Resident Evil has a new survival horror rival in Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake has recovered from his 13-year-long writer’s block.
The fictional horror author, the protagonist of Remedy Entertainment’s cult hit of the same name from 2010, will reprise his role in a long-awaited sequel this October. His return isn’t just notable because he’s a beloved franchise character — the reveal of Alan Wake 2marks an important milestone for Remedy, which has endured multiple failed attempts to create a new chapter for Alan Wake, and in the meantime launched the breakout hit Control.
While Alan Wake 2 bears similarities to its predecessor, like the inclusion of familiar characters and gameplay, the game takes considerable freedom to change things up. This time around, Alan will be joined by FBI agent Saga Anderson, who investigates a string of grisly murders in the Pacific Northwest. As players advance the story, they’ll take control of both Alan and Saga as a supernatural horror unfolds.
As part of Summer Game Fest, Remedy Entertainment and publisher Epic Games Publishing showed Polygon a hands-off demo, with around 30 minutes of gameplay that showed an early mission played from Saga’s perspective. What we saw was a slice of the game that leans into the survival horror genre and practically goes full-on Resident Evil 4 at points.
The game kicks off with Saga walking through dense, conifer-filled woods with her colleague Alex Casey (voiced by creative director and writer Sam Lake). As they talk, we learn that they’re investigating an area by Cauldron Lake, which just so happens to be the site of Alan’s disappearance in the first game, after a string of grisly murders.
To progress the story, players will walk around as Saga and search for clues in various crime scenes. In the demo, she jaunts around
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