Summary
Alan Wake 2is an incredibly innovative game that really tries to push the boundaries of what a modern survival horror game can be. Rather than just deliver another action-thriller experience or rely too heavily on its newResident Evil-inspired combat,Alan Wake 2goes out of its way to introduce the genre to a slew of unique concepts and themes, from time loops and multiple protagonists with separate yet interweaving stories to classic horror tropes like murder cults being turned on their head.
But whileAlan Wake 2is filled with its own unique ideas, it doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been influenced along the way. As just mentioned, a lot ofAlan Wake 2’s moment-to-moment gameplay has clearly been inspired by recentResident Evilremakes, and much ofAlan Wake 2’s storyhas been influenced byTwin Peaksand other supernatural dramas. But while these influences are fairly obvious, there’s one point of inspiration that probably wasn’t even intentional, and that’sSplinter Cell Conviction, which has one feature thatAlan Wake 2takes to the next level.
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Alan Wake 2 Elevates an Old Splinter Cell Conviction Feature
Released back in 2010,Splinter Cell Convictionis one of the more divisive entriesin the franchise’s history. Taking a much more over-the-top action approach,Convictionlost a lot of the series' original demographic due to its lack of stealth, but in the process, it did garner a wider reception from general audiences. WhileSplinter CellConvictionhas plenty of fun features, probably its most innovative was its choice to present the player’s objective in the game’s world.
When starting a mission or receiving a new objective, players would be able to see that descriptive text plastered along the environment’s textures, as if it was being projected straight onto it. In an entry that was meant to emphasizeSam Fisher’s isolation, this decision made perfect sense, not only adding a sense of unique style to the game’s presentation, but also acting as a great way to remind fans that Sam no longer has his whole team backing him up in his earpiece.
How Alan Wake 2 Takes This Splinter Cell Feature to the Next Level
Alan Wake 2takes thisSplinter Cell Convictionfeature and runs away with it. WhileAlan Wake 2’s objectives aren’t projected onto a wall, the essence of thisConvictionfeature carries through to a good portion ofAlan Wake 2’s gameplay. Players will see this most often while controlling Alan Wake in the Dark Place. Here, when Alan receives a new Plot Idea for his story, the characters come to life in front of him, but do so in a veryConviction-like way where the characters' silhouettes hop between the foreground and background of the frame, appearing both in front and behind the player-character.
These silhouettes are usually only ever of the character’s body from quite a long distance away, or the character’s head and shoulders right up close and personal with the frame, and they often utilize live-action elements. These brief projections are almost always a tad unsettling. Even if it’s a character like Alex Casey that appears - a protagonist that’s always fun to listen to thanks to an excellent self-awareperformance by James McCaffrey- the visuals of this live-action shadow moving freely around the screen are usually pretty unnerving, enhancing the area’s dream-like atmosphere extremely well, which is further explored with Saga’s visions in the Overlap that mix both realities together in front of the player.
Alan Wake 2
WHERE TO PLAY
A string of ritualistic murders threatens Bright Falls, a small-town community surrounded by Pacific Northwest wilderness. Saga Anderson, an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases arrives to investigate the murders. Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true around her.Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare beyond our world, writes a dark story in an attempt to shape the reality around him and escape his prison. With a dark horror hunting him, Wake is trying to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.Anderson and Wake are two heroes on two desperate journeys in two separate realities, connected at heart in ways neither of them can understand: reflecting each other, echoing each other, and affecting the worlds around them.Fueled by the horror story, supernatural darkness invades Bright Falls, corrupting the locals and threatening the loved ones of both Anderson and Wake. Light is their weapon—and their safe haven — against the darkness they face. Trapped in a sinister horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
