'Alan Wake 2' Gamescom Report

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“You left us on quite the cliffhanger,” teases insipid light-night talk show host Mr. Door, as he playfully admonishes his guest for the glacial pace of their output.

Said interviewee happens to be none other than pulpy crime novelist (turned unwitting adversary of evil) Alan Wake, who is more than a little perplexed by the rhetoric of the man sitting across from him.

Befuddlement, of course, is one of Alan’s defining traits and right now he is unable to figure out: A) how he got here in the first place; B) whether he’s already been through this pantomimic ordeal once before; or C) if the studio audience currently snickering away hyena-like in the darkness even exists. More importantly, though, he has no recollection whatsoever of penning another book.

You see, he’s been suffering from crippling writer’s block for the past few years and, as far as he can tell, hasn’t been able to jot down so much as a preface in that entire time. And yet, Mr. Door insists that Alan has come on the show tonight specifically to promote his latest work: a long-gestating sequel to a cult favourite of his named Departure.

That book was all about a frustrated author (an obvious self-insert character) who discovered that the line between the real world and his own fictions was starting to blur. With horrific consequences.

If that sounds at all familiar, it’s probably because you played the first Alan Wake back in 2010. Indeed, the narrative of Departure and that game are so interchangeable that they are — for all intents and purposes — one and the same.

They’re both focused on the titular writer, as he takes an impromptu vacation to a secluded town in the hopes of finally getting his creative juices flowing again. It’s there that the humble wordsmith’s life is turned upside down, after his wife is taken hostage by one of the supernatural villains from his own stories and he becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance. What follows is a head-spinning tale of eldritch nightmares, light versus dark, prophetic texts, sinister doppelgangers and Asgardian-themed rock bands.

I’d say it all makes sense if you’ve played Remedy’s twisty-turny classic, but that’s honestly a bit of a stretch. The point is that Alan Wake is screamingly meta, with Departure serving as a kind of epistolary retelling of it in-universe. And just like that original game, it left a lot of questions unanswered.

Referring to the ambiguous ending of Wake’s novel, Mr. Door continues: “We’ve all been dying to know what: ‘It’s not a lake, it’s an ocean’ really means.”

This winking line of dialogue, which is actually about the cryptic conclusion of Alan Wake itself, gets a belly-laugh from the crowd. Not just the fictional one that Mr. Door is addressing within the diegesis mind you, but also from the roomful of journalists who are watching this scene unfold over at Gamescom 2023.

We’re all in on the self-aware, 4th wall-breaking joke: Remedy knows that it’s been an eternity since Alan last signed off with that ominous portent, and their sequel (just like the author’s new book) has a lot to live up to.

An Overdue Comeback

Believe it or not, Alan Wake was released an alarming 13 years ago. People like myself — who were literal kids when it came out — are now fully-grown adults and a lot of younger gamers weren’t even born at the time.

Suffice it to say, the whole landscape of entertainment has changed so much in the intervening years and they simply don’t make AAA titles like this anymore. As such, you’d think the prospect of making a sequel now — accounting for the various shifts in audience taste and the weight of expectation that comes with producing such a belated follow-up — would be overwhelming.

However, if that’s the case then Remedy isn’t showing any signs of the pressure getting to them. On the contrary, their media of Alan Wake 2 exuded pure confidence, in a way that was very reassuring for a long-term fan like myself. It was the kind of presentation that lets you know everything is in good hands, and that the developers are truly happy with their passion product.

In a small movie theatre (cunningly disguised as a book signing for Wake’s hardbacks), the presentation actually took place a few blocks away from the main Koelnmesse venue where the rest of Gamescom was taking place. Here, we were treated to 41 minutes of uninterrupted gameplay, some live-action footage that will be integrated into the experience, a breakdown of new mechanics, and a Q&A with both Creative Director, Sam Lake, and Game Director, Kyle Rowley.

We unfortunately didn’t get any hands-on time, but the capture we saw was all from the latest build. Among other things, it convincingly demonstrated how slick the refined combat will be in the hands of a veteran player (the QA Tester was especially proficient at nailing those headshots), as well as the title’s spectacular visuals and engrossing atmosphere.

