Alan Wake Remastered review: Bringing a great game back into the light

Alan Wake Remastered Source: Ballsy Games Publishing

Alan Wake, both the titular author and the game, are going through a fascinating journeying. While long lauded amid the best works of storytelling prodigy Remedy Entertainment, information technology never saw the aforementioned commercial success, spending years as something of a cult classic. Now that it's dorsum through Alan Wake Remastered, I hope some people who skipped out have the plunge with its revival.

Rough around the edges as it was, Alan Wake remains a personal favorite of the Xbox 360 years. It weaves a dark tale of nightmarish writing coming to life, a story both far-reaching in its terrifying telescopic, yet oddly personal in its characters. I loved it all those years ago and going through Alan Wake Remastered merely cemented that feeling.

This remaster doesn't go quite every bit far equally I'd have liked in some ways but the core story remains riveting and the gameplay holds up. In that location'south a lot of Xbox games dropping this fall just if y'all've never played Alan Wake earlier, or yous're a veteran pondering a return trip to Brilliant Falls, this isn't one to miss.

Alan Wake Remastered Boxart

Alan Wake Remastered

Bottom line: Alan Wake Remastered compiles a polished compilation of the original game and its DLC. A few more extras would've been overnice but this is the best mode to play through Remedy's horror adventure.

The Good

Improved character models and lip-sync
60 FPS for the latest consoles

The Bad

Small gameplay annoyances remain unchanged

Disclaimer: This review was fabricated possible by a review code provided by Epic Games Publishing. The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.

Alan Wake Remastered: What I liked

Alan Wake Remastered Overlook Source: Windows Key

There are 2 camps of people that might be interested in Alan Wake Remastered: curious newcomers and those who accept played it before. For the sake of the former, I'll keep everything ahead spoiler-free, equally the story is paramount to what makes Alan Wake then memorable. The events unfold around a burnt-out mystery writer, worried he's already by his prime, unable to pen annihilation new since his last huge book.

On a getaway vacation in the calm Pacific Northwest town of Vivid Falls, his wife Alice goes missing, and Alan loses a week of his memory. He keeps finding pages of a manuscript that seem to accept been written by him, while contents of those pages seem to be happening in front of him. That'due south only the outset of a descent into horror, as there'southward darkness post-obit Wake, both alive and very, very hungry.

Category	Alan Wake Remastered
Title	Alan Wake Remastered
Programmer	Remedy Amusement
Publisher	Epic Games Publishing
Genre	Third-person shooter
Xbox Version	Xbox Series X
Game Size	38.6GB
Play Time	12 hours
Players	Singleplayer
Xbox Game Pass	No
Launch Price	$30

At its core, Alan Wake was and yet is a tertiary-person shooter. Yous collect various guns, flares, and flashbang grenades, using calorie-free, = oftentimes in the form of your trusty flashlight, to strip away the shadowy armor of the "Taken." If the darkness isn't removed from the Taken — people, animals, and objects that completely succumb to the nighttime — they can't be stopped. Your batteries are equally as valuable as your bullets.

I previously wrote near how Alan Wake Remastered is a chance for newcomers to experience an overlooked archetype, and every give-and-take of that rings even more than true at launch. Drawing on other works like the Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, and the tales of Stephen Male monarch, Alan Wake delves into horror by presenting a very personal, grounded globe. The people Alan converses with by day might become bloodthirsty, hollow shells by night.

Alan Wake is a personal tale of exhaustion, desperation, and hope, something that sticks with me now more than always before.

This tension is woven into the gameplay, as whatsoever source of light becomes a literal beacon of hope, a refuge from the unending hordes of Taken. In a genre of games where horror is dominated by zombies and other monsters, the unearthly void that is Alan Wake'south terror only stands out every bit truly unique. Alan Wake is a personal tale of burnout, desperation, and promise, something that sticks with me now more than e'er before. Alan Wake was i-of-a-kind back in 2022. Years later, that unique remainder still works simply as well every bit before.

I also have to mention the score, which includes several stellar licensed tracks, including some particular standouts from Finnish rock band Poets of the Fall.

Alan Wake Remastered Cutscene Phone Source: Windows Fundamental

The game'due south story is divided into 8 "episodes," with the first six composing the original game, and the terminal two being postal service-launch DLCs that were later available. Using this episodic structure, the game'due south pacing remains specially stiff. The game doles out combat encounters and the story reveals at just the right rate, with the documents y'all find providing excellent foreshadowing of what may come up around the corner.

As far as technical improvements go, this is explicitly a remaster, non a remake. There'south a slate of components that are polished to provide a smoother experience. The resolution is vastly improved over the original Xbox 360 release while running at 60 frames-per-second (FPS) on the latest consoles. The world surroundings is certainly a tad dated merely information technology notwithstanding looks good, with the thick fog and well-baked Pacific forest providing a solid backdrop to the horrors lurking in the dark.

Nevertheless, the character models and lip-syncing see incredible improvements, all vastly superior to the original version of the game. At that place's more particular and expression on everyone, with mouths actually matching recorded dialogue, though it does hateful we get less of Alan'southward iconic slack-jawed look.

Alan Wake Remastered: What I didn't like

Alan Wake Remastered Evening Lake Source: Windows Central

While just being a remaster is fine, there's definitely a sense that more could've been done for Alan Wake Remastered. A lack of proper HDR support and ray-tracing is a particular shame every bit the game already features such dark, eerie scenery that more striking contrasts would've been a natural fit. It'due south not a dealbreaker but if you've played the game on PC before, you've already experienced it at a higher framerate, which is 1 of the major improvements here.

A lack of proper HDR support and ray-tracing is a particular shame.

The gameplay is similarly fine, though it's also a shame that Alan'south jumping remains equally clumsy every bit always. Allowing him to pull himself up or refining the jumps a bit would've made the game's (thankfully rare) platforming sequences much more palatable. Alan besides still runs out of breath very quickly while sprinting, something that isn't too bad during normal gameplay but definitely can become a headache when you're heading off the beaten path to find more collectibles.

Alan Wake Remastered: Should you play information technology?

Alan Wake Remastered House Source: Windows Central

If you're in the camp that never played Alan Wake before, grabbing this remaster is just a no-brainer. The story and characters are every bit as gripping as before and while the gameplay may non reach the heights of time-bending adventure Quantum Pause or the surreal earth of Control, it's potent enough to go along up with the horror tale being told.

For anyone that has played Alan Wake earlier, specially on PC, the somewhat limited technical improvements brand information technology a flake harder to justify. Still, if you lot're wanting to spring into Alan Wake in 2022, it's worth the time and money. It's no secret that Remedy is working on another title with Ballsy Games, and now is the right time for players to leap back into the dark lake of Alan Wake. The implications of the story accept long gone unanswered, and like any adept horror story, that's for the all-time.

Now, bring on Alan Wake 2.

*Alan Wake Remastered is set to launch on Oct. 5, 2022 for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC, PS5, and PS4.

Alan Wake Remastered Boxart

Alan Wake Remastered

Bottom line: It's not a huge overhaul but the technical additions that are here make this the best way to play one of Remedy'southward best games. If yous've never gone through Alan Wake before, this is the way to get.

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