11 years after the original's debut, Remedy Entertainment has released Alan Wake Remastered. Surprisingly, Remedy's cult-classic game holds up at its core. The story still shines as bright as Wake's trusty flashlight and the gameplay - albeit not totally perfect - is still engaging and fun. Remedy's writing is tightly woven and timeless, making the game a treat to both re-experience or enjoy for the first time.
Since this is the first time Alan Wake will be on PlayStation, some players may be a bit unfamiliar with the story. Alan Wake follows a washed-up writer on a vacation in a small town. Things quickly go awry, resulting in him living out the plot of his latest novel, which he can't remember writing. As a result, his wife has disappeared and the Lynchian town of Bright Falls is under siege by a dark supernatural force that he must destroy.
There's a lot that makes Alan Wake what it is beyond its story, though. There are remasters that have made fatal errors that completely stripped away the souls of their original games. Batman: Arkham Asylum had a controversial remaster which sucked all of the atmosphere out of the game due to poor lighting changes. The same could've easily happened here, but all of the mist, excessively bright lights, and shadowy, harrowing forests are still intact. Alan Wake Remastered not only retains its creepy small-town aesthetic, but enhances it as well.
Without directly comparing Alan Wake Remastered's graphics to the original, the new improvements likely won't be obvious to those who aren't familiar with the older version of the title. On top of 4k/60FPS, things like volumetric lighting have been improved so moonlight shines through the trees, creating a natural and moody atmosphere that evokes an unnerving feeling. In a game that uses metaphors of light and darkness in a very literal fashion, having a spotlight from the heavens guiding or protecting Alan Wake on his journey feels poetic.
There's an abundance of other little details, such as dust particles in the beam of the flashlight and more nuanced facial performances in cutscenes. Alan's eyes are a bit too expressive, which can be a bit creepy, but otherwise, it allows for lots of subtlety in how the characters emote. Characters have more room to showcase their fear, frustration, and sadness, while in the original, they were more flat due to technical limitations.
Despite Alan Wake Remastered's improved graphics, there are some things holding this variant back. Sometimes it's as simple as some stutter in cutscenes, which is brief and relatively infrequent, but it can also be more substantial. During Episode 5, one of the companions Alan has to follow around can become stuck and prevent the player from progressing. This can only be resolved by starting the entire chapter over from scratch and replaying up until that moment. Remedy has noted it's aware of some issues such as audio desyncing in cutscenes and plans to address them for launch, but they're worth noting nonetheless.
Alan Wake Remastered also has new features that may be more attractive to players, however. Alan Wake writer Sam Lake offers up a commentary track talking about his creative process, the connection between Alan Wake and Control, and more. There's not a lot of substantially new or interesting information here, so it's probably something that only hardcore fans will be interested in. That said, there are also some QR codes scattered around the game. To avoid spoiling any surprises, they're certainly alluring and fans will want to track them down.
Alan Wake Remastered's improvements are subtle and won't dramatically change the experience, but that also means it retains what made it so special in the first place. The atmosphere is chilling ,and the story holds up after over a decade, meaning it doesn't need a full-blown remake to still feel worthy of a modern retelling. Even with its flaws, Alan Wake Remastered is worth playing in 2021, especially for those who missed it the first time around.
Alan Wake Remastered will release on October 5, 2021 for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC via Epic Games Store. An Xbox Series X review code was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.