Lovingood Review: 'Alan Wake II' is a meta, mind-bending, multimedia experience that will both spook and bewilder you

As someone who actively avoids spooky game franchises such as “Resident Evil,” “The Evil Within” and “The Dark Pictures Anthology” but loves Remedy Entertainment's previous title, “Control,” I had mixed feelings about starting “Alan Wake II,” mainly because I’m a big baby.

Then, a close friend recommended I play through it. Because of the atmosphere the game has woven together, this title won Best Art Direction, Best Narrative and Best Game Direction at The Game Awards 2023.

Whereas the first Alan Wake title didn't interest me enough to keep playing (though I’m ready to revisit it), the sequel snatched my attention for the two weeks it took me to finish it.

The opening sequence of playing as a man running naked through the woods while covered in shadow is a simple movement tutorial to help you understand basic movements in the game. However, it quickly transitions to the jumping-off point of the story: a murder by a cult in the woods. It was a powerful way to capture your attention to start things off.

What follows next is through the eyes of a new character introduced to Remedy’s Alan Wake lore: Saga Anderson.

Though the game still heavily revolves around its titular character, Saga is an FBI agent acting as the second most important character for the plot. She and her partner, Agent Alex Casey, are called to the Pacific Northwest town of Bright Falls, Washington, and tasked with investigating strange events, including the death you witnessed in the game’s opening. Early on, we see Saga’s detective skills at play as you piece together who’s behind killing the man in the woods.

While Saga goes back to town and interrogates the couple who found the victim, she comes across a familiar waitress in the Alan Wake series: Rose Marigold.

She says something off-putting to Saga, as if she’s known the agent for years; implying Saga’s daughter died years ago, though we hear the girl’s voice on a phone call earlier on. How can this be?

What pushes the game directly into horror territory is the disappearance of the local sheriff while Saga and Alex are trying to uncover why someone not only killed the man in the woods but took his heart and hid it.

The events are all linked to the Cult of the Tree: deer mask-wearing folk who skulk in the woods and become a direct threat to Saga in her investigation. As you encounter the cult, you notice something is wrong: An otherworldly force with a weakness to light corrupted the cult, which throws us back to the atmosphere of the first Alan Wake game.

After doing some detective work, meeting family members you didn’t know existed, and encountering more of these corrupted people, Saga’s investigation leads her to the shores of Cauldron Lake, where she finds a man washed ashore who’s been missing for 13 years: Alan Wake.

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The gameplay then switches to the author, and you play through his experience living in The Dark Place, a nightmarish world of shadows and dark echoes that have taken the shape of a corrupted version of New York City.

Through Alan’s experience, we learn more about The Dark Presence, an entity out to kill the author that feeds fiction with a desire to warp reality into its fictional version of our world. We also try to piece together what’s happening and what’s a fake version woven into reality via The Dark Presence. The goal: free Alan Wake from its clutches.

Fans of Remedy Entertainment’s Control will also be ecstatic with the presence of the Federal Bureau of Control throughout the entirety of Alan Wake II.

I’ll hold off on talking about that so you can enjoy it fully, should you play the game.

It appears the developers of Alan Wake II weren’t trying to break the mold with most of the gameplay and instead focused on the narrative.

If you’ve ever played the “Resident Evil” games, which allow you to carry a certain amount of weapons based on inventory management, use healing items and tools for accessing restricted portions of the game, then this game will likely feel familiar to you.

The gunplay is also pretty standard and — at least in my gameplay on Normal — will make you cautious about how many rounds you fire from your weapons. Though you start with a pistol, Saga and Alan can pick up additional weapons in the game, including rifles, shotguns, flares to stun enemies and other weapons.

I wish I had the choice of a melee weapon because, at times, an enemy will close its distance to you, and if you don’t dodge properly, you’re dead.

I think there should also be an improvement on the “use” function in the inventory menu. I tried swapping weapons or using an item multiple times. When I tried to click the function, however, the game wouldn’t register it, and I died several times.

I eventually used the quick-access menu, which is extremely helpful, though I want to also directly do what I need via the inventory menu.

The game also introduces Saga Anderson’s “Mind Place.” Think about a literal place you can stand where she posts an evidence board that helps her keep her investigations organized.

Not only do you get to view it, but you must patch together the photos with corresponding index cards to help the place progress and complete the investigation. It’s a very appropriate way to display missions. The Mind Place also has a Profile feature that allows Saga, in a way, to get into the mind of whomever she’s investigating. Using this and the evidence board is necessary, at times, to progress the plot.

Alan Wake's Writer’s Room is akin to the Mind Place. When Alan is investigating a scene in The Dark Place, he has the power to change his surroundings to answer the questions he has via the Plot Board.

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For instance, you walk through a train station in one area to find where the Cult of the Word (different but like the Cult of the Tree) is committing sacrifices. To progress through the tunnels, you must use Alan’s Story Board to physically change the world around him to allow further access into areas.

