Alan Wake 2 gets new trailer, Oct. 17 release date

A new Alan Wake 2 trailer has gotten the Internet abuzz. Remedy Entertainment announced the game last year at the Game Awards. Another trailer arrived thanks to a recent PlayStation Showcase, and fans are absolutely excited. It shows off more of the story and gameplay, giving us our first real look at the game running on the PlayStation 5. As you’d expect, it’s full of the same tense scares and moody atmosphere the first game is dripping with.

Best of all, the trailer revealed the release date for this sequel. Alan Wake 2 drops on Oct. 17, 2023 — just in time for spooky season. Given the series’ focus on terror and chills, it’s an appropriate release date. Still, we can’t wait to turn the page on another chapter in the Alan Wake saga.

See the trailer below, courtesy of PlayStation on YouTube.

What does the Alan Wake 2 show us?

Remedy Entertainment is understandably careful in what they show us of Alan Wake 2. Nonetheless, the trailer gives us a peek into what we can expect from the gameplay and story this time around.

In Alan Wake 2, players will control both the titular Alan Wake as well as a new character, FBI agent Saga Anderson. The game has two campaigns focusing on both characters, with the player able to choose which order to play them in. Remedy has promised a much larger story this time around, with plenty more mysteries to unravel and 100% more Sam Lake. No, really: he lent his image to a character that’s voiced by James McCaffrey. And no, it’s not Max Payne. (Although, maybe it is…)

As fans noted from the first trailer, horror is much more of a focus in the second installment. Remedy Entertainment has billed this as a survival horror title, in contrast to the first game where the horror was mostly in its atmosphere.

You can definitely see that from the latest trailer. It shows the characters investigating crime scenes and disturbances, walking through creepy environments, fighting shadowy enemies, and suffering quite a number of scares. From the trailer, it looks like both characters play similarly.

We don’t yet know how exactly Alan Wake 2 will tie into Control, another Remedy Entertainment game released in 2018. While that game wasn’t a direct follow-up to Alan Wake, the two take place in the same universe. In addition, a DLC campaign for Control featured characters from Alan Wake, although its story didn’t tie up every loose end from the 2010 game. We’ll just have to wait and see if Jesse Faden and the Oldest House will play a part in this next chapter.

The next chapter arrives this October

The road toward the Alan Wake sequel has been a bumpy one, to be sure. From a lack of interest in publishers to other projects getting in the way, Remedy Entertainment has thrown fans for a loop as they await Alan’s next adventure. With this trailer and release date, though, it finally feels like we’re about to head back to Bright Falls and pick up the pages again.

The anticipation for Alan Wake 2 is palpable. (By that, I mean my heart’s racing to play this game.) Thankfully, it won’t take much longer to experience the next part of the Alan Wake adventure.

Alan Wake 2 is developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Epic Games Publishing. It will launch for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 17, 2023.

What are your thoughts on the Alan Wake 2 trailer? What are you most excited for? Let us know!