The dark and mysterious story of a famous writer who has lost the motivation to write.
Image credit: PlayStation / Sony Interactive Entertainment promotional art.
Source: PlayStation
Summary
- Name of the game: Alan Wake Remastered
- Launch date: October 5, 2021
- Developer: Remedy Entertainment
- Publisher: Epic Games Publishing
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
- Genre: Adventure, action
- Context: Remastered version of the 2010 classic, with graphical and performance improvements for new generations.
History and narrative
The strong point of the game and undoubtedly what saves it. We are Alan Wake, a writer more lost than La Llorona, who is simply not inspired to write more mystery novels and goes to the small town of Bright Falls. His wife disappears and what he wrote earlier out of nowhere starts to come to life in a particular way through darkness, a key concept of the game.
What kept me interested is to know what had happened to the wife and that there were manuscripts of Alan's that he apparently hadn't written, but which come true. The famous “dark place” comes from a supernatural power that exists in the city, especially under a lake called Cauldron Lake, where whoever enters can bring to life what they write, with the counter that this darkness will try to corrupt you. Pretty crazy, isn't it? Yes, exactly: at the beginning you don't understand anything.
Darkness takes physical forms which are the normal enemies called Taken, And the super random possessed objects like a simple microwave or an icebox attacking you, which was not only scary, but also made me laugh when I saw a toaster popping out at you to hit you. And the villain Barbara Jagger, who tries to manipulate Alan to release all the darkness into the real world.
Spoiler:
The darkness drags the wife to the lake to force Alan to write, as he was not motivated. I don't know how, but Alan enters the dark world and starts writing a story he doesn't even remember writing. The darkness tries to corrupt him into writing a story where darkness rules the city. Zane helps and guides him to save Alice (the wife), then writes a new ending where he saves his wife and defeats the darkness, albeit partially. Alice gets out of that world, but not Alan, who is trapped in that place where, in short, it is an eye for an eye: to save his wife he had to sacrifice himself, which only allowed one to get out. And he, without realizing it, sacrificed himself for her.
Why did he write that ending? It turns out that the reality in Bright Falls only changes if he writes it inside the Dark Place. That sacrifice was part of the script he wrote. By the end of the game he can no longer distinguish between his novel, his nightmares and real life.
To be honest, the narrative is good and interesting, but it is very confusing to understand. You have to pay close attention to understand what is happening and how the story unfolds. In general, I enjoy complex stories, so this one causes an interesting enough mystery to want to finish it.
As for characters, I only highlight Alan and Barry, the rest are completely forgettable. Alan is complex; at least I don't empathize with him. I feel he's a guy who doesn't know where he stands; I don't perceive any marked personality. Sure, he's an unmotivated writer and it shows, but at least he's not an interesting character. Barry is likeable and gives a little more humanity to the game, which feels very cold and lonely. The good thing is that they manage to give it a cinematic and gripping tone.
Gameplay
The game combines a bit of exploration; it's a semi-open world where there are spaces to explore. Its combat is a bit different from what we see in other games: it has its own identity, which gives it that touch of originality, however, it is not the best. Our main weapon is a flashlight; our bullets are practically batteries, but of course, we also have real weapons like a revolver and a shotgun. We also have flares and light projectors more powerful than the flashlight.
The enemies are people shrouded in darkness, so in order to defeat them you attack them with flashlight and then shotgun fire. A lot of the gameplay is like this, and enemies can't attack you where there is good lighting, so all the action is at night. The gameplay entertains for a while, but it gets a bit boring after a while, and a lot of it is about running away. And lucky for us, our protagonist has the worst physical condition I've ever seen in a game, so running is almost useless because the enemy that can't get enough of you can easily catch you and throw objects at you from far away. Having batteries without bullets is useless; having bullets without batteries is also useless; you either have everything or you have nothing. Therefore, you will have to run away being lucky to lose the enemies, because as I said, Alan gets tired in 2 seconds running.
There are no major upgrades to progress through, so what you have is all you'll see. This encourages going very straight to the point; it made me at least not interested in exploring, so I focused on just getting through the campaign.
The controls in this version still feel stiff; it doesn't feel like a game or a modern version of its year at all. It's very basic, which in some games is appreciated. I don't think it needs more elements, but if the idea is to get the player hooked, it does leave it wanting with its gameplay. If you ask me, this section was not what made me keep playing, because at the beginning it is very boring. When you have weapons it becomes more interesting, but before that I did consider quitting the game; the suspense of the story was what made me want to move on.
The learning curve is relative: it's explained well, but adapting to using the flashlight, dodging and shooting can take longer, because incredibly the guns don't have clear aiming. Then you realize that the sight is the light of the flashlight, which at least I didn't understand at the beginning. In addition, there are easy parts and others where several enemies appear, so the difficulty can feel more gradual.
