That this game even exists is a miracle. For a Finnish company to release such a strange and surreal experience, based on an already rather niche IP is wild. Honestly, it’s inspiring to see the sheer amount of creativity still out there and gives hope that gaming can exist outside of the FPS space.

I can’t really do justice to what this game is. Survival horror I guess is where it starts, build it flirts with alternative realities and sensory changes that really challenge your gaming instincts. I guess it’s more like an interactive novel in a way, or “true art” in another.

The story follows the first Alan Wake, intersects a bit with Quantum Break and Control, and ends with a satisfactory question. You play alternatively as Saga Anderson and Alan Wake, each in their own realms of reality. The mechanics of Saga’s journey are more familiar to the genre, with exploration, small puzzles, and combat (more on that). The unique twist is her Mind Place, where to slot elements of the plot on a board to uncover the larger story. That is more like a detective novel trying to piece together random elements to tell a larger story. Alan’s mechanics are more fuzzy, with some very minor combat pieces and shadow folk who may or may not be aggressive, for some extra horror/jump moments. His unique element is the ability to re-structure a space given plot elements. Maybe it’s the start of a cult ritual, or the end of it. It is fascinating to see how plot elements can interact with a given space and dramatically change your experience – calm one minute, and pure chaos the next.

It’s hard to properly explain how this simply all just works. At no point did I ever feel like I was ill-equipped, or that there was some game-y way through a challenge. Nursery Rhymes in particular were a nice highlight. It is by far the most coherent surreal experience I have ever played.

The sole exception is combat, and this is more of a balancing thing. Alan’s mechanics are lose and understandable – he’s a writer. Saga’s portions are rarely fun, in particular due to ranged attacks, limited ammo, and respawns. There are parts of the map I simply ignored because I didn’t want to waste ammo, which is less fun. There is one particular event that highlights this to a significant degree, where your NPC friends are obliged to keep throwing you ammo, ala “Booker I found ammo” from Bioshock Infinite.

The plot construct is such that you can alternate between both characters at your choosing, and both threads need to complete in order to reach the final conclusion. Each particular thread has multiple chapters, which are wonderfully constructed. You’ve likely heard of one of them on the interwebs, it is much more fun to play than watch, and is a blast to watch!

Alan Wake 2 may be one of the best games I have ever played, certainly one of the most unique. I have no idea how Remedy was able to pull this off, as it feels like every risk they took here paid off, and the playing-it-safe portions are the weakest part as a result. You absolutely should play this game. Just do it with headphones.