Alan Wake 2 (stylized as Alan Wake II) is a 2023 survival horror game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Epic Games Publishing. A sequel to Alan Wake, the story follows best-selling novelist Alan Wake, who has been trapped in an alternate dimension for 13 years, as he attempts to escape by writing a horror story involving an FBI special agent named Saga Anderson. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on 27 October 2023. It received positive reviews from critics.
Gameplay
The player, as Saga, fights an enemy using a pistol and a flashlight. The ammo counter and flashlight meter are visible at the bottom right.
Compared to the first Alan Wake game, which was an action adventure game with horror themes, Alan Wake 2 is a survival horror game played from a third-person perspective. Players play as Alan Wake or Saga Anderson in two separate single-player stories, which can be played in any order the player chooses; although the opening and ending sequences can only be played as Saga or Alan, respectively.[1][2]
Wake and Anderson traverse environments and fight enemies using various firearms and a flashlight, the latter of which can be “focused” to render enemies vulnerable to firearm attacks. Focusing the flashlight drains its battery, and players need to strategically use a limited amount of batteries and ammunition in order to survive. When enemies are close, Alan or Saga can perform a dodge maneuver.[3]
Alan Wake 2 incorporates detective elements: when playing as Saga, players can always access an enemy-free space dubbed the “Mind Place”.[3] Described by Remedy as a “3D menu”, the Mind Place is a visual representation of Saga’s thoughts. In the Mind Place, players manage a pin board in which they can connect clues to piece together the main mystery, as well as profile characters to gather clues.[2] As Alan, players will instead have access to the “Writer’s Room,” where they will have access to the outline of a novel he is writing. By adding and changing plot details on the outline, they will be able to manipulate the space around Alan.[4] Both the Mind Place and the Writers Room do not pause the outside world.
A returning element from Alan Wake is manuscript pages: players find pages of a manuscript that foreshadow upcoming events in the story. Unlike the previous game, Alan Wake 2 features a dialogue tree system.[2]
A naked man emerges from the dark shores of Cauldron Lake, experiencing visions of a man violently screaming before he is found and has his heart cut out by a group of men wearing deer masks.
FBI Special Agent Saga Anderson and her partner Alex Casey are dispatched to the town of Bright Falls to investigate a series of ritualistic murders. They investigate the latest victim, the naked man, who is revealed as former FBI agent Robert Nightingale. It is believed he was murdered by a group calling themselves “The Cult of the Tree.” In addition to Nightingale’s corpse, Saga finds a mysterious manuscript page that seems to predict the future. While in the town, they encounter Sheriff Tim Breaker, who promises to assist their investigation, as well as waitress Rose Marigold, who recognises Saga and acts like Saga was a local of the area, despite this being her first visit to the town. Saga then performs an autopsy on Nightingale’s corpse, but it suddenly reanimates and escapes the morgue after Breaker mysteriously vanishes.
As they pursue Nightingale to Cauldron Lake, Casey says he had investigated a murder cult in New York dedicated to bringing back the missing author Alan Wake by reenacting the murders described in his books, and that Nightingale came to Bright Falls to pursue Alan thirteen years prior. Saga encounters Nightingale, now converted into what the manuscript called a “Taken”, and is forced to kill him. Saga then finds a very-shaken Alan Wake washed up on the shore of the lake and takes him into custody while also discovering evidence that an organization called the Federal Bureau of Control has a presence in Bright Falls. Saga and Casey take Alan back to the inn, where he recounts how he escaped from a dream-like dimension called the Dark Place.
While trapped in the Dark Place, Alan continually tried to find a way to escape. After appearing in a mysterious talk show called “In Between with Mr. Door,” Alan found an angel-shaped lamp that, in combination with his writing ability, allowed him to manipulate the Dark Place to better navigate it.
Alan began navigating a dark, twisted version of New York City, following the trail of Alex Casey’s investigation of the “Cult of the Word” led by Alan’s evil doppelganger Mr. Scratch, who survived his erasure from existence, which brought him through the various scenes of the murders committed by the cult. Along the way, Alan also encountered Breaker, who was searching for the talk show host, Mr. Door, believing him to be responsible for trapping him in the Dark Place. Alan also occasionally made brief contact with Saga, the two of them trading vital information when they could. After believing he had killed Tom Zane, who had gone insane from his captivity inside the Dark Place, Alan was contacted by an alternative version of himself, explaining that his repeated attempts to escape the Dark Place are causing him to experience time loops.
Back in the present, Alan explains that he wrote a new novel, Return, that helped him escape the Dark Place. However, Scratch re-edited the manuscript into a horror story now taking effect in reality. Alan warns that Scratch is searching for the Clicker, which is the key he needs to free the malevolent Dark Presence completely, but also the key to permanently defeating it. When one of the manuscript pages mentioning the Cult of the Tree possesses the Clicker, Saga decides to follow its trail and realizes that Return has rewritten her past so that her daughter Logan drowned in an accident. Angered that Alan wrote her and Logan into his story, Saga recovers the Clicker, but before she can get it to Alan, agents from the FBC led by Agent Kiran Estevez arrive and apprehend him as well as the Cult leaders, revealed to be town entrepreneurs Ilmo and Jaakko Koskela.
