Alan Wake 2 creative director Sam Lake discussed the new game’s length in a recent interview. According to Lake, developer Remedy has felt pressured to make longer games. The studio is finally doing that with the upcoming Alan Wake 2, whose 20+ hour runtime makes it Remedy’s longest game ever.
Alan Wake 2 will be over 20 hours long
As summarized by Rock Paper Shotgun, Lake recently went on an episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily. The hour-and-a-half-long conversation touched on a variety of topics, not all of which are immediately relevant to the Alan Wake sequel. However, he did have an opportunity to talk a little about the upcoming title. This includes Remedy’s efforts to make a much longer game than it usually does.
“I think that with Remedy games – if we go back through the whole history – being very story-focused games, have traditionally been quite short, like 10 hours or so,” Lake explained. “And we have always internally felt that we need to find ways to do longer games because it’s just like, people are looking at it from a value of money perspective as well – to get enough.” He explained that Control, which takes 11-20 hours for a non-completionist playthrough, is the company’s longest game so far. However, the upcoming Alan Wake 2 will surpass that with a 20+ hour runtime.
Lake explained that part of this may come from the game’s slower pace. While the first Alan Wake was a horror-themed action-adventure game, the sequel leans more toward survival horror. “With that comes somewhat slow pacing for the overall experience,” said Lake. However, he indicated that the new game isn’t too out of line with Remedy’s other works. Fans will have a chance to see for themselves when Alan Wake 2 launches this October.
