Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment certainly has a track record of creating original games with great stories. For instance, the original Max Payne game featured a brooding film-noir hero in an atmospheric New York setting, and was perhaps the first game to feature “bullet time” slow motion shooting sequences. And while slow motion shootouts are a staple of modern games and have featured in everything from Tomb Raider to Bethesda’s Fallout 4, Max Payne’s “bullet time” gameplay was surely a cool thing back in 2001.
And Remedy are also renowned for their horror-themed game Alan Wake, in which writer Alan Wake travels with his wife to the apparently serene town of Bright Falls on a vacation, only for things to turn into a horror nightmare later on.
In that game, Alan Wake had to take down undead enemies known as the Taken not only using an array of guns but with his trusty flashlight too, as these undead had “shadow shields” that had to be destroyed first by pointing a light beam at them. And it is clear that Remedy’s Alan Wake was certainly one of the most original games to be released back in 2010.
Using light as a weapon was a novel gameplay idea in Remedy’s Alan Wake.
And those who enjoyed Alan Wake’s novel gameplay and atmosphere (me included) were surely wondering if Finnish outfit Remedy Entertainment would ever come up with a sequel to the game. And it seems that the team was close to starting work on another Alan Wake game shortly after the original debuted in 2010.
As a matter of fact, Remedy had produced a concept video with gameplay ideas for the sequel (likely to pitch the game to a publisher), which the Finnish company released last year, making Alan Wake fans hopeful for a sequel to the 2010 horror game.
But now there is more evidence that another Alan Wake game might be in the works, as Remedy’s upcoming game Quantum Break will feature a live action trailer for “Alan Wake’s Return”, which players can watch in an in-game TV during gameplay. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we’ll be seeing writer Alan Wake battling the undead in a new game any time soon, but it certainly looks like Remedy might be looking to build up hype for their next video game project…
After all, Remedy’s creative director Sam Lake (who looks nothing like Max Payne…) has said that he would like to make another Alan Wake game, stating that games like Alan Wake “have a special place in our hearts”, and Remedy Entertainment has even registered the “Alan Wake’s Return” trademark, according to gaming website GameSpot.
So it definitely looks like an Alan Wake sequel might be on the horizon, and if the game offers the same blend of original gameplay and great horror story as its predecessor, then this will surely be one video game to watch out for in the future.