2023 has already been an excellent year for horror games. Kicking off the year with a bang, Dead Space Remake launched back in January, modernizing the original's incredibly unique sci-fi horror perfectly. Resident Evil 4 Remake wasn't too far behind it, somehow managing to improve upon an already timeless classic. More recently, smaller titles like Amnesia: The Bunker have proven just how effective lower-budget scares can be as well. But 2023 is far from over, and Alan Wake 2 is priming its torch for a huge return to the horror scene later this year.
Releasing in October, Alan Wake 2 is the long-awaited sequel to 2010's Alan Wake, an action-adventure game that followed the spooky tale of a writer trapped in an eerie mountainside town, who's soon faced with hordes of angry shadow monsters. Though it's certainly retaining its predecessor's core identity, Alan Wake 2 is making some subtle but big changes with its gameplay, swapping out the original's action-adventure gameplay for full-on survival horror.
How Alan Wake 2 Is Embracing More Survival Horror Elements
The first Alan Wake was a psychological thriller through and through. From the moment players first arrive in the sleepy fishing town of Bright Falls, they can tell the vibes are off. A mysterious woman wearing a black dress and veil handing over the keys to an abandoned cabin, people warning Alan to not stick around certain places for too long, and a general feeling of isolation and emptiness are all encountered during Alan Wake's opening sequence, and things only get creepier from there, with plenty of shadow monsters lurking around every corner. But all that said, Alan Wake isn't classed as a survival horror game.
While Alan Wake centers itself around psychological horror, its actual gameplay is much more akin to an action-adventure game. Players have plenty of weapons to take on the hordes of scary shadow men, along with plenty of ammo, meaning that each encounter is more about pelting enemies with bullets as fast as possible as opposed to taking skillful and precise shots. Similarly, Alan Wake's enemies are usually quite fast, and there are usually a good few of them running toward the player at once, leading to combat feeling more fast-paced than the average survival horror game.
Alan Wake 2, on the other hand, is going all-in on survival horror. From what fans have seen from Alan Wake 2's trailers so far, and what Remedy Entertainment has stated in interviews, Alan Wake 2 is going to have a much slower, more methodical pace to its gameplay, both in terms of combat and downtime. The only combat encounter shown in Alan Wake 2's extended gameplay trailer shows new character Saga facing off against a hulking cultist. As the cultist lumbers towards Saga, she takes the time to aim her flashlight and her pistol and fire off some precise shots, all while making sure to keep some distance between them. This slice of footage implies that Alan Wake 2's combat is going to be a lot slower, but more suspenseful than the first game's.
It's also clear that Alan Wake 2 and Remedy have been heavily inspired by Capcom's recent Resident Evil remakes, with a similar over-the-shoulder camera angle being used, similar infected-cultist enemies, a dark forest setting, and even apparently the same inventory management system. Though Alan Wake 2 is sure to forge its own unique identity, its Resident Evil inspirations place it firmly in the survival horror genre.
Alan Wake 2 is set to release on October 17, 2023 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
