---
title: 'Alan Wake 2 Review: 100% Completion Analysis'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=xcocUTrqCw4'
video_id: 'xcocUTrqCw4'
date: 2026-07-11
duration_sec: 1815
---

# Alan Wake 2 Review: 100% Completion Analysis

> Source: [Alan Wake 2 Review: 100% Completion Analysis](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xcocUTrqCw4)

## Summary

A review of Alan Wake 2 after 100% completion, covering its story, gameplay changes, technical state, DLC, and overall experience. The reviewer praises the narrative's meta elements and atmosphere but criticizes boss fights and flashlight mechanics.

### Key Points

- **Review Context** [00:08] — Review after 100% completion; game purchased on Epic Launcher; spoilers ahead.
- **Epic Launcher Exclusivity** [01:36] — Epic funded and published the game, so exclusivity is justified, but it's a shame it's not more widely available.
- **Preparation and Mechanics Evolution** [02:40] — Played Alan Wake 1 recently; mechanics evolved mostly for the better, but flashlight changes and boss fights are underwhelming.
- **Post-Launch Content** [03:33] — Final Draft update (New Game Plus with true ending), and two paid DLCs: Night Springs and Lakehouse.
- **Technical State** [04:11] — Ran well with no major issues; difficulty options include invincibility mode and other tweaks.
- **Story Structure** [05:42] — Two campaigns: Saga Anderson (real world) and Alan Wake (Dark Place); non-linear middle section; meta narrative about writing and editing.
- **Meta Narrative and Scratch** [08:10] — Story is a spiral of iterations; Scratch reimagined as editing concept rather than TV static.
- **Progression Systems** [13:58] — Saga uses charm bracelet and lunch boxes; Alan uses words of power and plot changes.
- **World and Exploration** [15:08] — Hub areas with exploration; Saga's areas more open, Alan's more linear with light mechanics.
- **Combat and Flashlight Changes** [17:59] — Flashlight uses charges; perfect dodge is difficult; boss fights are tanky regular enemies.
- **DLC Overview** [23:18] — Night Springs: three funny short stories; Lakehouse: FBC-focused with ties to Control 2.
- **Steam Deck Performance** [26:29] — Playable but requires desktop mode; struggles with frame rate; not recommended.
- **Conclusion and Recommendation** [28:21] — Unique experience worth $50-70; 20-30 hours; hampered by exclusivity.

### Conclusion

Alan Wake 2 delivers a unique, meta narrative experience that justifies its price, but is let down by weak boss fights and frustrating flashlight mechanics. Its exclusivity to Epic Games Store limits its reach, which is a shame.

## Transcript

This time bringing you my review after 100% for Allen Wake 2, which I finally release of Control Resonant a little later this year. Though this game in particular did release a few years ago. That said, I review games like this all
everything I go over. My Steam profile is linked below as well. But as many that's not going to be super useful as this game released uh purely on the Epic Launcher when it comes to PC. And so you can see the achievements over there on
screen. Obviously, I did not get a review key for this. I just wanted to on the Epic Launcher out of my own pocket and dove into it from there. With to go over before we dive fully in here. one. I am not necessarily going to spoil
the entirety of the game, but there are things I want to talk about here that are absolutely spoilers. We're a few years postrelease, so I don't really point. But if you clicked on this review hoping to learn about the game to make a
to say jump to the end or maybe come back and watch it later because my for yourself. It's a bit of an experience and honestly I think hearing too much about it in general beforehand is probably not great for the experience
and as a result think of this video more as like a debriefing on my own certainly feel free to share yours down in the comments. But either way, expect some spoilers. The other thing, let's talk about the Epic Launcher. Kind of
annoying to me personally. However, as much as I do not like the Epic launcher, it's hard not to give them a pass on this case because Epic funded and published this game. So, Alan Wick 2 simply would not exist without them. And
you compare that to all of the incredibly annoying exclusivity rights buying that they were doing to get games purely on the Epic launcher for a while and it's honestly night and day. Here, I think they did the right thing, which
was actually funded and published that game. And then, you know, if they want to have exclusivity of it at that point, that's they're right. I will say it is an absolute shame that this game is not more widely available because I think
back. And while it eventually spun a profit, all that really does to me is make it seem even more ridiculous that after having recouped all the cost with there where more people can find and buy it so they can make some of that money.
