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nonesensedAlan Wake 2, and arguably the whole catalog of Remedy Entertainment's games (nicknamed "Remedyverse"), is what I will be gushing about for this part of the Snowflake Challenge~!
Okay. Oookay. SO. Uhm. Doing my best to not go full rant mode here because this will be an unreadable wall of text if I don't watch out. When I talk about this new-old fandom of mine, I tend to go full Red String And Corkboard Meme. I will do my best to minimize the amount of red string in this post while keeping the red thread, so to speak.
Visualization of me talking about this fandom.
As with most of my fandoms, I don't recommend Alan Wake 2 to everyone, since nothing is ever made for these mysterious Everyones. But I'll do my best to explain what it is and why I love it so, to hopefully give people an idea if they should check it out or not 😊
That's more than enough preamble - on to the actual reccing!
Our main characters: Alan looking like the wet cat he is and Saga just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
To not kill everyone's reading feeds, the rest of this goes under a cut:
Alan Wake 2 is a survival horror video game. I've been told by less jaded people that it's a very scary horror game. I personally think of it as an exciting action-adventure supernatural mystery game with horror flavor, buuuut I'm the kind of person who will watch The Shining alone in my apartment at 2 am. Do not use me as any kind of reliable source for how scary anything is, you will likely regret it.
Alan Wake 2 is a direct sequel to the game Alan Wake, but also to Control and arguably Quantum Break with dashes of Max Payne. Alan Wake 2 is understandable as a story/game without having knowledge of all these other games, but I have no idea if it's as much fun to experience without this pre-knowledge. There are a A Lot of callbacks, easter eggs and plots that build on what's come before. Do with this information what you will.
But what's the actual game about? Well, you start out playing as FBI agent Saga Anderson. She and her partner Alex Casey are heading to the small town of Bright Falls because a serial killer seems to be active there. The murder victims are people who've been missing since 2010 and they've all had their hearts cut out of their chests. Coincidentally, 2010 was also the year a certain famous writer *cough*Alan Wake*cough* went missing, presumed drowned in the now fenced-off Cauldron Lake.
Pages of a manuscript that describe what will happen to our dear main characters start showing up - and what's written on the pages comes true. Also, Saga & Casey find Alan Wake literally washed up on the shore near their latest crime scene and he's very upset about something, but he can't quite remember what. Casey is less than pleased at this, because he happens to share the exact name of Wake's famous noir detective and the jokes around the office got old long ago - aaaaand aspects of Wake's books are familiar to him in an unsettling way. Saga, on the other hand, starts to notice that people in Bright Falls suddenly act like she's lived there before - and that her daughter Logan, who's about to turn 14, died here 5 years ago.
You play as both Saga Anderson and Alan Wake. You try to solve the supernatural mysteries of Bright Falls' ominous Cauldron Lake. You battle dead people possessed by an eldritch entity. You try to save your family. You...also participate in a talk show and a rock musical.
I'll try to stop here, because I will end up trying to retell the whole darn game word for word, and that'll be fun for no one. Here's a list of more things I love about this game:
I will force myself to stop here and go work on my Remedyverse fanfics 😁The fandom is relatively small, but this new game in the series has really energized it! There's an ever growing number of fics on AO3, a wonderful amount of fanart and gifs on all manner of platforms, and so many fanvids and meta posts 💖💖💖💖
Okay. Oookay. SO. Uhm. Doing my best to not go full rant mode here because this will be an unreadable wall of text if I don't watch out. When I talk about this new-old fandom of mine, I tend to go full Red String And Corkboard Meme. I will do my best to minimize the amount of red string in this post while keeping the red thread, so to speak.
Visualization of me talking about this fandom.
As with most of my fandoms, I don't recommend Alan Wake 2 to everyone, since nothing is ever made for these mysterious Everyones. But I'll do my best to explain what it is and why I love it so, to hopefully give people an idea if they should check it out or not 😊
That's more than enough preamble - on to the actual reccing!
Our main characters: Alan looking like the wet cat he is and Saga just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
To not kill everyone's reading feeds, the rest of this goes under a cut:
Alan Wake 2 is a survival horror video game. I've been told by less jaded people that it's a very scary horror game. I personally think of it as an exciting action-adventure supernatural mystery game with horror flavor, buuuut I'm the kind of person who will watch The Shining alone in my apartment at 2 am. Do not use me as any kind of reliable source for how scary anything is, you will likely regret it.
Alan Wake 2 is a direct sequel to the game Alan Wake, but also to Control and arguably Quantum Break with dashes of Max Payne. Alan Wake 2 is understandable as a story/game without having knowledge of all these other games, but I have no idea if it's as much fun to experience without this pre-knowledge. There are a A Lot of callbacks, easter eggs and plots that build on what's come before. Do with this information what you will.
But what's the actual game about? Well, you start out playing as FBI agent Saga Anderson. She and her partner Alex Casey are heading to the small town of Bright Falls because a serial killer seems to be active there. The murder victims are people who've been missing since 2010 and they've all had their hearts cut out of their chests. Coincidentally, 2010 was also the year a certain famous writer *cough*Alan Wake*cough* went missing, presumed drowned in the now fenced-off Cauldron Lake.
Pages of a manuscript that describe what will happen to our dear main characters start showing up - and what's written on the pages comes true. Also, Saga & Casey find Alan Wake literally washed up on the shore near their latest crime scene and he's very upset about something, but he can't quite remember what. Casey is less than pleased at this, because he happens to share the exact name of Wake's famous noir detective and the jokes around the office got old long ago - aaaaand aspects of Wake's books are familiar to him in an unsettling way. Saga, on the other hand, starts to notice that people in Bright Falls suddenly act like she's lived there before - and that her daughter Logan, who's about to turn 14, died here 5 years ago.
