Posted in: Alan Wake II, Conventions, Epic Games, Events, Games, Remedy Entertainment, Summer Game Fest, Video Games | Tagged: Alan Wake II, epic games, Remedy Entertainment, Summer Game Fest

Alan Wake II Preview: Exploring The Depths Of Your Mind Place

We got a pretty decent look at Alan Wake II during Summer Game Fest: Play Days, including the new Mind Place mechanic.

During Summer Game Fest: Play Days this year, Remedy Entertainment and Epic Games showed off a little bit of Alan Wake II. Probably one of the most anticipated games you can think of; people have been waiting to see a proper sequel to the original going back over a decade. So when the news was dropped a couple of years ago that we'd finally be getting one, fans have been practically on edge for any news to come their way. Now with a looming October 17th release date (as of when we're writing this), we're starting to see where the game is headed. Since it's still heavy in development, the devs showed us a hands-off preview of the game in which we got to see a sampling of what's to come.

The demo primarily focused on the introduction of a new character, as we're introduced to the co-protagonist, FBI agent Saga Anderson. Along with her partner Alex Casey, the two of you have been summoned to the town of Bright Falls somewhere in the Pacific Northwest to check out the murder of a man named Robert Nightengale. As you make your way into the area and check out what's happening, things slowly seem to get darker and more mysterious. The team did a lovely job of making the time of day pass as you make your way into certain areas of the map. The two of you are in search of something called The Overlap, a supernatural occurrence that Saga has encountered once before. As we wandered through the area, we picked up a few items to help with mission objectives, such as a manuscript and a ladle from a witch's hut. You come across some demons as well as members from the Cult of the Tree before finding yourself in an area where you come across a familiar writer who is wet from the nearby lake and unsure where he is.

The biggest item shown off to us in the game is the Mind Place, which, yes, sounds a lot like a simplified version of the Mind Palace trope from Sherlock. When you get to certain areas, you can turn them into save points and enter this "place" inside your head that looks like a detective's office. Here, you can piece together clues and try to make sense of everything that's been going on. Based on the footage we saw, there is no "wrong way" to put the clues and evidence together as you are figuring out where the clues lead you. You are free to make mistakes and re-evaluate what you have decided. You can come back here at any point in time using the Map button; however, time progresses normally in the game while you're here, so you are not safe from being attacked if you're not somewhere safe. This was by far the most interesting concept of the game to us as it showed how the agent works and possibly how they will connect to Alan Wake in the future.

We're keeping many of the details vague for those of you who don't wish to be spoiled. The Alan Wake II demo we got to see showed off a lot of what the game could do, but not the entire picture. There are elements here that remind us of many other horror titles from the past, rolled into a clever concept that does have us wanting more. The lingering question for us, however, is what kind of gameplay experience we will get on the side of the titular writer and how it will integrate with what's happening in the pieces of the story we just saw. Hopefully, we'll get to see a lot more of this before the game launches in four months. But until then, we were pretty impressed with what we saw.

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