How Alan Wake 2 Can Take a Cue From Classic Resident Evil…

Summary

Alan Wake 2 is switching to a full survival horror experience, drawing inspiration from the Resident Evil series.
The game could benefit from incorporating recurring boss fights, a long-standing tradition in Resident Evil games.
Alan Wake 2 has the potential to create unique and terrifying boss monsters, taking advantage of the antagonist's ability to take various forms and manipulate Alan's nightmares and discarded ideas.

Alan Wake 2 is a week away from release and Remedy Entertainment has not been shy about the direction it will be taking with its long-awaited sequel. The studio has been quite clear about its switch to a full survival horror experience compared to the original, which opens up many interesting ideas about how exactly Alan Wake 2 will feel and play. While it is always risky for a studio to change tones between games, Alan Wake already contains many aspects that could easily transition to true survival horror.

Among its inspirations, Remedy has pointed to the Resident Evil series as a major influence on Alan Wake 2. Given the popularity and success of the recent RE titles, starting with RE7 and through this year's RE4 remake, it seems only natural for Remedy to want to capitalize similarly and provide players an experience on par with them. There is one specific long-running RE tradition however that would be a perfect fit for Alan Wake 2.

Alan Wake 2 Can Find Inspiration In This Resident Evil Tradition

There are already a handful of Resident Evil elements that are confirmed for Alan Wake 2, but it would be fantastic to see another that's been in almost every RE game—multi-stage or recurring boss fights. Many other survival horror titles have included these, of course, but when it comes to elaborate set-piece boss battles, Resident Evil set the bar and is still the gold standard by which most others are measured. Alan Wake 2 could put its own stamp on these by combining its existing elements into distinct bosses that intimately connect to its story and characters.

Most Resident Evil bosses are grotesque abominations, often animal or insect-like, or some variation and hybrid thereof. But Alan Wake's main antagonist, The Dark Presence, can take literally any form it wants. This allows for a huge range of novel design possibilities in the boss monster area. Further, since it prefers to manifest against Alan using his own imagination and psyche, this could be leveraged to incredible effect. Making the boss's visions of Alan's distorted nightmares and discarded ideas from his ongoing horror novel opens up a lot of interesting and terrifying potential for them.

Alan Wake's established lore presents another opportunity for a memorable and multi-level boss. Mr. Scratch, Alan's twisted doppelganger, could function like Resident Evil's Nemesis or Mr. X. He could become increasingly unhinged in subsequent encounters, requiring players to fight him in more dangerous forms as he unveils new or upgraded attacks. Poltergeist objects, like the bulldozer, steam engine, and pickup trucks from the original could be expanded on too. Sections where Alan must fight off huge possessed machines that need to be carefully dismantled piece by piece would also lend themselves to massive spectacle boss scenarios.

One other mechanic from Alan Wake is the flashlight. Players must focus it on enemies to remove their shadow shield, stunning them and opening them up to receive damage. This could also be integrated into big boss battles, requiring players to target specific areas of either an enemy or the environment to exploit vulnerabilities in creative ways. While there are some other ways Alan Wake 2 can portray its enemies, going one step beyond and incorporating Resident Evil-style bosses would be a great inclusion, especially since it's already leaning so heavily into RE design elements. Having these kinds of multi-stage evolving combat situations could put it in the same conversation as Resident Evil in terms of the best survival horror boss design.