IN THE FIRST PLAYABLE moments of Alan Wake 2, you control a nude, balding, middle-aged man stumbling around a forest. After a few seconds of staring at his hairy ass while I guided him around, it dawned on me that this wasn't going to be your typical big-budget videogame.
Even by Remedy's own quirky standards, Alan Wake 2 is idiosyncratic. You could call it self-indulgent, even, as it dives headfirst into its every strange idea. Weaving a winkingly meta journey through all corners of the studio's lore, at times it feels like watching Remedy get high off its own fumes, which is exactly what makes it so enthrallingly brilliant.
The game picks up 13 years after
