Alan Wake 2’s most talked-about scene was almost cut

Alan Wake 2’s most talked about scene was almost cut from the game, the game’s creative director has revealed.

The rest of this article contains spoilers for Alan Wake 2‘s fourth mission.

Speaking on the Friends Per Second podcast (via GameSpot), Remedy creative director Sam Lake said the mission ‘We Sing’ was almost cut entirely.

“It was really, really hard for a number of reasons to have a musical in this,” Lake said on the podcast. “And there were many productions meetings [where people said] ‘Come on, we need to cut this.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely not, we are not cutting it.'”

Game director Kyle Rowley then said “When you say to someone, ‘We’re gonna put a musical in a survival-horror game, the question comes to, ‘Well, how? What’s the gameplay loop there?.”

Lake also credits Alan Wake’s voice actor Matthew Poretta’s singing ability for pushing the idea forward.

“I knew that Matthew Poretta is a great singer, so Alan Wake can sing in this,” Lake recalled. “And then finding David Harewood, who is wonderful, he has a background in singing.”

Remedy recently confirmed that Alan Wake 2 will receive a New Game Plus mode in a post-launch update, with “exact release timing still TBD.” The mode will enable players to retain all unlocked weapons and upgrades.

It will also introduce a fresh Nightmare difficulty level and a “new alternative narrative, including new Manuscript pages and new video content”. This new ‘leak’ seemingly features some of that video content.

VGC’s Alan Wake 2 review called it “a confident and often ground-breaking thriller” featuring brilliant writing, incredible visuals and genuine scares.