New Details From The Alan Wake 2 Gamescom 2023 Trailer

Feb 20, 2024

With Remedy Entertainment games, nothing is a coincidence, and Alan Wake 2 might be their connecting thread.

As Alan Wake 2 nears closer to its targeted launch date of October 27, there have been lots of new details emerging in a series of gaming events. The PlayStation showcase revealed the earliest gameplay trailer and Summer Game Fest showcased brief gameplay of protagonist Saga Anderson fighting cultists and discovering a tattooed heart. And now Gamescom has revealed even more.

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The new gameplay trailer unveiled at Gamescom 2023 might be a short minute and a half of new footage, but there's still so much content you can find, giving plenty to unpack. Some of it includes direct references and connections to other Remedy games, especially now that the series shares its horror universe with Control.

The trailer starts with the live-action bits in Alan Wake 2, with actor Ilkka Villi, the current character model for Alan Wake, portraying him in the live-action scenes. Remedy is notorious for incorporating live-action sequences into its games, as evident in the previous Alan Wake installments, Control, and especially in Quantum Break, where a miniseries was worked into the game.

Alan is overwhelmingly seen in live action throughout the trailer, appearing in video recordings, a fictional talk show, his cabin in the Dark Place, and encountering a second version of himself. Hopefully, the transitions won't feel jarring or lose the game's immersive quality when Alan Wake 2 switches between gameplay and the live-action parts.

Some of the new gameplay in the trailer showed both Saga Anderson and Alan Wake using weapons to fight against the forces of the dark. It looks like the flare and crossbow weapons return in Alan Wake 2, as Saga has a combination of a crossbow holstered on her shoulder and a lit red flare. The crossbow wasn't in the original Alan Wake, but was one of the available weapons in American Nightmare.

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Meanwhile, Alan was going through a dark subway tunnel mimicking the New York vibe of the Dark Place, where he holds a bronze statue of a lady with wings resembling Lady Justice that lights up the area. This certainly could be an Altered Item or even an Object of Power like Jesse Faden's service weapon in Control since light is the most powerful weapon in Alan Wake games.

An even stronger connection to Control is Mr. Door, which the trailer reveals is in Alan Wake 2 as the host of a talk show called In Between with Mr. Door, chatting with the titular character about a new book titled "Initiation." Initiation is a tease tying back to Quantum Break, where a black chalkboard featured "Initiation" as the manuscript supposedly written between Wake's "Departure" and "Return." Mr. Door's mug is also a nod to the diner in Bright Falls.

Mr. Door was mentioned in Control as someone who appeared in the dreams of the protagonist's brother and said he was simultaneously inside many different worlds. And now we have an exciting face for the character with actor David Harewood from CW's Supergirl and Showtime's Homeland portraying him in Alan Wake 2. He was also Sinclair in Killzone: Shadowfall and Captain Quinton Cole in Battlefield 3.

Speaking of manuscripts, you see Alan holding a copy of the manuscript titled "Return," his supposed final story after Departure and Initiation. This was the manuscript he started writing at the end of The Writer DLC in the original game and was also revealed in American Nightmare as an episode of the fictional television show Night Springs that Wake wrote for.

Since you collected pages of "Departure" in the first Alan Wake game and presumably "Return" in American Nightmare, it's safe to assume that "Initiation" will be the book you're finding bits of in Alan Wake 2. The presence of the Cult of the Tree's deer-mask-wearing cultists in green raincoats also sounds like something to do with initiation.

Mr. Door isn't the only new character to show up in the new Alan Wake 2 trailer, as there's a mysterious character in live-action shots seemingly close to Alan Wake and recording him typing up his manuscript. Another bizarre thing about this quick introduction is that the camera the person is holding disappears in the next shot and becomes a finger gun pointed at Alan instead.

