Alan Wake II Review – It Truly Was an Ocean

Remedy Entertainment is known to have developed some of the best story-driven action-adventure games ever made, but if there’s one title that players love from the Finnish studio, not counting the iconic Max Payne, is Alan Wake. The action-adventure game starring the tormented writer who traveled to Bright Falls to overcome his block was made memorable by a strong narrative, horror elements, and an amazing soundtrack that made it easy for anyone to look past some of the game’s shortcomings, such as the clunky combat system. As the game featured a somewhat open ending which strongly hinted at a sequel, fans were eagerly anticipating the return of Alan Wake. A return that, much like the novel the writer started writing at the end of the original game, took 13 years to materialize.

The wait for Alan Wake II has been excruciatingly long, but it was totally worth it. Setting aside some minor issues, the second entry in the series is not only an amazing sequel but also one of the best games released by Remedy Entertainment and one of the best survival horror games ever made.

Instead of putting players only in Alan Wake’s shoes once again, Alan Wake II lets players experience the story from two different points of view. Joining the horror writer is Saga Anderson, an FBI agent who travels to Bright Falls with another FBI detective called Alex Casey, just like the main character of Alan Wake’s novels, to investigate a series of ritualistic murders perpetrated by the so-called Cult of the Tree. Right from the start of the investigation, it is clear that there’s something afoot that goes beyond some lunatic cultists recreating the murders Alan Wake wrote for his novels. Finding pages of a manuscript written by Wake himself that act as a guide for her investigation and getting recognized by people she never met before, Saga’s investigation leads to more and more questions about what is really happening and Wake’s own reappearance after having gone missing for 13 years only complicates the matter further.

Everything above is only the surface of Cauldron Lake, where Alan Wake disappeared 13 years ago, and delving deeper into its depths here would mean spoiling what an amazing story filled with mystery, suspense, and a lot of surprises. Every little story element, from pacing to characters, the interjection of live-action sequences, and even the smallest of details, has been masterfully crafted and instantly shows the amount of care that was put into its creation. The writing, in particular, is excellent. It makes the story of Saga and Alan feel like part of a greater whole even while each half of the game retains a very distinct identity. The way the references to Control, Remedy’s previous title, are organically weaved into the story, the meta-commentary that is not always easy to understand even after completing the game, and optional collectibles rooted into the lore are all testament to the high-quality Alan Wake II’s story.

Needless to say, the terrific performances of the actors playing Alan Wake II’s main characters play a big part in making the game so engaging. Ikka Villi and Matthew Porretta, who play and voice Alan Wake, and Melanie Liburd, who plays Saga Anderson, are clearly the stars of the show, but every other performance is just as good. Sam Lake and James McCaffrey, who play and voice Alex Casey, and others, such as Peter Franzen, who plays the Koskela brothers, manage to strike an incredible balance between serious and humorous moments, which never feels forced. In this regard, Alan Wake II is unmatched, truly feeling like a playable movie or TV show with the highest production values.

When it comes to gameplay, Alan Wake II is very different from its predecessor. Whereas the original game was an action game with some horror elements, the second entry in the series is a full-on survival horror game that combines pretty much every staple of the genre with some mechanics lifted from investigation games, at least for Saga’s story. Exploring a variety of locations around Bright Falls and inside the Dark Place, players will have to collect items and clues to reach their current objectives, which range from making important discoveries for the investigation, escaping certain locations, solving a variety of puzzles that vary in difficulty, but never feel excessively frustrating.

Using a variety of firearms and their trusty flashlight, both Saga and Alan will have to fight off the Taken, who come in multiple types and have different attack patterns. Unlike traditional survival horror games, where positioning is the only thing that can prevent damage, in Alan Wake II, both Saga and Alan can use a dodge maneuver. This comes with a decent amount of invincibility frames that make dodging attacks pretty easy, with the proper timing, as well as an emergency melee attack. Enemies realistically react to shots to the legs, arms, and weak points uncovered using the flashlight, so combat generally feels satisfying despite being a little basic.

Thankfully, combat scenarios make the fighting enjoyable despite its simplicity. Enemies are placed cleverly around locations, and the variety of combat situations Saga and Alan find themselves in is extremely varied throughout the game. Boss battles are, obviously, among the highlights and are just as varied as the regular enemy encounters, with the tension of the moment brought to eleven.

Much like combat, traversal and exploration in Alan Wake II don’t feel particularly innovative. While the game is mostly a linear affair, as it is impossible to reach areas the player is not supposed to get to, it does offer plenty of opportunities to get off the beaten path in search of additional resources such as ammo and healing items and collectibles that can be used to upgrade weapons and enhance abilities. These collectibles – obtained by completing Nursery Rhymes and finding Alex Casey lunchboxes for Saga, and finding Words of Power for Alan – are fully integrated into the story, so they feel an integral part of the adventure. To be completely honest, during my normal difficulty playthrough, I never really felt the need to upgrade weapons or equip Charms to Saga, so these enhancements may feel a little superfluous, but given that enemies hit hard at Normal difficulty, I expect them to be more important at Hard difficulty.

