The dodge returns from the first game, so ducking beneath hurled hatchets and melee swipes is still part of the rhythm. But that familiar foundation is blended with more original Remedy ideas. There’s a grisly wound system, too, that opens up wet cavities with each gunshot. The touch of Resident Evil can also be felt in Alan Wake 2’s combat encounters, which are framed from an almost identical camera angle and have the remakes’ same snappy, stressful gunplay. I appreciate this more involved and ambiguous approach over Resident Evil’s tradition of using an unusual item as a key, although that design does still make an appearance later in the chapter.
Cracking it requires a close study of the surrounding environment, as the bolts embedded in the nearby targets are clues to the padlock’s combination. I find a basic supply chest that’s protected by a simple memory mini-game, but later discover a lockbox containing a powerful crossbow. As I get closer to Coffee World I stumble across a number of containers, each locked by a brain teaser with a difficulty level that scales in correlation with the rewards inside. That relationship is further emphasised by the abundance of puzzles. If the opening walk through Watery presents an air of Silent Hill, then this later approach positions Alan Wake 2 close to Resident Evil, which has long used its police stations and villages in a similar manner. This has affected the scenario design across the duration of the chapter my objectives take me back and forth, discovering and revisiting locations as new items and information expand the story. Rather than the A-to-B shooting galleries that made up the original game, Watery is an open hub of snaking forest trails that can be freely explored and backtracked through. My journey there reveals that Alan Wake 2’s world is built entirely differently from its predecessor. I don’t know if the coffee here is damn fine, but the atmosphere certainly is.Ī chat with entrepreneurial oddballs the Koskela brothers puts me on the trail of some spare keys for the trailer park, which are locked up in the gift shop of Coffee World, a local theme park. And Ahti is performing a rousing number at the local cafe. But while this may be slower-paced than Remedy’s previous action romps, it’s no less weird: everyone seems to already know who I am despite this being Saga’s first visit to Watery. There’s no urgency as I wander down Main Street, chatting with the locals about a nearby trailer park – a lead in my wider investigation into the Cult of the Tree, the story’s looming threat. In these opening minutes, it’s clear that Alan Wake 2 is unlike any other game Remedy has made before. It’s just down the road from the original Alan Wake setting of Bright Falls, and carries a similar David Lynch vibe quaint, but off-kilter. Local Girl begins with Saga arriving in Watery, a town established by Finnish settlers. And, from what I can tell thus far, it’s all for the better. It feels like almost every element of Alan Wake’s gameplay has been reinvented.
It comes complete with puzzles, exploration, backtracking, and a crime fiction library’s worth of creeping dread. Where the 2010 original was a relentless action game dressed in a Halloween costume, Alan Wake 2 is a full-bore survival horror.
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