Even today, the gameplay and the exciting storyline are more than impressive. Over a decade since the original dropped on Xbox 360, Remedy Entertainment's thriller-horror Alan Wake still has the capacity to outshine modern horror games that rely on cheap jump scares, leaving aside the most important aspect of a true horror story - creating an eerie atmosphere with excellent writing, story and characters.Ĭerealkillerz - Manuel Barthes - German - 8.3 / 10Īlan Wake Remastered is the prime example of a video game that has aged extremely well. 'A very good remaster with solid technical improvements where they can be applied and transparently allowing the Alan Wake story to be experienced again or the first time.' Still though, despite those bugbears, it’s still a marvellous game.OpenCritic - 82 average - 90% recommended - 22 reviews Critic Reviews It also annoys me, an ardent Alan Wake fan, that I can’t jump straight into nightmare mode as well, which you’d have thought was an absolute gimme for a remaster.

And finally, there’s the whole “here comes a new chapter, let’s strip you of your weapons and batteries” syndrome, something that is just incredibly annoying in a survival-horror game. Then there’s the animations and the navigation, aspects of that definitely haven’t stood the test of time. The fact Alan has the stamina of a, well, a writer. Weirdly, 11-years later, there are a few things that bug me more about the game now than they did back then. Still, after all this time, Remedy’s writing, the way it builds suspense, the design of its set-pieces and their phenomenal use of licensed music truly does stand the test of time, and would be lauded today as it was back then. And yeah, you’d be a fool too not to revisit it too. Otherwise though, the game plays exactly how it did 11-years ago, and with the two bits of DLC included, you’d be a fool to not give it a go if you haven’t already played it. Also, I’m not a fan of the new look Alan. The environments, with their new depth of detail – and significantly less fog – definitely do seem shinier now, although this is definitely a lick-of-paint remaster rather than a built from the ground up remaster, but Alan Wake Remastered actually feels far less atmospheric now, which was part of the original’s lure. On the one hand I absolutely adore being able to play through the woes of the moody Alan Wake in 4K at 60fps on a new-gen consoles, as he hunts down his missing wife – it’s absolutely silky smooth too! But then on the other hand, it loses something. And I was right!Īs remasters go though, I’m in two minds about Alan Wake Remastered. Maybe that put me off? I’d like to think the real reason though – and in the back of my mind, this was almost certainly it – was because it was only a matter of time until it got the remaster treatment. Perhaps it was that all I needed to truly finish off the game was to play it on Nightmare mode and get those pesky missing manuscript pages. For me, Alan Wake represented Microsoft’s chance to be relevant in that single-player space while Sony started to excel – it was equally as good as Uncharted 2 was at that time, in my eyes. Was it that I wasn’t a fan of Remedy’s titular adventure? Absolutely not, I adored (and still do) Alan Wake - you’ve only got to read my review of the game from 11-years ago to see that’s true. But something in the back of my mind put me off over the last however many years (11 to be precise). It’s been lurking in the shadows, just calling out to me, demanding that I return to it. For years I’ve been staring at my copy of Alan Wake sat there on my shelf, gathering dust like another forgotten realm of my past.

Alan wake remastered ps5 review