Picking up from where the first game left off, it’s been 13 years since the incident at Cauldron Lake where writer Alan Wake went missing and the corpse of Agent Robert Nightingale (also missing) finds its way to the Cauldron Lake campground tied up in a ritualistic manner. FBI Agents Saga Anderson and Alex Casey are on the case to discover what secrets Bright Falls hold and end up in the same nightmare Alan Wake found himself in a decade ago.
The way Alan Wake II tells its story is fascinating and, as far as I can tell, completely original in video games. Taking control of either of the two protagonists will significantly change the gameplay; Saga is more grounded detective work trying to uncover the mystery of the cult and Alan trying to escape the ethereal Dark Place. Saga’s half plays as a pretty standard survival horror game with lots of enemies and small puzzles but what sets her apart is “The Mind Place”. A meditation technique she learned to clear her mind and better analyze situations, the Mind Place is where Saga taps into a special ability she has to visualize all the clues she’s acquired and read the minds of people she’s currently profiling.
On the other side is Alan Wake. Still stuck in the Dark Place, all of Alan’s narrative is weaved like a dream; the same locations reused multiple times and reshaped by plot elements to progress through the world physically like a writer progresses their story is one of the coolest mechanics I’ve seen in a long time. Not only does this give the game an incredible sense of style, it allows more to be done with single locations and drives home the helpless feeling of being stuck in a relentless purgatory.
The narrative devices used between the two sides of the story and how they intertwine is really what makes the story shine. Bouncing between Saga and Alan feels somewhat disjointed at first with tenuous strings holding the two together but as you progress you realize why the story unweaves itself the way it does. Due to this, the claims that someone could play through all of one side are somewhat false; the game is very aware that certain things need to happen at certain points and will straight up lock the player out at those points which is fine but feels a little more “on rails” than perhaps I originally wanted.
Alan Wake has never been a game series known for having good combat and, unfortunately, this may be the worst it’s ever been. The gunplay is clunky which makes no narrative sense for an FBI agent to be so bad at shooting but it’s the floaty nature of the dodge mechanic that shines as a real sore spot for me. The timing to utilize the dodge to actually dodge an attack feels almost like guesswork most times as there’s a delay between the animation start and the point in which your character is safe from damage. This leads to almost having to anticipate the moment you’re going to get hit and pressing the button a few milliseconds before to successfully sidestep any damage.
Compounding the problems with combat, enemies in some areas continuously respawn which actively takes away from the amazing environmental design. Because of this, I’ve been continuously at odds with wanting to explore yet almost always rushing through an area just so I don’t waste my time with the worst part of the game. It’s such a shame that the same company that made a fun combat experience in Control would do so horribly for Alan Wake.
All negative feelings on the gameplay aside, Alan Wake II is still a masterclass in a mixed media presentation in gaming. From the musical interludes between chapters to fight sequences set to a rock concert, there is so much style in this game that drags the player through any annoyance or scare with the promise of more cool stuff to come. Anecdotally, this is the first horror game I’ve heard from multiple people say they forced themselves through their fear to see it through which is an impressive feat not many horror-forward games can claim.