Welcome to The Dark Place

As you’ll probably already know, AW2’s campaign is divided into two parts. One half focuses on the original protagonist — now stranded in the mysterious netherworld of The Dark Place — while the other centres on franchise newbie: Agent Saga Anderson.

Still in the “real world,” the latter will get to explore more familiar locales, like Bright Falls and Cauldron Lake, as she carries out an investigation into a string of ritualistic murders occurring there. Conversely, Alan finds himself trapped in a nightmare very much of his own making, with The Dark Place taking the form of a surrealistic purgatory where everything is drawn from his subconscious and then made physical.

It’s this portion of the game that we get to see in our vertical slice, as Alan traverses a distorted simulacrum of New York that’s been cobbled together from his hazy memories & tortured imaginations. Indeed, this version of the Big Apple doesn’t bear much resemblance to the genuine article whatsoever, with it feeling more like a heightened, film noir cliché of that city: drenched equally in torrential rain and infernal neon.

It’s essentially a more fantastical take on the seedy world that Max Payne used to inhabit. So, it’s only fitting that we keep bumping into that iconic vigilante here. Or, more accurately, we bump into Alex Casey; the hardboiled protagonist from Alan’s own series of blockbuster novels, who just so happens to look, dress, act and narrate his life in exactly the same way that Max did. To put it another way: he is Payne in all but name.

It’s a fun cameo that gets a huge reaction from the audience and suggests that Alan Wake 2 is going to lean even harder into that connected-universe stuff that Remedy was exploring in 2019’s Control. When asked about this, Creative Director Sam Lake confirms that there will certainly be plenty more easter eggs where that came from (as yet another example, we later encounter NPC that has the uncanny likeness of Shawn Ashmore from Quantum Break), as well as some explicit ties to the studio’s back catalogue.

However, he is also quick to point out that AW2 will still be a fundamentally standalone affair, and that newcomers aren’t expected to do “tons of homework” in order to piece together what the hell’s going on. This isn’t like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where there are certain pieces of required viewing that you need to experience to make sense of the wider saga. Instead, it’s much closer to something like Tarantino’s oeuvre, where there are cool intertextual links for fans to spot, but you’re not missing out on anything important if these go over your head.

Returning to the aforementioned exchange with Max (sorry, “Alex Casey!”), it’s not the joyous meeting between creator and creation that you might expect. On the contrary, the detective is frenzied, jumpy and instantly hostile with Alan, going so far as to threaten him at gunpoint.

You can’t fault him for being a little on edge though, given his present circumstances. The Dark Place is hardly a relaxing environment to find oneself occupying, characterised as it is by inconsistent geography, trippy dream logic and confusing scenarios that would flummox even David Lynch.

A Darkly Beautiful Feast For The Eyes

On the plus side, that does also make it the near-perfect setting for a horror game.

Dripping in atmosphere, our bizarro interpretation of New York manages to make that overused cityscape feel somehow fresh again. We’ve all played countless games set in the Five Boroughs (ranging from superhero adventures to chaotic sandboxes and zombie apocalypse simulators), but this one has a moody aesthetic that’s completely its own.

The expressive lighting, cast from all of the gaudy neon signs in the area, renders each scene almost monochromatic. Echoing the visual stylings of Control, it’s as if somebody has applied an overpowering colour filter to everything; immersing us in sickly green shopping districts and demonic red alleyways.

Elsewhere, the deserted streets are populated only by menacing shadows, whispering away in your periphery and threatening to ambush Alan at a moment’s notice. Some of them will follow through on these warnings, while others are content to just ominously watch from the sidelines. The problem being that you can’t tell which is which until it’s already too late, creating a sense of paranoia that hangs over every single minute of our vertical slice.

The city’s infrastructure is all wrong too, with road networks that don’t quite add up, stairs that ostensibly lead nowhere and bridges that can’t be accessed by any conventional means. Think of it a bit like the fake version of Paris from Inception and you’re in the right ballpark.

Speaking of which, as was the case in Christopher Nolan’s iconic film, the environment here also feeds on elements of the dreamer’s subconscious. In this case, The Dark Place is quite literally plastered with Alan’s psychological hang-ups. Buildings are covered top to bottom in graffiti that taunts him with his worst fears, subway signs artfully conceal hidden insights into his current thinking, and you’ll find various posters that refer to plot beat from the original Alan Wake (such as an advert for Night Springs or a poster that mentions Cynthia Weaver).

Expanding on some of the best ideas from the first game’s DLC episodes, you are quite literally touring Alan’s mind here and it makes for a truly fascinating setting. Of course, it helps that the whole thing looks so bloody gorgeous as well, boasting some of the most high-fidelity, tactile graphics we’ve ever outside of racing titles.

You can tell that an incredible amount of care and attention-to-detail went into creating each and every asset, because they all hold up to the intense scrutiny of the massive cinema screen we’re watching on. The reflective surfaces behave in a highly believable way, there’s subtle cavitation on metal pipes, you can see where paint has been visibly chipped off the walls, and it looks like each of Alan’s individual hair follicles has been animated separately.

The end result is astonishing; to the point where you can barely distinguish between the game’s computer-generated sequences and those live-action bits that the team at Remedy are so fond of. In fact, when you transition between the two— as we did in that aforementioned talk show scene — it’s honestly seamless.

Leaning Into Horror

Describing his vision for The Dark Place, Sam Lake cites an eclectic bunch of inspirations.

There are the blatant neo-noir reference points like Taxi Driver and Se7en— which informed the oppressive look of the city itself— but then there are also some formative horror influences at play. According to Lake, these include Hereditary, Midsommar, Silence of the Lambs, Blue Velvet and the assorted works of Stephen King.

Ari Aster’s filmography getting namechecked was of particular interest to us because, while the first Alan Wake was a relatively tame affair, the fact that those movies are now in the mix would seem to indicate that the developers are aiming for a more intense vibe this go around. Sure enough, that theory is backed up by the gameplay we see, as it quickly becomes apparent that Remedy has been taking notes from the last 13 years of survival horror.

For a start, the combat has been reconfigured so that it’s far scrappier and more intimate. When it comes to dealing with The Taken (Alan Wake 2’s returning enemy type), the same rules that applied back in 2010 are still in effect here. As before, your shadowy foes are totally invulnerable until their darkness-infused shields have been burned away with a torch or another environmental light source, at which point you can fill them with lead. But what has changed for the follow-up is how great of a threat even a single Taken can pose. Whereas before you could easily contend with waves upon waves of these baddies, they’re no longer mere cannon-fodder and the prospect of going up against just a couple of them is enough to get you on the defensive.

As such, the encounters have been scaled back somewhat and it’s less about withstanding endless hordes of them it’s basically the inverse of that typical Alien to Aliens progression that we’re accustomed to with horror sequels.

In fact, the Taken’s newfound durability reminded us most strongly of how Capcom gave their zombies a significant upgrade in the Resident Evil 2 remake. As was the case there, we’ve gone from perceiving of our opponents as disposable grunts to now seeing them as legitimate threats. The tables have turned and it’s completely upended the feel of combat in a way that’s revelatory to the experience.

Elsewhere, there are few other places where Alan Wake 2 has taken its cues from the horror genre’s heavy-hitters. Among other things, there’s now a greater emphasis on resource management, you can visit quasi-safe rooms to stock up on supplies, and the environments have a vaguely metroidvania quality to them. Get ready for lots of backtracking and key hunts!

Not to mention, the general tone of proceedings is several shades darker. For example, at one point Alan hallucinates the aftermath of a grisly subway fire (set by deranged cultists) and imagines that he is crawling over the charred bodies of the deceased while also listening to the echoes of their desperate screams. It’s a deeply unsettling moment that goes a lot harder than anything in the first game.

Likewise, there’s a queasy bit later on wherein we stumble across the scene of a gruesome ritual sacrifice and are presented with a stark-naked corpse that’s had its chest cavity ripped open. From that image alone, it’s clear that Remedy has decided to crank things up a notch for this sequel and that they aren’t taking prisoners. Gone are the days of those bloodless axe murders and quirky rock concert set pieces.

