![]() ![]() ![]() It’s not just about knowing when to conserve your flashlight’s power or when to use it enemies swarm you on mass, so you need to learn how to prioritise your foes – do you target the hulking, chainsaw-wielding nutter first or go for his weaker, faster axe-wielding accomplices? You quickly realise that this deceptively simple mechanic hides a rewarding layer of strategy pulsing beneath its surface. Your flashlight is most effective by holding L2 to focus the beam on your target, but this burns through battery life fast, meaning you’ll have to hit Triangle to slap in a fresh power source or risk having it slowly recharge, leaving you vulnerable. This mechanic is the beating heart of Alan Wake’s gameplay. Armed with a flashlight (you later upgrade to more potent light sources), you’ll have to burn away the darkness surrounding your enemies as they slowly but inexorably close in on you, before finishing them off with your firearm. Wake’s primary weapon against the Taken is light, a concept that stretches beyond just combat. If you missed this cult classic at the time, or have fond memories, the £24.99 tag is well worth the price of admission.While Alan Wake doesn’t rewrite the rule book for third-person horror games – everything from its Resident Evil 4-style over-the-shoulder perspective to its cinematic qualities has been done to death in the past 15 years – it does add some interesting wrinkles to the formula that differentiates itself from the hair-raising rabble. The gameplay feels dated, but the narrative does a great job of carrying the Twin Peaks style atmosphere. As someone who holds the original game in high regard, I was absolutely delighted to get an enhanced version of it. Overall, if you have preconceived opinions of Alan Wake, this remaster is unlikely to change your stance. Certainly, completionists like our imperious leader Craig may encounter more frustrations when attempting nightmare difficulty for the most difficult achievement/trophy. I personally enjoyed the combat the first time around in 2010 and still appreciated the uniqueness of it here, but I can understand those who feel it is clunky and not as accurate as it should be. Flares are also at your disposal for larger groups of assailants but should be used sparingly. Using a torch to essentially break enemies shields and open them up to attacks with your gun. The most divisive part of the original Alan Wake release was the gameplay loop. As this is a remaster, the cutscenes still run at 30fps, which can be jarring when going from the more smooth gameplay experience. While the lack of HDR may feel like an oversight given the focus on light and dark, the environments do a lot of the heavy lifting and distract from the sometimes odd looking facial animations. ![]() ![]() Textures and lighting are impressive under the right circumstances, and the 60fps frame rate adds a real level of polish. Graphically the game has been updated just enough to justify the remastered tag. If you care about grabbing everything a guide is definitely advised, but keep in mind that 13 of the manuscript pages are only available during the nightmare difficulty run. From coffee thermos’, TV shows and more, all the way to manuscript pages that do a great job of both fleshing out the story and being a harbinger of things to come. Alan must search the town while being attacked by civilians seemingly possessed by a dark presence.Īs was the trend at the time, the game is littered with collectables. From the moment you arrive though, things aren’t what they seem and before you know it, Alan is waking up from an apparent car crash and Alice – who suffers from achluophobia – is gone. Alice has planned the trip, hoping to remedy (pun intended) Alan’s two-year writer’s block. To me, Alan Wake handles the remaster expectations well – maintaining the original game, while making it look and run better in the process.įor anyone unaware, the narrative follows Alan and his wife Alice, who have descended on the sleepy town of Bright Falls for a much-needed vacation. How much of an upgrade is it? Have the developers done enough to justify consumers purchasing the product again? These are all valid questions, especially as we have seen remasters handled in a wide variety of ways in recent years. Remasters often lead to a lot of discussions back and forth online. ![]()
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