Remedy Entertainment has given us an extended look at Alan Wake 2, including a release date of October 17 later this year. Not only that, but we seem to have also seen some gameplay that includes a new playable character, as the trailer seems to have a heavy focus on a unknown woman from the FBI. It appears that she seems to be working with Alan Wake in some kind of official capacity, though story details are still unknown.
The trailer opens up with some real Resident Evil vibes, as someone appears to be being sacrificed on a stone before Alan wakes up from some kind of dream. In true Alan Wake fashion, the rest of the trailer is made up of mysterious clips, with what looks like intermitten gameplay sequences. We see Bright Falls, the town in which the first game was set, as well as a couple of new locations including a forest and some kind of spooky city.
And just as promised by director Sam Lake, Alan Wake 2 seems to be a lot spookier than its predecessor. It was explained a while ago that Alan Wake 2 would be leaning more into the survival horror aspect rather than the psychological horror that the first one was known for. We even see a little jumpscare as an enemy bursts through a wall to spook our new playable character. It seems like they weren't joking about planning to scare us a bit more this time around.
Alan Wake 2 was previously announced at The Game Awards back in 2021 via a snazzy CG trailer, giving us our first look at the man over a decade after the first game's release. Ever since, Remedy has been giving us very small but promising updates, revealing some spooky concept art for the game in an anniversary livestream. More recently, creative director Sam Lake and lead writer Clay Murphy explained that development is going very well and claimed that the story of Alan Wake 2 is "a monster."
Despite being over 10 years since the first game, Remedy seems to be all in on the Alan Wake series at the moment. It also announced not too long ago that an Alan Wake TV show is in the works which will air on AMC, best known for hit titles such as The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. While that's all that was announced at the time, Sam Lake did confirm that AMC had bought the rights to the show and that Remedy "have been collaborating on making a TV show happen."