And nu-Wake will be Remedy’s longest yet
All that’s from the latestKinda Funnynewscast, in which Lake spends a lot of time sitting there glassy-eyed while his professional input is sought on such topics asEmbracer’s possible Gearbox saleand variousSpider-Man 2screenshots. But there are some morsels of info on the newAlan Wake, which will be Remedy’s longest game to date.
“I think that with Remedy games - if we go back through the whole history - being very story-focused games, have traditionally been quite short, like 10 hours or so,” Lake observed at one point. “And we have always internally felt that we need to find ways to do longer games, because it’s just like, people are looking at it from a value of money perspective as well - to get enough. So Control certainly was our longest game to date, and Alan Wake 2 is going to be longer than that - 20 hours plus.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Lake touched on one of the original Alan Wake’s mechanisms for extending playtime - its notorious collectible thermoses. “[There were] a hundred of them really all around the game world, in the forest,” he said. “You would be finding coffee thermoses, and we got some complaints that ‘this means nothing, if I want to complete the game - I’m looking for these coffee thermoses, and what’s the point?’ So we took that feedback to heart.” In Alan Wake 2, coffee thermoses are valuable items indeed. They let you save the game in breakrooms, as with ink ribbons for typewriters in OGResident Evil.
Wake added that Alan Wake 2 might feel slower than its predecessor, for being a survival horror game rather than action adventure. “With that comes somewhat slow pacing for the overall experience.” But he’s confident it’ll feel in synch with Remedy’s work in general.
You can read more on the subject in Ed’sAlan Wake 2 previewfrom the summer. It struck him “as a survival horror with clever detective devices that I’m sure will only grow as the game progresses.” Alice0, however, is concerned thatthe game might end up being a dodgy shooter, for all its accomplished mood, while Alice Bee reckonsthe character Alan Wake is a terrible writer but respects him anyway.
