Resident Evil has a new survival horror rival in Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake has recovered from his 13-year writer’s block.

The fictional horror author, the protagonist of Remedy Entertainment’s 2010 cult hit of the same name, will reprise his role in a highly anticipated sequel this October. His return isn’t just notable for being a beloved franchise character – the reveal of Alan Wake 2 marks a major milestone for Remedy, which has endured multiple failed attempts to create a new chapter for Alan Wake, launching the breakthrough hit in the process Check.

While Alan Wake 2 shares similarities with its predecessor such as the inclusion of familiar characters and gameplay, the game needs a lot of freedom to change things up. This time, Alan is joined by FBI Agent Saga Anderson as he investigates a series of grisly murders in the Pacific Northwest. As players progress through the story, they take control of both Alan and Saga as a supernatural horror unfolds.

As part of Summer Game Fest, Remedy Entertainment and publisher Epic Games Publishing showed Polygon a hands-off demo, featuring approximately 30 minutes of gameplay that showcased an early mission played from Saga’s perspective. What we saw was a part of the game that leans towards the survival horror genre and practically goes all out Resident Evil 4 on points.

The game begins with Saga walking through dense, coniferous forests with her colleague Alex Casey (voiced by creative director and writer Sam Lake). As they talk, we learn that they’re investigating an area near Cauldron Lake, which happened to be where Alan’s disappearance happened in the first game, after a series of grisly murders.

To progress through the story, players walk around as Saga and search for clues at various crime scenes. In the demo, she wanders around a forest path checking abandoned shacks and huts for sites of cult rituals, picking up slips of paper and other items containing remarkable information. After collecting these items or pieces of paper containing additional information, players can teleport to a cabin room in Saga’s psyche, called the Mind Place, which is filled with her collected evidence. Using this collected material, she can use a “profiling power” to piece together information and move the story forward.

As Saga piece together clues, a wall called the Case Board is created, with clues arranged as the string theory tropeis filled with information and allows players to piece together the crime.

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing

The game oscillates between awkward silence during evidence gathering and tense combat where an abandoned room can suddenly be broken into by a cultist wearing a deer’s head. This, just like the original Alan Wake, is a third-person shooter and returns to the core mechanics of that game. Players use their flashlight to weaken enemies, then shoot them to take them out. Similar to the original Alan WakeSaga will duck to dodge attacks.

Because of how similar the movement seemed compared to the first game, Polygon asked if dodging in the new game will work the same as it did in the original. “Hopefully it feels a lot better, but yeah, it works the same way,” said Thomas Puha, director of communications and press relations at Remedy Entertainment. “Although the good thing is that Alan isn’t constantly out of breath, so he’s in a little bit better shape.”

We also asked if players could expect extra powers when playing as Alan Wake. Puha said, ‘On Alan’s side, I can say that light matters quite a bit. Light is another mechanic you need to use with Wake in the Dark Place, but we’ll get to that gameplay later.”

Image: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing

This part of the game shown seems to have a particularly big influence on other survival horror games Resident Evil 4. The image of Saga charging into possessed cultists with a shotgun and donning her large coat with “FBI” embroidered on the back was reminiscent of images of Leon Kennedy making his way through the backwoods woods. Resident Evil 4. In addition, systems such as the weapon organization system of Resident Evil 4 were also shown during gameplay.

We asked the team about it Resident Evil 4’s influence, and Puha said, “I’ll add that even though you’ve seen half an hour of the game, it’s really important to know that we’re not one note at all. If you go to Bright Falls during the day, it will feel a little strange, but the atmosphere will be very different. […] We’ve definitely made sure there’s a lot of variation in the tone. Then we go to the Dark Place, which is kind of a nightmarish version of New York, and it’s very, very different from what you see here. Variation is therefore very important.”

Alan Wake 2 coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC via the Epic Games Store, and Xbox Series X on October 17.