With no other options, Saga tracks down Odin and Tor Anderson, who know more about the Clicker. As she communicates with them and rescues Tor from a Taken Cynthia Weaver, she learns that Odin and Tor are actually her grand-uncle and grandfather, respectively, and she inherited their seer abilities, allowing her to discern the changes to reality Return is causing. Odin and Tor also explain that the Clicker does not do anything by itself but instead dramatically enhances the creative power of the person using it, which is why it is important to Alan and Scratch. Saga then heads back to Bright Falls to get the Clicker to Alan but finds out that the Alan who escaped Cauldron Lake wasn’t Alan, but Scratch. With his identity now exposed, Scratch kills Jaakko and escapes from captivity, attempting to take the Clicker from Saga. He is temporarily thwarted and banished, thanks to the FBC’s light technology, leaving Saga wondering what to do next.
Ilmo reveals that he and Jakko formed the cult in order to scare townsfolk away from the dangers of the lake, while they perform their ‘ritual killings’ on whatever Taken emerges from it, such as Nightingale. Realizing that Alan is still trapped in the Dark Place, Saga enlists the help of Casey, Odin, Tor, and Estevez to carry out a ritual to summon him to the real world. Meanwhile, Alan continues to try and find a way out of the Dark Place, eventually making his way to his old apartment. There, he discovers his wife Alice had been tormented with visions of Scratch, eventually leading to her suicide. In anger, Alan kills who he believes is Scratch but is actually a version of himself attempting to fix Scratch’s ending of Return, perpetuating the loop.
Back in the real world, the summoning ritual fails to summon Alan in the current time and instead was responsible for his initial appearance earlier in the story. Both Saga and Alan come to the realization that Alan and Scratch were always the same person, with Scratch being Alan, who is possessed by the Dark Presence at the end of every loop, and thus indirectly responsible for Alice’s death. Scratch arrives at the summoning site and Saga is able to banish him from Alan’s body, only for Scratch to possess Casey instead, steal the Clicker, and throw Saga into the Dark Place.
With Scratch in possession of the Clicker, Alan concludes that the only way to stop him now is to find the manuscript and write a completely new ending for Return. He returns to his Writing Room and tries to work out how to write a perfect ending that saves everybody while staying consistent with the horror genre. Meanwhile, trapped in her mind palace, Saga fights off the Dark Presence’s attempt to overwhelm her with her own negative emotions and self-doubt. Now in the Dark Place proper, she reunites with Breaker, who remains there in his search for Door, heavily implied to be Saga’s missing father. She then receives aid from an anonymous woman who directs her to the Clicker and a Bullet of Light. Saga takes the two items and escapes back to the real world by mimicking Door’s actions on a manuscript page. With the Clicker, Alan is able to banish Scratch from Casey’s body. Scratch returns to possessing Alan, and Saga shoots him with the Bullet of Light, seemingly killing him and Scratch. As Casey recovers from his possession, Saga tries to call Logan to confirm her safety, but the scene cuts short before any answer can be heard.
In a post-credits scene, a recording left behind by Alice reveals that she had managed to fully regain her memories of what happened to Alan. She had tricked Alan into thinking she committed suicide by choosing to return the Dark Place as part of a plan to help him eventually escape, explaining that the only way he can escape the loops is through “ascension.” Alan then revives from his gunshot wound and says, “It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral.”
The New Game Plus mode has a new ending; as he’s shot with the Bullet of Light, Alan realizes that it was meant to cleanse a part of himself the Dark Presence used to create Scratch, finally killing his doppelganger for good while finishing the spiral and freeing Alan from the loop. Saga’s call connects, confirming Logan’s survival, and Alan revives soon after to the surprise of her and Casey, declaring himself the master of not just two worlds, but many.
