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Creepy new Alan Wake 2 trailer finally takes us to the Dark Place

Jesse Lennox
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This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live concluded with a new look at Alan Wake 2, with a trailer finally showing off the Dark Place and what Alan Wake’s gameplay segments look like.

Alan Wake World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL

Alan Wake underwent a lot of development changes before it was released in 2010, and while a sequel was originally prototyped soon after, we hadn’t seen the horror writer again outside of a downloadable game until he reappeared in a DLC addition to another Remedy title, Control. Since then, a proper sequel has been announced to be coming this October that will be far more focused on the horror aspects of the game than the original.

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Introduced by director Sam Lake, the latest trailer finally took players to the Dark Place, the realm from which an evil force is able to manipulate Alan’s writings to influence the real world and where the writer was left trapped at the end of the first game. It’s the first time we’ve actually seen what that looks like, and it’s sufficiently spooky.

Alan looks surprised in Alan Wake 2.
Remedy Entertainment

Aside from the dark and gloomy environments, the trailer shows how Alan Wake 2 will integrate live-action footage with in-game assets. Remedy is no stranger to utilizing real footage in its games. The original Alan Wake featured a Twilight Zone-esque show you could find on TVs, there were various research videos in Control, and Quantum Break contained an entire season of TV filmed for the story.

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This entry looks to be ratcheting up the psychological and reality-bending aspects alongside the more traditional survival horror encounters. This will also be the first time a Remedy title will feature two protagonists whom you can swap between for different perspectives on the events.

Alan Wake 2 will release on October 27 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

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Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…
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