ALAN WAKE REMASTERED [2021] PS5 REVIEW

   🏆  MASTERPIECE  🏆

The positive:

💗 A compelling plot with a great core mystery

💗 Immersive Art direction & stunning presentation

💗 A strong narrative pulse makes it feel timeless, even when showing some rust.

💗 3D Audio is not advertised as a supported feature, but the game seems to use it

💗 The adaptive triggers & haptic feedback are game-changing features

💗 They solved a lot of important stuff like lip syncing & expressions

💗 I love how the plot addresses themes like writer's block & the creator's dilemma

The negative:

👎 Feels like a missed opportunity in a lot of ways

👎 There are issues that are still present, and this remaster does nothing to mitigate them.

👎 The new faces look like high-resolution knockoffs of the originals

👎 The light-based combat is neat at first but becomes repetitive fast

👎 Cutscenes look dated still at 30FPS and the visual and lightning change break immersion

👎 There was a problem with a patch that broke the game's voices on launch date

👎 It ruined my 1st playthrough as I waited months to come back until it was solved

Alan Wake Remastered is the definitive way to play Remedy's 2010 psychological horror masterpiece. The game has received a thorough and clean enhancement of the gameplay by using all of the PS5's central features, including fast loading times and DualSense triggers & feedback. It also feels like a missed opportunity as many issues are still present, and this remaster does nothing to mitigate them. The story and overall structure remain intact. Even so, there is no story-driven action horror game quite like Alan Wake, and this is a great opportunity both for newcomers and fans like me who loved to visit bright falls one more time. 

A GOLD STANDARD

Alan Wake is a gold standard as far as storytelling & psychological horror. We need more games like this! It features a compelling plot with a great core mystery, carefully placed jump scares, ax-wielding murders lurking in the shadows, and nightmare-like supernatural threats. The game shines when it constantly attacks the character with exposition, advancing the plot organically, using words written on pieces of paper and thoughts expressed by protagonist Alan Wake.

I love how the story addresses subjects like writer's block or the creator's dilemma as the main theme and quickly shifts its focus into something different, something darker. Suffering creative burnout following the publication of his most recent book, acclaimed writer Alan Wake and his wife Alice rent a lakeside holiday cabin in a remote town called Bright Falls. We learn Alan is moody and often hard to get by, and their marriage is having difficulties. After an argument, Alice goes missing and Alan is forced to unravel the mystery lurking beneath the town while struggling to resist the attacks of a malevolent entity that manifests as darkness itself. This darkness can possess people, controlling mobs of axe-wielding nightmare figures called “Taken”. Alan is a writer lost in his stories, and it's up to the player to figure out what's real and what's a fabrication. Many of the words you read in the scattered manuscript pages you find foreshadow horrible situations that tend to come to life, while other pages explain past events from a writer's perspective. It's all very original and brilliant.

ENHANCED RUSTY GAMEPLAY

The gameplay mechanics, despite the enhancements, still feel dated, the platforming is clunky and the enemy encounters are repetitive. Still, playing the game feels pretty awesome, even if it sometimes shows its age. Combat is all panicky precision. Enemies are swift and aggressive, they look like imposing dark figures ready to take a swing at you with razor-sharp axes and blades. Flashbangs and flares deliver dazzling crowd control. A well-placed signal flare round is as spectacular as any shotgun, disintegrating Taken into chunky luminescent gibs. 

The adaptive triggers & haptic feedback are game-changers for me. Despite not using the full potential of the dualsense features, it makes an impactful change in how the game plays & feels.  Firing that revolver feels more powerful than ever, I remember one of the manuscript pages says something about wake's arm feeling the intense discharge of the revolver and I felt that too while firing. Also, you can feel the dark presence coming by the way the joystick vibrates, It's something you just can't put into words but feels amazing. The game doesn't advertise the use of 3D audio but it feels like it does, I compared it with the original and the sounds feel like they received a complete overhaul. Having ALL platforms, the PS5 is the best one ever for this remastered experience

I recommend playing on Nightmare for the enemy encounters to be effective and scary, otherwise, any gamer with experience in shooters might find the experience to be a walk in the park. On Nightmare, You’re going to need to be on your toes throughout the game because the Taken can attack you from anywhere. It’s easy to find yourself completely surrounded by them. Beyond your flashlight and various weapons, you can dodge their attacks, but the dodge mechanic hasn't aged well

ENHANCED VISUALS

The Art direction & stunning presentation are greatly enhanced by modern graphics and more detailed environments & textures. The gloomy setting of Bright Falls has certainly never looked better, with jagged edges straightened out by anti-aliasing, high-resolution textures more clearly define objects, and the neon signs in the local diner popping with a more realistically vibrant glow. Unfortunately, the character animations seemingly haven’t received similar attention in the remastering process, making their stiff movements seem as wooden as the western pines that surround the small town. The new faces look like high-resolution knockoffs too.

THE SIGNAL & THE WRITER

The game’s finale escalates toward a series of all-out enemy encounters. Poltergeists and axe-wielding dark figures alike rampage toward Wake as your final destination get closer. At this point, players have already experienced pacing problems, so they frantically toss hordes of shadowy figures at you. The focus of Alan Wake in its final hours becomes its combat.

The subsequent DLC that followed—The Signal and The Writer—chose to lean heavily into this combat-based focus without advancing the plot further. As Wake descends deeper into darkness in these two chapters, combat encounters become extremely predictable and repetitive, only with neatly segmented television screens of a deranged Wake narrating his nightmares and talking crazy in between. I enjoyed both DLC episodes despite being more of the same because I love the game. As compared to the original episodes, their environments are much more terse and foreboding, and their portrayal of Wake’s twisted reality is amazing. The level design is creative and original using established elements mixed with new ideas to keep the repetitive enemy encounters fresh. 

CONCLUSION

Alan Wake Remastered is still the definitive way to experience the psychological horror masterpiece. Its consistently menacing & immersive atmosphere combined with clever plot tricks still makes for a distinctive action-horror experience for newcomers – even if the advanced action of Remedy’s most recent games makes the light-based combat look dull & dated. It also feels like a missed opportunity as many issues are still present, and this remaster does nothing to mitigate them.