Alan Wake 2 has flown under the radar in many ways, with so many great video games having been released this year, not to mention some hyped upcoming ones as well. These include Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3, Diablo IV, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to name just a few. But now with its release date of October 27th drawing closer, Alan Wake 2 is firmly back in the spotlight as we’re learning more and more about the game.
Like any other art form, games take inspiration from other games, and Alan Wake 2 is no different in that regard. It is said to be a proper survival horror game with action elements and a heavy focus on the narrative, and developer Remedy Entertainment decided to take some inspiration from a franchise that is of the same genre.
Which games did Alan Wake 2 take inspiration from?
The game franchise that Alan Wake 2 took inspiration from was the Resident Evil series by Capcom, specifically the reboot of the series which has been incredibly popular with fans and critics alike. During an interview with Edge (via Gamesradar), game director Kyle Rowley said:
“Camera perspective and things like that, yes, there are good references from the recent Resident Evil games that we did look at. But not just because, oh, you know, it worked for them. It’s more like, how does that help us build the kind of experience we want? More claustrophobic; making the player feel more vulnerable; making the enemies feel more physical and dangerous.”
Resident Evil being a survival horror with action elements rather than an action horror game was something Alan Wake 2 wanted to emulate, taking it away from the first game’s action horror gameplay.
Remedy wanted to improve on one particular part of the game
Alan Wake was released back in 2010 on the Xbox 360, and while it received generally positive views, the combat came in for some criticism which Remedy Entertainment wanted to remedy, if you’ll pardon the pun! Namely, this was the combat section of the game. Sam Lake, creative director spoke to Edge (via Gamesradar) as well, saying:
“A very valid criticism was that our combat mechanics were rather shallow. They didn’t really evolve. It’s flashlight, burn away the shadow, pop pop, shoot the enemy – and there are quite a few enemies in the game, so you keep doing the same thing, from the beginning to the very end. And people said, ‘Well, it gets old and repetitive’. So we wanted to change that.”
Also read: Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake 2 Development Team Was Smaller Than You Might Think
Combat does not change drastically in Alan Wake 2, being much the same, but the fights themselves don’t occur as much, and players have to defeat enemies with lesser ammo so that each encounter is more meaningful.
Source: Edge via Gamesradar
