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Games Like Alan Wake: Dark Towns, Detectives and Nightmares

Alan Wake sends a writer to a small town where the darkness is alive and the horror story he cannot remember writing is coming true. These games share its investigations, its small-town secrets and its nightmares that leak into the real world, from Remedy's own sequel to detective horror and Shinji Mikami's dream worlds.

The games

2 of the 13 games in this guide are not on PlayStation and are left out. Show them all.

  1. Alan Wake 2 key art: Alan Wake's face looms over a red-lit forest where a small figure stands with a flashlight PsychologicalAlan Wake 2The sequel and the closest match: an FBI agent investigates ritual murders in the Pacific Northwest while Alan is trapped in the Dark Place, with light, scarce ammunition and a story that rewrites itself.
  2. Alan Wake Remastered key art: Alan Wake's silhouette with a flashlight and a gun stands inside the letters of the title against a misty forest PsychologicalAlan Wake RemasteredThe 2010 original rebuilt in 4K with both expansions: a novelist's wife vanishes in Bright Falls and the horror story he does not remember writing starts coming true.
  3. The Evil Within key art: a man's bloodied face wrapped in barbed wire SurvivalThe Evil WithinShinji Mikami's survival horror: a detective wakes in a deranged world of traps and shifting buildings after a massacre at a mental hospital.
  4. The Evil Within 2 key art: a pale, monochrome Sebastian Castellanos with a cable at his mouth among dark tendrils PsychologicalThe Evil Within 2A detective enters a shared dream world built from minds to save his daughter, sneaking and fighting through a broken town that killers reshape.
  5. The Medium key art: Marianne, white-haired, raises a glowing hand, standing between a grey abandoned building on the left and an orange spirit world of crosses and twisted trees on the right PsychologicalThe MediumA medium explores an abandoned Polish resort in two realities at once, the real one and a nightmare spirit world, while the Maw hunts her.
  6. The Sinking City Remastered key art: a detective with a gun wades a flooded street as a vast tentacled shape looms in the mist Investigate the The Sinking City RemasteredA 1920s private investigator works cases across a half-flooded Lovecraftian town as monsters from the deep and his own mind close in.
  7. Call of Cthulhu screenshot: robed cultists and candles around a tall crystal in a dark cave, with a strange figure in the foreground PsychologicalCall of CthulhuA 1924 private investigator looks into a family's death on an isolated island and finds cultists, cosmic horror and his own slide into madness.
  8. Kona: the Magasin General store at night in the snow, a pickup and a snowmobile parked by the fuel pumps PsychologicalKonaA detective arrives at a snowbound Canadian lake village in 1970 to find it empty, and investigates what happened while a strange blizzard closes in.
  9. Observer: System Redux screenshot: a dark, wet apartment full of cables and green-lit monitors, with a body slumped against the wall in the light of a heater PsychologicalObserver: System ReduxA 2084 police detective hacks into the minds of suspects and victims in a decaying apartment block, where memories become nightmares.
  10. Alone in the Dark key art: Emily Hartwood and Edward Carnby with weapons in front of a masked, hatted figure PsychologicalAlone in the DarkA private investigator and his client search a Louisiana asylum where reality slips into nightmare, in a reimagining of the 1992 classic.
  11. In Sound Mind key art: a man in a coat with a gaping mouth of teeth for a face holds a camera, a cat on his shoulder and a pale girl beside him, against a burst of colour PsychologicalIn Sound MindA therapist trapped in his own building plays his patients' tapes and walks into their memories, where each one's fear hunts him.

Start with the series. Alan Wake 2 is the closest match by far: a full survival horror game in which FBI agent Saga Anderson investigates ritual murders around Bright Falls while Alan is trapped in the Dark Place, a nightmare version of New York, with scarce ammunition, light as a weapon and a story that rewrites itself around you. If you have not played the first game, Alan Wake Remastered rebuilds it with both of its expansions: a novelist's wife vanishes on holiday, and the pages of a horror novel he does not remember writing start coming true while the Taken hunt him through the night. Alan Wake's American Nightmare is the lighter, louder spin-off, a chase after Alan's double, Mr. Scratch, through a desert town.

If it was the small town and its secrets you loved, Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut is the cult classic Alan Wake is most often compared with: an eccentric FBI agent investigates a murder in a mountain town, between a raincoat-clad axe killer and an Otherworld of shadow creatures. It is clumsy and divisive, and players love it anyway. Kona is quieter: a detective arrives at a lake village in northern Canada in 1970, finds it empty in a strange blizzard, and has to work out what happened while keeping himself alive.

For the detective work, The Sinking City Remastered and Call of Cthulhu both send a 1920s private investigator into Lovecraftian horror, one across a half-flooded town of cases to solve and one to an isolated island of cultists, and Observer: System Redux makes you a 2084 police detective who hacks into the minds of suspects, where memories loop and turn into nightmares. Alone in the Dark, the 2024 reimagining, sends a private investigator into a Louisiana asylum where reality keeps slipping.

For the dark place itself, The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2, from Resident Evil's creator Shinji Mikami, put a detective inside worlds built from other people's minds, with traps, scarce bullets and buildings that change around him. The Medium has a medium walk two realities at once, the real and a nightmare spirit world, and In Sound Mind has a therapist enter his patients' memories one tape at a time, each with its own fear.

If you only try one, play Alan Wake 2 if you have not, or Deadly Premonition for the small-town mystery that came first.

Questions

What game is most like Alan Wake?

Alan Wake 2, its sequel, first. Outside the series, Deadly Premonition is the small-town mystery most often compared with it, and The Evil Within 2 shares its nightmare world shaped by minds.

Do I need to play Alan Wake before Alan Wake 2?

It helps. Alan Wake Remastered includes the first game and both of its expansions, and Alan Wake 2 continues its story, though it introduces its new characters on its own.

Are there detective horror games like Alan Wake 2?

Yes: The Sinking City Remastered and Call of Cthulhu are Lovecraftian investigations in the 1920s, Observer: System Redux is a cyberpunk detective story inside suspects' minds, and Kona is a slow mystery in a snowbound village.

Are these games on consoles?

Most are on PlayStation and Xbox. Alan Wake Remastered, Call of Cthulhu and Kona are also on Nintendo Switch, and Deadly Premonition is on Switch as Deadly Premonition Origins.

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