“With Alan Wake 2, we wanted to take certain elements of the ‘Remedy games’ in many ways and push them to the limits of what we could imagine,” Remedy creative director and lead writer Sam Lake told I.
Specifically, I asked about the reaction to Ashtray Labyrinth, Studio Control’s last major release, and its instantly iconic reputation. If you’re not familiar, the “Ashtray Labyrinth” is a post-game setting that acts as a fantastic gameplay and narrative device – a paranormal security device designed to prevent anyone without proper clearance from entering the deepest recesses of the Oldest House.
However, the way it behaves is a non-Euclidean, ever-changing space – impossible to map and really understand. While navigating, you need to wear the cassette player given to you by the janitor and (in my opinion) one of the best characters in all of fiction, Ahti. Loaded with the Old Gods of Asgard song “Take Control” (an alias for the game’s “Fallen Poets”), this recorder lets you freely traverse the “ashtray maze,” a Strange supernatural objects that claimed the lives of many curious civilians. .
Players, this is great for you when you watch this interactive music video. It’s one of the best scenes in modern gaming – and Remedy is keen to recapture the energy of loving music in his next game.
“Of course, we learned that people like [the “Ashtray Maze’] In Control, as an example of how we use music in the game,” Lake said. Alan Wake and Barry fight “Take” and everything comes at them. It’s something we’ve always been interested in. “
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Lake went on to explain that one of Remedy’s driving forces when developing the new game was to think creatively about how music could be used as part of the storytelling experience, and how the developer could make the tracks from The Old Gods of Asgard organic and authentic. integrated into the game. Make projects memorable and unique. Paired with a more “impactful, strategic, desperate” tone of the game, it all sounds tempting.
“So it’s been this journey, without getting into anything specific — because we’ve announced anything specific — we just wanted to experiment with music and create different types of custom music. Even more than ever before.”
Lake told me with a wry smile that if I liked the “ashtray maze” in “Control”, I would definitely like the plot in “Alan Wake 2”. Suddenly, the ten-year wait seemed well worth it.
Alan Wake 2 launches on October 17 and will be available on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
