Long-awaited sequelAlan Wake 2will address one major annoyance from its original that fans have been complaining about for years.Alan Wake 2has been in the works for four quite some time, as developer Remedy Entertainment got to work on a follow-up to the original soon after its release in 2010.
In the firstAlan Wake, players control the titular character, a horror/thriller author in the Stephen King mold. Alan’s wife has disappeared while on vacation in Bright Falls, a small fictional town in Washington state. Structured like a TV show, complete with cliffhangers and plot twist endings, 2010’sAlan Wakewas met with positive reviews and developed a passionate fan base who have been clamoring for a sequel for over a decade.Alan Wake 2will be a digital-only releaseto help keep production costs down in an era when game development budgets on AAA titles are skyrocketing.
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Those patient fans will finally be getting what they asked for, and according to Remedy’s director of communications Thomas Puha, they’re going to get something else they’ve been asking for, too. One annoyance that runs throughout the originalAlan Wakeis Alan’s terrible cardio conditioning. The character has no stamina, leading to him feeling exhausted shortly after the player commanded him to sprint. But that’s in the past, according to Puha. Alan will actually be able to run more than a few feet without getting winded inAlan Wake 2. That’s great news consideringAlan Wake 2is Remedy’s “biggest” game yet.
It’s common for games to try to limit how much energy a playable character can expend while exploring a world. The recently releasedTears of the Kingdomtasks players with managing a stamina wheelthat rapidly depletes as Link sprints across the vast plains of Hyrule. But often in games that employ a stamina system, the developers will give players the option to upgrade stamina to players can run for longer. The originalAlan Wakehad no such system. While it seems likeAlan Wake 2won’t have such a system either, at least Alan won’t be huffing and puffing after a brief jog.
Alan’s increased stamina might have something to do with the emphasis onlarger explorable areas inAlan Wake 2. Players will be able to freely move to and from several areas in the game at will. It’s not quite open world but certainly more open than the previous installment. With all that extra land to traverse, getting tired after a quick run would make for an even more obnoxious gameplay experience than anything experienced in the original.
Alan Wake 2is scheduled to release in 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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