I expected to struggle with , given it’s a survival horror game and I don’t typically do well with getting spooked,🤡 but I&rs🦹quo;ve been bouncing off the game much harder than I expected. On paper, the game seems tailor-made to my interests, a Tessa-shaped hole in the gaming landscape that I am scrambling into, screaming, “It was made for me!” (Yeah, I read Junji Ito.) Meta-narratives, creepy vibes, a struggling writer, and abstracted environments? Count me in!
Things I’ve missed because I was too scared to explore: every Word of Power, every weapon upgrade, almost every easter egg, and basically anything that required me to𝓡 look beyond my primary objective.
But in practice, having gone into the game blind as I do with every game, I’m finding more and more that I’ve missed out on crucial mechanics and upgraded weapons. While talking to my coworker James Troughton about how I’ve been struggling through the game’s puzzles without a hint system, they informed me that they got stuck on the lock 🍸that gave Saga a new, more powerful shotgun. “Oh, I haven’t even gotten there yet, I’m still wandering around the subway station,” I said, and then they told me I’d missed it entirely, and I should have grabbed it earlier in the game. It began to make sense then why it took me so long to take down the game’s first boss, and why it felt like I waꦆs just emptying my gun’s chambers at it and seeing absolutely no effect.
Even worse, I only found out Words of Power were a thing after finally giving in and clicking into a guide. These collectable upgrades to Alan’s abilities are indicated in the environment with big yellow arrows, and yet I didn’t find a single damn one of them. I would have known this if I’d noticed the arrows, but I was so focused on breathing through my fear while making my way through the Dark Place that it didn’t occur to me that there were rewards for straying off the beaten path. My fear, once again, has stopped me from enjoying a horror game fully. Who would've guessed?
This is me playing Alan Wake 2.
This isn’t, in itself, a disaster. According to what I’ve read about the game, I can access most of these locations later, which means I’ll be able to go back and hunt for everything I’ve missed – but I really don’t want to do that. Going through these settings once is frightening enough, and I don’t want to backtrack through a series of intentionally confusing locations to hunt down everything I’ve missed, of which there are a lot. At this point in the game, it still makes sense for me to start over with a walkthrough guide open next to me. That way, I&r🐼squo;ll catch everything I somehow missed during my first attempt at a playthrough, and I’ll probably have a better⛄ experience because of it.
Okay, There’s A More Honest Reason I’m Restarting
I’m really starting over because I went on vacation. Alan Wake 2 is a confusing 💃game, and even as I was working my way through it on opening week, I was bewildered as to what was going on and exactly how to play the game. That’s by design, of course, but it doesn’t make for a game you can easily pick up and put down. I’ve been separated from my Xbox for nearly three weeks, and since Alan Wake 2 doesn’t have an Xbox Play Anywhere option, I barely remember the games’ controls. Considering this combination of factors, it makes perfect sense if I simply start over entirely and play as if it were my first time starting the game. I won’t be as scared going through the opening sections, and I won’t have to unnecessarily go through levels again. Gamer math.
