Yesterday, Alan Wake's IP had a special anniversary update from Remedy Entertainment. In this update, Remedy announced Alan Wake Remastered will release on Nintendo Switch. Further, the developer touched a bit upon development for its highly anticipated Alan Wake 2, which was announced at Geoff Keighley's Game Awards last December.
In the special anniversary update, Vida Starcevic, Senior Community Manager at Remedy, interviewed Creative Director Sam Lake as well as both halves of Alan Wake's titular character, motion-capture actor Ilkka Villi and voice actor Matthew Porretta. This included behind-the-scenes footage of Villi's motion-capture, and how both actors are surprised and pleased to return to the franchise. However, around the eight-minute mark of Remedy's update interview, concept art is suddenly shown that offers a closer look at the survival-horror atmosphere that Alan Wake 2 will lean toward.
Alan Wake 2's concept art pushes the idea that pure darkness is a constant threat and will perhaps be a part of every environment's survival-horror tropes. Dark areas are sufficiently illuminated with distant sources to maintain an eerie atmosphere, such as when Alan is on a pitch-black rooftop, or at a pair of phone booths that are lit up apart from the darkness of an urban neighborhood. Concept art of a dark forest is shown, which may reflect back to the same crime scene in the woods that was teased in Alan Wake 2's announcement trailer.
But most interestingly among the concept art is one of a furnace or basement with a burst pipe that floods the room, while in a shadow there is a creepy elderly woman sewing red fabric together. This may purely be a concept that never makes it to a fully fleshed-out character in Alan Wake 2, but it could also be intentionally shown to offer fans a first look at one its major antagonists. Such few details are known about Alan Wake 2 aside from the mood-setting imagery that has been depicted thus far.
In the final piece of concept art shared, Alan stands ominously in the middle of a street, where shadowy birds can be seen. This may imply that malevolent crow swarms will make a return, but any news about potential combat mechanics or any gameplay has yet to be shared. Motion-capture showed the actor holding a flashlight and a revolver, however, so players might be able to expect a similar approach to combat as in Alan Wake, where shadowy enemies needed to be burned with light and then fired upon.
Alan Wake 2 is scheduled to release in 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.