But I suppose that's a conversation for a different video. Otherwise, let's dive uh straight into this. So, I played Alan Wakeake 1 recently, like just a few months ago, in fact, in preparation for playing Alan Wake 2. In fact, one of the
reasons I didn't review this game when it released was specifically because I combined with it being on the Epic easy to pass by at the time. But with the announcement of Control Resonant
everything, it just made a lot of sense to dive in here finally. And yet, Alan Wakeake 1 is an older title, not ancient or anything, but a little bit older. And so it's perhaps unsurprising then that some of the mechanics evolved and
changed from that release, mostly for the best. A couple of them I don't care works. And while I'm fine with them having the batteries for it be a little less available, like they changed the fundamental of like how the charges work
enemies. And it's uh frustrating more than anything else. I also think the boss fights are a little underwhelming. And in spite of that, most everything else about the game is just an experience, honestly. And we're going to
break down some of that, of course, over the course of this review. But I also wanted to mention that post launch, this game got some love as well, in the form of, I would say, three major things to know about, which is the big final draft
update, which added new game plus, which gave access to the true ending, which by thorough for everything except the new game plus ending. But on top of that, they also released two paid DLC for it, which I played through and we'll cover
here as well. And one of them in particular, the lakehouse is, I would say, chalk full of leadin stuff to control resonant if you uh kind of dig in there a little. Otherwise, let's talk technical state. How was this running? I
with it other than a small recording thing that had nothing to do with the game and so isn't really worth mentioning here, of course. But sure if you dig deep enough, there are probably some problems people are
run well enough. Which brings us to difficulty. Now, this game does an interesting thing with its difficulty. So, it is primarily a survival horror bunch of options the game doesn't immediately tell you about to make it
easier for yourself if you want to, outside of the presets. The preset unlock the final draft, you can even play on nightmare, which is the hardest title. Here's the thing. outside of the presets. And again, if something
actually tells you about this, I must have missed it. But if you go into the whole bunch of other things you can tweak, including an invincibility mode gameplay settings. And the thing is, these are uh seemingly unaffected by
difficulty. Just so you're aware, that's an option for you if you're struggling, I suppose. But honestly, the game's not too bad. In fact, there's something you can do with containers to exploit them and get a whole bunch more resources
than you should because the containers inventory is based on what is currently everything in storage in the break rooms, you can then go open up the containers and loot a bunch of uh stuff you would not get otherwise. And that is
of course pretty exploitable. So, there is that. I suppose long story short, you should be able to find a difficulty for you here somewhere. And that then brings us to the story, which is by far the most interesting part of this game, I
would say. There's a lot I want to talk about here. Again, I'm not going to go but I want to talk about the basic uh then talk about some of the more interesting elements of the story that I
found. There will be spoilers, though. So, structurally speaking, this game is interesting because you ultimately have two different campaigns. You play between Saga Anderson and Alan Wake. Alan Wakeake is still trapped in the
dark place following the events of the original game. He is trying to get out. And the thing about Alan Wake is that he can turn his writings into reality, but just writing something and it instantly becomes true. It's a little more
complicated than that. He's been trying to escape by writing a bunch of stories. And 13 years after the events of that original game, when people start ritualistic murders, it draws the attention of the FBI and one special
agent, Saga Anderson. Now, Saga's campaign takes place in the real world, whereas Alan Wakes takes place in the dark place. The catch being that each of these characters has to have the first sections of their individual campaigns
played in a sort of set scenario. Once you reach a certain point, you unlock between them. But in order to reach the end, you have to bring both of them to the end point of their respective campaigns before you can do the finale.
So, while the beginning and the end are relatively set, the middle you can tackle in basically any which order you please. Each of them has slightly uh quirks in terms of like weapons and everything. Uh Alan Wake in particular
leans into his ability to write things into existence. So, there's that. But let's talk a little more uh straightforwardly here because these ritualistic murders are being performed by a cult called the cult of the tree. I
the deer because they wear deer masks and there are deer things everywhere, including a festival called Deerfest. But as Saga Anderson's investigation will quickly make you realize, there's obviously something more going on here.
