As I mulled over the freshly granted freedom I was given about whether to continue pursuing Alan’s or Saga’s story, I was at an impasse in Alan Wake 2. I was quite happy to get out of the Dark Place and all up for continuing Saga’s overworld adventures in the Cauldron Lake region, and yet something inexplicable, a dark presence if you will, compelled me to dive back into Alan’s neurotic nightmare of a story.
And man was my decision rewarded, because I (and my girlfriend, who was milling about around in the living room before being drawn into what was about to transpire on-screen) was treated to the best sequence in a video game that I’ve played in a very long time.
A Musical Awakening
As Alan gets pulled in as a guest onto another live-TV episode on the mysterious Mr. Door’s chat show, the host announces that instead of talking they’ll ‘sing’ the interview instead. Alan gets sucked into the TV, and cue a sequence where you, as Alan, are wandering around a studio backlot, with giant screens showing Alan, Door, Sam Lake (as Agent Casey), heavy metal band The Old Gods of Asgard, and a host of shadow-clad dancers, delivering an operatic, bombastic musical performance that artfully catches you up on Alan’s turmoil.
It’s campy, spectacular, surreal, and utterly thrilling. From live-action Alan’s stern face as he drops the most dubious dance moves, and rhythmically batters away dancers depicting the Shadow enemies, to Door’s intense musical questioning, to Asgard’s band members’ giant faces popping up to point you in the right direction and give you encouraging looks that scream ‘You can do it, Alan!’ it’s a mesmerising media-merging experience that left me breathless.
It’s a pretty long sequence too, lasting around 15-20 minutes and going through several musical numbers. There are some puzzles along the way that involve using the Clicker to shift some of the screens around, and at one point you need to wait for a glorious electric guitar solo for the path ahead to open up. This isn’t just segments of music video popping up over the screen, it’s interacting with you and making you part of the experience.
It’s a masterfully presented and paced piece of art direction that few studios could pull off
The lyrics are clear and self-aware throughout, and do a great job of giving exposition to a mind-bending story that can easily descend into confusion if you’re not careful. Why do an exposition dump of someone urgently chatting at you for five minutes (which, in fairness, the game does too) when you can express it in this musical format? Well, the answer is probably because it’s a masterfully presented and paced piece of art direction that few studios could pull off, but dear Lord now that Remedy have done it, they may have ascended from one of my favourite studios to my studio du jour. Seriously, it’s that good.
But just as I felt myself getting swept away by the performance, which follows Alan around the backlot, I got ambushed by enemies. Interestingly, where these enemies had largely been used in a brooding horror context up to this point in the game, suddenly taking them on in unprecedented numbers makes you feel like the star at the centre of your own glam metal video, with the music deftly taking a darker turn as enemies emerge from behind prop pushes and stage equipment. Despite all the visual and acoustic noise around you, it managed to spook me a few times too, as at times it’s hard to gauge whether the shadowy figures you’re seeing are enemies or dancers on the giant screens.
The combat remains my biggest reservation about Alan Wake 2 as a whole (more on that in another piece), but the frustration was outweighed by the unapologetic madness of this whole sequence.
Alan Wake 2 is a great game, of that there is no doubt, but with this Remedy have arrived at the place they’ve been trying to get to for years: a fantastic blending of FMV and in-game graphics that flows like the dark currents swirling in the depths of Cauldron Lake. It’s majestically artful, ridiculously fun, and the best 15 minutes I’ve had in a game in a long, long time.
Alan Wake 2
- Franchise
- Alan Wake
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Released
- October 27, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Remedy Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Epic Games
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror