Summary
Alan Wake 2is a monumental improvement over the first game. Not just from the more intricate storytelling and writing, as well as the excellent new environments and gameplay mechanics, but also the boss fights. They’re back and better designed than ever, making itone of the main aspects to set it apart from the original.
While there may be no final end-game boss fightand Saga gets mainly all of them in her Return chapters, they’re all still memorable and masterfully suspenseful. There’s even one in the Night Springs DLC that brings its own challenges. Here’s how much of a pain they’ll be!
6Bright Falls Sheriff’s Station Scratch
Return 6
The least challenging boss fight in Alan Wake 2 is the second-to-last mini-fight with Scratch at the Bright Falls Sheriff’s Station.It comes after the big twistthat Alan was Scratch this whole time, followed by the tragic death of Jaakko Koskela, and Scratch then chases Saga from the holding cells into the back lot of the station.
The goal here is to turn on three generators that power up the FBC’s special light sources to weaken the Dark Presence in Scratch. They’re not too far apart, but that plays into Scratch’s hand because he’ll grab and attack you quickly before you have a chance to fully get them up and running. You’d want to make sureyou have plenty of ammo for weapons, as firing rounds to freeze Scratch in place for a brief moment will give you the advantage.
Night Springs Episode 1
The Night Springs DLC was a pleasant surprise in terms of how soon it launched and the content it offered. Broken into three Night Springs Twilight Zone-esque episodes,the very first is called Number One Fanand it pits one version of Rose Marigold, The Waitress, against Alan’s evil werewolf twin, The Bad Boy.
The entire segment felt like one drawn-out fight with you following the motorcycle’s trail of flames and slaying hordes of Taken, before finally culminating with a final showdown with The Bad Boy. The fight could be a little irksome since the werewolf twin has a move that sends a shockwave of hearts you need to avoid and shoots out explosive hearts that are harder to avoid.
And then both The Bad Boy and his motorcyclecan transform into wolves, which weren’t the most fun enemies to deal with in the base game and now you have double of them. The positive is that you essentially have an endless supply of ammo, and there’s some hilariously endearing dialogue at the end.
4Dark Ocean Summoning Scratch
Return 7
Unless you count what Saga goes through in the Mind Place with her evil double called Other Saga before the start of Return 9, the Summoning fight with Scratch in Return 7 marks the final boss fight of the game. This one is a team effort, so some of the weight is taken off, and it involves Casey and FBC Agent Estevez on the lights and Tor and Odinplaying the Old Gods track ‘Dark Ocean Summoning’from atop their trailer.
This is a bit of an overwhelming boss fight. Unlike the previous one where it was Saga and Scratch alone, you must first battle waves of all types of Taken running at you from all sides of Cauldron Lake’s shores. Luckily, they do drop ammunition and batteries,and more can be found in crates. When Scratch enters the scene, you have to get the two lights fully rotated into the position of the cage to end the fight while avoiding his heavy attacks, which can prove difficult.
3Nightingale
Return 2
The brute Taken form of former FBI agent Robert Nightingale is the first major Overlap boss fight in the game Saga must endure. You must place his heart in The Witch’s Ladle, go through an eerie gap in the trees with ambient bright red lighting,and then finish what was started in the morgue.
The battle with Nightingale is equal parts creepy and challenging,and just pure terror in the dark woods. For being such a big grotesque boss, he teleports and dashes fast and has some powerful swings and slams with his mossy-covered branch. There are multiple phases, you’ll have to use your flashlight to get his weak spot open, unload nearly full clips of ammo, and he disappears with flashing jumpscares.
2Mulligan And Thornton
Return 3
The Mulligan and Thornton fight gets the stress levels soaring even higher than the previous chapter’s Nightingale fight. These lovable Bright Falls sheriff’s deputies now become a duo boss taken over by the Dark Presence, and it’s a harrowing experience to play through.
Thornton is more like a sniper, teleporting from post to post and shooting his rifle at Saga from atop, while his partner Mulligan emerges from the well and has close-range combat with Saga. In the middle of all this chaos, you have to use your flashlight to clear multiple darkness nodes around the map, which is the only way to stop them from continuing to come at you.
1Cynthia Weaver
Return 5
Return 5 is easily the best and scariest chapterin Alan Wake 2 that also brings one of the most tragic and toughest boss fights in the game. Saga faces Cynthia Weaver, a character who helped Alan fight for the light in the first game. There are two parts to it, the first putting an unexpected and frightening spin on things.
Before you get into the actual battle, you must first play a round of floor is lava with Cynthia and the flooded environment. If you let her catch up to you and not pull yourself out of the water in time when en route to the generator to turn on the power, she will jump out of the water and grab you. The generator can also be fairly tricky to find, especially when under pressure.
When you get the lights back on in the Overlap, you descend to the second stage of the fight, where you directly engage Cynthia. She’ll be levitating and flying around in the air, making it harder for you to aim and get a clean shot (and she soaks up a lot of your ammo), as well as sending shockwaves and explosive projectiles your way. When she gets down, her movements are still very erratic and she flails her arms to cause significant damage.