Outside of just the prior knowledge of Alan Wake himself, of course, being in Control, you know, potentially all about how Brightfalls, the primary setting of the game, is a place where an AWE or an altered world event uh seems to happen
with regularity. This is because of a threshold hidden in the lake here, a place where an alternate reality sort of seeps through and that veil is relatively thin. and one of those being The Dark Place. But here's where things
get crazy. The entire story is basically iterations of Alan Wake trying to escape. And the thing is where it gets uh extraordinarily meta to say the least, is that they start roping in not only like general literary devices, but
also the process of writing something itself into how the narrative is unfolding. To just sort of quote the end, it's not a loop, it's a spiral. See, what you are going through as you play the game has happened and it will
likely happen again until the final draft playthrough where it ends. But essentially, again, the story is just an iterative process of Alan Wake writing and rewriting this story as he tries to ascend out of the dark place in what can
only be uh contextually described as a spiral upward. Now, the game more or end. Where it gets really interesting, though, to me at least, is in some of the details. In fact, Alan Wake himself said something towards the end of the
which is that when you are writing something and you edit or make a change to the middle of it, you affect not only what comes after, but what came before as well, just by the very nature of a story. And so they use that to sort of
frame what has been happening around you as the story unfolds. There are people who like remember things a little different. There are people who are just like a little bit off in a weird way that isn't necessarily explained outside
of the fact that these weird happenings are because the story is being adjusted and changed here and there as this process has continued and will continue. then you have new game plus or the final draft. This is theoretically the
playthrough where uh Alan Wake who narrates some of the game as well as yourself will know what is happening here and so some things change. Playing you the true ending where Alan Wake finally escapes. The sort of culmination
of all his work and editing up to this point. Now, while that playthrough will be mostly the same, uh they did change a couple of things beyond the ending. little stuff here and there. If I'm being completely honest, as much as I
probably watch a YouTube video and get the gist of it much more quickly rather But there's also another thing I wanted to talk about, even just beyond how cool I thought a lot of that was, which was the way they changed Scratch. So, Mr.
Scratch is an entity that only gets a brief mention in the original title, but is the subject of the standalone expansion American Nightmare. Mr. Scratch is basically a dark evil twin of Alan Wake brought manifest by the dark
place and the power it tries to manifest in taking advantage of artists in order to turn their work into reality. Alan Wakeake's not unique in that sense. But what was really interesting was Scratch in particular because again they
changed some of the way he is presented in American Nightmare and his brief mention in the original. when people say his name, it's pronounced as like TV static. And because of the way the first game is also presented as a sort of TV
show, uh he's even like associated with TV screens in the original game. And then American Nightmare, it's kind of the same thing. But here in Alan Wake 2, presumably because of your interactions with him perhaps. And uh even in that
American Nightmare expansion, there was uh like an element of like looping the story back around to change things, which is very reminiscent of what they want to talk about in particular is they changed Mr. Scratch for Scratch to be
more like the concept of scratching something out and editing it with the idea that Scratch has found the stories that Alan Wake is writing in order to get out in order to sort of rewrite that to his nefarious end. And I thought that
change the way that character was presented in how the story is unfolding like the medium of TV versus the medium of like the process of writing as an example. So just thought that was cool and I think it actually does make sense
because of the way the dark place is said to adapt to the person whose art it is trying to make manifest and there are of course various types of writing. So, detail outside of the things I've mentioned. And that's to say nothing of
like the big moments throughout playing it. Like the musical one has gotten, I honest with you, that level is a lot of fun. I can see why people are into it. cool moments as you move through. And that is something the original game also
did really well on occasion. But unfortunately, what happens is you tend to do all of this buildup and then get to a boss that is just the worst. like an enemy with slightly more health most of the time and it's just kind of
mention uh before we move on story-wise is that Alan Wake and Saga both have slightly different variations of how they unfold their story with Saga being a detective has a bit of a mind place instead of a mind palace. A mind place
which allows her to sort of categorize and handle all the various uh information she is receiving. And as a result, her campaign feels a little more like detective work. And in some ways there's uh like detective work in that
mind place you have to do before the story will advance sometimes which is a there's Alan Wake's writing room which is kind of a similar concept but it's of the thing he is experiencing and he can change some of the plot elements
