Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2021
Released: 2021
First impression is that cutscenes look dated in their animation and picture quality and, more alarmingly, gameplay feels a little dated too. However, it quickly sinks in that Alan Wake always felt different in the controls than a typical third person shooter. The camera hangs a tad to the side, to give players a nice view of where the torch is aimed, and Alan himself uses quite a bit of animation time to turn and change direction.
Luckily, we see a massive jump in framerate, from 30fps to 60fps, plus an option to turn off the overdone, smeared out, motion blur. Combined with a fine, but somewhat modest, 1440p resolution. It ends up playing as sharp as it looks, especially when compared to what we were used to back on the old Xbox 360.
You see, Alan Wake may seem a little slow and awkward to control on the surface , until you understand it’s logic. It's all about making the enemies vulnerable to attacks by lighting the torch at them, then going in for the kill with a revolver or shotgun, once their darkness shield has been broken. This juggling of two types of attack, takes practice, but once it clicks you start playing it better and better.
From this moment, your play style advances into perfectly timed dodges from axes, pitchforks and knives. Resulting in slow motion segments, that in turn allow you to breath and plan your next attack. When attacked from multiple angles you need to plan your defence and attack, getting rid of enemies and holding back the others with the torch light.
That’s the moment, when Alan Wake really shifts into gear.
Progressively the game throws harder and larger numbers of enemies at you, putting you off your guard. At its surface, it’s a strange juggle of torches, light sources, flare guns and regular firearms. Then, as you dig in deep, you do these movie-like dances of choreography popping off one enemy after the other. It’s a delight to play for sure. If only Alan could run further without getting out breath!
The original and unique way the story is told, holds up well too, alongside the gameplay. Alan is a writer and he narrates the story as you pick up pages from a book he’s living out in the real world. It’s voiced incredibly well, and cleverly these book pages give you small previews of what will unfold in the game ahead. Making you build fear for something that will happen further along the path.
The original and unique way the story is told, holds up well too, alongside the gameplay. Alan is a writer and he narrates the story as you pick up pages from a book he’s living out in the real world. It’s voiced incredibly well, and cleverly these book pages give you small previews of what will unfold in the game ahead. Making you build fear for something that will happen further along the path.
The story is a dark, purposely cliched and overly deliberately heavy on the metaphors, yet captivating and portrays living out a Stephen King novel of some kind. It kind of over dramatises that book genre, yet at the same time lets you live out such a book in a game.
Environments help build a unique atmosphere too, especially if you're from these type of areas in the US or Scandinavia. The eerie darkness of pine woodlands with massive mountains as backdrops shine through as heavy inspiration by the Finnish development team at Remedy. Giving a perfect and beautiful scenery for a remote story of a lost writer captured in his own horror novel.
Environments help build a unique atmosphere too, especially if you're from these type of areas in the US or Scandinavia. The eerie darkness of pine woodlands with massive mountains as backdrops shine through as heavy inspiration by the Finnish development team at Remedy. Giving a perfect and beautiful scenery for a remote story of a lost writer captured in his own horror novel.
A smart choice, considering effects like changes between daytime and night that are contrasted vividly, making you fear the darkness. It’s a perfect, moody, autumn title to play and, combined with earphones, gives you hectic and fearful moments in its dense woods. Without being a typical horror title like Silent Hill or Resident Evil.
I would've preferred this remaster to add more enhancements. Basically, outside of Alan’s new face which better replicates the real actor, its mostly the old PC version, thus running better lighting effects, resolution and textures. That said, for console players, the jump from a heavily, motion blurred, resolution of 540p, running 30fps, to a healthy 1440p and smooth 60fps is a significant and much appreciated upgrade.
While the actual remaster job resides in a standard delivery of small upgrades, the main game still holds up surprisingly well once you warm up to the controls. There’s an audio track commentary for the whole game by the writer, Sam Lake, and the DLCs from the main game are included, though sadly not the spin-off predecessor Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.
If you somehow missed out on this amazing psychological horror back in 2010, here’s your chance! It's a five on the dice but as a remaster job, excluding American Nightware, its scores one less.
I would've preferred this remaster to add more enhancements. Basically, outside of Alan’s new face which better replicates the real actor, its mostly the old PC version, thus running better lighting effects, resolution and textures. That said, for console players, the jump from a heavily, motion blurred, resolution of 540p, running 30fps, to a healthy 1440p and smooth 60fps is a significant and much appreciated upgrade.
While the actual remaster job resides in a standard delivery of small upgrades, the main game still holds up surprisingly well once you warm up to the controls. There’s an audio track commentary for the whole game by the writer, Sam Lake, and the DLCs from the main game are included, though sadly not the spin-off predecessor Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.
If you somehow missed out on this amazing psychological horror back in 2010, here’s your chance! It's a five on the dice but as a remaster job, excluding American Nightware, its scores one less.
