Redmond Carolipio: How do you make a story-driven action classic with a fiction writer and a flashlight? Remedy found a way ages ago, and it's poised to do so again. Alan Wake's impact still resonates, and now that Control showed that Remedy hasn't lost its weird, quirky narrative fastball, I'm beside myself seeing how it plans to warp minds this time while cutting loose on the newest hardware.

Chris "Atom" DeAngelus: The original Alan Wake could be best be described as "a playable Stephen King" novel. After Control, the fantastic follow-up in the same universe, we've come to realize just how much deeper it could go. Alan's been trapped in the Dark Place for a while, and it's great to see him finally coming back. While we can assume the gameplay will have a lot in common with the first one, it's interesting to see how Remedy applies what it learned from Control to Alan's newest adventure.

Tony "OUberLord" Mitera: Though Remedy has a number of high-quality games under its belt, none impressed me quite like the original Alan Wake did. It blended a number of interesting gameplay mechanics and a compelling story in a way that other games merely aspire to do. Though it's been a while since the last outing, the desire for a sequel to that game never faded.

Adam Pavlacka: When the original Alan Wake first released in 2010, it was a surprise hit. The game's success was built on solid gameplay and masterful storytelling, pulling players in with an adventure that blurred the lines of sanity and reality. It also played with the concepts of light and dark in both metaphorical and literal ways. I can't wait to see where the team takes the game and the story in the sequel. In the meantime, if you haven't yet played the original, now is a perfect time to give it a spin.

Andreas Salmen: Alan Wake has become somewhat of a modern classic, even though it is far from perfect. Alan Wake 2 has a lot to live up to, but if Remedy's recent Control is any indication, we are probably in for a wild ride either way. I expect a lot from a technical standpoint alone, given Remedy's familiarity with ray tracing and Alan Wake's signature light/shadow gameplay loop.

Rainier Van Autrijve: It's been well over a decade that we've been waiting for an Alan Wake sequel, and if it had not been for Quantum Break running interference, we would have scratched that itch a while ago. In the meantime, we did get some games to tide us over: Control, which is set in the same universe, and the more recent Alan Wake Remastered, which only reinforced the craving for a sequel. Writer extraordinaire Sam Lake has been working on an intriguing story ever since, and even though Alan Wake II will be more survival-horror than the original, it'll keep the third-person perspective. Expectations are sky-high.