HBO detective thriller meets bad LSD trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is Alan Wake 2 a nightmare or a dream?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/alan-wake\/news\/alan-wake-2-review-hbo-detective-thriller-meets-bad-lsd-trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alan Wake 2 review: HBO detective thriller meets bad LSD trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is Alan Wake 2 a nightmare or a dream?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/alan-wake\/news\/alan-wake-2-review-hbo-detective-thriller-meets-bad-lsd-trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dot Esports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DOTesports\/\" 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An award-winning games journalist, Vic brings experience from IGN, Eurogamer, TechRadar, and more to the Dot Esports table. You may have even heard her on the radio or speaking on a panel. Not only is Vic passionate about games, but she's also an avid mental health advocate who has appeared on both panels and podcasts to discuss mental health awareness. Make sure to follow her on Twitter (@hood_vic) for more.","sameAs":["https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/in\/vic-hood-7928a5135","https:\/\/x.com\/hood_vic"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/vichood"}]}},"raw_content":"As I look over the bloated, bloody body tied to an altar before me, I get a rush of excitement. Not because I\u2019m some sort of sadist. No, this pleasure stems from elsewhere: it\u2019s the thrill of the hunt.\u00a0 I search the grisly scene for clues, noting the victim\u2019s ligature marks, gaping chest wound, and the nearby beers, before adding my evidence piece-by-piece to the Case Board in FBI Agent Saga Anderson\u2019s Mind Place. There are important questions to answer: Who is the killer? What was their murder method? I place the evidence and watch as threads of red strings connect the dots. I\u2019d say I\u2019m one step closer to the answers I need, but this is only the tip of a very large iceberg. The waters of Alan Wake 2 run deep, and this HBO-style detective drama is only half the story. As you might expect, things aren\u2019t quite as they seem, and this dead body is merely a cog in Remedy Entertainment\u2019s fantastically weird machine. It\u2019s just a shame the performance needs oiling. Chapter one: The Saga continues Alan Wake 2 is divided into two riveting single-player stories. Saga\u2019s story is more of a detective thriller. As she tracks down the violent Cult of the Tree, she gathers clues and evidence that can be pinned to the Case Board in her Mind Place, hinting at what to do next and the overarching narrative. Saga\u2019s story may appear simple on the surface, but this is an Alan Wake game, after all, full of twists and surprises. The Mind Place serves as a hub for Saga, allowing you to upgrade weapons, add clues to the Case Board, and even rewatch and listen to TV commercials and radio stations she has come across. It\u2019s a handy place to come back to when you\u2019re feeling lost. I highly recommend watching all the live-action commercials when you have time, they\u2019re laugh-out-loud funny and a refreshing contrast to the dark narrative. And things do get dark, particularly in Alan\u2019s reality. The troubled writer finds himself exploring a Dark Place version of New York City as he attempts to unearth what supernatural forces are at work while also searching for his wife, Alice. I\u2019ll leave you to discover the rest for yourself, as it\u2019s best left entirely unspoiled. Once you reach the point where you can switch characters, these two narratives can be played in any order you see fit, and almost feel like different games. What really elevates these two stories is the seamless blend of CGI and live action in both gameplay and cutscenes. Ilkka Villi takes Alan Wake 2 to new heights in his role as Alan, while Melanie Liburd and Sam Lake give stellar performances as Saga and Agent Casey, respectively, combining a standout cast with character animations that look and feel alive.\u00a0 This mix of mediums adds to the surreal feel of Alan Wake 2 and results in some captivating cutscenes, hilariously bizarre scenarios, and downright terrifying moments. Horror is at the heart of Alan Wake 2, make no mistake. The jump scares are no joke, and in both stories, I found my heart pumping out of my chest while I scrambled to complete a section and return to safety. Chapter two: Not entirely Taken In Alan Wake, the Taken, shadowy enemies possessed by the Dark Presence, were arguably the scariest part of the game, but in Alan Wake 2, they\u2019re mostly just a pain. Often, I found myself trying to go from A to B, and some wayward Taken was in the way, slowing down the pace of the hunt. I dreaded running into one because it meant I couldn\u2019t get to the next part of the game fast enough. I\u2019ve never been a huge fan of the shine light then shoot combat in Alan Wake, and in the sequel, this becomes more frustrating because it takes so long to take the damn Taken down. Unless you\u2019re a great shot (and I\u2019m not), you can unload a multitude of bullets into a Taken before it finally drops, a surefire way to use up all your scarce ammo and light pretty quickly. Resources are less abundant than in the previous game, especially as you progress, making clever resource management critical. If you can run past a Taken, I advise doing so. Chapter three: Diabolus ex Machina Perhaps the biggest overall issue I experienced in Alan Wake 2 was its performance. I played on Quality Mode on PS5 initially but, in the later parts of the game, struggled with major fps drops in Saga\u2019s sections. In an especially enjoyable level, I found the screen stuttering so much that I felt nauseous, making the fight almost unplayable. Switching to Performance Mode didn\u2019t help, and saw Saga zooming about like she\u2019d had too much Oh Deer coffee.