Alan Wake Remastered

About Alan Wake Remastered

Alan Wake first came out in 2010, made by Remedy Entertainment, the Finnish studio behind Max Payne and Control. This remaster, published by Epic Games, came out in October 2021 on PC through the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S, and on Nintendo Switch in October 2022. It includes the main game and its two expansions, The Signal and The Writer, with improved visuals.

Alan Wake is a best-selling novelist with writer's block. He and his wife Alice travel to Bright Falls, a quiet lakeside town in the Pacific Northwest, for a break. She disappears. A week later he wakes up with no memory of what happened and starts to find pages of a manuscript in his own name, describing events before they happen.

The story is told like a television series, in episodes with recaps. By day you talk to the townspeople; by night you go into the woods, logging camps and mountains, where the Taken, locals possessed by a dark presence, come for you. Darkness protects them, so you must burn it away with your flashlight before a bullet will hurt them, while managing batteries, flares and ammunition. Light is safety: street lamps and generators give you places to recover.

Reviewers found it a fairly small upgrade for those who played the original but a moody mystery well worth playing for newcomers. It suits players who like story-heavy horror with the feel of Stephen King and Twin Peaks, and anyone who plans to play Alan Wake 2, which continues the story.

How to play Alan Wake Remastered

1. Follow the story episode by episode, exploring Bright Falls by day and the woods at night.
2. Aim your flashlight at the Taken to burn away the darkness around them, then shoot them.
3. Manage flashlight batteries, flares, flashbangs and ammunition; you can carry only so much.
4. Run to street lamps and other lights to recover and stay safe when you are overwhelmed.
5. Collect manuscript pages to read ahead in the story.

Tips

• Dodge when the Taken swing at you; timing it right slows the action and saves you.
• Keep flares for when you are surrounded; they hold enemies back.
• Head for the next light source when a fight goes badly.
• Read the manuscript pages; they hint at what is coming.

Questions