which like physically changes the things around you and how it progresses through that way. So even gameplay-wise there are some differences. Overall though stuff I liked most about it outside of just the actual minuteto-minute plot
beat was really just the way they I think weaved in the concept of the process of writing something like that into the narrative itself. That was just cool to me. And yet we are not done because now we need to talk about
but it is split between the two characters. Saga has her charm bracelet as well as the various weapon she'll be picking up with the charm bracelet giving you all sorts of little perks including these coffee charms that will
prevent you from dying but break upon use if you want. And then if you solve actually get a fourth [snorts] uh charm slot instead of three. And that combined coming across as most of her progression pretty much right there. And on top of
that, if you find these lunch boxes hidden around while playing as Saga, she fragments which allow her to upgrade her guns. But that's kind of the gist of it. Uh Alan Wake side of things is actually a little more involved. He can find
words of power or like perk points more or less to spend in a variety of buffs and upgrades as you move through the dark place. On top of that, his plot again change some of the areas he comes across, which has its own sort of
also the things you can actually find, which includes the different weapons available to him specifically. Now, with this being primarily a survival horror to progression. Not really too much more to write home about. So, let's keep it
moving to the gameplay and world section. Now, this is another area they made some pretty big changes because the game is divided up into a variety of different hub areas. This is, of course, stuff like the differences between Saga
trapped in the dark place. Yes. But for instance, Saga will have access to places like the Cauldron Lake area, the Brightfalls area, and each of those spots individually is relatively
collectibles and things to find. And while there are cut off points at which point you'll no longer be able to access those things, you're much more free to explore, especially in Saga's uh area in particular. Now, on the flip side, Alan
dark place. And while there is a hub you'll be exploring and expanding on as his chapters progress, I did find two things. Uh, one, his area is a bit smaller overall and there's less exploration because it is a little more
go to this area and then on the next chapter you'll go to this area and that kind of thing. But he does have some unique mechanics as well in that he has to like transfer lights via his angel lamp which the lights will affect the
dark place then and allow things to also physically change which is another way he can sort of move things around. And so his is again a little more linear and a little bit odd as a result of that overall. Perhaps unsurprisingly then,
given the nature of that, Saga has more things to discover and [snorts] find than Alan Wig does, but he has a couple of things as well, such as the words of power, uh, new weapons, stashes, uh, interesting lore in the form of some of
his characters come to life. One of them that is recurring is uh Sam Lake really, but rather Alex Casey, who is one of the characters from Wakes's novels, but is also this FBI agent that is helping Saga out, who is played by Sam Lake, the one
of the chief people behind the game. That gets extremely meta because Sam That gets extremely meta because Sam Lake was also the face for Max Payne. He a lot of those like references and things are brought into the game, they
legally don't own those franchises. So that gets a little bit meta. Uh there is a part of the DLC, Night Springs DLC, where he just like straight up plays that character that actually seeps into
you're pretty much looking for collectibles and resources as you move through the given area that you happen to be in for Saga. This can include things like the nursery rhymes, which involves you collecting all these dolls,
gives you eventually access to that fourth piece. Um, you can also just explore and kind of take in the uh very creepy atmosphere of this place. Do a little exploration or even uncover stashes associated with the cult that is
a big player in the overall story. But for the most part, honestly, pretty I can tell. But there are a couple of things I wanted to talk about a little more specifically. And that was some of the way Alan Wake approaches combat as
well as some of the changes they made broadly like to flashlights in general. So, this is a little bit of combat as well to be honest because it plays a flashlight. So, in the original game, the flashlight was just like a single
bar of charge and it would recharge if you weren't using it, but if you use too through batteries. They made the batteries a little too available on basically every difficulty. So, this was trivial to deal with. However, while
time around, assuming you aren't exploiting that little container bug I mentioned, the flashlight now is broken up into different charges you can use. boost outside of just its regular function to break away the darkness
shield on an enemy before you're allowed to actually hit them, it is always going to burn that full charge. Now, if you manage to land it on that enemy's shield point exactly, it'll burn the whole way through on a single charge. But that's
actually really hard to do because those points move. That's another change where you could just highlight the enemy in general from the first game. Ultimately, less batteries, but you're also burning through more of them because of the way
