My journey there reveals that Alan Wake 2’s world is built entirely differently from its predecessor. I don’t know if the coffee here is damn fine, but the atmosphere certainly is.Ī chat with entrepreneurial oddballs the Koskela brothers puts me on the trail of some spare keys for the trailer park, which are locked up in the gift shop of Coffee World, a local theme park. And Ahti is performing a rousing number at the local cafe. But while this may be slower-paced than Remedy’s previous action romps, it’s no less weird: everyone seems to already know who I am despite this being Saga’s first visit to Watery. There’s no urgency as I wander down Main Street, chatting with the locals about a nearby trailer park – a lead in my wider investigation into the Cult of the Tree, the story’s looming threat.

In these opening minutes, it’s clear that Alan Wake 2 is unlike any other game Remedy has made before. It’s just down the road from the original Alan Wake setting of Bright Falls, and carries a similar David Lynch vibe quaint, but off-kilter. Local Girl begins with Saga arriving in Watery, a town established by Finnish settlers. And, from what I can tell thus far, it’s all for the better. It feels like almost every element of Alan Wake’s gameplay has been reinvented.

It comes complete with puzzles, exploration, backtracking, and a crime fiction library’s worth of creeping dread. Where the 2010 original was a relentless action game dressed in a Halloween costume, Alan Wake 2 is a full-bore survival horror.

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