![]() ![]() The jumps between pastoral horror and urban surrealism are both jarring and exhilarating.Īlan Wake 2’s jumps between pastoral horror and urban surrealism are both jarring and exhilarating Saga’s half follows her as she unravels the connection between a deadly cult and the mysteries of the supernatural Cauldron Lake, while Alan’s sees him desperately fighting to escape the Dark Place, a nightmarish dreamscape of New York City that he can sometimes literally rearrange by adjusting “plot elements” he finds throughout the world. Despite sharing the aforementioned survival horror kinetic vocabularies, the two halves feel like entire games of their own, blurred at the edges and overlapping each other, much like the dark presence that has seeped over the borders of Bright Falls. ![]() In a break from the original game, players can alternate between Saga and Alan at any time during their storylines (after and before certain plot-critical chapters). These survival horror elements only scratch the surface of Alan Wake 2’s most ambitious innovations. The puzzle design in the game also shares a lot in common with Capcom’s horror franchise, specifically Resident Evil 2’s remake, with hidden caches of supplies scattered throughout each area that require keen observation and deductive reasoning to unlock. Instead, you’ll have to scavenge for med packs and painkillers along with ammunition and other story-critical items, which can be accessed via a grid-based inventory system à la Resident Evil 4. Lampposts still temporarily shield players from the advance of enemies, but they no longer regenerate health. Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing ![]() The pair quickly find themselves at the heart of a terrifying mystery, one that threatens to not only endanger their lives, but reshape the very fabric of reality as a whole. Upon arriving, Saga and her partner, Alex Casey - a jaded yet affirming mentor with an affinity for coffee, and the likeness of creative director Sam Lake - deduce that the murders may also be linked to Wake, who disappeared over a decade earlier. Picking up 13 in-game years after the events of the first game, Alan Wake 2 stars not only the eponymous writer turned interdimensional warrior, but also a new protagonist in the form of Saga Anderson: an FBI profiler who arrives in the Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls, Washington, to investigate the latest in a series of mysterious disappearances and murders supposedly linked to a deranged cult. Alan Wake 2 is something altogether different and, in a post- Control world, something with production values and scale that the studio never would have had all those years ago. “This is not the ending that I wanted.” Indeed, this is not the original aborted sequel to Alan Wake that was conceived all the way back in 2010. “This is not the story I wanted it to be,” Wake gravely warns in an opening monologue. If you want curated lists of our favorite media, check out What to Play and What to Watch. When we award the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the recipient is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive, or fun - and worth fitting into your schedule. Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games, movies, TV shows, comics, tabletop books, and entertainment experiences. ![]()
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