Alan Wake II

"It's not a loop, it's a spiral."  This is the quote that ends the first playthrough of the game, similar to how the first Alan Wake game ended with him saying "It's not a lake, it's an ocean."  To me the loop/spiral phrase feels like it can be interpreted as a philosophical view on life.  It was reaffirmation for when times were tough and things felt like they were going nowhere.  Seeing day to day life as a loop is what caused many existential crises I would have, thinking back to Stephen King's Storm of the Century classic line, "hell is repetition."  This seems par for the course with how much King's work has been an influence on the Alan Wake series.  In thinking this, seeing the loop as a spiral to me was a reminder that we have the power to choose if it's a loop or spiral and do something different day by day to improve what we can and hopefully live a better and more meaningful life.

So I naturally had this concept in mind when starting up Alan Wake 2 again.  I first got the game a month after it first released.  I was playing the first Alan Wake game before I got this one.  When it comes to the first one, I loved the story and its surreal delivery method that makes it stand out from anything else I've ever played before.  But I didn't care much for the main gameplay loop of starting each chapter like a blank slate having to find your weapons again and how the battles would drag more the further you progress.  I guess with the it's not a loop, it's a spiral in mind, it kind of retcons that gameplay mechanic of the first game.  But it's much better in the second where you don't always feel like you're starting over again.  But one thing I enjoyed more this time was playing the We Sing chapter with Wake where you play his musical with Herald of Darkness as it perfectly encapsulates the first game with its gameplay loop and story in a very fun way.  It's a nice summary of what you need to know from the first game and a feel with the experience of it.

One thing I enjoyed in both games but was brought to a whole new level with the second would be its immaculate vibes. The opening title sequences for the chapter but most of all for the game itself, rivaling that of The Shining. The quirkiness of the characters. The mix of macabre and campiness. The fearful flashes of the hauntings of Scratch. The end of the chapter music. When experiencing all this again I couldn't help but think of how much I miss playing this game. When I first played it, I completed the story three times, with the third playthrough being so thorough that I ended up getting the platinum trophy for the game.  Besides that I played the DLC chapters as they were released. 

But with playing this again, and recently playing the Sinking City games, I couldn't help but think that this is what balance between the two Sinking City games would look like. This being the debate in that game's community about the preference between the investigation heavy first game and the action heavy second game.  I thought it would be cool if they struck more of a balance if they make a third Sinking City game and in playing Alan Wake 2 again I see this works as a good blueprint for what that can look like.  I love how the investigation is done in this game as there is something so pleasing about organizing the evidence on the case board even though I don’t have to on repeat playthroughs.

Another thing I experienced that was different this time was how they incorporated the DLC's into the main story.  When I played them before, I just went to them from the menu like DLC stories normally are but they also have it setup where you can come across different points in the game where you are given the option to play the DLC's that feels natural with the game and its story.  I really like this and it makes me more than happy to play the game again in the future and experience it this same way again as this all encompassing journey.  Most times when I play games again, I usually don't play the DLC's again even if I liked them because once credits roll on the main game, I'm ready to go on to what I want to play next.  But this is really cool to have them be part of the main story because I know I'll want to play this again in the future and will be wanting to replay the DLC too.

One of my favorite parts of the Alan Wake games is him reading the manuscript pages.  These aren't all the lore pages but it adds so much to the vibe and experience with it.  Another part of the vibe I love in this one are the commercials from the Koskela brothers.  They're great comic relief throughout the game but after things take a darker turn it turns into absolute devastation in their book club commercial.  Another thing is the music that plays at the end of chapters.  I noticed how the song that plays at the end of Alan Wake's chapters in the Dark Place,  "The Road" by Poe, is not just the same song playing over again which I knew in later chapter endings there was more added at the beginning and end of the song but even earlier on there's more and more added to the end of the song, staying true to the loop spiral concept as if to say the positive change we make has to start off small and only after that it will grow and become more noticeable.  

Another metaphor I've thought more about with playing this time is Scratch.  Scratch is the main antagonist of the story who takes the form of Alan Wake and so to talk more about this I will go into spoilers:

SPOILERS:

Scratch is Alan Wake.  As his musical says, "show me the champion of light, I'll show you the herald of darkness."  There is so much mystery as to what Scratch is exactly.  One thought that I've had more this time around was thinking about how the story of Alan Wake feels like a metaphor for art and the creative process as a whole.  Scratch, as his name suggests, can be seen as self doubt.  The greatest enemy of art and the artist in general.  The biggest thing that prevents the existence of most of the art that never sees the light of day.  Even if this is just in the conceptual process of thinking of an idea but then doubting its value in pursuing.  But this also goes further with the process itself and how doubt can seep in at any time to make a project feel worthless.  But this can be taken a step further with how much we can miss out on in life with doubting ourselves and doubting our instincts.  Like great art, some of the greatest things we experience in life are achieved by following our instincts and intuition and so doubting that can prevent these experiences.  But speaking of great experiences, that is what this game is to me.  It's one of my top five favorite games of all time and I recommend it to any and all gamers, especially since it has assist options that let you decide how easy the difficulty is so even the least skilled of players can still play the game from beginning to end and experience everything it has to offer.