Alan Wake Remastered

Video Game Review

Although mainstream developers haven’t fully embraced the genre to this day, I think the technological advances of the seventh generation of video game consoles (Particularly the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) heralded in the era of narrative-driven games. Unlike prior generations, where games relied on the balance of narrative and gameplay (with the emphasis being heavily on the latter) to keep audiences’ attention, with the right idea, heavy-lifting was able to be done by the story and visuals. The end product was games that played like an interactive movie. In the AAA gaming market, there were two big players. On the PlayStation side was Quantic Dream delivering experiences such as murder mystery Heavy Rain and the supernatural thriller BEYOND: Two Souls featuring Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe. On the Xbox side was Remedy Entertainment, who delivered arguably one of the best Xbox 360 exclusives at the time – Alan Wake.

More than a decade after its first release, console exclusivity has now concluded for Alan Wake, the rights now being in the hands of Remedy Entertainment themselves. Therefore, the studio partnered up with Epic Games to bring a Remastered version not only onto the PC – but also the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S. This makes sense, given the Remedy Entertainment “cinematic universe” was confirmed in the lauded 2019 multi-platform release of Control, which featured an Alan Wake DLC and had many links to its overarching storyline.

Being a Remastered edition, this collection of Alan Wake includes all the original base game + DLC content. Outside of the inclusion of a new audio commentary track recorded specifically for this edition, what you get from start to finish is the same as what you would have gotten in 2010. Back in the day, I strived to 100% Alan Wake’s achievements, so saying I played the whole narrative repeatedly would not be an understatement – given the collectables there were to find. Perhaps assisted by the nicer visuals a little, the story still holds up to this day, and has a suspenseful thriller narrative that keeps you glued to your seat throughout an entire chapter – if not multiple. For those who are playing this for the first time, I truly envy you.

Alan Wake Remastered 1

Alan Wake is a story of light versus dark, with an authors creativity at the centre of it. The titular character is a famous author who has experienced several years of writer’s block and increasingly wild antics. His wife, Alice, takes him on a trip to a mysterious rural town known as Bright Falls for some rest, relaxation and perhaps (she hopes) inspiration. Yet things quickly escalate as an unknown force captures Alice and Alan wakes up a week later at the wheel of a car teetering over a cliff. Roaming the bushland of Bright Falls at night in hopes of contacting someone proves to be hazardous, though… as it quickly becomes clear to Alan that horrors await those who don’t stay in the light. This is but a start to his journey to save his wife, solve the mysteries left behind by Thomas Zane, and potentially put an end to the threat of darkness entirely.

The story of Alan Wake is contained within six chapters, each spanning a couple of hours each in length. Each proves to have that nice balance between gameplay and narrative delivery, with supplementary material littering the world through pages of Alan’s unauthored book that tells of the future. The story is enjoyable and has all the makings of the cult hit it became, answering some questions but leaving players to hypothesize what is to come. The DLC chapters should be played after finishing the main campaign. While they have a narrative purpose for spoiler reasons, these come across as more ‘challenge modes’ over offering the quality and quantity the main chapters do.

Gameplay takes the form of a third-person shooter system, which mostly sees you taking control of Alan as he travels across Night Falls in the evening when shadows come out to attack him. Keeping aligned with light vs darkness storyline, your primary means of defence is a flashlight which can be used to weaken and stun enemies before shooting them with one of several firearms or light-based throwable items. As someone who is not necessarily skilled in any shooter gameplay, I can attest that Alan Wake is very accessible to those of any skill level. The challenge is not so much “can I hit this enemy” but more “can I use my limited ammunition in the best way to not run out / get overrun by shadows”. Having less of an emphasis on your actual ‘shooter genre’ talent allows a greater focus on using light to your advantage.

Alan Wake Remastered 2

The biggest change in Alan Wake Remastered comes from the element you would expect from any Remaster – the visuals. Despite being available on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, some of the advanced graphical features such as ray-tracing or multiple visual profiles are not available, which is a real shame – especially for a game which makes such frequent use of lighting choices to elicit certain emotions within the player. However, the changes from the Xbox 360 to the newest generation consoles is nevertheless impressive – featuring 4K graphics at 60fps, reworked cinematic cutscenes, updated character models and general improvements to the environment and lighting. You would be hard pressed to call it one of the best looking games so far this generation, but is a significant improvement over the original.

As mentioned earlier, the only new addition to Alan Wake Remastered is a new audio commentary, which can be switched on and off (or even with the original releases limited edition audio commentary) in the Settings Menu. The new commentary comes exclusively from Alan Wake’s lead writer Sam Lake, who talks about spoiler-full content about both Alan Wake and Control. I love this small touch, and the commentary was very interesting to hear. Unfortunately, it was difficult to hear over the general gameplay, and it would have been nice to be able to have the game pause to listen to it without the other audiovisual distractions.

Alan Wake is one of those cult classic video games that truly deserves all attention and accolades it receives. While it still hasn’t received that long-awaited sequel (outside of Alan Wake’s American Nightmares, which is… a game), here’s hoping that this release, along with Control continues welcoming newcomers to this classic… and that it leads to something more prominent in years to come.

9.5

A PlayStation 5 review code for Alan Wake Remastered was provided by Australian distributor Five Star Games.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

Want to read

More?