Despite being a lifelong fan of and enjoying everything else that has done since, hasn’t been on my radar. This October is one of the busiest months in gaming histౠory thanks to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Bros. Wonder, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin’s Creed Mirage a൲nd, to me at least, , all of which are struggling to share my attention as it is without adding Alan Wake 2 to the mix.
Combine that w♉ith the annoying lack of a phys🐭ical release, and Remedy’s latest was set to be the one game in October I didn’t plan to play on day one. I can’t pinpoint what exactly about Alan Wake 2 put it at the bottom of my priority list compared to the rest of the month’s releases, especially as I love horror games, but something had🎉 to shift in that godforsaken month to make room for leaving my flat and seeing the outside world every once in a while to touch some grass.
Well, it looks like I will be l🌳osing some friends in October, as a 45-minute hands-off demo focusing on Alan’s camꦓpaign at Gamescom was enough to change all of that and rocket Alan Wake 2 right to the top of my list. Cheers for the vitamin D deficiency, Remedy.
My renewed interest in Alan Wake 2 started after its finally sho🍨wed us more of Alan Wake himself, complete with strange live-action segments and more horror elements than we’d seen up to that point. I was back on board and ready to get the shit scared out of me, but my excitement reached a fever pitch after seeing a hands-off playthrough of some of Alan’s story, which featured some of the coolest gameplay mechanics I’ve seen in a long time.
The section of the game I got to look at featured Alan waking up and discovering that he’s been on a fourth-wall-🦋breaking talk show with Mr. Door, which was shown as a live-action sequence. I’ve been a bit sceptical about the use of live-action considering how clumsily Quantum Break utilised it, but it works a lot better here, serving to emphasise Alan’s confused mental state and disjointed reality while also being well-acted and unnerving to watch.
After talking about ‘meta’ writing with Mr. Door and making both Alan and myself question our existence, th🙈e demo showed how this half of the game plays. While Saga’s sections so far have seemed more grounded, Alan’s are much more psychological, with voices whispering from the shadows and scribbles and graffiti on the walls representing his spiralling mental state. The first game was no slouch with its horror, but t🗹he way it’s told through the environment here makes it seem like even just walking around will make my hands sweat.
As impressive as the Dark Place’s visual design was, what you can do to it is what really stuck with me. During the demo, Remedy showed two gameplay mechanics unique to Alan that let him cha🌸nge the world as he moves through it. The first was the ability to take light from specific parts of the level and bring it to dark sections, lighting the way forward and instantly changing the level’s layout and progress further.
That was cool enough, but the second mechanic was the one that blew my mind. Alan can also go to his writer’s room, take a look at the story he’s in so far, and then change it using word proﷺmpts he’s collecting throughout the level. Selecting the right one for the area you’re in will completely change its design to fit the narrative Alan is writing and influence his surroundings, which got a dramatic gasp from me the first time I saw it.
One example of this is Alan using a word prompt about a death cult to change the subway tunnel he’s stuck in, turning it into the site of a bloody ritual that lets him venture further into the level while creepy voices chant in the background. Another has Alan writing about a Max🤡 Payne-inspired detective being shot in the subway, which opened and created a trail of blood to follow.
Those hoping that Alan Wake 2🙈 is secretly a horror version of Scribblenauts will be disappointed to learn that there’s only one correct ✤prompt to use in these moments, but they’re still worth messing with, as Remedy confirmed that wrong answers will still get some kind of response from Alan.
The rest of the gameplay we saw was standard Alan Wake fare, but those two mechanics have stuck with me even a week after seeing them. Remedy has blown my mind in the past with Control’s ashtray maze and ⛄Quantum Break’s time control, but Alan Wake 2 feels like its most impressive yet and something that needs to be se🔜en to be believed.
