'Alan Wake 2' and the year's best horror games, reviewed

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/ [login to see] /alan-wake-2-horror-games-reviewed
Cook something for thirteen years, and the stew's bound to come out funky.

In the case of Alan Wake 2, the weirdness is part of the charm. The sequel to a 2010 cult classic, the game follows not only the titular character, an author of schlocky crime novels, but also Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating ritualistic killings in a patch of Washington State that may as well border Twin Peaks for all its unsettling goofiness.

The opening narration tells you exactly what you're in for. "In a horror story," intones Wake, "there are only victims and monsters, and the trick is not to end up as either." You'll spend much of the game's runtime evading shadowy "Taken," possessed by a "Dark Presence" and vulnerable only to your trusty flashlight (and guns — so many guns). As Anderson you'll use your near-psychic investigatory prowess to unravel a conspiracy, and as Wake, you'll literally rewrite scenes in the "Dark Place" he's trapped in, slowly revising your way out of a hell far worse than the crippling writer's block that kicked off the original game's nightmare.