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The trailer has shown that there will be instances of Alan watching recordings of himself on film reels, seemingly as a way to help him escape the Dark Place, and this camera person would be responsible for capturing those recordings. It seems like this character will play some role in Alan's storyline, but how the camera disappears is the stuff of AWEs.

In a blink-or-you'll-miss-it cut, there was a live-action shot that plays out like an ad for Mr. Door's talk show program, featuring a man holding a Coffee World mug and wearing the logo on his cap, even having the blue coffee thermos collectible from the original game. Is this just a nod to thermoses in Alan Wake? Nope, most definitely not.

Coffee World is likely a major piece of the puzzle that unfolds in FBI agents Saga Anderson's and Alex Casey's investigations. In the 2021 remaster, there was a flyer for a Coffee World attraction in Watery, a location near Bright Falls that factors into Alan Wake 2. Control also had a postcard illustration of the town, referring to it as "America's Little Finland."

While the gameplay trailer at the PlayStation Showcase saw Alex Casey investigating Alan Wake with Saga Anderson in the real world, this trailer shows him confronting Alan in the ominous Dark Place in ambient green lighting. And this might rightfully be the novelized version of Alex Casey, as he was the detective character at the center of Wake's books.

In the same conversation discussing Mr. Door in Control, Jesse Faden's brother mentioned a world where a writer wrote about a cop and that there's another world in which that cop actually exists. Alex Casey is also a direct nod to Max Payne, as he has the same voice actor, James McCaffrey, and creative director Sam Lake's likeness.

Either an Easter egg or even further evidence that suggests Quantum Break, Control, and Alan Wake 2 are each interconnected, the strange spiral symbol is once again seen on a door as the other version of Alan barges in to shoot the one sitting inside the cabin.

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On that same black chalkboard in Quantum Break showcasing scribbled theories surrounding Alan Wake's mind is a spiral drawing with the caption "Spiral into depth." In Control, the same spiral is seen during the black-and-white scenes with Alan staring at it on a wall, telling himself to "dive deeper," along with it is a symbol on an Oceanview Motel door.

The creepiest parts of the new trailer were when a mysterious transparent force of hazy white smoke appeared on-screen, the first time warping Alan's face and the next at the end of the trailer, again briefly flashing, and then a jump scare of the force blowing its way across a dark tunnel.

This has all the influences of Twin Peaks, for Saga seems aware of Alan Wake's evil double Mr. Scratch and this possible design of the Dark Presence spirit bearing a resemblance to the floating face of the malevolent spirit BOB from the show. You can also spot the word "Scratch" written in green graffiti in the scene with Wake and Casey.

The new footage was filled with many more connections to Alan Wake's American Nightmare, an underrated sequel/spin-off of the game that was more action-oriented than horror. In a lot of the scenes, you can see Alan wearing the same plaid long-sleeve shirt that was on his model in American Nightmare, as well as on his ghostly hologram behind Saga in the Dark Place.

The earlier part of the trailer also had a sign promoting Night Springs, the television show inspired by The Twilight Zone that appeared on the TVs throughout Alan Wake and played an even more prominent role in the story of American Nightmare as it's set within the Arizona town of Night Springs named after the show.

The place where Alan is now trapped and trying to escape from since the end of the first game – the Dark Place – has a bit of an updated redesign in the new gameplay. There are brilliant new lighting choices with neon reds that give a Control vibe and glowing greens, as well as the live-action portions now occurring in this space.

Another unique feature is that the environment layout changes drastically when the place lights up from the dimmer state. It happens in a lobby information area that Wake approaches and again in the subway station, removing the graffiti of "You Lost" and the station names "Don't Sleep Again" (A Nightmare on Elm Street reference) to "Stop Writing Wake." It heightens the psychological horror aspect and reminds you of Layers of Fear.

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Dennis is a writer, storyteller, and aspiring narrative designer who graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz in Art and Game Design. His favorite hobbies include reading suspenseful thrillers, watching films and television, and being immersed in the spectacular worlds of video games.