Alan Wake 2 is intentionally intricate and filled with metatextual elements. This complexity adds to the enjoyment of exploring the game at your own pace, but it also presented a challenge, especially considering the long gap since the release of the first game 13 years ago. Remedy’s director, Sam Lake, even expressed his gratitude to Alan Wake wiki contributors and humorously admitted that he relied on them due to the immense level of detail in the game.
In a recent episode of the Friends Per Second podcast, co-directors of Alan Wake 2, Sam Lake and Kyle Rowley, discussed how they managed the depth of the game’s plot after such a long hiatus since the original horror title. They revealed that they turned to fan wikis dedicated to Alan Wake for assistance.
Lake expressed his appreciation, saying, “I want to officially give a big thank you to all the wonderful fans keeping Alan Wake wikis up to date. I confess, I trust these people, I’ll be thinking, ‘We said something about this in the original Alan Wake but I can’t for the life of me remember the details.'”
The interviewer, Ralph ‘Skill Up’ Panebianco, noted that the use of fan wikis aligns with the meta-narrative themes of Alan Wake 2, to which Lake chuckled in agreement. This connection is particularly apt, considering Lake’s own appearance in Alan Wake 2 as the fictional character Alex Casey, one of Alan Wake’s own fictional creations.
While Alan Wake 2 boasts a narrative team and internal documentation to manage its complex storylines and interconnected threads, it’s still a challenging and intricate game. Co-director Rowley mentioned, “We do have a full narrative design team on top of the writing team… the story is often complex, and even I’m going like, ‘what the hell were we meant to be doing here again?'”
Despite the game’s confusion, with its intertwined stories of Saga Anderson and the titular Alan Wake, the need to piece together evidence on expanding case boards, and the metatextual layers, Remedy has successfully pulled it off. In our own review of Alan Wake 2, Andy Farrell stated that the game features “a twisty – and twisted – narrative that takes the original’s premise to new heights,” indicating that Sam Lake’s research into fan wikis for his own work has proven beneficial.
If you find yourself lost in the intricate world of Alan Wake 2, you’re not alone. To help you navigate, we’ve compiled a guide on whether you need to play the first Alan Wake game before diving into the sequel. And for those striving to survive The Dark Place, we’ve created guides on all the weapons in Alan Wake 2 and their optimal upgrades, along with information on which Words of Power you should acquire.