Finally, we have to briefly mention the “Angel Lamp.” A new tool that’s been added to your inventory, this device will allow you to drain light from one place, store it for posterity, and then later distribute it somewhere else. In some instances, this will be so that you can create your own little safe havens in combat scenarios, but it’s also going to be necessary for solving a few of the game’s puzzles.

We get to see the mechanic in action during one particularly nerve-wracking set-piece. Here, Alan has to make his way through an underground labyrinth by activating and deactivating certain lanterns, which in turn unblock parts of his escape route.

It’s not an especially taxing conundrum by any means, but the idea of forcing you to deliberately turn off lights (and therefore put yourself in mortal danger) so that you can progress is an ingenious one. If Remedy can continue to find similarly clever ways of using the Angel Lamp like this, then it could be one of the sequel’s best additions.

All in all, our preview of Alan Wake 2 was pretty much everything that we wanted. Like its predecessor, this game is shaping up to be a potent combination of creepy, mysterious, ambitious, and at times even darkly comedic. 13 years may have been a long time to wait, yet if this is any indication then it will all have been worth it.

Alan Wake 2 will be released on Wednesday the 27th of October on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Opinionated, Verbose and Generally Pedantic. Loves Horror in all of its forms.

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The Girl Who Cried Monster was originally published in May 1993 (Spine #8) and the series adaptation aired on Saturday, November 11, 1995 (runtime: 22 minutes).

The ultimate escape from authority, responsibility and school, summer break is as precious to kids as any holiday, birthday or celebratory excursion combined. It’s a time of imagination and procrastination, a time for lounging in the sun, riding bikes with friends and endless hours spent in front of whatever screen one might deem fit to watch.

And in that time of freedom and fun, what could be more terrifying than a library?

The Girl Who Cried Monster is one of the Goosebumps series’ earliest entries and remains one of its simplest, concerning a monster obsessed girl and her run-in with a real life creature of darkness who also happens to be the town’s librarian. Combining the mundane annoyances of everyday kid life with the outlandish monstrosities that might lurk on the periphery of suburban normality, the book is an entertaining page-turner that roots its scares in the threat of a summer lost to study— and a flesh-starved, shape-changing beast.

The story was adapted for the screen almost immediately, being the first produced and fourth aired episode of the long running television series. As with many of the original installments, the adaptation adheres closely to the page, streamlining the book’s narrative while preserving dialogue and general story points. It’s one of the few episodes that truly captured the book on screen and helped to establish a precedent for viewers that would go on to be ignored far more often than it was ever adhered to.

With impressive creature effects and a stylish atmosphere, The Girl Who Cried Monster went on to make a visual impression that was as noteworthy as the book’s own reputation. A Goosebumps classic if there ever was one, it places the monster-kid so many young horror aficionados can identify with in the driver’s seat and despite summer schoolwork, aloof parents and a bratty little brother, shows what the macabre obsessed youngster is truly made of. After all, the book makes a good, if not somewhat contradictory, point: anyone forcing a kid to read during summer break has to be a monster, right?

The Story

Lucy is obsessed with monsters. She daydreams about them all the time. Her parents yell at her to stop tormenting her little brother Randy with monster stories, but she just can’t help herself. That is, until the day she encounters a real monster: the town librarian. Known for her tall tales and monstrous stories, no one believes Lucy’s terrifying accusations. And if she’s not careful, Lucy might become the victim of the kind of spooky yarn she tended to specialize in. A warning to those that might make the mistake of trying to take down a real monster.

The Girl Who Cried Monster was published in May of 1993, landing as the eighth title in the run. A simple story about a monster-infatuated, over-curious girl who stumbles upon the truth that her town librarian and leader of the summer reading program is, in fact, a monster himself. It concerns the isolation of mistrust and the common lack of support in young convictions, standing as a favorite in the franchise and one of R.L. Stine’s most memorable works.

The Adaptation

Aligned from the start, both the book and episode open with a voice over monologue from Lucy Dark. Her words profess a love of monsters and an obsession with torturing her little brother Randy with creature laden stories before going on to inform that when she met a real monster, no one believed her. On screen and on the page Lucy regales Randy with a tale about the Timberland Falls Toe Biter, a chameleonic creature that feeds on children’s toes. The show excises a scene that follows where Lucy manages to frighten her neighbor too, a boy named Aaron, with a tall tale about a monster in a tree. Either way, it is clear that Lucy will concoct monster stories for anyone willing to listen.