In short, it's a very good gameplay for its time, but it has aged rather poorly. For a 2021 version, yes it's a gameplay that feels dated and you don't get the sense that much work has gone into its remastering. I'd say it's passable, but definitely not the best thing about the game.
Graphics and visual design
The graphics are improved compared to the original version, but it is the minimum expected from a remastering. Textures, lighting and modeling are improved. It complies well, but in this case it will not blow your mind. On some occasions you may notice that it is not up to the level of a game of its year and, yes, sometimes there are parts that still look of an old generation.
Its art style is realistic, focused on a dark and cinematic atmosphere. Compared to games of the same genre, it is just a dark and lonely environment, but not scary; or at least there is no visual element that really conveys horror, fear or worry.
The designs and so on are not creative at all. Don't expect to see some fictional scenery that will surprise you, as it's mostly just a forest like any other. From my point of view, for its original year it was very good, but it does fall short in its current year of release, where I've seen better remasters.
Sound and music
The soundtrack matches what the game has to offer; however, it has nothing memorable, and there is more silence in some parts than background music to create tension. In my experience, I don't remember having perceived an impressive soundtrack. It's the same with the sound effects: I feel they don't reach the standards of their year of release. They deliver, but can still feel like their original version.
The voice acting is fine, with Alan and Barry standing out most of all; the rest is completely forgettable. These two characters do convey emotions, with Alan being a bit more desperate and Barry the charismatic one. They deliver, but I didn't think they were the best either.
Difficulty and accessibility
The game has three difficulty modes: Easy, Normal and Nightmare, all self-descriptive. The game itself is not very complicated; what makes it more difficult are its mechanics. The good thing is that you can change the difficulty, so if there are parts where you get stuck you can use this option.
In terms of accessibility options, compared to recent games of its year, it does fall short. Despite being a remastering, it does not offer advanced options, which could have been better.
Additional content
The campaign can take about 10 to 12 hours, although if you know the game you can finish it in 4 or 5, relatively short. At a replayable level I didn't see much: beyond passing the story in other difficulties, it doesn't offer anything else of value to replay it, because to me the collectibles don't seem to me a reason to replay.
It has two original DLCs called The Signal y The Writer, I haven't played them since the game didn't seem so appealing to me. Even even coming included they don't seem so appealing to me to play them after the story. Although if you liked them, I'm sure they'll be worth it.
Technical Aspects
The game is very stable and with very fast loading times. I felt that this section was better and that they worked more on the optimization than the rest of the game. For modern consoles like PS5 and Xbox Series I felt the FPS was stable.
Yes, the game has minor bugs. Some that happened to me were that when jumping Alan would levitate for a short time, enemies appearing and disappearing when you ran away, or Alan getting stuck between some objects. These are minor bugs that don't break the experience, but you will see them a few times.
Value for money
Its launch price was 30 USD. Which, for a release, is fine, since it is not a remake and does not innovate much. The difference with the original exists, but it is not much. Although, despite the games of its year, there are many that offer much more; that's why, for the base game plus DLC I wouldn't pay more than 20 USD.
It's a short campaign, a bit confusing, with interesting gameplay but not so much. The game is practically the campaign straight to the point and that's it: once finished, it's deleted. What increases its value are the DLCs and its great narrative.
Trophies / Achievements
- Platinum obtained: No
- Percentage of trophies obtained: 45%.
- Estimated time: 25-30 hours.
- Platinum difficulty: 4 out of 10. It really is normal, the most complicated thing is to complete the campaign on the highest difficulty which is not impossible and get your collectibles. There are some complicated parts of enemies, but a few tries and you get it.
Conclusion
Alan Wake is a game that stands out mainly for its narrative. Its focus on the concept of the “Dark Place”, the meta-fiction and the mystery behind the manuscripts make the experience intriguing, though also confusing. In fact, the game's greatest merit is precisely how it manages to trap you into wanting to find out what is going on with Alan, his wife and the strange force controlling Bright Falls.
However, when we move on to the gameplay, the experience loses quite a bit of steam. Although the light vs. dark mechanic is original, it quickly becomes repetitive and limits the experience by how little it evolves. The game is sustained by its atmosphere, not by its gameplay.
Overall, Alan Wake is a worthwhile title for its mysterious story and cinematic style, but it feels dated in gameplay and can get boring at times. It's an interesting, and at times brilliant, but definitely uneven experience where it excels for its narrative and falls down for its gameplay.
My final rating for Alan Wake Remastered is:
3.4 / 5.0
