Summary
The genre and tone shift of theAlan Wakeseries into a mature, full-blown survival horror story presents Remedy with an opportunity to experiment with the dark and cryptic elements that headline many of their games. WithAlan Wake 2,some of these elements play into the terrifying enemy designs and their abilities, adding a layer of intensity and horror that is unlike the original.
From formidable boss enemies to the dark forces lurking around nightmarish landscapes,Alan Wake 2is sure to send chills down the players’ spines. The following article discusses the scariest enemies inAlan Wake 2, based on their overall design, the context surrounding the enemy in the story, and combat difficulty.
5Nightingale
A very claustrophobic and difficult first boss fight
The combat inAlan Wake 2marks a departure from its predecessor as well as the action-heavy games that Remedy is known for. To add a heightened sense of tension, combat sequences inAlan Wake 2are often scarce. This is especially true for the first two chapters where players are just learning the ropes of the combat based around destroying shields of darkness of enemies to reveal their weak points for additional damage.
Before players encounter their first boss in Saga’s story, there are just a handful of enemies to take out, and dodging their attacks isn’t needed, given the wide forest terrain that players can use to their advantage. However, this changes very quickly with the first boss,Nightingale, marking a significant difficulty spikefor many players. The arena in which the fight takes place is very claustrophobic with narrow paths between the tree branches. Nightingale is able to hide and then emerge from the many bushes that are present in the area, leading to a very scary and intense fight up close with a monster of towering strength. A possessed, naked man reaching at the player with a long piece of log is far from a pleasant sight. His long-reaching attacks and high health pool constantly push players to move around the arena to find ammunition, leading to a hectic encounter that is as scary as it is difficult.
4Taken Thrower
A nimble, flanking enemy that will keep players in a perpetual state of fright
Ranged attacks can quickly become frustrating, especially if the enemies hurling these projectiles are masked in the environments. The Taken Thrower fits the bill because not onlycan it throw axes at the playerfrom narrow angles, but it can also zap around quickly to startle the player from behind, up close, or to the sides.
Adding to their unpredictable maneuverability, the Taken Thrower enemy type defies the laws of combat in the game because instead of being weakened by a flashlight boost, the enemy will create a duplicated version of it. The duplication animation when the Taken Thrower pulls out a version of itself from its own body is terrifying enough to observe on its own, but facing two extremely quick foes at once amps up the horror even more.
3Taken Diver
A bone-chilling enemy design with lots of creepy movement
Chapter 5 of Saga, The Old Gods, is one of the scariest levels in the game. By building a lot of slow-burn tension and dread in this chapter’s atmospheric setting of Valhalla Nursing Home, any enemy encounter would automatically qualify as a truly horrifying one. However,Alan Wake 2takes this even further by introducing what is hands-down the scariest enemy type in the game during this chapter.
Much of this horror arises because of Taken Diver’s appearance, which has the torso of two elderly women, possessed by the darkness, attached to opposite ends of each other. This results in a terrifying visual. The way the monster moves in very slowly, almost in a spider-like way, is spooky, to say the least. Then, there’s the fiasco with Taken Diver submerging itself into water instantly to mask its movement, making its next move unpredictable, albeit detectable by ripple effects as it moves. This leads toan instant grabthat can only be interrupted by a flare or by mashing the on-screen prompt at the expense of some health loss. All in all, the enemy is a bullet sponge, scary in design, and just downright terrifying to face.
2Cynthia Weaver
A tough and long boss fight that will make players shout “Back off”
Following the same intensity as Chapter 5 of Saga, the boss enemy of the level is a tough and frightening encounter due to atmosphere and sound design. Among other boss fights, this is probably the one that will take players multiple tries to beat as well due to multiple phases.
The once enlightened and sheltered by the light,Cynthia Weaver, has now turned to the dark sideand transformed into this terrifying levitating enemy that can send out multiple forms of projectiles from long range. The dark and damp level in the underground water arena adds to the feeling of frantic and tense combat. However, the single most terrifying aspect of the fight with Cynthia Weaver is when she enters the second phase of the battle. Descending back to the ground, she will run over to the player and lash out frantically, throwing very quick hand strikes with some of the scariest voices that Remedy has come up with. It is the perfect marriage of scary-good audio design mixed with the panic of running around to evade the frightening close-quarter combat.
1Glitching Shadow
An unpredictable and quick enemy who hits hard and without respite
Alan’s side of the story only has a handful of enemy types, but frankly speaking, The Dark Place only needs so few, given that any shadow could turn out to be hostile or a mere fade out upon getting close. This mechanic where players have to second-guess which shadows are enemies and which are not makes for interesting ammo and resources management, while also adding to the tense mood of the survival horror genre thatAlan Wake 2has adopted.
The Glitching Shadow is arguably the most frustrating to fight, given how quickly it closes up on the player to pin Alan down and then deliver aflurry of melee strikes. The intensity with which each of the hard-hitting punches the Glitching Shadow throws at Alan is disturbing to witness with each drop of blood that splatters on the player’s screen. The enemy’s hold is difficult to break out from if the player does not have a flare in their inventory, so a scary encounter turns even more terrifying when the player lacks the appropriate resources.
