Why Alan Wake 2 is My Most Anticipated Game This Year After Gamescom

For whatever reason, 2023 is filled with so many incredible releases. Resident Evil 4, Exoprimal, Mortal Kombat 1, Baldur's Gate 3, Lies of P, Starfield, and many more are all released or coming out this year. All of these games offer incredible experiences that you won't want to miss. While most are increasingly enthusiastic about Starfield, myself included, there is one game I saw at Gamescom that completely trumps my excitement: Alan Wake 2.

I have always been a fan of Alan Wake, and getting a sequel was extremely exciting, but nothing could have prepared me for the presentation I got to watch one week ago.

If you don't know of the game yet, Alan Wake 2 is a third-person action-adventure that follows Alan Wake after he has been trapped in the Dark Place. You will follow him and FBI agent Saga Anderson as they figure out what is happening and try to escape this horrible world. You will have to use limited resources to take on supernatural enemies in close combat, using light and your gun to fight against the darkness threatening to take you over.

So far, we have primarily seen overviews of the game and gameplay of Saga Anderson's missions. This has been exciting, but after everything that transpired in the first game, I was desperate to see more of the title character. Well, at Gamescom, I was offered a special preview where I got to see a full 40-minute mission where you play as Alan Wake, and I walked away stunned by what I had just seen.

Other than the thrill of finally seeing Alan Wake in action again, two other aspects of his gameplay made me fall in love with what I saw:

The Visual Storytelling

Throughout the mission I watched, there was Alan's voice that was ringing out, describing what was going on like we were reading a novel all about his time in the Dark Place, but it was the visual style of storytelling that gripped me. Remedy does a couple of interesting things here, but the two that stand out are the live-action scene transitions and how they show Alan's deteriorating sanity.

First, there are moments in the game that will transition to live-action scenes almost flawlessly. The one I got to see was Alan right before he went out on stage for a talk show about his new book. We initially see him in the green room, murmuring about if all of this is real, and he looks at a TV screen. The screen is changing, but as he gets closer, it shows a real-life version of him standing behind a curtain, and he pushes onto the stage. The way Remedy integrates, these scenes are equal parts satisfying and powerful as we see a disheveled man try to make sense of what is real.

Then, we have the ways we see Alan breaking down. Part of this can be attributed to the live-action scenes, which offer a different way to see Alan. But the best moments were how the light and environment are portrayed and how some scenes are overlayed with each other. In some parts of the game, there are some moments where live-action and other scenes are overlayed on top, which can highlight how Alan is going crazy trying to break free from his prison.

Changing the Scene and the Writer's Room

The gameplay elements I saw were pretty standard: you run around in a third-person view, interact with the world, and aim down your sights to use your flashlight and gun to take down enemies. But, unlike normal interactions, we can completely change certain environments. This is done by going to Alan's plot board and using scenarios and clues you find throughout the world to modify specific scenes. Doing this will not only progress the story but also dive deeper into the story if you don't choose the right option.

This all makes sense because Alan and his writings control the Dark Place. This is further highlighted as the pause menu will bring you to Alan's writer's room. The room is Alan's sanctuary as he tries his hardest to write a way out of this nightmare he has gotten into.

There is much more to be excited about, but Alan Wake 2 has easily become my most anticipated game. I had a blast going to the event, and I couldn't be more grateful to Tara Bruno PR for inviting me.

Alan Wake 2 is available for pre-purchase for $49.99 on the Epic Games Store. While this sometimes doesn't bode well for the Steam Deck, I believe it is entirely possible this will run well. We don't have minimum specs yet, but some games from Epic's store run exceptionally well. The Expanse from Telltale is a great example of this. Hopefully, those minimum specs will confirm it could be playable, but time will tell, and we will be looking out for it!

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