For years, Jens has longed the announcement of Alan Wake 2. His joy is correspondingly great.

Alan Wake has a special place in my heart. It is not my absolute favorite game, but it has too many quirks. But his history and atmosphere have me in 2012, when an Xbox 360 was drawn in fresh with me (yes, I was late) and I had made the title, pulled completely in her spell. To this day, the adventure around the eponymous writer, which has a writing block and is in a depression, and then it gets to do with — in the truest sense of the word — dark powers, my personal favorite from the biography of Remedy Entertainment. Quantum Break and Control are playfully better, but Alan Wake has remained most in memory (Max Payne 1 and 2 I only played shortly, but she still wants to catch up). That’s why I am pleased that Alan Wake 2 is officially confirmed. And that not only has to do with my love for the first part.

An end to think

Alan wake opens in a cliffhanger. In most cases, I find it rather stupid when a game (or movie) does not come to an end. The playable Mystery Thriller is one of the few priced exceptions. The problem that occurs at the beginning of the game and puts the action in motion is solved at the end, so that story arc thus led to a degree. At the same time Remedy puts the foundation for something new and raises many questions. I’m purposely staying vague, because perhaps the one or the other is woven after the announcement of Alan Wake 2, the predecessor, which it is now also available as Remaster (does it!).

But the open questions do not mean that Alan Wake ends unsatisfactory. On the contrary: that a certain mystery is preserved, fits very well with the game and stimulates to spin your own theories and to exchange ideas with others in the network. I can not remember any other game, after whose credits it was my first action, first time the internet was throughout analyzes.

The futile search for answers

But of course there was also this desire for answers. Luckily, there’s two LCS, I thought back then. For the first zone episode called the signal, my version of the game was a code, the writer I had to buy myself, but that could not stop me to continue my trip with Alan. The LCS are also definitely cool, but they did not deliver real answers.

Not long after I played Alan Wake, Remedy released the independent download game Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. I hoped for a continuation of the well-known story, but got something that has been independent of it and unfortunately could not answer my questions. And then the great suffering phase began: waiting for a sequel, which seemingly never coming.

Hoped winds… and returns

Remedy wanted to develop a second part then, there was even a prototype (from the American Nightmare has sprung). But because Alan Wake has not become the great commercial success, which Publisher Microsoft had hoped for years of development, the continuation refused and wanted to have something new instead.

QUANTUM BREAK, which appeared in 2016 for the Xbox One and the PC and was also financially behind the expectations. Then the paths of Remedy and Microsoft separated. The developer needed a new partner and took luckily too: with 505 games they produced the next game: Control. What playfully is the Best Remedy game to date has hardly disappointed me on narrative level. But at the same time it planted in me also a seed of hope. Anyone exploring the game world of Metroidvanias exactly and reads all the documents that can be found in it finds out that Control, Quantum Break and Alan Wake are linked. Remedy has built up its own universe in the past eleven years, so to speak his own equivalent to Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The second DLC has clarified to Control called AWE, in which Alan Wake personally occurs.

I did not play AWE until today (shame about my head!), But already announced as this extension, was a thing clear for me: Remedy has not given up Alan Wake yet. More than ever before I had the hope that a second part would come. In the middle of this year, it was not announced that a multiplayer spin-off and a direct continuation will come to Control. At the same time, we already knew that the Scandinavians still work on other projects and one of them is an AAA titled, which is funded by Epic Games.

Great joy despite great infommangel

Since the game awards, it is official: the project is Alan Wake 2. When I read from the event in the morning after the event, my heart’s joy jumps — just because the continuation is finally confirmed after all the years. That was enough for me. The rest, so the first teaser and the rudimentary info to the game, I do not care. The video is a typical announcement trailer that reveals nothing like nothing. Ok, it looks like Alan Wake 2 not only play in the small town of Bright Fall, but also in a large metropolis with subway network. But much more I can not read out.

We Need To Talk About Alan Wake 2
Of course, only that Alan Wake 2 will be a survival horror game, as Remedy says itself. The predecessor was not that, and certainly he is not exactly the same kind game like a typical Resident Evil. But he has quite elements of the genre, for example, resource sadness. It is therefore difficult for me to imagine how much the game mechanics should differ in part 2 of them.

But I’m honest: the gameplay is almost irrelevant for me at Alan Wake 2. Sure, I hope that it is at least at the level of Control, but the continuation of history and, above all, answers to open questions are what irritates me so much. If everything goes well, we will get both 2023. From me Remedy should be as much time as necessary. I have been waiting for almost ten years to find out what the last words of Alan mean from the first part. I can also wait a little longer. It is important only that I now know that I will get this info sometime. And that alone is enough to make the announcement of Alan Wake 2 for me to the highlight of the Game Awards 2021 — despite sounding trailer.