![]() That being said, as much as I enjoyed revisiting this handsome remaster of Alan Wake, the intervening decade has done little for its overall subtlety. I have much fonder memories of Alan Wake, and yes, while the coffee flasks still serve no purpose other than being a glinting, shiny collectible to seek out in the all-consuming darkness, I view them more as little tiny nods to its Twin Peaksian setting than anything else. Or perhaps the question should be, is it really worth going back to Alan Wake at all, in the cold light of 2021? Back in the day, our Alec (RPS in peace) was less than impressed with its third person shooting and torch-based combat, and found its string of collectible coffee flasks just another incoherent distraction in its overwritten and mildly nonsensical plot. Indeed, when there's still a perfectly good version of Alan Wake sitting right there on Steam for less than half the cost of this new remaster, you're probably better off playing the original than stumping up the cash for this latest nip and polygon tuck. Alan Wake Remastered, however, marks the first time it's ever come to PlayStation (it having been an Xbox console exclusive all these years), and its spruced up character models, higher frame rates and 4K texture packs feel very much intended to get PS4 and PS5 players up to speed on this old-but-new figure in Jesse's life than us on PC. ![]() While the original Alan Wake had a brief, year-long holiday from Steam in 2017 due to the expiration of its music licences, PC folks have been able to play Remedy's cult classic shooter more or less uninterrupted since its release in 2012. In hindsight, it seems obvious that these two worlds would eventually collide in Remedy's newly established Wake-iverse - such is their shared love of shadowy, flying objects - but back in the dark days of 2010, little did we know that Remedy's tortured horror writer would be making such a big comeback eleven years later. Long before Jesse Faden and the denizens of Control were losing their minds over sentient fridges and rubber ducks, Alan Wake was doing unholy battle with possessed logging tractors and combine harvesters. But, the otherwise great combat quickly gets repetitive, though, Alan Wake does try hard to make it engaging until the end by adding some special enemy types later on.In light of Alan Wake's new relevance in Remedy's Connected Universe, it's well worth making the trip back to Bright Falls for this classic third-person horror shooter, but the remaster has little to tempt PC players over the original Steam release. This is one of the reasons why I couldn't get myself to finish Alan Wake back in 2010 and my second try a couple of years later was also filled with frustration for exactly the same reason.ĭon't get me wrong here, if Alan Wake actually had to offer something fresh and meaningful to the story every time it asked me to walk through another forest, I would be ok with that. The distance between the objectives can be unnecessarily long most of the time and these paths are usually filled with action sequences that don't offer anything meaningful other than being just another action sequence for the sake of action sequences. One thing that bugged me quite often during my 10-hour playthrough is how dull the level design gets when you are treading through the same forest for the fifth or sixth time. The combat is fun and engaging initially but can feel dull later on thanks to repetitive action sequences. ![]() ![]() You'll always want more and always eagerly try to get to the next cutscene to see where this dark thriller is taking you next. Speaking about pacing, Alan Wake's story will never feel dull or unnecessarily long, even when some gameplay elements are not doing it any favours. If only we got more horror games utilising such pacing. This was a unique feature over a decade ago when the original was released, and it still feels very fresh and different. The structure of Alan Wake is very similar, almost identical to a thriller TV series with episodes that usually end with big cliffhangers. The structure of Alan Wake is almost identical to a thriller TV series with episodes that usually end with big cliffhangers.Īlan Wake's story is like something you can usually read in Stephen King's novels - it's brimming with nightmares, fear, but at the same time, determination and courage, as Wake continues to search for his beloved Alice.Įxpect many twists and turns, setbacks and memorable characters on this journey.
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