Alan Wake 2 assessment: Spiralling into insanity

Treatment Leisure has come a great distance because the first Alan Wake recreation, with Management specifically breaking it out into the developer massive leagues.

Now it is revisiting its troubled author once more, spinning a dual-narrative paranormal thriller that may scare you and amaze you in equal measure, with a number of the greatest visuals I’ve ever seen.

Shiny Falls, darkish nights

In the event you by no means performed Alan Wake (or its strong remaster from 2021) then I will not misinform you – Alan Wake 2 will take some catching up on. Treatment says it is a standalone story however that is frankly not true.

This recreation picks up 13 years after the primary, with the small foggy city of Shiny Falls as soon as once more besieged by mysterious crimes, this time within the type of a homicide cult.

You initially play as FBI agent Saga Anderson as she arrives on the town to analyze the most recent in a line of related murders, but it surely does not take too lengthy earlier than a bedraggled Alan Wake emerges from the city’s lake to hitch the enjoyable.

From there Alan Wake 2 turns into a pair of tales – you possibly can swap at any time between Saga’s missions and Alan’s, progressing every of their viewpoints at no matter tempo you wish to uncover how they intertwine.

Saga performs in the actual world, combating off darkness-infected Fallen enemies and determining what is going on on in Shiny Falls, whereas Alan’s missions are altogether extra esoteric.

He is mired within the Darkish Place, very like Stranger Issues’ Upside-Down, and this implies his missions are far more surreal, which makes for a fairly totally different tempo.

The story is creative and disturbing, and when you remind your self of who a couple of individuals are (or learn notes attentively to catch up if you happen to’re coming to this recent) it will get fairly fascinating.

It additionally ties closely in with Management and, extra unexpectedly, closely references the Max Payne sequence, making Alan Wake 2 a treasure trove of easter eggs and meta-commentary.

That mentioned, it is also susceptible to navel-gazing. Whereas the set items it conjures are mind-boggling (significantly in Alan’s sequences), it does not all the time handle to realize the profundity it grasps at, with regard to authorship and artwork.

Level and shoot

Whether or not you are taking part in as Alan or Saga, whereas the pacing is fairly totally different, you will nonetheless be doing roughly the identical issues – fixing puzzles and combating off enemies.

For probably the most half, the previous choice dominates, with environmental puzzles and mixture oddities aplenty, and these slower stretches let Treatment actually flex its “scary” muscle tissue.

Terrifying sound mixing and a willingness to throw in abrupt bounce scares imply that you’re going to be on edge plenty of the time (particularly with a headset on), even when music cues typically let you already know if there are actually enemies close by.

Saga and Alan each have a couple of talents that you’re going to use to progress. Saga can go to her Thoughts Place at any time to compile her case notes and profile people in her head to determine what she must do subsequent – it is barely by the numbers however works properly to point out her deduction course of.

Alan, in the meantime, is ready to rewrite entire scenes that he is caught in to vary their particulars and make new alternatives, one thing that prompts some actually dazzling transitions as environments swap their realities for him.

These methods make exploration and puzzles enjoyable to get via, though it is occasionally interrupted by comparatively quick fight encounters.

These see you, with both character, utilizing that recognisable flashlight-led tactic of stripping away a baddie’s defend of darkness to weaken them earlier than blasting away along with your selection from a couple of weapons.

It is serviceable stuff however feels noticeably much less progressive (and even simply fascinating) than the remainder of the sport’s method, which makes it a consolation that it appears like a much less distinguished half than ever.

This makes tepid boss encounters stand out all of the extra clearly – these are uncommon however every one felt frustratingly retrograde to me, not least due to their darkish and hard-to-judge arenas. A recreation this thought of should not really feel the necessity to construct to such videogame-y climaxes.

Superb presentation

If Alan Wake’s narrative and gameplay really feel like they’re fairly variable of their success, its visible presentation is without doubt one of the most resounding triumphs in latest reminiscence.

Enjoying on PS5, that is, with none actual qualification, one of many best-looking video games I’ve ever performed, persistently hitting visible excessive notes and blowing away even latest competitors.

Its high quality mode sticks to a gentle 30FPS with some unbelievably spectacular volumetric fog and environmental element pairing superbly with lighting selections to make nearly each scene stand out.

I sampled the 60FPS-targetting efficiency mode however discovered the cutbacks a little bit too apparent and caught with the standard choice for a recreation that hardly ever calls for twitchy reflexes of you, and by no means actually stopped marvelling at how good every little thing seems to be.

Whether or not it is the fetid forests round Shiny Falls or the miasmic dreamscape of Alan’s chunk of otherworldly New York, that is visible design and technical know-how demonstrated on a severely loopy scale.

Audio is equally atmospheric and tension-heightening, and the best way the sport layers in real-world scenes and performing over its presentation needs to be seen to actually be appreciated – it is good, and a staged musical sequence halfway via Alan’s journey is without doubt one of the most wonderful visible achievements I can keep in mind.

That mentioned, that is additionally a recreation of profound bugs even at launch. I needed to restart the sport after 90 minutes of play on a pre-launch model on account of a game-breaking bug that I have been informed is now mounted, however the post-launch model has nonetheless proved rocky.

I’ve had my audio lose sync till I reloaded a save a good few instances, one thing that’s reportedly extra frequent nonetheless on Xbox, however have additionally had button prompts equally disappear till reloaded.

On one event whereas swapping between Alan and Saga I loaded into the latter’s world however nonetheless as Alan, and it took me 5 minutes to make sure this wasn’t an intentional sleight of hand given the sport’s playfulness – I am satisfied that by chance saving on this state would have precipitated a corruption of my progress, however I managed to roll it again.

Stability is one thing we more and more cannot take as a right as a recreation launches, and with Alan Wake 2 on the innovative in so some ways, it is maybe no shock that it does not excel on that entrance.

Verdict

Alan Wake 2 is a confounding little bit of genius wrapped in components of a recreation that complement its good concepts and others that maintain it again, all of it enveloped in a barely over-cocky surety about that exact same genius.

Its fight is middling, there is no two methods round it, however its presentation appears like a real step ahead and a few of its story beats are informed so inventively that they will reside lengthy within the reminiscence. In the event you’re a fan of Treatment’s work it is a must-play, however its tough edges by some means stand out all of the extra for the unbelievable smoothness it reveals elsewhere.