently for Alan: if Alan looks at a matter from a different angle, the location changes, events change; if our sequence of thoughts is correct, we can progress. If not, we can't move forward. Still, we can say that this is how we come to recognize many different realities.

What We Liked and Didn't Like About Playing Alan Wake 2

• There's a lot we liked about the game. The first is the use of real live-action footage within the game. Alan's talk-show scenes in particular add a different layer of reality to the game. We believe this feature hasn't been used this way in any game before, if our memory serves us right.
• The second thing we liked is the location and graphic design. Players experience a distinct take on Dante's Divine Comedy in Alan's scenes. The elements that push the game to different visual heights are the biggest reason it earns full marks in this category.
• The game building itself around contrasts is another key element that makes the experience feel more aesthetic. Mr. Scratch being Alan's own opposite is the most important example we can give here. We ran into Mr. Scratch often throughout the game. Every attempt we made to leave the Dark Place, his interference gave us plenty of trouble.
• The mechanics are another area worth praising. While players complained about clunky controls in the first game, that clunkiness problem has been fixed in the second game.
• Weapon use and combat dynamics have been left in a good, well-balanced place. The character created is neither overpowered nor too weak. The game neither piles on excessive claustrophobia for players nor turns them into an outright hero. We can say the in-game dynamics and the story move at a rhythm that supports each other.
• On the subject of objects, we also found Alan Wake's light-collecting object to be very creative.
• The one point we might criticize is perhaps the loading times between in-game chapters.

You can access Alan Wake 2 through Epic Games, and share your thoughts with us!