Remedy has shown off Alan Wake 2’s first gameplay

The first gameplay footage of Alan Wake II has been shown off.

Described by Remedy‘s creative director Sam Lake as the studio’s “first survival horror game”, the footage shows new protagonist Saga Anderson in action as she explores the woods at night.

Anderson is a police officer investigating a series of murders, which it emerges are echoing events in one of author Wake’s novels.

According to Lake, the game opens with players controlling Saga.

Lake also says the game can be enjoyed without any knowledge of the first Alan Wake, as Saga enters the game with no knowledge of the previous game’s events and learns about them along the way.

Players will be able to hop between Saga and Alan throughout the game, and will be able to favour one character should they desire.

Alan Wake II will be released on October 17 and will be a digital-only release.

Explaining its thinking behind this, Remedy said: “For one, a large number of [players] have shifted to digital only. You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft’s Xbox Series S is a digital only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only.

“Secondly, not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $59.99 / €59.99 [£49.99] and the PC version at $49.99 / €49.99 [£39.99].

“Finally, we did not want to ship a disc product and have it require a download for the game — we do not think this would make for a great experience either.”