How To Fix Alan Wake 2’s Mind Place Not Working

UPDATE: Representatives for Remedy Entertainment have reached out to The Escapist to say this Alan Wake 2 Mind Palace bug has been fixed for the retail version of the game. The article appears as it was originally published below.

As eager as you might be to play Alan Wake 2, there’s a particularly frustrating bug you might run into when you fire the game up. Here’s how to fix Alan Wake 2’s Mind Place not working.

Here’s What to Fix Alan Wake 2’s Mind Place Not Working

Alan Wake 2 begins with you, as co-protagonist Saga Anderson, investigating a murder. To put things together, you’re supposed to step into her Mind Place, her own version of a memory palace. But there’s a bug that means you could find yourself unable to access it.

I’ve encountered this bug on the PC, but you could run into it on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. What happens is that when you try to hit the Mind Place button (tab on the PC keyboard), nothing happens.

And since you can’t progress till you’ve done that, you end up soft locked, able to roam around the murder scene but not do much else.

You’ll probably only encounter this bug very early on. but the solution is, unfortunately, to close down the game, go back in, and start a new playthrough. That means going to ‘new game’ and starting all over again. You shouldn’t lose more than five minutes of progress, though.

Then, the moment you’re prompted to enter the Mind Place, hit the key or button it shows you, but don’t try immediately exiting the mind palace. Instead, follow through with the mini-tutorial, about using the clue board and so on. A word of warning for PC players, you will probably need a mouse with a scroll wheel.

Then, when you’re prompted to exit, do so. Now, it should work going forward. Hopefully Remedy will patch this issue. But for now, that’s the best way to fix Alan Wake 2‘s Mind Place not working.

Once you’ve made it past this opening section, check out our guide to getting the Sawed-Off Shotgun early on in Alan Wake 2.