There is a specific kind of confidence required to make a game like Alan Wake 2. Not the confidence of a studio throwing money at spectacle, but the quieter, stranger confidence of a team that genuinely believes in its own weird vision. Remedy Entertainment have been building toward this for over a decade, threading references and lore through Alan Wake, Control, and a handful of other projects, and Alan Wake 2 is where that all pays off. It is one of the most genuinely unusual games you will play this generation, and very nearly one of the best.

Two Stories Running in Parallel

The game splits its narrative between two protagonists. Alan Wake is still trapped in the Dark Place, a nightmarish dimension that warps itself around creative thought, and FBI agent Saga Anderson is investigating a string of ritualistic murders in the Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls. You switch between them at designated points, and the contrast between the two storylines is intentional and consistently effective.

Saga’s sections feel grounded by comparison. She is a competent, no-nonsense investigator, and playing as her offers something closer to a conventional survival horror experience in the mould of the recent Resident Evil remakes. Her Mind Place mechanic is a standout: a mental workspace where you pin evidence to a board and piece together the case, presented visually as a physical room inside her head. It is a clever way to deliver exposition without resorting to cutscenes, and it gives you genuine agency in understanding what is happening.

Alan’s sections are something else entirely. The Dark Place is a deliberately disorienting environment that changes around him, and Remedy lean into the unreality of it fully. His mechanic involves rewriting his own story using manuscript pages to alter the environment itself, shifting props, changing lighting, and opening new paths. It sounds gimmicky on paper and feels revelatory in practice.

The Live Action Sequences

Alan Wake 2 is not shy about its influences. Twin Peaks is in the DNA, obviously, but so is American horror fiction more broadly, and Remedy have always had a fondness for blurring the line between game and something else entirely.

The live action sequences are the most visible expression of that tendency, and they are extraordinary. Without spoiling them, there are moments in this game that use real footage, practical effects, and a level of theatrical commitment that you simply do not see in games. A particular sequence roughly two thirds of the way through the story is the kind of thing people will be clipping and sharing for years. It is completely mental in the best way, and it lands because the game has built enough atmosphere and trust by that point to carry the swing.

These sequences will not work for everyone. If you want your games to stay in their lane, Alan Wake 2 will frustrate you. If you are willing to go where Remedy are pointing, they are unlike anything else.

Atmosphere and Horror

Alan Wake 2 is genuinely unsettling in a way that many games in this genre fail to be. The horror here is not primarily jump scares, though there are some. It is the creeping wrongness of the environments, the way lighting is used to suggest threat before it materialises, and the consistently excellent sound design. Playing this with headphones on in the dark is the correct way to experience it.

The Taken enemies, twisted figures wrapped in darkness that you have to burn back with your torch before your bullets can do any damage, return from the first game and are still a compelling combat encounter. Resource management matters. You are never flush with ammunition, and there is a meaningful decision in most encounters between fighting through and conserving supplies by evading.

The PC version demands a capable machine, particularly if you want to run path tracing, which the game uses more aggressively than almost anything else available. On reasonable hardware with settings dialled back it runs well enough, but this is one of the more demanding PC releases in recent years. PS5 runs it confidently at a stable frame rate with impressive visuals throughout.

Worth Knowing

  • There is no physical release for Alan Wake 2, which is a significant ask at full price for some buyers
  • The PC requirements are substantial, especially if you want ray tracing or path tracing enabled
  • The ending is divisive. Some players find it unsatisfying or deliberately obscure. It is consistent with the rest of the game’s approach, but expectations are worth managing
  • Knowledge of the first Alan Wake and, to a lesser extent, Control enriches the story considerably. You can follow it without them, but context helps
  • The Mind Place and Manuscript mechanics both require a bit of adjustment time. Stick with them
  • This is not a fast-paced action game. The combat is deliberate and sometimes tension-heavy in ways that require patience

Verdict

Alan Wake 2 is a 9 out of 10 and it earns every point of that score through sheer creative conviction. Remedy have made a game that trusts its audience, commits fully to its strange ideas, and pulls off things that no other studio would have even attempted. The dual narrative structure works. The live action sequences work. The atmosphere is relentless in the best way.

The lack of a physical release and the demanding PC specs are real barriers for some players, and the ending will leave a portion of the audience cold. But for those willing to meet the game on its terms, Alan Wake 2 is exceptional. One of the standout releases of 2023 and a genuine statement from a studio operating at the top of its game.