Alan Wake II

13 years ago, prickly writer Alan Wake vanished into a nightmare realm called the Dark Place at the end of the game that bears his name. One of the quietly thrilling things to me about its excellent new sequel, Alan Wake II, is that it actually recognizes the weight of those years, mirroring that real-life passage of time in its narrative. It echoes the audacity and magic of Laura Palmer telling Agent Dale Cooper, at the end of Twin Peaks in 1991, “I’ll see you again in 25 years,” and then creator David Lynch actually making it happen in 2017’s sequel series, Twin Peaks: The Return.

Read More: Alan Wake 2: The Kotaku Review

With The Return, Lynch created a follow-up to his cult-classic TV series that felt far stranger, grander, and more thematically assured than its predecessor. The relationship between Alan Wake and Alan Wake II is not so different. The first game was a moody, atmospheric narrative triumph in 2010, one that bucked genre trends with its heady story and its bookish, sometimes arrogant protagonist. But that game now feels like a modest proof-of-concept in comparison to the sequel’s ambitious, balls-to-the-wall approach, which leaps between playable characters in different realms and slowly sees their stories converge, all while making innovative, outstanding use of live-action. Alan Wake II bristles with genuine originality and distinct creative vision, a remarkable and invigorating rarity in the modern big-budget space. — Carolyn Petit