Remedy’s video games have always had unsettling moments, starting from the disturbing dream sequences in the first Max Payne.Alan Wake 2is an all-out supernatural horror extravaganza, however, and aims to keep you sleeping with the lights on for weeks after playing.
The moments detailed below stand out as especially scary for a variety of reasons. Some are gruesome, others unsettle you with the mere idea, and others are the classic jump scares we expect from thesurvival horror genre. Even if you are typically too scared for a game of this nature, don’t let it deter you from experiencing the fantastic narrative in Alan Wake 2.
10The Introductory Murder
The Game’s Opening
Alan Wake 2 starts with you emerging from Lake Cauldron as an unknown naked man. You run through the forest and are eventually captured by masked figures who ritually murder the character you were controlling just a moment ago.
It’s a classic way to open up any horror story but Alan Wake 2 takes it a step further by letting you play this poor soul’s final moments. As the player you are just as confused as he is. You expect to start as Alan or Saga as the marketing suggests but instead, you experience a murder.
9Nightingale Awakens As A Taken
End Of Return 1: Invitation
The character murdered in the intro is Robert Nightingale, an FBI agent from the first Alan Wake. During the autopsy, he surprisingly jolts back to life and creates a mess in the morgue, becoming the first enemy you fight.
The moment that haunts us the most is when he stares directly at Saga Anderson through glass, less than a foot away from her face. Fortunately, Saga has figured out that light is the safe spot and the way to deter the Taken in Alan Wake 2.
8Subway Massacre
Initiation 2: Casey
To progress through the Caldera Street Subway, Alan writes a scene where the Cult of the Tree engulfs a derailed train car in flames. When you enter the train you bear witness to the charred bodies.
As if this isn’t bad enough, you then start to hear the victims' screams. The worst part is that Alan is at fault for this, having written the scene into the story. This is happening in the Dark Place so it is not real, but how sure can we be that those aren’t real people feeling real pain?
7Being Chased By The Dark Presence
First Happens In Initiation 2: Casey
A couple of sequences in Alan Wake 2 see you being chased directly by the Dark Presence. When not possessing someone The Dark Presence barely has any physical characteristics to describe.
Instead, the camera turns around and you are signaled to run away as fast as possible while the environment shakes and crumbles. It reminds us of the way the camera chases Ash in the Evil Dead movies as the malevolent force in the first-person perspective.
6Cynthia Weaver
Return 5: Old Gods
For fans of the first Alan Wake, it is devastating to know Cynthia Weaver has become a Taken and is now an enemy to the player. You have to finally confront her in the Overlap Saga enters in the Valhalla nursing home. you may’t just soak her in bullets though. First, you have to turn on the power and get the lights on.
Whilerunning through the waterto turn on the electricity she will attack from underneath you. You have to go into the knee-deep water, but you must quickly progress and reach a dry place before she grabs you, making for a tense dash.
5Pop-up Faces
Consistent Occurance Through The Game
In a game whose terror feels so finely crafted and unique, these are the easiest scares. Every once in a while the faces of a villain will pop up and take over the screen for a brief flash. This is mostly images of Mr. Scratch, but it also happens with Cynthia Weaver and other boss characters.
The image will often be severely mutilated as well and accompanied by a loud noise. You can complain about a jump scare all you want, but if they make you gasp you can’t say that they don’t work.
4Mr. Scratch Unleashed
Return 6: Scratch
During Return Chapter 6 you finally learn that Alan Wake has been possessed by Mr. Scratch all this time during Saga Anderon’s story. Mr. Scratch, or The Dark Presence, shows himself in the jail cell and breaks out in a spectacularly brutal fashion. He phases into IImo Koskela’s body and implodes the poor soul, taking his jacket.
You only see Mr. Scratch briefly before this and his appearance comes as a complete surprise. You have to keep yourself composed for the boss fight ahead despite the horror you just witnessed.
3Saga Talking To David Before The Finale About Logan
Return 8: Summoning
Saga Anderson tried so long to call her husband to see if reality had indeed changed and her daughter Logan drowned in Bright Falls due to Alan Wake’s writing. David confirms Saga’s worst fear and says Logan has passed away. The fright here is based on pure dread, an emotion far more terrifying than any jump scare or horrific image could illicit from us.
That feeling isn’t assuaged by the game’s climax,as the credits literally roll on Saga Anderson waiting for Logan to pick up the phoneto see if she survived.
2The First Encounter With A Large Taken
Return 3: Local Girl
After Saga finally gets the Clicker, she returns from where she came from through the workshop in Coffee World. You are retracing your steps to head back outside before you are abruptly grabbed through a piece of wood next to you and thrown across the room.
This jump scare introduces us to a new enemy type. The large Taken enemies take more damage before going down and they swing large hammers that do major damage, but you don’t need to know that to be scared by their fantastic introduction.
1Learning Of Alice Wake’s Fate
Initiation 9: Gone
Alan Wake slowly sees parts of a documentary showing Alice Wake processing her grief at Alan’s disappearance. The final part shows the last photos she took before presumably ending her own life. They are eerie black-and-white pictures of her turning away from the camera and leaping into Cauldron Lake.
You’re in Alan Wake’s shoes here and seeing him discover what he believed to be the tragic truth. The ending reveals that she is still alive and voluntarily entered the Dark Place, but the disturbed feeling of seeing her drastic act through the lens of her own art won’t leave us anytime soon.
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