Alan Wake 2

Compared to the original Alan Wake, which is an action-adventure game with horror themes, Alan Wake 2 is a survival horror game; it is still played from a third-person perspective. Players play as Alan Wake or Saga Anderson in two separate single-player stories, which can be played in any order the player chooses, although the opening and ending sequences of the game are linear.

Wake and Anderson traverse environments and fight enemies using various firearms and a flashlight, the latter of which can be "focused" to render enemies vulnerable to firearm attacks. Focusing the flashlight drains its battery, and players need to strategically use a limited amount of batteries and ammunition in order to survive. When enemies are close, Alan or Saga can perform a dodge maneuver.

FBI agent Saga Anderson, known for her intuitive skills, arrives in Bright Falls with partner Alex Casey to investigate ritualistic murders linked to the Cult of the Tree. Their latest victim is Robert Nightingale, a fellow agent who went missing in a mass incident that occurred in the town in 2010 and was largely covered up by the US government. During the autopsy, Nightingale's corpse reanimates and escapes. Guided by mysterious typewritten pages that seem to predict events, Saga hunts Nightingale through the Cauldron Lake woods and kills him, then finds missing novelist Alan Wake washed ashore, warning of his evil doppelgänger, Mr.

Scratch. Back in town, Alan recounts his 13 years trapped in the Dark Place—a dimension tied to the lake and ruled by the Dark Presence, which manifests as Scratch. Alan has tried to escape by writing stories that alter reality, but his attempts always loop back to an apparition of his New York apartment with his wife Alice. Video diaries left by Alice in the apartment suggest she is also haunted by Scratch.

Remedy Entertainment released Alan Wake in 2010. Learning from Max Payne, they wrote Alan Wake in a way that allows additional story to be told through sequels and further installments. The team began discussing sequel ideas after Alan Wake was shipped, which would continue to star Alan Wake as the protagonist, but also explore the stories of the supporting characters including Wake's friend Barry Wheeler and Sheriff Sarah Breaker. A prototype was created to show off the gameplay of Alan Wake 2 when the studio was showing the game to potential publishers.

The game would have been a direct sequel to Alan Wake, featuring new enemies and new gameplay mechanics, such as being able to rewrite reality, which were showcased in the prototype. Ultimately, Remedy pitched the project to Alan Wake publisher Microsoft Studios. Microsoft, however, at the time was not interested in a sequel and instead, tasked Remedy to create a new game. This ultimately became Quantum Break, released in 2016.

Alan Wake 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for the PC and PS5 versions, while the Xbox Series X/S version received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator website Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 93% of critics recommended the game.

Andrew Farrell of PCGamesN in his Alan Wake 2 review awarded the game 9 out of 10 saying, "Alan Wake 2 is a marvel, serving up intense gameplay, a twisty, dark story, and more secrets and surprises than you could possibly imagine. Remedy has outdone itself here, delivering a truly remarkable experience."