In both versions Lucy is ushered to the library for her Reading Rangers meeting, a summer reading program that she has been begrudgingly forced into. Aside from shifting the book she was supposed to have been reading from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Black Beauty, her sit down with the librarian Mr. Mortman plays out similarly in the show. The episode places more emphasis on Lucy’s monster leanings, as she remarks she wished the horse in the book had two heads, but in either case she leaves the library with Frankenstein.

The book’s description of Mr. Mortman speaks of a beady eyed, short, bald and round man who is always wet, leaving wet fingerprints on pages and small puddles on his desk. The show mentions the wetness but fails to show it, also forgoing an aluminum pan of turtles that sits beside his desk on the page. In both versions, Lucy leaves the library before remembering that she had left her rollerblades there, causing her to double back.

In the book the library is a ramshackle old house that was donated to the town and revamped. It’s a small, cramped, creaky place that feels rundown and haunted. In the show the library is a towering building, more akin to a city library, filled with darkness and empty space along with towering shelves of books. Once inside and facing the monster however, both provide an eerie vibe that feels all at once vast and still somehow isolating.

In both versions she discovers Mr. Mortman’s true form. In the book, Mortman hums to himself as he unscrews a jar of flies and transforms. His face is described as blowing up like a balloon while his bulbous black eyes bulge and extend away from his head on meaty antennae. Onscreen the eyes bulge out similarly in stop-motion animation and the creature cackles as it feasts on crickets instead of flies.

The middle portion of the book extends the back and forth between Lucy and Mr. Mortman. She heads home and attempts to tell her parents what happened but they ignore her, playfully debating how big the meatballs should be for supper instead. The following week Lucy stays after Reading Rangers and hides in the library, shutting the door loudly to make it sound as though she had left. Lucy witnesses the man change again, wincing as Mortman crunches on his small turtles. Lucy manages to escape with Mortman in pursuit, hurrying away before the monster has a chance to identify her.

The same series of events occur in the show. While small details alter from page to screen, like turtles being exchanged for tarantulas, the biggest change comes with Mr. Mortman’s realization of who it is he’s chasing after. “Lucy… I know you’re in there…” he whispers, creating a fairly disturbing chase sequence that is absent from the page. What gives her away is the flash from a small camera she had brought with her in an effort to obtain proof, something that occurs later in the book. He corners her in the stacks but she escapes, running home and calling Aaron to recount everything she had seen.

In the book, Mr. Mortman shows up promptly at Lucy’s front door immediately following her flight from the library. He’s there to return her backpack. He asks if Lucy had stayed late, admitting his belief that someone had hid in the library to play a prank on him, but she assures him of her innocence in the matter and he leaves.

Lucy decides that she needs physical, photographic evidence if she’s ever going to convince others of Mr. Mortman’s true identity. Despite having a more contentious relationship in the book than they seem to have on the screen, Lucy calls Aaron and offers him payment if he agrees to accompany her on her mission. Still, he gets tied up with an orthodontist appointment and bails out, sending Lucy to the library on her own the next day with her camera in hand.

Like the show, the flash from her camera gives away her presence in the closed library and a chase ensues. Unlike the show, Lucy escapes with the camera and without being identified by Mr. Mortman. She convinces her parents to take the family out to eat at the mall so that she can get the photo developed right away only to discover that the picture depicted no one at all. Mr. Mortman’s empty desk and chair was all that stared back at her from the small image. Lucy’s parents shift from angry to worried as Lucy’s mania intensifies.

Onscreen, Mr. Mortman also shows up at Lucy’s door with her abandoned backpack. However, this Mr. Mortman knows exactly who was in the library and although he doesn’t make any nasty moves, he does threaten her subtly with talk of their “next little chat.” Lucy convinces her parents to get the photos developed immediately following this scene, leading to the realization that the monster cannot be photographed. Mr. Mortman bumps into Lucy outside of the photo shop in the show, condensing several other encounters that appear on the page.

