Alan Wake 2 Devs Discuss How the Game Encourages Replays

gamingbolt.com:

Remedy Entertainment has started the marketing cycle for Alan Wake 2 in earnest, which means recent days have brought plenty of new story and gameplay details for the highly anticipated survival horror sequel. Several tidbits have stood out in that period, from the game featuring two playable protagonists – the titular Alan Wake and newcomer FBI profiler Saga Anderson – to how it will allow players to swap between them to experience the story however they wish. That, as you might imagine, is something that’s also going to add plenty of replay value to the game.

Speaking in a recent interview with VGC, Alan Wake 2’s developers touched on that topic in particular, and how they struck a balance between making sure that players can get a proper understanding of the story without having to play through the game multiple times, but still being encouraged to do replays to see and experience new things.

Principal narrative designer Molly Maloney described it as “a tight rope walk”, and added that exploration is also a key component of the game that will add to the replay value in multiple ways.

“We want to make sure the players end up with the minimum viable understanding and make sure that this all makes sense in a way that is meaningful,” she said. “But exploration was a key pillar of this game. And that’s not only physical exploration of spaces, but it’s also, you know, if you don’t talk to Casey in that moment, you don’t necessarily get to experience that conversation later. It’s there, and if you want to avail yourself of it, you certainly can.”

Co-director Kyle Rowley went on to explain the “layered” nature of the game’s story, and how it will encourage players to experience it in different ways across multiple