2023 has already been an excellent year for horror games. Kicking off the year with a bang,Dead Space Remakelaunched back in January, modernizing the original’s incredibly unique sci-fi horror perfectly.Resident Evil 4 Remakewasn’t too far behind it, somehow managing to improve upon an already timeless classic. More recently,smaller titles likeAmnesia: The Bunkerhave proven just how effective lower-budget scares can be as well. But 2023 is far from over, andAlan Wake 2is priming its torch for a huge return to the horror scene later this year.
Releasing in October,Alan Wake 2is the long-awaited sequel to 2010’sAlan 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 2is making some subtle but big changes with its gameplay, swapping out the original’s action-adventure gameplay for full-on survival horror.
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How Alan Wake 2 Is Embracing More Survival Horror Elements
The firstAlan Wakewas 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 duringAlan 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 Wakeisn’t classed as a survival horror game.
WhileAlan Wakecenters 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 enemiesare 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 fromAlan Wake 2’s trailers so far, and what Remedy Entertainment has stated in interviews,Alan Wake 2is going to have a much slower, more methodical pace to its gameplay, both in terms of combat and downtime. The only combat encounter shown inAlan 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 thatAlan Wake 2’s combatis going to be a lot slower, but more suspenseful than the first game’s.
It’s also clear thatAlan Wake 2and Remedy have been heavilyinspired by Capcom’s recentResident Evilremakes, 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. ThoughAlan Wake 2is sure to forge its own unique identity, itsResident Evilinspirations place it firmly in the survival horror genre.
Alan Wake 2is set to release on July 10, 2025 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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