Alan Wake is one of my favorite horror games, and I’ve been waiting for its sequel game with bated breath. At Summer Game Fest Play Days, I got the chance to watch a hands-off demo of Alan Wake II which walked players through “Chapter II: The Heart.” Developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Epic Games, the hands-off demo introduced us to Saga Anderson (played by Melanie Liburd), a new playable character and co-leading protagonist in the world of Alan Wake.
As we walked through the Chapter, we got the chance to meet Saga and her colleague Alex Casey (played by Sam Lake) from the FBI as they continue their investigation in Bright Falls into the ritualistic murder of Robert Nightingale. Only now, the murder victim has come back to life causing Saga to track him down and attempt to understand something she read about called the “Overlap.” The investigation takes them to Cauldron Lake where she and Casey initially found Nightingale’s body and Saga is tasked with finding clues and unraveling the mystery.
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The word co-leading here is important. Saga isn’t a secondary character nor a character you can skip playing. While you can complete the missions in the Dark Place with Alan and Saga’s timeline in any order, you do have to do both. This dual protagonist structure is sure to go a long way, and in this demo, Remedy made sure for the audience to see the importance that Saga holds. The first horror game for Remedy, Alan Wake II pushes players into a psychological horror story from the perspective of two playable characters. Saga Anderson risks her life to solve a deadly mystery of murders while Alan Wake attempts to rewrite his reality to escape the depths of Dark Place.
Saga Anderson is an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases which leads her to Bright Falls to investigate a string of ritualistic murders. The small-town murder investigation spirals into a nightmare when Saga discovers pages of a horror story that start to come true around her and suggest disturbing links to Alan Wake, a writer who went missing in the area over a decade ago. Anderson’s case spirals and it all leads to Alan. The choice to focus this first gameplay preview on Saga allows the audience to build a connection to her, and show how Remedy kept the core of what made the first Alan Wake game the iconic horror game it is today while building on it to stand outside of its shadow as well.
For Alan’s part in the story, the famed horror writer fought the dark presence that took his wife and managed to banish it back to where it came from, a nightmarish dark place hidden under a caldera lake outside the small town of Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest. Wake wrote an ending to his horror story and with that freed his wife from the darkness under the lake but became trapped there himself. For 13 years, he’s been a prisoner in the Dark Place, where his nightmares, fears, and stories manifest as reality around him.
In this hands-off preview, we got the chance to see a number of the game’s mechanics that come into play during an investigation. One of the most interesting is Saga’s Mind Place, a mental construct in Saga’s head where she works through cases. However, because it’s a construct, the game keeps progressing around her, which means doing it in a safe space and not while in combat, since you can enter it at any time with a single button press. In the Mind Place, Saga works through the cases on a case board, which is a visual representation of the investigation.
Each clue you collect is added to the board to give you progression hints and clues to keep the story moving. As each clue snaps into place on the Case Board, the game will open new elements. For example, if Saga misses a clue and doesn’t add it to the case board then the next prompt doesn’t happen. That said, this doesn’t impact the ending of the game, of which there is only one. But the case board isn’t the only element of the Mind Place that has value. This is also where Saga can upgrade her weapons, check unlocked cinematics, and look at area maps.
The most interesting element of the Mind Place is the profiling mechanic. In the Mind Place, Saga is able to get inside a subject’s head and see what they saw and what they felt. It’s an unsettling mechanic that bridges the subject and Saga in an invasive way that just from this hands-off demo is a lot. But this level of unsettling is necessary for Saga to initiate a breakthrough in the case.
But the case board and putting together the clues through Profiling is only one element of solving the case. Saga must also explore the environment to complete puzzles or at the very least search every location for ways to move forward. In the example in this Chapter, Saga must search for a fuse to turn on the lights in the Witch’s Hut. Once she does, she unlocks a Break Room. These serve as a save room where she can store items she’s picked up and also switch realities to play as Alan Wake in the Dark Place. To save the game, you interact with a Thermus (yes, it’s an Easter Egg) where players can also save the game.
One of the more stellar elements of Alan Wake II is the seamless transition between gameplay and cinematics. While the visual fidelity of the environments is clear, with their horror atmosphere striking the player, my gauge for everything is Saga. There are too few Black women protagonists in gaming, and Remedy has brought Saga to life beautifully. Visually, they’ve avoided the pitfall that most animators make by making brown skin dull and matte without adding an undertone. Instead, the developers understand how to light her skin in even the darkest of moments with a red undertone catching the light and giving depth to her beauty. Additionally, her hair texture is consistent from gameplay into cinematics, with the curl keeping its shape even when pulled back. Saga is gorgeous and stands out in the terrifying world, making it all the more impactful when everything gets more harrowing outside her Mind Place.
Another piece of visual beauty through the horror is how the nightmarish cityscape of the Dark Place overlaps with Cauldron Lake. As Saga walks through the woods you hear the city, you see it flickering over the lush and dark landscape like a lightbulb deciding if it should stay lit. While we didn’t explore the depths of the Dark Place in this hands-off demo, we did see the care put into the horror of Alan Wake II. This is done by crafting an environment and sound that constantly builds tension. The darkness around Saga is key as she moves through the world, a small light from her flashlight guiding the way. It’s clear that she’s on a nightmare journey and the atmosphere pushes it.
The balance between atmospheric and psychological horror is fantastic, but what pushes the horror in Alan Wake II over the edge is the way that Remedy has also used jump scares. Which, all you need to know is that they are there, and it’s better left for you to explore instead read about them. The way that the jump scares are shown in the hands-off demo impact combat, making the already stressful loss of light all the more intense. This is especially true when you find yourself in close-combat situations. The game ramps up the tension and horror with the Taken enemies, powerful supernatural enemies who are members of the Cult of the Tree who were corrupted by Darkness.
By using your flashlight, you use your light to dispel the darkness, making enemies weaker and allowing your gunshots to have more impact. Use the light and then use your gun. It’s the core of bringing down the monsters. The other piece? Keep moving. Throughout areas, you’ll have a chance to find a little bit of reprieve from light posts called a Safe Haven. The Safe Havens are well-lit areas that temporarily serve as a refuge to protect you and hide you from enemies; which is on a limited timer and can’t be used again once it runs out. Here, you can reload and take painkillers to heal. Add in jump scare moments that take over the screen for the smallest of moments, and it’s easy to lose focus which adds to the challenge wonderfully. The survival mechanics in
In just 30 minutes of gameplay, I’m smitten with the harrowing world that Remedy has built with Alan Wake II. Saga Anderson’s stories are going to be fertile ground for storytelling, and getting to see more of Anderson’s life is something I need. Additionally, the combat, save, and investigation mechanics that Remedy has crafted offer an immersive way to lower yourself into a terrifying story. With Alan Wake’s Dark Place still a mystery, there is much more to see. But even with this one chapter, Alan Wake II was the best of the show for Summer Game Fest Play Days, and it’s one sure to leave a mark when it releases, as its predecessor did.
