After 13 years Remedy revives the Alan Wake story with a mind bending masterpiece in survival horror
As if 2023 wasn’t stacked enough.
With classics like Spider-Man 2, Tears of the Kingdom and Resident Evil 4 all dropping this calendar year, Remedy have come out swinging late with a game that redefines the benchmark for survival horror.
After 13 long years, many fans were hesitant to get excited given the long sabbatical of our favourite writer. Sam Lake somehow uses this gap to his advantage to deliver a spectacle like no game we have seen before.
The obvious place to start is the story, as there is just so much, yet somehow never too much that you feel overwhelmed. New players are fed enough intrigue to hook you with a brand new mystery, seeing you play as Saga Anderson in the early game, acting as almost an avatar, just as new to the story as any fresh players. That’s not to say long time Remedy fans aren’t serviced, with references to Control’s FBC and the original Alan wake to instantly make the game feel familiar within this now shared universe.
The story picks up an entire 13 years after the events of the first game, Alan has been trapped all this time, writing Saga in as the story's hero in his bid to escape. This time spent trapped allows for some of the games very best moments as our hero is clearly losing his grip on his sanity. Without spoiling too much, this approach lets the game shine in ways no game of its genre or even game in general really has.
Alan’s mental state allows for some of the best visuals and set pieces you are ever likely to see. Alan can “rewrite” the story of the dark place on the fly, seeing you completely bend and change the shape of the world as you progress further down the rabbit hole.
This leads to a plethora of just, for the lack of a better word, fried sequences. A musical tells you your life story, every mystery can have a skewed outcome based on how you need to traverse the game world, a talk show host is where you search for answers. It is just an absolute masterclass in story telling, really using every medium from music to cinema to TV to poetry to photography to literature all woven together and manipulated in a way only games could.
It really flys the flag in the argument of whether or not games could be considered an art form. Rather than feel pressured by the gap between both games, Lake and Remedy have used this time and advance in technical capabilities to their advantage to continue the story in a way that just doesn’t feel like would be possible even a few short years ago, never mind in 2010.
With a story as deep and winding as has just been described, you may think the gameplay has taken a back seat, you would be wrong. While the game does have certain parts with lulls in the action as you move from section to section, the combat and fight sequences have been improved tenfold from the last entry.
The stamina bar is out, which makes the combat feel much more fluid (even though characters jog like they are being chased by an infant) allowing for more interesting fights. The torches are back as the “taken” still be roaming these woods but the arsenal of guns feels better. It’s standard 3rd person, RE4 style with rifles, pistols, shotguns and even CROSSBOWS at your disposal. These come along with an absolute handbag of throwables from whiskey bottles to flash bang grenades to really help light up the battlefield. The boss battles are varied and the game never hesitates to throw a combat encounter at you when you least expect it, given me very unwelcome flashbacks to the Last of Us.
Last up is of course the music and honestly, a whole review could be done on that alone. It is a character in this game, plain and simple. Always used perfectly, adding to the atmosphere at every opportunity and literally influencing the story. The sound design itself is best in class: wether it’s water crashing on rocks by the lake, shadows whispering Alan Wake, old stories leaking into the dark place, the clicking of your typewriter, the nails on a chalkboard sound every time a jump scare paralyses you, just unbelievable.
It doesn’t take a master writer to workout that I think this game is a must buy. A story littered with masterfully acted characters,
(no spoilers but Jakko Koskela is the GOAT) and plenty for newcomers and Remedy fans alike alike with a gameplay loop that stays fun throughout the 16ish hours it took me to finish it. DLC is in the works and new game plus can’t come quick enough.
The typing stopped. The review was finished and the verdict was clear. This game was a masterpiece.
RM RECOMMENDS
Pros: Great Story, Satisfying gameplay, Services new and returning fans, Mindbending Visuals, MUSIC
Cons: occasionally slow parts between areas
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