\u00a0 On several occasions, instead of showing the usual wording on map markers like screwdriver locked doors, I got what appeared to be the developer code names like \u201cDoor_Item_Bolt_Cutters\u201d. Other issues included getting stuck on the Case Board, having to reload, and the camera inexplicably showing the inside of Saga\u2019s head, so all I saw were eyeballs and teeth\u2014not the kind of horror I was looking for. These bugs were annoying but not game-breaking, I thought to myself. Then, it happened. As Alan, I was unable to line up one of the Echoes required to progress, and my PS5 playtime was over. I was moved over to PC by the developer as, at the time of playing, there was no specific fix, but I continued to experience many of the issues I had on PS5. Saga fell through the map, the eyeballs and teeth bug happened again, and the fps drops and staggering continued. Remedy has said it\u2019s addressed many of these issues for launch, but I have to review what was in front of me, not what is promised for the future. These issues made a brilliant, original game a major slog. Chapter four: Through the woods Despite these problems, Alan Wake 2 shines in the smaller details. Environmental storytelling is a key part of this, with readable notes, documents, and other items scattered around that flesh out characters, events, and the story overall. The environments themselves are beautiful, packed with detail, and begging to be explored. There are plenty of puzzles to solve, Cult Stashes to unlock, and collectible Lunch Boxes to find in Saga\u2019s reality. Alan\u2019s reality, meanwhile, is dripping with references to Remedy titles Control, Quantum Break, and Alan Wake. I happily spent hours looking in every nook and cranny. Interacting with these environments is particularly important in Alan\u2019s sections. Armed with an Angel Lamp, Alan can pull and redistribute light from and to certain sources, changing the environment to allow progression. Similarly to Saga\u2019s Case Board, he has a Plot Board in his Writer\u2019s Room. By collecting specific scenes and plots, Alan can combine the two, rewriting the story he\u2019s in at certain points to alter the environment. Like with the Angel Lamp, this is often needed to progress, with both devices acting as a means of solving environmental puzzles. It can be tricky to get the hang of initially, but adds an extra, welcome challenge to Alan\u2019s sections. The end: Quite a trip Alan Wake 2\u2019s story was worth the wait, but we should have waited longer because it\u2019s let down by some major performance issues. I\u2019m hoping they\u2019ll be ironed out for launch because they made my two playthroughs a slog. Remedy Entertainment has come a long way since the release of Alan Wake in 2010, becoming a master of environmental storytelling and the art of combining live action and CGI seamlessly.\u00a0 This, alongside an impressively detailed world and carefully crafted characters, combines to create a wonderfully weird and trippy detective story that will leave you saying \u201cWTF!?\u201d on more than one occasion. Peeling back the layers of the story is worth it, even if I\u2019ll be scratching my head, working through the mystery for weeks to come, or slamming it against a wall due to yet another bug.","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Alan-Wake-2_20231023134029-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010598"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1068504,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010598\/revisions\/1068504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010598"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=1010598"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=1010598"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=1010598"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1010598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1010598,"date":"2023-10-27T11:32:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T16:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/?p=1010598"},"modified":"2024-01-25T13:53:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T18:53:03","slug":"alan-wake-2-review-hbo-detective-thriller-meets-bad-lsd-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/alan-wake\/news\/alan-wake-2-review-hbo-detective-thriller-meets-bad-lsd-trip","title":{"rendered":"Alan Wake 2 review: HBO detective thriller meets bad LSD trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I look over the bloated, bloody body tied to an altar before me, I get a rush of excitement. Not because I\u2019m some sort of sadist. No, this pleasure stems from elsewhere: it\u2019s the thrill of the hunt. <\/p>

I search the grisly scene for clues, noting the victim\u2019s ligature marks, gaping chest wound, and the nearby beers, before adding my evidence piece-by-piece to the Case Board in FBI Agent Saga Anderson\u2019s Mind Place. There are important questions to answer: Who is the killer? What was their murder method? I place the evidence and watch as threads of red strings connect the dots. I\u2019d say I\u2019m one step closer to the answers I need, but this is only the tip of a very large iceberg.<\/p>

The waters of Alan Wake 2<\/em> run deep, and this HBO-style detective drama is only half the story. As you might expect, things aren\u2019t quite as they seem, and this dead body is merely a cog in Remedy Entertainment\u2019s fantastically weird machine. It\u2019s just a shame the performance needs oiling.<\/p>