History VideoGame / AlanWakeII

** [[spoiler:Tammy and Ed are interviewed by Saga early on and never appear again in person, though they are seen in echoes by Alan during the train station and hotel portions. A manuscript page implies Ed was attacked at Cauldron Lake after an argument with Tammy, but this is never followed up on]].

''Alan Wake II'' is a SurvivalHorror video game and the sequel to ''VideoGame/AlanWake'', developed by Creator/RemedyEntertainment and published by Creator/EpicGames for the Platform/PlayStation5, Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS and Platform/{{Windows|Games}}, released on October 27, 2023.

''Alan Wake II'' is a SurvivalHorror video game and the sequel to ''VideoGame/AlanWake'', developed by Creator/RemedyEntertainment and published by Creator/EpicGames for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS and UsefulNotes/{{Windows|Games}}, released on October 27, 2023.

* EvilOldFolks: [[https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/05/alan-wake-2-concept-art-shared-but-no-news-this-summer Concept Art]] reveals an elderly woman lurking in the sewers. [[spoiler:It's [[BackForTheDead Cynthia Weaver]] [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie as a Taken]].]]

* EvilOldFolks: [[https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/05/alan-wake-2-concept-art-shared-but-no-news-this-summer Concept Art]] reveals an elderly woman lurking in the sewers.

** During the "Herald of Darkness" segment, there's a portion where you [[spoiler:have to follow neon signs to the "Getaway Club" in order to find a light that the Angel Light can absorb in order to open the way]]. The trouble is, the game doesn't introduce this mechanic properly until the ''next segment'', Room 665; players can wander the area for upwards of five minutes, not realizing what they're meant to be doing.

** Saga petting all twelve taxidermied deer unlocks Room 108 in the Elderwood Lodge.

* MediumBlending: Live-action segments are overlayed atop standard game graphics, much like ''VideoGame/{{Control}}''. Saga sees glimpses of live-action characters while profiling, Alan sees live-action silhouettes of Casey as he narrates, and all televisions show real actors across the game.

* TheStinger: Halfway through the credits, a final scene plays. [[spoiler:In it, a final message from Alice plays, where she reveals her exhibit and eventual "suicide" where all a trick to play along with Scratch's story and enter the Dark Place. She mentions they've been through the events of the game several times, but she is hopeful Alan is learning how to break the loop with everything he's learned. Cue him springing back to life in the Writer's Room, exclaiming "It's not a loop... it's a spiral".]]

* UncertainDoom: You find a manuscript page in the Bookers' hotel room stating that Ed Booker went back to the lake the day after their encounter with the Cult of the Tree only get get captured by mysterious people. Your first assumption would be that the Cult of the Tree got him, and that's the last reference to him in the game so it leaves his fate as seemingly pretty bleak. [[spoiler:Except it is revealed the Cult of the Tree only kill Taken who have risen from Cauldron Lake, so Ed would be safe from them. It's possible the Bureau of Control captured him, but given that we later learn their entire local installation got taken out by the Dark Presence aside from a few members (most of whom die during the events at the police station), it all leaves Ed's fate up in the air, but not looking great.]]

* GuideDangIt: During the "Herald of Darkness" segment, there's a portion where you [[spoiler:have to follow neon signs to the "Getaway Club" in order to find a light that the Angel Light can absorb in order to open the way]]. The trouble is, the game doesn't introduce this mechanic properly until the ''next segment'', Room 665; players can wander the area for upwards of five minutes, not realizing what they're meant to be doing.

** In Alan's story, he likens projecting himself into the Dark Place as being a 'deep-sea diver', and in the Dark Place's version of New York, it's constantly raining. One of the major areas you can explore is the ''Ocean''view Hotel, and there are plenty of signs for bars (or 'watering holes') in the Dark Place.

* DirtyCop: [[spoiler:Thornton and Mulligan, two of Bright Falls's deputies, are part of the Cult of the Tree and imply that the only reason that Saga went easy on a black couple at the start of the game is because they're the 'same kind'. Granted, the Cult of the Tree is ultimately heroic in their intentions, but Thornton and Mulligan still covered up their AccidentalMurder of an innocent woman.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: Players might hear the name "Sheriff Breaker" in the early game and expect a return of Sarah from the first game; instead, we have Sheriff ''Tim'' Breaker, Sarah's cousin, played by Creator/ShawnAshmore.

