Alan Wake’s half of Alan Wake 2 is very Alan Wake
Alan Wake has been trapped in the Dark Place for 13 years. He’s ditched his slouchy hoodie for a button-down, but kept the funny jacket with the old-fashioned elbow patches. Inky hair frames his face as he wanders through a hostile dream world, clutching a puzzle-solving lamp and a revolver. This is the other side of Alan Wake 2’s story, running parallel to FBI agent Saga Anderson’s Pacific Northwest trek to investigate a series of ritualistic murders.
A new preview we recently checked out focused on Wake’s portion of the game, set in the Dark Place, which appears to Wake as a hard-boiled vision of the Big Apple. New York is Wake’s former home and the setting of the Alex Casey crime novel series that gave him his reputation as a writer. While there, Wake needs to leverage his power to rewrite reality and escape this place to reunite with his wife, Alice, but it won’t be easy, given that his surroundings are actively working against him.
The Taken return from Alan Wake as flickering silhouettes that wander the Dark Place, which you must expose with your lamp before disposing of the bodies beneath. “Have you lost the plot?” they’ll sneer as they throw you to the ground. Adding to the paranoid atmosphere, illuminated Taken often look like Wake, and non-hostile entities called Fade-Outs follow you, taunting and goading you into wasting precious light or ammo. Subtle cues differentiate them from the base enemies, so perceptive players can pick their battles.
Alan Wake 2’s combat is Remedy’s take on Resident Evil 4, with an over-the-shoulder camera, heavy recoil, and a lifesaving dodge. Alan Wake’s worst quality was its tedious combat, where hordes of Taken would constantly surround the player and club them to death. In the
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