I never played through Alan Wake when it was originally released. I’ve never really been a fan of horror games, but over the last few years, I’ve grown to have an appreciation for some of the games. After playing through Control and its Alan Wake-centric AWE expansion, I knew I had to give the remastered version of Alan Wake a try.

Alan Wake Remastered puts you in the role of the titular character, a writer who joins his wife Alice on vacation in Bright Falls, Washington. Shortly after they arrive, Alice goes missing and Alan discovers that her disappearance is tied to a dark, sinister presence in Bright Falls. Alan also discovers pages of a horror novel that he has supposedly written, yet has no memory of.

Armed with a flashlight and a handgun, Alan has to face the supernatural darkness that is taking over Bright Falls. The pages of the story are coming true, and if he hopes to find Alice, he’ll have to figure out how to stop it. Aside from the original game, Alan Wake Remastered also contains both of Alan Wake’s expansions (titled The Signal and The Writer) to give the full Alan Wake experience.

The gameplay is probably somewhat standard for a 3^rd person Survival Horror game. You play as Alan and have to navigate the environment. He can sprint for a limited time, though there is no stamina bar, which gets somewhat annoying. Alan can also jump, dodge attacks, and use things like his flashlight along with weapons you find in the environment such as handguns, shotguns, rifles, flare guns, flares, and even flashbangs.

Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, light plays a pretty big part in every aspect of the game. If you are standing in light, you are generally safe. Lamp-posts and lit-up areas usually serve as checkpoints and will allow your health to regenerate. In combat, you must use your flashlight to disperse the darkness protecting enemies, so you can kill them with your weapons.

However, not all weapons are created equal. For example, flashbangs will destroy most enemies without you needing to fire a shot. On the other hand, flares will keep enemies away from you or stun them, but they won’t kill enemies on their own. You also have to manage your flashlight batteries, as well as ammunition. However, what makes this complicated is that at the end of each chapter, due to story reasons and the devs being general sadists, you usually lose all your ammo, and sometimes guns and your flashlight.

This means that at the start of each chapter you’re usually trying to survive and scrounge around just to be able to defend yourself. I understand that the difference in vibe is due to the fact that Alan is a writer, not a fighter like Jesse Faden. However, when the phrase “I lost my gun in the crash!” can describe a good section of dialogue in most chapters of the game, I think there’s a bit of an issue.

It wouldn’t be too bad either if the dodge mechanic wasn’t so finicky. There are times where I thought I had timed it perfectly, but the enemy didn’t seem to recognize it and hit me anyway. At the same time, the fact that Alan metaphorically gets turned upside down and shaken for all of his ammo and equipment just made it frustrating. It also didn’t help that other than finding better versions of guns and flashlights randomly as you progress, there is very little sense of progression in terms of Alan’s capabilities.

You can’t increase Alan’s health and his stamina is a fixed value though, as I previously mentioned, there is no stamina meter. There’s really no way to offset the increasingly intense stakes and groups of enemies that are being thrown at you. Granted, this is a remaster of a game from 2010, so I shouldn’t be so hard on it. However, I would say that the combat elements are the weakest parts of the game.

The puzzles and exploration sections are actually somewhat fun. The story also lets you get immersed in the world for a while until you wind up noticing several discrepancies that just don’t make sense. Without giving spoilers, I’ll just say that there are moments in the game that make you go, “Okay, that’s not how that works.” I’m not even talking about the supernatural elements of the game, I am specifically meaning in practical, real-world situations.

Truthfully, had I not played Control and its DLC first, I might have been a lot more impatient and unhappy with Alan Wake Remastered. A lot of the problems stem from the fact that the game just hasn’t aged super well. However, if you are a general fan of survival horror games and don’t mind a bit of the stereotypical trappings and frustrating bits, then you may not share my frustration with it. It is clear to me that Remedy Entertainment has gotten quite a bit better at storytelling, but Alan Wake Remastered is a great place to see the beginnings of their world-building efforts.

A PlayStation 4 review copy of Alan Wake Remastered was provided by Epic Games Publishing for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Alan Wake Remastered

$29.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Interesting Concept/Story
• Smooth Controls
• Beautiful Visuals
• Fun Puzzle Elements

Cons

• Combat is Clunky
• Some Bits Don't Make Sense
• No Upgrades/Progression