Development
Pre-production
Remedy Entertainment released Alan Wake in 2010. Remedy learned from their lessons working on Max Payne and wrote Alan Wake in a way that allows additional story to be told through sequels and additional installments. The team quickly began to discuss sequel ideas after Alan Wake was shipped. The sequel would continue to star Alan Wake as the protagonist, but it would also explore the stories of the supporting characters including Wake’s friend Barry Wheeler and Sheriff Sarah Breaker. A prototype was created to show off the gameplay of Alan Wake 2 when the studio was showing the game to potential publishers. The game would be a direct sequel to Alan Wake, featuring new enemies and new gameplay mechanics, such as being able to rewrite reality, which were showcased in the prototype. Ultimately, Remedy pitched the project to Alan Wake publisher Microsoft Studios. Microsoft, however, at the time was not interested in a sequel and instead, tasked Remedy to create something new. This ultimately became Quantum Break, which was released in 2016. Quantum Break included, alongside other easter eggs to Alan Wake, a short live-action film the player could watch, titled Alan Wake: Return, which featured two FBI agents, one named Alex Casey, investigating the reappearance of Wake, which had been created by Remedy as to help promote a sequel to publishers.[5][6] Most of the ideas for Alan Wake 2 were implemented in American Nightmare, a downloadable follow-up for the original Alan Wake game.[7] Remedy CEO Tero Virtala stated that any further sequels to Alan Wake would require Microsoft Studios’ approval as the publishing rights holder, though Remedy otherwise owns all other IP rights to the series.[8]
When Quantum Break was announced, Sam Lake explained that a sequel to Alan Wake had been postponed, and that Alan Wake was not financially successful enough to receive the funding they needed to continue developing the sequel at the time.[9] Director of communications Thomas Puha stated in April 2019 that Remedy had briefly returned to work on an Alan Wake property about two years prior, but the effort did not work out, and the company is presently booked for the next few years, between their own new game Control, supporting Smilegate on its game CrossfireX, and another new project. Puha said that the only limited factor for them to work on an Alan Wake sequel was “time, money, and resources”.[10] Despite that, Lake continued to be part of a team in Remedy to brainstorm ideas and work on different incarnations for Alan Wake 2. Internally, the project was code-named “Project Big Fish”, which represented its importance and significance to Remedy.[11] In the second downloadable content pack for Control, Remedy’s next game following Quantum Break, Alan Wake was featured as a character. According to Remedy, Control established the “Remedy Connected Universe” which is shared by both Control and Alan Wake, and that the next game released by the studio will also be set on this universe.[12]
Remedy fully acquired the rights to Alan Wake from Microsoft in July 2019, including a one-time royalty payment of about €2.5 million for the game series’ past sales, which helped pave the way for a sequel.[13] Remedy had signed with Epic Games Publishing in 2021 for the release of two games. Remedy released Alan Wake Remastered in October 2021 as the first game of this partnership,[14] while the second, larger game, Alan Wake 2, was announced at The Game Awards 2021.[15] Remedy’s communications director Thomas Puha said that Epic allowed Remedy to create the game they wanted to make with minimal publisher interference, while providing extensive feedback to help improve the game.[16]
Production
With Epic as their publisher, Remedy began production on Alan Wake 2 in August 2019.[17] According to Sam Lake, the game will be powered by Remedy’s own Northlight Engine, which previously powered Quantum Break and Control. Lake also stated that Alan Wake 2 will be a survival horror game, as opposed to Alan Wake, which Lake said was “an action game with horror elements”, though he did not explain the difference between the two. Lake further added that players will not need to play the previous games in order to understand Alan Wake 2.[11] The sequel continued to draw inspiration from the works of David Lynch, particularly Twin Peaks, while also bringing more detective themes from works like Seven, The Silence of the Lambs, and True Detective.[18] Lake said that his approach to Alan Wake 2 was bolstered by the success of the film Everything Everywhere All At Once.[19]
Remedy confirmed the game would remain in the third-person perspective despite the switch to survival horror, and that both Ilkka Villi and Matthew Porretta would return to provide the appearance and the voice of Alan, respectively.[20] Other cast include Melanie Liburd as the live-action and voice of Saga Anderson, David Harewood as both the live-action and voice of Mr. Door, James McCaffrey and Lake as the voice and live-action appearance of Alex Casey, respectively.[21] Further, Alan Wake II includes cameos from characters in Control, including Jesse Faden (voiced by Courtney Hope), Dr. Darling (Porretta) and the mysterious janitor Ahti (Martti Suosalo).[22]
Alan’s story includes a mission known as “Initiation 4” or “We Sing”, which has the player guide Alan through a surreal set while Alan’s psyche, Mr. Door, and others sing “Herald of Darkness”, a musical (via live-action video) summarizing Alan’s story to that point, with music provided by Poets of the Fall (playing as the fictional band “The Old Gods of Asgard”).[23] Lake said the idea for the musical sequence was inspired by Alan Wake‘s concert standoff as well as the Ashtray Maze level in Control, both set to Poets of the Fall’s music. Lake also knew that Porretta (Wake) and Harewood (Mr. Door) could sing, and Poets of the Fall were able to help with choreography. Frequently through development, some of the developers questioned the need for the musical sequence due to both the strangeness of the sequence in the horror game and the difficulties in pulling it off. However, Lake insisted that the sequence be kept.[24] The song was played live at The Game Awards 2023 by Poets of the Fall, along with Villi, Porretta, Harewood, and Lake reprising their roles.[25]
Overall, the game took 13 years to develop. In an interview, Sam Lake said this was because “The sequel contains many characters and locations, as well as a continuation of the supernatural lore established and introduced in the original Alan Wake.”[26]
The Budget for the game reportedly stands at €70 million, with €50 million in development and an additional €20 million spent on marketing.[27] This is considered to make the game one of the most expensive cultural products in the history of Finland.
