5/5 ★ – BARBELiTH's review of Alan Wake II.

THIS REVIEW HAS NO PLOT SPOILERS, but is very long so I apologize for that :) “So yes, it began with a dream.” It’s a bit ironic that those words appear in the opening of 2010’s Alan Wake, because for developer Remedy Entertainment, it would be a self fulfilling prophecy to get the game’s sequel off the ground. After being denied by their publisher at the time, Microsoft Games, Remedy would take 13 long years to create what would eventually become, in my opinion, the greatest argument for video games as art. I first played the original Alan Wake back in 2020, ten years into the long journey to its sequel, when I wanted to learn a bit more about Remedy’s resume after enjoying Control, their 2019 title. I had gotten a late start into video games as a whole, spending most of my high school years reading comics and novels as my main entertainment source, until, in March of 2020, just as the COVID pandemic was starting, I got a PS4 for my birthday. I went on a crash course of video game history during that time, beginning with the recently released Death Stranding and continuing with playing Alan Wake on my old laptop. What I discovered with the world Remedy had created in Control and the first Alan Wake was an ever deepening rabbit hole of mysteries just out of reach, yet never out of sight. It reminded me of my favorite works of fiction, and I couldn’t get enough. I even during the height of COVID printed out every single collectible lore document in Control and ordered them in a binder to make sense of the ever expanding world of Alan and the FBC, in a way that would make Johnny Truant of House of Leaves proud. Then came the announcement of Control: AWE, the second and final expansion, which promised a crossover with the lore of Alan Wake. I was certain that a sequel was on its way, it was palpable. Then came the release of Alan Wake Remastered, which added in new easter eggs that only increased my excitement and theory-crafting. Finally, in 2021, during the Game Awards, my announcement came. Alan Wake 2 would be released in 2023. My dream was coming true, but it wasn’t only mine. When the original concept for Alan Wake 2 was canned by Microsoft, Remedy’s creative director and public face of the company (literally in the case of Max Payne) made a video apologizing to the fans, and talking about their new game that Microsoft had greenlit, Quantum Break. The video ends with a large box marked with the Alan Wake logo being put into storage, with the hope of one day returning. The struggle to bring Alan back went on for over a decade before the sequel was officially announced, and I can’t imagine the elation and affirmation that everyone at Remedy must have felt during that announcement. And they deserve to feel that way, because the dream is better than anyone ever could have imagined. I remember the moment I was finally able to boot up Alan Wake II. All of my anticipation was boiling over, and I thought I knew what to expect. I have never been happier to be proved wrong. Alan Wake II told us from its first marketing back in its announcement that “This story isn’t the one you want it to be.” I thought I knew what I wanted, a new Alan Wake game similar to the first, with some new mechanics and lore to mull over. What I got instead was an experience I will never forget, with one of the greatest works of fiction I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Alan Wake II is classified by its creators as a survival horror video game, but that is a sub-par explanation in my book. From the moment I hit play, I was slapped across the face for my preconceptions of what I thought I was getting into, and what I thought a game could be. Alan Wake was a game about art coming true, and Alan Wake II decides to take that to a literal level, by turning the game into a trans-media narrative, and the only one that I’ve ever seen work. A trans-media narrative is usually thought of as something like the MCU, where multiple works are connected by an overarching narrative, of which there is usually one set order of going through the experience. Where they usually fall apart is when they get too bloated with content, and it becomes a chore to track everything down and experience. It becomes too much, to put simply. Alan Wake II circumvents this problem by placing every work in the transmedia narrative WITHIN the game itself, and leaving the order of consumption up to the player. WIthin Alan Wake II, there is a novel, a music album, a play, a musical segment, a poem, a talk show, a photography exhibit, multiple television commercials, and a short film, all contained within one video game that lasts about 25-30 hours. All of it is easily accessible through the overall narrative, and never feels forced or bloated. I honestly struggle to come up with a way to describe just how groundbreaking Alan Wake II is in this way, because I don’t think it's ever truly been done before, at least not on this scale. Alan Wake II is, (to put in a word used mainly by a antisemitic Opera composer that I learned from a video on Pokémon) a Gesamtkunstwerk, a ‘total’ work of art. I don’t think I can get any more pretentious than this, so hopefully someone is still reading. As I was playing Alan Wake II for the first time and this realization dawned on me, I actually laughed. This is something that only video games can do: contain all other forms of art within it. My absolute favorite thing in fiction is when a creator uses their medium to their advantage. Creators like Grant Morrison, Stephen King, Mark Z. Danielewski, and even The Beatles come to mind when I think of those types of genius, and here was Remedy Entertainment, a team of creatives from all fields, coming together to do that for every art form I could think of. Alan Wake II uses this format to its utmost benefit in telling its story, as every trick Remedy has learned in the last 13 years has come out to play in full force, and some new ones as well. Certain sequences are filmed in live action, giving actors like Ilkka Villi and David Harewood time to stretch their muscles in some of my favorite sequences in the game, music was created with various artists in a getaway camp with lyrics all based on the game that play after every chapter, and full advantage is taken of modern technology such as SSDs to make instant transitions in level layout. All of this would be moot if the story the game was telling wasn’t up to snuff, and I am glad to report that Alan Wake II won the Game Award for best narrative for a reason. Packed with twists and turns but still focused squarely on its leads, Alan Wake II left me sitting in my chair after my non-stop binge of the game when it came out with my jaw on the floor once the credits started to roll. There are no spoilers here, mainly because I don’t want to ruin any of the monumental moments in this game. Alan Wake II has become my favorite video game of all time, surpassing Xenoblade Chronicles in that regard. No other game was seemingly made just for me while still surprising and throwing me off at times to reveal what it was I truly needed from a sequel. I don’t know if anything can ever top this game in my eyes, but I know that the masterminds at Remedy will do nothing but surprise me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This story wasn’t the one I wanted, but it was the one I desperately needed. This story was a monster. And monsters wear many faces.