Perhaps Remedy’s best game yet

If you have thought control It was a hell of a fuck, you’re not ready for that Alan Wake 2. According to Remedy, the 13-year sequel is the biggest game the studio has ever made, and that’s saying a lot considering the impressive body of work.

One of the reasons the studio is so sure Alan Wake 2 will take the crown is its concept: The two protagonists, author Alan Wake and series newcomer FBI agent Saga Anderson, exist in two different realities and you can switch between them during the survival horror gameplay. This means you can play almost the entire game as Saga and Alan’s Story or vice versa, or switch between them at will. However, there’s only one ending, and it’s sure to be a smash, according to Remedy, which inspired the team silent Hill, FargoAnd midsummer while working on the long-awaited sequel.

The Alan Wake 2 demo

During the 30-minute hands-off demo I saw at Summer Game Fest, Remedy featured a lot more physical and strategic combat than the original Alan Wake had back in the Xbox 360 days. Dubbed Return 2 The Heart, the demo level takes Saga through the twilight forests of the Pacific Northwest. She uses a depleting flashlight to fend off bizarre creatures invading her world from a realm called the Dark Presence. The rays of light sort of break their shimmering, surreal shield, allowing her to shoot them in the face with a saw-off shotgun.

Both Saga and Alan (who seems trapped in that other realm) have different weapons that can be upgraded via the Mind Place, a safe, enemy-free area that you can enter at any time by touch ing a button. This room isn’t just for weapon upgrades though, it’s also central to the progression of the storyline, being a mental construct of Saga’s work on this twisted, spooky case that feels like the first season of True detective

If Saga is at a loss you won’t be able to continue the story, but Remedy has another game mechanic that you can use to help the detective find her way forward. In Mind Place, you can sit at a table and use Saga’s “Profiling” ability to penetrate the minds of your suspects. This is where Remedy does its biggest Remedy shit, as a cutscene shows Saga talking to herself and trying to make sense of the people behind those horrors, while the lighting violently switches from cool tones to hard, intense reds as she thinks about it out loud .

There’s also what Remedy calls “break rooms”: well-lit spaces where Saga can return to recover from the massive hustle and bustle. midsummer-like monsters that emerge from the flooded forest floor or leap out from behind trees. These rooms will house the infamous thermos, now transformed into a tool for saving the game rather than a collectible like in the original game.

The demo also showcased the balance Remedy is trying to find between the anxiety you get from an eerie, lingering sense of uneasiness and the slacker, old-school jump-scares you’d expect from them resident Evil Game. Both are effective.

I never played the original Alan Wake, but the Remedy rep at Summer Game Fest assures me that the sequel is a perfect starting point for newcomers. Saga, who stumbles into this bizarre world and learns more and more about it, represents the player here. You and she are on this crazy ride, and it’s okay if you’re stumped – because she is too.

But Remedy heads will also be delighted Alan Wake 2and if you’re really sick, you can go back and play that Control: AWE Expansion detailing how the events of the upcoming sequel began. With Alan Wake 2, it’s clear that Remedy doubles down on the series’ twisted, brilliant storyline while bringing the gameplay into the modern age with necessary upgrades. Coming in the next few years, this sequel will finally come out in October.

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