How Alan Wake 2 rewrites the world to escape the Dark Place
Thirteen years is a long time to spend in a Hell of your own mind’s making, so it’s a blessing in disguise that Alan Wake has a case of the video game amnesia about much of that time. There’s a glimmer of hope for him though, as Alan Wake 2 gives him a fresh chance to find a way out and get back to the real world.
It will be a long, arduous and no doubt desperate quest to get there, not least because it starts off with being sucked into a TV, shifting into live action and all the pressure and intimidating atmosphere of a public interview and an oddly taunting talk show host. I’d say that In Between with Mr. Door is probably one of the toughest gigs in late night, despite Mr. Door (played by David Harewood) being all smiles and laughs…
The bewildering turns of events and confrontations don’t stop there for Alan, as he now finds himself in a dark, grimy vision of New York – an impeccable take on late 80s New York City with all of the graffiti twisted to taunt Alan and what he’s going through. A pay phone is ringing, and as he answers, the voice at the other end of the line pushes him to visit Caldera St. Station to discover more of where he is. Except the station entrance isn’t where it should be.
Drawn to a light at the end of a nearby alleyway – the fairly heavy narration by Alan nudges the player toward where they should be going next – he’s then confronted by the gritty New York cop Alex Casey, a character drawn from Alan’s old novels, and who looks like the classic vision of Max Payne, right down to the tropical shirt.
Casey’s cameo doesn’t last long, but throws up more questions and suspicions, throwing you onto the trail of a murderous cult within the city, trying to finish an investigation that Casey started.
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