Remedy’s Alan Wake certainly feels its age, even with a new coat of paint, and that’s okay. At the time of its launch on the Xbox 360 in May 2010, the game’s maturity and inventiveness, in both its narrative and its unique action gameplay, elevated it beyond the pastiche of its influences, to everything from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks to Stephen King’s Christine and Bag of Bones. The game’s impressive visuals especially benefit from the spit shine that Remedy has given it, bringing new life to the battle between darkness and night that wages across Bright Falls’s derelict streets and nightmarish forest.
Bestselling crime writer Alan Wake and his long-suffering wife, Alice, are traveling to Bright Falls on vacation, hoping to remedy his two-year writer’s block. But soon after settling into their lakeside cabin, Alan wakes up from a car accident. A week has apparently past and Alice, who suffers from crippling achluophobia, is nowhere to be found. Desperate to find her, Alan starts questioning his own reality as he’s attacked by the citizens of Bright Falls, all seemingly possessed by whatever dark presence took his wife. Scattered everywhere are the pages of a horror novel he can’t remember writing but depict events that appear to be coming true.
Alan Wake’s core gameplay, wherein the player must drain enemies of their protective “darkness” with light sources before using firearms to take them down, is difficult but satisfying. In true survival-horror fashion, resources must be carefully managed, including ammunition for guns, batteries for Wake’s flashlight, and flares that can dispatch groups and are best saved for larger encounters. Much of the tense combat involves cautiously dodging enemy strikes while maintaining awareness of other attackers to avoid being overwhelmed.
In the world of video games, light is often just a guide or a source of healing, but in Alan Wake it’s its own character, a representation of hope and release, and the only method of fighting the ever-encroaching Lovecraftian “Dark Presence.” Every chapter features a beacon of light in the distance—such as a lighthouse—that directs players to their final destination. Brightly lit areas like picnic grounds heal the player and offer a moment of respite before the next tumultuous trip into the dark, and the pages of Alan’s enigmatic novel feature a mysterious glow guiding the player to them throughout the adventure, functioning as collectibles but also as part of the game’s storytelling. While most pages give context describing the experiences of Alan and the surrounding characters, some suggest events that are happening off screen and others build dread by describing monstrous events that are yet to happen.
This variety is key to Alan Wake’s success. The game is set over six “episodes” (with two DLC epilogue chapters, included with this remaster) and each suggests a different explanation for Wake’s predicament: Is his writing coming to life, a la The Dark Half, or is he institutionalized and imagining this nightmare scenario, like Tim Robbins’s character from Jacob’s Ladder? As with Remedy’s later Control, events and mythology are often intentionally ambiguous, thus allowing our imaginations to fill in the blanks. Enemy encounters are similarly varied, with the game bounding from smaller skirmishes in the darkened woods to large set pieces such as an impressive, and explosive, rock concert where pyrokinetics fend off hordes of attackers.
Only the human character models and their clunky facial animations suffer from a lack of realism compared to the stunningly detailed environments, and this remaster’s lack of ray tracing and HDR are odd for a game that boasts not only strong light effects but also makes both light and dark such an integral part of the gaming experience. Regardless, while Alan Wake Remastered doesn’t substantially alter the twisted tale of the writer and the dark forces that bind him, there’s enough here that connects to the events in Control and it’s Alan Wake-centered AWE DLC episode to makes the return trip to Bright Falls a worthwhile one.
The game was reviewed using a code provided by Edelman.
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