While Alan Wake II’s traversal and exploration are standard fare for third-person survival horror games, they are enhanced by two unique mechanics, the Mind Place for Saga and the Writer’s Room for Alan. Saga’s Mind Place is her own unique take on the mind palace technique, which is used to recreate in her mind a room where it is possible to put together clues for both main and side cases, profile other characters, and read the manuscript pages scattered all over Bright Falls. At the start of the game, it is heavily suggested that putting things together on the Case Board is the only way to make progress, but as soon as the training wheels are off, it is entirely possible to make progress even without engaging in this mechanic most of the time, so its inclusion mostly serves as a way to guide players towards their next objective, keep track of gathered information and so on.

Alan’s Writer’s Room, on the other hand, works quite differently. Due to the unique properties of the Dark Place, the writer can change certain locations, called scenes in the room, by changing up some details, which are picked while exploring the eerie locations of this world made of darkness. Depending on the player’s choices, the scenes can change radically and may lead to some interesting discoveries. Even without using the Writer’s Room, Alan can make changes to the Dark Place using his lamp, which can capture light and bestow it to certain devices to open up paths and so on. In this regard, Alan’s campaign feels the most unique, also thanks to some extremely interesting sequences, including a specific one that I am sure will be talked about for a good while.

Despite the high quality of both campaigns, it is undeniable that Alan Wake II, like pretty much every game developed by Remedy Entertainment, is not a game for everyone. While the story has great pacing, keeping players hungering for the next reveal in this crazy ride, there are times, especially during Saga’s campaign, when things slow down a bit. While it is understandable due to the game being a narrative experience where the player is supposed to soak into the atmosphere, it may not sit well with some. It also takes a while to get going, and the first couple of hours can feel a little dull.

If there’s any single aspect of Alan Wake II that is going to be universally praised, it is its visuals. Make no mistake: this is among the most stunning video games ever released, thanks to extremely high-quality visuals that are sometimes almost indistinguishable from live-action sequences. Everything, from location and character design to lighting, is of the highest quality, and while ray tracing and path tracing enhance the experience considerably, Alan Wake II looks amazing even without them. Even at low settings, Alan Wake II is among the best visual experiences that can be had on PC.

Such a high level of visual fidelity, however, comes at a price, as Alan Wake II is also among the most demanding PC games available to date. The system requirements shared by Remedy before release are pretty much spot on, as even the best systems will have trouble running the game properly with path tracing at native resolution. On my system powered by an i7-13700F CPU, RTX 4080 GPU, and 32 GB of RAM, at High settings (with the exception of volumetric lighting, spotlight quality, shadow filtering, and shadow detail set to Medium), the game could only average 18 FPS at 4K resolution with DLAA, and 42 FPS without ray tracing in the Coffee World area, which features some demanding visual elements such as a lot of vegetation, volumetric lighting and fog. As such, it is clear how upscalers and Frame Generation are pretty much a necessity to enjoy the game at high resolutions and acceptable performance with all bells and whistles on, just like with Cyberpunk 2077’s Ray Tracing Overdrive mode.

In the same area, with DLSS set at the Performance preset, path tracing at high, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation, the game runs with an average of 79 FPS at 4K resolution. Switching DLSS Super Resolution from Performance to Quality brings the average down to 56 FPS. Turning off ray tracing completely delivers significant performance uplifts, with the average framerate rising to 93 FPS (with Frame Generation enabled) in the same area.

One thing to note, however, is how Saga’s campaign seems to be a little more demanding compared to Alan’s. In the Caldera Street Station, for example, with DLSS Quality, Frame Generation, ray tracing, path tracing at high, and Ray Reconstruction, the game ran way more smoothly with a 95 FPS average. It has to be said, however, that even at around 60 FPS, the experience always felt very smooth, as the game doesn’t suffer from any traversal or shader compilation stuttering. It is also very stable, as the game never crashed in my 20 or so hours with it, and I did not experience any major bugs. There are some minor visual glitches, such as some vegetation pop-up and some menu textures loading slowly, but nothing that really impacts the game.

Alongside delivering some of the best visuals ever, Alan Wake II also doesn’t disappoint when it comes to audio, featuring directional cues that vastly enhance immersion (which is further heightened by the DualSense controller’s haptics and adaptive triggers) and cleverly guide players towards enemies and mission objectives. The soundtrack is excellent as well, featuring some amazing pieces from the Finnish rock band Poets of the Fall, who play the fictional band called Old Gods of Asgard. One track, in particular, is sure to become a huge hit, also thanks to how it’s woven into the game, making for one of the best music experiences I have ever had in gaming.

Despite not aiming to revolutionize the survival horror genre, Alan Wake II is an amazing game that no one who enjoys a good trippy horror story should pass on. Remedy Entertainment really outdid themselves, releasing their best game to date and one of the most immersive gaming experiences of the past few years.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

Alan Wake II

With its excellent trippy horror story, memorable characters, amazing atmosphere, and some of the best visuals in gaming to date, Alan Wake II is a game like few others and Remedy Entertainment’s best. It took 13 years for the acclaimed writer to come back, but the long wait was worth it. We could have hardly wished for a better sequel, despite the derivative survival horror gameplay holding the experience back a bit.