* CrappyCarnival: Coffee World was in a state of severe disrepair ''before'' the Taken got to it. To start with, it's in the middle of swamp, all of the bathrooms are out of order, most of the attractions are made out of poorly-painted plywood, and the park's mascot, Mocha the Moose, died of a caffeine overdose. That's not even getting into Ilmo Koskela's obsession with puzzles meaning that employees have to jump through hoops for something as simple as the safe combination. Saga can find notes from a visitor who was writing a very negative review -- positive features of the carnival include a very reluctant acknowledgement that all the coffee-related puns in the park were "mildly amusing," the mascots were "trying their best" and the much-hyped coffee was OK. Two out of five stars.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Near the end of the game Alan gets a preview of [[BadFuture what the world will look like]] once Mr. Scratch's ending of the story comes true and the Dark Presence is set free: [[spoiler:a bright, sunny, never-ending Deerfest celebration where everyone is a LoonyFan of Alan's work and wearing the cult's deer masks, which will gradually spread across the entire Earth unless Alan and Saga stop it.]] To say Alan is surprised by this, instead of what the [[CityNoir Dark Place is to him]], is an understatement.

* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler:When Alan meets Zane in the Oceanview Hotel, he's clearly put off by the... poet? Filmmaker? Entity that's confronting him. Then it cuts to a montage of them drinking and doing coke.]]

''Alan Wake II'' is a SurvivalHorror video game and the sequel to ''VideoGame/AlanWake'', developed by Creator/RemedyEntertainment and published by Creator/EpicGames for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5, UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS and UsefulNotes/{{Windows|Games}}, released on October 27, 2023.

** There is also [[spoiler:a second musical number by the Old Gods which, like the original musical section from the original game, has Saga protecting them from the hoards of Taken while they attempt to summon Alan Wake back through the song "Dark Ocean Summoning".]]

* GridInventory: The inventory used for consumables and weaponry works like this, with bigger supplies using up up to three spaces on the grid. The InventoryManagementPuzzle usually brought on by this is more simplified then most examples, as all weaponry must be stored horizontally and all supplies except the bigger guns only being a single inventory slot.

* YouAllLookFamiliar: While Taken are far more varied in appearance in this game compared to the first, their still only about a dozen different facial models. Seeing doubles throughout Saga's campaign is not uncommon, even without the presence of Splitters.

* SignificantDoubleCasting: A meta-example. The game heavily implies that a lot of Alan's ideas for characters are taken from psychic visions he has about existing people. This is most obvious with Alex Casey, as there is the real Casey, a gruff but ultimately affable FBI agent and the fictional Casey, a grizzled and bitter detective who Alan wrote multiple stories about. But as Alan creates stories to move around the Dark Place, he seems to use his psychic powers to create characters using various people in Bright Falls as initial guidelines. Specifically, he uses [[spoiler:Tammy who in both real life and the Dark Place is a true crime author, her brother Ed who is an experimental theater director in both versions of himself, Mulligan and Thorton, who are both corrupt cops who want to be part of a cult, and Ilmo, who is a cultist in both reality and Alan's story (though the real life "cult" wasn't really a cult).]]

* MirrorMonster: One new monster is the Taken Diver,
a unique Taken conjoined with its own water reflection horizontally, as if it was standing waist deep in water, giving it an upside down torso, head and arms where its legs should be with a water surface-like distortion in the middle, the creature can become invisible by having both halves "dive beneath" the water surface leaving only the water distortion as it moves around until it emerges.

* CrappyCarnival: Coffee World was in a state of severe disrepair ''before'' the Taken got to it. To start with, it's in the middle of swamp, all of the bathrooms are out of order, most of the attractions are made out of poorly-painted plywood, and the park's mascot, Mocha the Moose, died of a caffeine overdose. That's not even getting into Ilmo Koskela's obsession with puzzles meaning that employees have to jump through hoops for something as simple as the safe combination

** Everything from '''Initiation 5 -- Room 665''' to '''Initiation 8 -- Zane’s Film''':

* MirrorMonster: One new monster is the Taken Diver, a unique Taken conjoined with its own water reflection horizontally, as if it was standing waist deep in water, giving it an upside down torso, head and arms where its legs should be with a water surface-like distortion in the middle, the creature can become invisible by having both halves "dive beneath" the water surface leaving only the water distortion as it moves around until it emerges.

* One of the clips of Nightless Night has a similar color scheme to Panos Cosmatos' movie ''Film/{{Mandy|2018}}''. Evidently, Seine was a fan. [[MindScrew Or maybe it's the other way around.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: The Final Draft's ultimate outcome: Logan is confirmed to survive, with [[CosmicRetcon her death]] reduced to [[AllJustADream nothing more than a bad dream.]] Alan also survives, the Bullet of Light having both banished Scratch from his head and allowing him to retain the memory of the prior loops. If Alan's ending monologue is any indication, Alan is [[LetsGetDangerous more than ready to fight his way out of the Dark Place,]] with [[TrueCompanions Saga and Casey]] at his side.]]

* One of the clips of Nightless Night has a similar color scheme to Panos Cosmatos' movie Film/{{Mandy|2018}}. Evidently, Seine was a fan. [[MindScrew Or maybe it's the other way around.]]

* One of the clips of Nightless Night has a similar color scheme to Panos Cosmatos' movie Film/Mandy2018. Evidently, Seine was a fan. [[MindScrew Or maybe it's the other way around.]]