they made this change. And I didn't love the way that felt personally. Even if options in the menu and I think make it unlimited. It just kind of undercuts feels like you're being punished not so much for doing the wrong thing, but just
point is on an enemy. Then there's Alan Wake stuff. As I already mentioned, he him to change the world around him, which then of course changes how you can actually go through and explore a given area, and they play into that a lot over
in his part of the story. On sagas, uh what you'll do kind of instead of that is pick up a bunch of items along the main story route, then give you access to previously inaccessible areas, which as you would probably not be surprised
stuff is hidden that you can find and explore. Now, presumably along the way during all of that, you're going to need a safe place to rest, which is where the game, you could basically find these lamp posts, which would act as like
checkpoints and restore some of your health. And while you can find points like the main major points because those are the break rooms. Break rooms are where you're going to go to make a manual save, access your storage, and
generally be safe from the onslaught of the taken, the actual guys you're kind of the gist of what you're looking at gameplaywise. And so, let's talk now about combat specifically. Honestly, if
right at home here. If anything, there are less enemies overall. And especially in Alen Wakes's campaign, enemies felt relatively rare there, as they are these acknowledge you or anything, and it's pretty easy to tell the ones that are
significantly less combat in that particular campaign. Otherwise, you are fighting the taken. They come in a few different types. Uh wolves that you'll have to fight. But for the most part, the basic types of
taken are who will just make general attacks. There's one that throws stuff at you and there's like a heavy who will use bigger stuff. Now, uh they changed Most of the time you will just regularly dodge an enemy, and it's actually really
hard to perfectly dodge the taken enemies, whereas the wolves are super easy to perfectly dodge against. And that's mostly due to timing. Now, the because if you pull it off, the enemy stumbles and becomes an easy target, but
they made it so deeply unfun to do against the basic taken. That's really just not worth the time, like 90% of the time in my opinion. So, there's that. enemies, as I mentioned, you're going to have to use your flashlight to attack
those shield points have a bit of variation into where they actually are more generally like the original game which can be a little frustrating for me personally at least. But once that shield is down you can sometimes attack
will deal a bunch of damage or just you know unload your weapons more generally as you would expect and those will have various levels of effectiveness based on what exactly you're using and your upgrades. Now, Alan Wake has his words
of power, whereas Saga has her manuscript fragments that she can pick up and upgrade her weapons that way. And so, they actually even between the two of them have different upgrades and a slight variation on the weapons that are
play a little bit differently as you would probably expect. Now, I would say the real issue combatwise is just the boss fights. Man, what a letdown. Um, every sort of uh main section of the game, if you will, leads up to an
encounter, especially on Saga's end with a big sort of entity that is causing problems. The buildup and the way to that enemy and, you know, trying to figure out how to get into the area where this enemy is accessed, and that
you have to get into the overlap by performing some ritual, which you have investigations. And again, there's just like a decent amount of buildup to these kind of suck. They're usually just slightly more tanky versions of regular
enemies. The only one that I really feel like they tried to do anything cool with was the lady in the water, Cynthia, and even that one falls a little flat once you solve the water problem. So, combat is fine. I think it serves this
particular game well enough, and I think they did a better job of uh juggling exploiting it than they did the original game as well. But with all the difficulty options, it's as easy or as difficult as you want it to be. Which
then brings us to the DLC. So, this game got two paid expansions and they are Night Springs and the Lakehouse. Night Springs is just really, really funny. about either of these though that they are accessible via the main campaign.
You don't have to do them there. You can access them from the main menu and that. So, really just whatever floats your boat on that front. But on that front, uh, Night Springs was just so funny. It's three little short stories
that kind of get a little crazy with it and tell you some fun stuff that could happen, usually centered a little bit around the character of Mr. Door, who have seen in the footage by now, and kind of leans into like what his whole
deal is, because that doesn't really get addressed in the main campaign much. Um, in the first story, you play as Rose, the fan who is just enamored with Alan Wake, who uh gets all of her dreams to come true, but it's very over-the-top
and silly, and they give her an automatic shotgun with uh nearly unlimited ammo, and it's just really fun to blow things away as Rose. The next one actually sees you playing as Jesse Feden, trying to uh investigate leads
know about as part of Control, of game's abandoned amusement park, Coffee World, and it's just kind of a jokey fun. And then the last one is a sort of homage to Quantum Break, it would seem.
