Summary
An improvement on its predecessor in practically every way,Alan Wake 2deserves all the praise it’s received over the last few months, and it’ll undoubtedly go down as one of 2023’s best games, and possibly one of its most influential. ThoughAlan Wake 2borrows a lot of elements from popular survival horror games that have come before it, withResident Evilbeing one of its biggest influences,Alan Wake 2manages to bring all of these elements together and put its own unique spin on it all, creating something wholly original in the process. And it’s a game thatBioShock 4can certainly learn from.
Confirmed to be in development back in 2019,BioShock 4hasn’t even been officially announced yet, but 2K is adamant that it’s still well on its way. While Cloud Chamber seems like a studio that’s well-equipped to produce a newBioShockgame, with plenty of ex-Irrational Games devs working on the project, it’s always good to seek inspiration from the industry’s best titles, andAlan Wake 2has so many great ideas just waiting to be borrowed.
BioShock 4 Could Make Great Use of Alan Wake 2’s Live-Action Videos
Alan Wake 2’s Live-Action Adverts Set the Tone Perfectly
Found throughout Saga Anderson’s side ofAlan Wake 2’s dual narrative, players can stumble upon a series of TVs in Bright Falls and its adjoining areas. These TVs will often be playing an ad for something, and what seems pretty innocuous at first gets a whole lot stranger when players actually take the time to watch the whole thing.
Appearing in live-action,Alan Wake 2’s Koskela Brothersattempt to sell their various goods and services, though things feel a little off. Thanks to some awkwardly timed dialogue and some bizarre lengthy pauses dotted throughout, these commercials feel pretty uncanny, and the implementation of live-action only reinforces that feeling. ButAlan Wake 2’s commercials aren’t scary, or even creepy, as they’re simply off-putting and maybe even a little humorous at times. This pretty much encapsulatesAlan Wake 2’s overall tone while also building out its world and lore.
BioShock 4 Using Live-Action Adverts Would Have Two Major Benefits
One ofAlan Wake 2’s most underrated features, it would be great to seeBioShock 4borrow from these live-action commercials. Implementing live-action commercials intoBioShock 4could be a great way to set the game’s tone right off the bat. Functioning just like the originalBioShock’s bathysphere voiceover, a series of live-action ads sprinkled throughoutBioShock 4could repeatedly cement the game’s chosen tone, whether it’s a more horror-focused tone or one that isn’t afraid to splice some dark humor into things.
A series of live-action videos insideBioShock 4could also be a great world-building tool. As anyBioShockfan will know, the setting is one of the most integral aspects of the series, essentially being a character in its own right, andBioShock 4could use these ads as a way to really flesh out its setting and those within it. These ads could also give players a better understanding of the game’s cast of characters, rather than restricting most of their backstories to audio logs and journal entries like inpreviousBioShockgames.
Alan Wake 2
WHERE TO PLAY
A string of ritualistic murders threatens Bright Falls, a small-town community surrounded by Pacific Northwest wilderness. Saga Anderson, an accomplished FBI agent with a reputation for solving impossible cases arrives to investigate the murders. Anderson’s case spirals into a nightmare when she discovers pages of a horror story that starts to come true around her.Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare beyond our world, writes a dark story in an attempt to shape the reality around him and escape his prison. With a dark horror hunting him, Wake is trying to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.Anderson and Wake are two heroes on two desperate journeys in two separate realities, connected at heart in ways neither of them can understand: reflecting each other, echoing each other, and affecting the worlds around them.Fueled by the horror story, supernatural darkness invades Bright Falls, corrupting the locals and threatening the loved ones of both Anderson and Wake. Light is their weapon—and their safe haven — against the darkness they face. Trapped in a sinister horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