Lucy’s parents invite Mr. Mortman to dinner to thank him for the summer reading program as well as his kindness in returning Lucy’s backpack. Lucy is mortified, brandishing the empty photograph and exclaiming that Mortman’s absence from the image is proof that the man is not human. Still, her cries fall on deaf ears.

The book allows for several more Mr. Mortman interactions as Lucy enlists Aaron to help her follow Mr. Mortman to his home in an effort to obtain proof of his monstrousness once and for all. Standing on an upturned wheelbarrow to peer into his living room window, Lucy watches as he transforms before a large tank and starts dining on snails and exotic fish. Before she can show Aaron, the wheelbarrow topples and she falls, causing Mr. Mortman to finally spy Lucy in his full monster regalia.

He transforms back and shares a brief exchange with Lucy, but it’s clear each now knows the other’s secret. At their next Reading Rangers meeting, Mr. Mortman locks her in the library and transforms, attacking Lucy. She only escapes by throwing the card catalogue into chaos giving Mr. Mortman pause, the librarian overtaking the monster in a desperate need to keep the system in order. Hiding in the library as Lucy did before, Aaron witnesses the whole exchange. With Aaron’s testimony in tow, Lucy once again confronts her parents about the terrible truth regarding the town librarian. Their response: invite Mr. Mortman to dinner.

Simplifying this and condensing the sheer amount of times Lucy hides in the library to see Mr. Mortman’s monstrous transformation, the episode moves right from the scene at the one hour photo place to dinner. At this point, the book and the show again sync up.

Mr. Mortman enters the Dark family’s home and is cordial and polite. He eyes Lucy knowingly and makes several underhanded remarks before inquiring about the night’s menu. In response to the question of what is being served, Lucy’s father replies simply, “you are.” It’s then that Lucy’s parents sprout sharp fangs, a mouthful of them in the episode, and close in on Mr. Mortman. Onscreen, the Dark parents become lizard people, scaly and green, something not described in the book.

Both the book and the show conclude in the same way. The Darks devour Mr. Mortman, explaining to their delighted children that no monster had come to their town in over twenty years which is why Lucy’s parents found her claims so unbelievable. It was too dangerous to have another monster scaring the townsfolk, so the Darks had to take care of the problem. The show concludes with Aaron showing up in a monster mask and nearly being eaten by the Darks, while the book finishes with fledgling monsters Lucy and Randy again being scolded for telling monster stories before bed.

In both cases the status quo is restored, summer is back on track and the suburbs are safe from monsters once more. Well, in a manner of speaking.

Final Thoughts

The Girl Who Cried Monster is lean and mean, a concise and controlled story about one girl’s fascination with monsters, both real and imagined. Not only an appeal to every kid that’s ever loved the weird and the strange, but a branch to those that have an imagination and a drive to convince others to come along for the ride.

On the page, the story is one of R.L. Stine’s classics. Accompanied by Tim Jacobus’ art of a maniacal man hungrily clutching a fly as a terrified girl watches silently from a red-lit doorway, its simplicity and ever building sense of tension allows it to stand out amongst the stacks and stacks of books that bear the Goosebumps name. On the screen, the story is streamlined even further, narrowing the events down to only a few choice encounters with the bulging eyed beast and ensuring that every moment Lucy and Mr. Mortman share the screen is infused with danger.

Still, it’s the creature effects on display for Mr. Mortman’s transformation that truly make this an episode worth celebrating. It’s a monster that feels slimy and alive, dangerous and hungry, and serves to further enhance the legacy of the page by providing a disgusting face to the repugnant description. The episode may not have been able to contain the various twists and turns that Stine charted for his ravenous readers, but the effectiveness of the creature work more than makes up for any literary extractions.

While it may seem contradictory to advocate against a summer reading program in a book designed for kids to read, it’s that kind of self-awareness that has always made Goosebumps the perfect foil for any youngster Hellbent on avoiding their scholarly duties. It’s a series that understands, embraces and exaggerates the power of imagination and uses the very logic of the anti-reading, summer-bound adolescent to prove why a book can be an incredibly entertaining way to pass the school-free months.

After all, if there were monsters in there, what kid wouldn’t want to go to a library?