Now, Quantum Break is not officially part of the Remedy universe because it cannot be. And yet, they make a bunch of sort of references to that, especially with the Time Breakers part of the Night Springs DLC. Sheriff Breaker is played
by the person who played the guy from Quantum Break, and his name is Sheriff Breaker. So, a lot of stuff is pretty on the nose there. And then that one is some fun and interesting things I would say. The much bigger one really though
is the lakehouse. So, one of the things that comes up throughout the game is the FBC and I wanted to save talking about them until this point because the FBC or the Federal Bureau of Control plays a big part in the game control. We learn
all about them and what they are up to, what they've been doing, what their goal is, which is basically to understand and contain the supernatural sort of uh SCP style, if you will. We encounter one of them pretty directly, uh, Agent Estz, as
altered world event going on here as part of the story. But before she came here, she first stopped by the lakehouse, which is the area from which this crazy stuff happens with some regularity, and thus warranted them
putting up a post to examine it from. Unfortunately, she arrives to find her colleagues in a state of uh disarray. Having examined the propensity of the dark place and it coming through the threshold to mess with artists, they
lakehouse to try to specifically get the supernatural to interact with their art so they could learn and experiment with it. And unsurprisingly, that science ran Brotherhood of Steelwait, that's the wrong game. Never mind. You got to get
to the bottom of it and deal with it. That was just like a really fun DLC. And because it deals so heavily with the FBC, it has uh some tie-ins pretty directly into Control Resonant coming up, which was a lot of fun. Now, that
does bring us to the Steam Deck section before we start talking positives and negatives here. So, so despite this being an Epic uh launcher exclusive, if you will, the game is playable on the Steam Deck, but you have to jump through
desktop mode and then downloading it via that launcher and playing it basically through that mode. Uh to that end, combined with the fact that it was very you're probably going to struggle to get a decent frame rate with it. And while
it's not technically speaking unplayable, there are better experiences to be had, I would say. So, in that way, unless you're desperate, it's probably wouldn't be my first choice. On the positive side of things, the story, uh,
the atmosphere, the ability to explore some of the places that were much more linear levels in the original game were awesome. I really had a lot of fun going through that. I think the story is just uh, wonderfully well told. I could see
being a little much for some people, but personally, I just had a blast with it. not only with the story and everything, but like literally the process of into the storytelling was just incredibly well done. On the negative
side though, I got to tell you, I don't like some of the changes they made even this year. And I think that probably doesn't matter a ton because of the way and given you options around those things, but like just as a baseline
normal experience, not a huge fan. But the flashlight change in particular was especially bad for me. But then there's also the boss fights. I've mentioned that a couple times. Very, very underwhelming experiences. And they feel
particularly underwhelming here specifically because they do such a good just completely drop the ball on the actual encounter and it just kind of blows. But that brings me to my conclusion. Alan Wake 2 is honestly a
little bit expensive. It does not seem to go on sale very often, even over on the Epic launcher. The base game is 50, but if you want the version with the DLC, that's going to run you about $70. And for that, I think you're getting a
really unique experience that probably going to run you like 20, 30 hours. If you do a run of the main story and DLC just once, if you play through it again new game plus, you'll likely spend more time with it, of course. But overall,
honestly, just a tremendous experience. It's one of those games where the experience of it and kind of going through the story and what they've done with it is enough on its own to justify to be worth the price of admission, but
I also do think it really sucks this game isn't more widely available, since recouped its development cost and become profitable and everything. Why available? Now, I know the answer to it,
for the sake of this video cuz I think it's dumb. But what I do know is that dumb thing is in fact stifling the reach of this otherwise incredible experience and keeping it from people, which is just a real shame because this game,
like the first game, is really something pretty cool. Which is where I'm going to leave this video. I would recommend you buy it when you can find it at a price you would agree with because it really was just an awesome experience. But that
Certainly hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, by all means like, comment, subscribe, all that YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of that, truly just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in
do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.