A well-crafted game over screen in the survival horror genre serves as more than just a notice to start over. It should be properly terrifying and act as a deterrent, motivating players to stay alive and avoid seeing those dreaded words ‘Game Over’ on their screens. In Alan Wake 2, the game over screen is so terrifying that players never want to experience death again.
IGN had the opportunity to speak with Sam Lake, the creative director of Alan Wake 2, about how Remedy Entertainment created such a spine-chilling game over screen.
Alan Wake 2 continues the writer’s story 13 years later, and unlike its predecessor, it fully embraces the survival horror genre. Remedy Entertainment has gone all out with horror elements in this game.
The horror game is split into two sections where players control FBI profiler Saga Anderson or the unfortunate mystery novelist Alan Wake. It’s in the Wake sections that players encounter the terrifying game over screen. If Alan Wake dies, the screen flashes horrifying images of him lying on the ground with a caved-in head, portrayed by Finnish actor Ilka Villi.
According to Sam Lake, the process of creating the game over screen was influenced by their experience with live-action set pieces in previous games like Control and Quantum Break. However, it was largely a trial-and-error process. Lake says, “It felt like we needed to show the horror in between when you die, we need to make it disturbing. We had already discovered that this is how we do horror flashes, but then we wanted to create striking violent imagery for it.”
The entire sequence was shot on a film set, with Ilka Villi lying on the ground. The makeup artists created a disturbing and violent vision of him covered in blood, depicting a violent death.
Remedy Entertainment has learned many new techniques since the first Alan Wake game. With games like Quantum Break and Control, the studio has become known for its cinematic approach, incorporating live-action footage to create a visually distinct experience. However, in this case, blending live action footage with the game diminished the horror intensity.
Lake reveals, “What we then discovered fast was that if we wanted a more aggressive flash-like effect, blending it with the game footage lost its impact. For more horrifying moments, we started doing full-screen horror flashes, stylized in black and white with an aggressive tone.”
Ultimately, the team relied on lead actor Ilka Villi to capture the terror of dying in Alan Wake 2. They added more blood to depict a brutal death, continuously pushing the boundaries of horror.
According to Lake, Alan Wake has been trapped in a violent and dark nightmare for 13 years. Remedy wanted to convey the character’s constant death and waking into another nightmare, symbolizing an endless cycle of torture. Lake says, “When you die in the game, we should somehow bring the horror into that moment.”
For Alan Wake 2 and Lake, the game over screen is more than just a notice of failure. It is an integral part of the overall story and Alan Wake’s imprisonment in the Dark Place. It also heightens the tension in this survival horror game.
Lake says, “The event of death in video games can easily lose its impact and become a source of frustration. But by having this disturbing element in between, it extends and enhances the horror. It keeps players stuck in a nightmare loop, dying and trying again, which truly brings the horror to life. As a horror game, I am delighted that we have it.”
With Alan Wake 2, Remedy Entertainment continues to push the boundaries of mixing in-game visuals with live-action footage. The game over screen, which reflects the studio’s painstaking approach to survival horror, is just one example of how Remedy is raising the bar for the genre and the medium as a whole. While the screen may be brief, the scares will leave a lasting impact, and that’s exactly what players want.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