You play as both Saga Anderson and Alan Wake. You try to solve the supernatural mysteries of Bright Falls' ominous Cauldron Lake. You battle dead people possessed by an eldritch entity. You try to save your family. You...also participate in a talk show and a rock musical.
I'll try to stop here, because I will end up trying to retell the whole darn game word for word, and that'll be fun for no one. Here's a list of more things I love about this game:
- The meta! This game doesn't only have callbacks and easter eggs, most of its plot is based in different forms of meta about previous games or the current game's story itself. Alan Wake running into an FBI agent who shares the exact name of his most famous book character is just the tip of that iceberg. I am eating well 😁
- There's so much humor to this game! I've already posted about the funny commercials you can find while running around Bright Falls and its neighboring town of Watery, and that kind of silliness follows all the way through the game, complimenting the horror elements in a great way.
- The characters! Saga & Casey make such a fun duo, Casey being a grump with a heart of gold and Saga a cheerful punster and prankster - and I really love Saga in general and want all the happiness for her because she gosh darn deserves it. Then we have Alan, who's been trapped in a hell dimension for 13 years and who's confused and tired all the time but doing his best. And many, maaaany more, but I will stop myself here, because This Post Is Long Enough Already.
- The music! Remedy games love their music 💖Alan Wake 2 is mostly known for the rock musical level/chapter "We Sing", which is great, but there are a ton of other lovely pieces of custom music made for the game!! Other than the musical there are two more in-world songs and each game chapter ends with a only-for-the-player song that either gives context to what you've just played or clues about character backstories or future events. This is great for me personally, because I adore when music is used that way and I'm a musical nerd 💖💖💖💖💖(side note: there's an official music video of the musical part which is great, but it's definitely not the same thing as playing the musical level/chapter. For the "full experience" I'd advice playing the game yourself or checking out a let's play.)
- The mystery VS reveal balance! You do get answers to the main mysteries in this game, but they don't explain too much. The story itself has a clear ending (though you have to play the game twice to find out what it is) while the supernatural elements get to remain "more explained but not too explained", if that makes sense.
- The game has a full horror short film you can find!
- It makes me want to write! Not just fanfic, but my own stuff too. Both due to how the game itself portrays the writing process in a fantastical manner and due to the Remedy people's excitement about Making Stuff; it's infectious in the best of ways 😄
I will force myself to stop here and go work on my Remedyverse fanfics 😁The fandom is relatively small, but this new game in the series has really energized it! There's an ever growing number of fics on AO3, a wonderful amount of fanart and gifs on all manner of platforms, and so many fanvids and meta posts 💖💖💖💖
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I'm definitely gonna check this game out, tho! It looks like the first one is available on Switch so I may start there.
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Yay, I hope you have fun! Looking forward to talking about the game once you've started playing it, should you be so inclined 💖
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I'll keep you posted! We have A Lot of big changes to deal with before I can splurge on new games, but as soon as I get my hands on it I'll have to pester you >:)
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Yay :D
My horror tolerance varies wildly, so I am hesitant to play. Are there any LPs for the first part an this one you can recommend?
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Totally get not wanting to jump straight into a horror game if horror isn't always fun for you! I've definitely got let's plays to recommend 😃 What kind of LP would be most fun for you? One with a lot of commentary and lore-callbacks or one that's more "just diving in, no clue what's going on"? And would you like to just have a snapshot of someone playing a snippet of the game or would you rather have suggestions of LPs that starts from the beginning of the game? (I've got it all~ 😆 Just love watching other people experiencing the game too).
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This guy, JC, is a huge fan of Remedy's games, so he gets super hyped about pretty much everything in the game and pauses to explain lore that might not be obvious to people not familiar with the "Remedyverse". Also, he's not used to playing horror games and will scream at every jumpscare. His playthrough is of the whole game, but he's not played new game plus yet, so he's not seen the real ending (yet).
The youtuber Ayanna has a slightly calmer approach to game play, not as much pauses for lore, though she is familiar with the previous games. Her playthrough is still ongoing, but she's gotten pretty far into the game.
BillyJohnBob are two Norwegian youtubers who do a very chaotic blind and silly playthrough, with much trial-and-error and crosstalk between them. And screaming 😆 They've finished their playthrough of the game, though not a new game plus.
RicketyGames is another lore-invested person, though her approach is slightly less shouting-at-jumpscare than JC's. She's also complete a full playthrough of the game.
Oh, and here's a neat fanmade "TV intro" to the game, in case you want a quick intro to the characters and the mood/style of the story 💖🖤💖🖤💖
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I'm going to give RicketyGames a try first because I want the lore, but not so much the screaming at this time XD
Edit: I have watched the opening from RG's gameplay and WOW????? I do love a stag motif in my horror media. I also didn't expect it to be so gruesome from the start :O
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I know!!! This fandom is crazy talented 🖤🖤🖤🖤
Hope you enjoy! JC is even more in-depth on the lore and he gets so emotionally invested in the game that it's a darn joy to experience, buuuut he does shriek a bit when the (fairly frequent) jumpscares happen 😅
Also edit: Oh yeah, this game goes hard on the horror moments - even the gosh darn intro title is a jumpscare 😆 Hopefully the TV-intro-video made the tone clearer so you didn't get taken completely off guard by the Naked Man Getting Brutally Murdered intro 😅 There is plenty more eerie stag and deer motifs to be had! I love those too and this game has fed me well~
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so you didn't get taken completely off guard by the Naked Man Getting Brutally Murdered intro
I didn't! But I was startled when the cult peeps caught him because the violence escalated like THAT!
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Oh yeah, that opening scene is very much "Well That Escalated Quickly" 😅 Playing it was quite the experience 😆
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