It was just different from other experiences I’ve had in games, and it was great. It was also nice to know you can swap between Alan and Saga’s stories at one part of the game and finish them in whatever order you want.

Some of the meta elements of Alan Wake II left me feeling like someone might have been in a powerful state of euphoria while writing the narrative.

The parts of the game in which you control Alan have times when you’re left asking, “What am I looking at right now?”

The most common ones are when Alan Wake’s live-action counterpart interacts with others, including Mr. Door, a talk show host of sorts, who acts as an ambiguous guide for Alan as he tries to make sense of why he’s in The Dark Place.

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There’s a studio audience heard in the background, music playing, and even Alex Casey’s live-action counterpart, Alan Wake co-creator Sam Lake. He says he’s the actor for the Alex Casey films within the game; however, he’s also a detective you interact with while playing Alan. It gets confusing but also makes sense.

There’s also the fake rock band, The Old Gods of Asgard, played by the real-life band Poets of the Fall.

One moment in the game has you walking through a soundstage with monitors as a full-blown music video is playing. I had to pause the game several times and laugh because I didn’t understand what was happening.

It’s as if you’re playing a game and watching a movie that’s both aware and ignorant of itself. Again: trippy.

I should also warn the faint of heart that the game has some unsettling moments, notably, a nursing home you navigate that has corrupted elderly citizens.

There’s one creature you encounter who’s one person reflected upon themselves and separated by a floating shadow disk. The creature also has weird appendages and sent shivers down my spine as I wrote this. With jump scares and enemies moving unnaturally, the game is spooky but good.

If you’ve read my previous game review articles, you’ll know environmental design/immersion is one of my favorite parts of video games. Alan Wake II delivers a stunningly crafted revisit to Bright Falls and the surrounding area. The forest surrounding Cauldron Lake is lush with trees, and as you progress through the game, you’ll notice the time change with the lighting to follow. One moment that stood out to me was at sunset as Saga was looking for clues, and the sunlight was a mixture of crimson and orange.

The time the developers took to create living spaces that felt lived in was an appreciated added touch. One example is during your trip to a retirement home; not only do each of the residents have rooms assigned to them with various items placed here and there, as if this were a real-life building, but there’s an accompanying medical center attached to the retirement home that is not only incredibly detailed but also the scariest part of the game.

With all the beautiful backgrounds, scenery, and atmosphere Remedy Entertainment took the time to include in Alan Wake II, there should be a photo mode.

There isn’t one right now. The day before Alan Wake II was released, however, Remedy Entertainment announced photo mode would be added to the game, so that’s good. Granted, some will argue that you don’t need a photo mode in a game. I, however, believe if a game has a visually appealing world that took experienced hands to bring into existence, you should include a photo mode.

The lack of a photo mode at launch — along with the glitchy menu I mentioned earlier and the ending, which I’ll discuss briefly — is why I took off points from a perfect 10/10 score but added the plus sign to say, “Improvements released could fix this score.”

I don’t pretend to know everything involved in including such a mode in a game, but I believe it’s more doable than others might think.

I won’t spoil how the game’s narrative ends, but the ending you get upon your first playthrough is not the “true” ending.

When you finish Alan Wake II, a New Game+ mode called “Final Draft” appears on the menu screen. From what I can tell from other folks online, there are a few more things to find with some switched-up dialogue exchanges, but it’s mostly the same as your first run.

Even the ending you get, which is the true ending, picks up after a cliffhanger-type ending from your first playthrough. After you view it, you’ll find a few minutes of extra plot that helps tie everything to a close. I hated it. I wish Remedy included that in the first finish you get, and I would have been satisfied. When you get to the end, you’ll understand the developers are trying to go with the theme of Alan Wake II's “loop” concept, but I argue this was just not enough to entice me to finish the game again rather than watch the true ending via YouTube.

Alan Wake II’s ending cinematic and sequence are good. However, I think Remedy dropped the ball by making you work hard to get a few extra bits of narrative. If there’s more to the Final Draft playthrough, I welcome you filling me in at clovingood@wral.com.

Alright, parents, This game should only be played by anyone 18 or older.

You play as a dirty naked man running through the woods at the start — and yes, this is an important plot point.

You also see that man’s privates in the game during an autopsy after you witness his murder. I don’t recall any other nudity in the game, but this happens in the first five minutes of gameplay.

Be wary of a lot of blood in this game.

Whether killing enemies or discovering crime scenes, Alan Wake II is heavily graphic if you’re squeamish. I should also point out the occult themes that could make some parents uncomfortable with their children playing.

To be fair, the game fictionalizes this in a way where its other dimension meets horror and less magic and demons, though the corrupt creatures I mentioned before are certainly possessed by a dark force.

Yes, the narrative quality of this game is top tier; however, there are themes and plot points parents should think twice about if they decide to let their child younger than 18 play this.