Alan Wake II
2023
- shooter
- adventure
- action
- horror
- thriller
- survival
- mystery
- single player
The story
Alan Wake 2 marks Remedy Entertainment’s first foray into the survival horror genre. Ritualistic murders in a small town. A writer trapped in a nightmare. An FBI agent looking for answers. Two realities. Two hero characters. One horror story that wants them dead.
What it’s like
Shadowy forest nights broken by harsh white flashlight beams, with the dark pressing in at the edges of the frame, and a sun-starved mountain town whose diners and motel rooms glow under flickering fluorescents. Sections shift between grim procedural interiors, all cold blue monitors and rain-streaked windows, and surreal live-action-style hallways where the world seems to be assembling itself as you walk. The soundtrack leans on eerie folk-tinged melodies and sudden, bone-deep stings, while long stretches of wind and distant dripping hold the silence. Combat is steady and tense rather than frantic, with light as the main weapon against shadowy enemies, and there is stylised gore and a steady run of frightening, grotesque encounters, though the violence is more creepy than relentlessly graphic. Its vibe is eerie, wry and unsettling, a dark late-night mystery with a streak of gallows humour. Pacing is slow-burning and investigative, with long quiet passages of searching and reading between sharp scares. Its emotional register is melancholic and strange, following a haunted writer and a methodical detective who each slowly confront the thing hunting them. For people who want a cerebral, atmospheric thriller with real dread, a cult-following story to get lost in over a long dark weekend, and don't mind being scared.
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