Alan Wake Remastered

Alan Wake Remastered is a fairly inessential upgrade for existing fans, but this moody mystery is still well worth a look for newcomers.

Creepy atmosphere, fantastic combat, and clever storytelling make Alan Wake's quest thrilling from beginning to end.

It’s the grim veneer that not only saves Alan Wake, but like his flashlight, burns through the darkness that is its cloying gameplay. Alan Wake’s sense of place, its themes, the mood it creates, makes it a classic, and nothing — not even time — can overshadow that.

Well worth revisiting over a decade later to see how your theories hold up. This is a great game to discuss with friends – a book-club experience for gamers

Writer Alan Wake searches for his missing wife while tackling a malevolent force disguised as darkness in this clunky but atmospheric reboot

An uneven action experience gets by on a huge amount of charm and a gorgeous visual treatment that more than holds its own ten years later.

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.

Alan Wake was and still is an occasionally bizarre action horror game, with some lovely set-pieces, fun combat, and what I hope is a slightly tongue-in-cheek sense of self-importance. I think it stands up remarkably well 11 years after its original release and this Remaster is the best way to experience what I consider to be a modern classic.

But I’m not ready to let this one go yet. I waited more than 10 years to finally play Alan Wake, and now that I’ve seen the credits roll, I can’t get it out of my mind. It’s firmly sunk its teeth into me, and like with many of the other greats, I’ll be returning to this world again and again for years to come.

For existing fans, this no-frills remaster is the best way to experience the 2010 game on modern consoles, but in 2021, much of the title simply doesn't hold up. Without the benefit of nostalgia, Alan Wake doesn't work as horror because it's not scary, as a thriller because long stretches of the game are fantastically boring, or as an action game because the combat is uninspired and repetitive. There's an interesting central mystery here, but like Alan Wake himself, you'll have to go through hell to find it.