Alan Wake 2is significantly more horror-focused than its predecessor. While the first game focused on being an action-adventure telling a thrilling story by delving into paranormal territory, it was not what many would consider a true survival horror experience — Alan Wake 2 changes all that.
Going into the game without any guidance can leave you susceptible to some of the harder elements of the game. This can lead to constant frustration, dampening an otherwise incredible experience. There are plenty of weapons, items, and upgrades you will gain over the course of the game to make things easier.
Alan Wake 2
10Light Up The Darkness
Your Flashlight Isn’t The Only Tool At Your Disposal
Both the Dark Place’s Fade Outs and the real world Taken enemies have a special form of armor known as the Dark Presence. This will protect them from your attempts to harm them unless you remove it. You have many different options to break this darkness by using some form of light source.
The most convenient approach will be to simply pull out your flashlight, but you may not always have the batteries for such an approach. The game features many alternatives that you can use instead, such as flash bangs, flares, and shooting a propane tank that an enemy is close enough to.
9Manage Your Resources
Always Keep An Ace For When You Need It
Alan Wake 2 has lots of items for you to make use of to overcome your foes. However, you may find yourself wishing you had one of these items on your when you need it most. While the game does give you a decent amount of opportunities to restock on these items, it is a very demoralizing feeling when you find yourself out of options because you were too liberal with your item uses.
It is a good idea to always try to conserve your resources until you reach the next objective or checkpoint, then use them once you feel you need them to overcome the task at hand. This way, you will always have plenty of items for when you really need them.
8Melee Attacks Dispel Darkness Shields
Save Those Batteries For Larger Groups
While using your flashlight may be your go-to approach to breaking through the darkness to open up enemies to damage, you should not make this your first priority. If there is just one enemy to worry about, or there’s plenty of room before the next enemy can close the distance, put down the flashlight and put up your dukes.
Get in close to your target, dodge their attacks, and retaliate with some melee strikes of your own. This is also ideal for when there is just one enemy left in the group, as it can help you save your resources for more challenging moments.
7Explore Off The Beaten Path
Heading Off Into Spooky Areas Is Worth Your Time
In horror movies, wandering off into the woods is a very bad idea, as it often leads to one less survivor. However, in Alan Wake 2, this is actually a great way to stay alive. By exploring the various locations on the map aseither character, you will come across plenty of useful items. Lunch Boxes,Cult Stashes, Words of Power, andNursery Rhymeseach bring with them some incredibly useful rewards.
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Lunch Boxes, Cult Stashes, and Nursery Rhymes are collectibles you’ll come across while playing as Saga Anderson and provide Manuscript Fragments (weapon upgrades), ammo, and Charms, respectively. While playing as Alan Wake, you’ll come across Words of Power in the world, each offering a variety of upgrades for your gameplay experience. New locations will become available over time, so be sure to return to areas that have changed.
6Upgrade Your Weapons Whenever You Can
Give Your Guns A Bigger Bang
The game features several collectibles for you to seek out throughout the various map locations, but there is one collectible in particular that you will find invaluable while playing as Saga Anderson, and that is Lunch Boxes. This is because they are a vital element to upgrading your weapons — especially in a survival horror where every shot matters due to limited resources.
The resources needed to upgrade your guns will not be easy to come by, so be sure you are really sure about your decision before you make it. It is best to make amanual saveand try out your upgrade choice before continuing and regretting your choice later.
5Don’t Horde Your Items
Your Inventory Space Is Limited
While you should always attempt to keep your items for when you need them, your inventory space is limited. Not using any items will have you constantly finding yourself in challenging situations, as well as not having space to store new items you find.
Use items when your inventory starts to fill up, so you never find yourself unable to pick up new items. Luckily, the game does offer inventory upgrades, as well as a Shoe Box where you can store items while you are in a Break Room. This Shoe Box is an available option for both Saga and Alan in the game.
4Chart Your Course
Keep An Eye Out For Maps
Wandering around the game aimlessly is a good way to lose your way, or even end up going in circles. Luckily, the game features various maps for you to find. These maps can be found pinned up in specific spots for each of the game’s locations.
There are 11 maps in total, but once you pick up a map, you won’t need to worry about searching for another until you reach the next game location. You should always keep an eye out for these maps as they can make explorations and navigation throughout the area significantly easier.
3Seek Out Words Of Power
Customize Your Alan Wake Gameplay Experience
While playing as Alan Wake, you will find yourself wandering around in the Dark Place. This can have players filled with terror and dreading what might be lurking around every corner. However, heading deeper and deeper into these dark corridors can be extremely rewarding thanks to Words of Power.
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Words of Power make Alan a formidable foe against his enemies as each of them will give him more flexibility. These Words of Power can refund ammo, increase your flare gun’s blast radius, and even raise your maximum health. Collecting just one of these Words of Power will even net you a trophy called “Carry his Words.”
2Go Into The Light
The Angel Lamp Can Reveal New Areas
The Angel Lamp can be used while exploring the Dark Place to find special, hidden locations. Finding these hidden locations can be very beneficial due to them harboring Words of Power and Echos — as well as a particular weapon. Use the Angel Lamp whenever you see the source of a bright light, and draw it into the lamp by focusing on it.
Using the lamp in this manner will cause reality to warp and one of these hidden locations to become open for you to enter. The weapon in question is a shotgun that you will find once reality warps using one of these bright lights.
1Review The Case Board
The World Is Constantly Evolving As You Play
While playing as Saga, you will have access to an invaluable tool known as the Case Board — likewise, you will want to make use of the Plot Board from Alan’s side of the game. The Case Board can be located within Saga’s Mind Place and acts as a sort of mission tracker, collecting all the information you’ve found in a case up to that point.
This is especially helpful for players who can only play small amounts of the game at a time or are coming back from an extended break. The Plot Board works similarly to the Case Board, though due to Alan Wake’s unique abilities in the Dark Place, he uses it to actually restructure the world around him and shape the ‘plot’ of his location, changing pathways, and opening up new opportunities.
