Alan Wake Remastered

 PC
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 103 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 103
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 103
  3. Negative: 16 out of 103

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  1. legiongamer
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    I would whole heartedly recommend buying this complete edition, instead of outdated original. Original was amazing, until this version came out. Now, this is the best version of this game.

    PS: Anyone who whines about Epic Exclusivity, just know, that you should be thankful to Epic, because they are only reason why high quality Alan Wake 2 can ever release. Remedy is not huge company    I would whole heartedly recommend buying this complete edition, instead of outdated original. Original was amazing, until this version came out. Now, this is the best version of this game.

    PS: Anyone who whines about Epic Exclusivity, just know, that you should be thankful to Epic, because they are only reason why high quality Alan Wake 2 can ever release. Remedy is not huge company like Rockstar, they can't afford stuff like that. Epic gave them all the money they needed, to make Alan Wake 2. This is the reason why it will NEVER come to steam and it shouldn't matter at all. All that matters is that Alan Wake 2 is coming thanks to Epic helping out Remedy!    … Expand
  2. Iwillneverfall
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    Very good much needed comeback / remaster for Alan Wake. Despite releasing in 2010 (xbox) and 2012 (PC) it still shines almost like a brand new game, all thanks to this remaster. It's amazing game, but both previous versions were pretty outdated and this game deserved remaster more than anything. PC version was very good by 2012 standards, but playing it now clearly shows it's issues. ThisVery good much needed comeback / remaster for Alan Wake. Despite releasing in 2010 (xbox) and 2012 (PC) it still shines almost like a brand new game, all thanks to this remaster. It's amazing game, but both previous versions were pretty outdated and this game deserved remaster more than anything. PC version was very good by 2012 standards, but playing it now clearly shows it's issues. This remaster pretty much fixes all these issues. This remaster has Better ground textures, better textures on literally everything, better lighting, better draw distance, better vegetation, better cutscenes (still not perfect, but it's 2010 game, what do you expect?), no ghosting effect anymore. In general, looks better than ever! I'm very happy with remaster.… Expand
  3. Lordorthegames
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    While it could always be more, let's be real here, they did great job. The fact that they even cared to remaster it and bring to other consoles as well is big deal.
    Remedy is at least working on stuff, Alan Wake 2 is clearly coming 2022 or 2023. Also it's good that lots of people can finally experience Alan Wake for the first time and also it's great for old fans, because it looks better    While it could always be more, let's be real here, they did great job. The fact that they even cared to remaster it and bring to other consoles as well is big deal.
    Remedy is at least working on stuff, Alan Wake 2 is clearly coming 2022 or 2023. Also it's good that lots of people can finally experience Alan Wake for the first time and also it's great for old fans, because it looks better than old version in every way possible.    … Expand
  4. thereviews555
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    Thank you Remedy for bringing back Alan Wake!!! One of the last video game developers, who actually are trying to innovate/do something different. Extreme hype for Alan Wake 2!
  5. Jaxk45
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    Good remaster, but i would have never hoped for anything less from one of the most underrated game developers, Remedy Entertainment!
  6. Ford2013
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    Very enjoyable remaster, basically everything has been improved, maybe needs few patches for even better performance, but it runs well enough for me.
  7. RexTx
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    All the lack of new games aside, PC gaming has been pretty solid in 2021, first Days Gone PC version, now this remaster and in November (hopefully) GTA trilogy remaster.
  8. lightvsdark
    Oct 12, 2021
    10
    This is very clearly best version of this game. If anyone doesn't believe, just go watch Digital Foundry video of it. Great game.
  9. melon9106
    Oct 25, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is nice! So it would be. It would be if it wouldnt be unfair as **** and wound spawn enemies behind me notoriously from the first minute. Its a cheap move as hell. Also it would be nice with a logical leveling system, not just with outting enemies around me in increasing numbers. Cmon Remedy youre better than this.… Expand
  10. Best_of_2021
    Dec 17, 2021
    10
    This remaster feels kind of underrated, but original Alan Wake was also underrated, so it is what it is. Either way, it improves lots of things from original. Hype for Alan Wake 2!!!
  11. Andrudis
    Dec 20, 2021
    10
    Excellent remaster which made already great game even better. It was nice to come back and relive the story with updated graphics and devs audio comments.
  12. scurpiun77
    Nov 9, 2021
    8
    graphic 8/10
    music and sounds 9/10
    story 9/10
    gameplay 10/10
    i love sam lake.he is honor of video games media
  13. Sholva
    Oct 13, 2021
    10
    Alan wake is a 10/10 game for me. There's no such thing as a "perfect"...anything, really, but since to me scores are pointless, yet taken into account by so many suit-wearing people who don't play games but have the money to make games happen...well, here we are.

    However, this is not a review of the original game which is, as I mentioned, a very good game in my opinion, a prime example    Alan wake is a 10/10 game for me. There's no such thing as a "perfect"...anything, really, but since to me scores are pointless, yet taken into account by so many suit-wearing people who don't play games but have the money to make games happen...well, here we are.

    However, this is not a review of the original game which is, as I mentioned, a very good game in my opinion, a prime example of Remedy's best storytelling and game design, which of course as we all know then evolved into Quantum Break (and game I truly enjoy and replay every now and then) and more recently Control, another excellent game which takes what made Alan Wake special and improves its combat systems to make it even more action oriented.

    For this remaster, the visuals are excellent considering it's still the old MAX-FX engine, let's not forget this engine debuted on the PC in 2001, with Max Payne. The vast amount of rework and time sunk into making THAT engine into what ended up being used for Alan Wake in 2010 for the Xbox 360 version, and later in 2012 in PC....is incredible, and the Developer Commentaries from the original Collector's Edition digital extras explain this in detail, worth looking into if you enjoy learning about how videogames are made and all the struggles that come with it, and how passionate developers poured all they had into making Alan Wake.

    The Textures in the Remastered version look fantastic, character models truly look now like their original, high resolution, renders (that they ended up "downgrading/adjusting" for Xbox 360 and the technology of that time, of course, natural, nothing wrong with that), and Lighting still looks amazing especially at night time.

    It is a shame this game couldn't receive a remake/rework into the more modern Northlight Engine from Quantum Break and Control, and of course Ray Tracing could've been incredible for a game like this. I guess we'll have to wait for that, unavoidable (and teased) at this point, sequel in a few years.

    On my Ryzen 5 3600 and RTX 3060 Ti, performance on launch day and the next day was a bit "weird", not the average FPS per se, that was fine, around 80 to 90 FPS at 4K with DLSS set to Quality, but at lower resolutions particularly, CPU and GPU usage seemed a bit low compared to the frame-rates, possibly a limitation of such old engine.

    Still, at 1080 or 1440p, the game can run quite above 100 FPS, but considering how much better looks at 4K DSR Downsampling (and I assume better on native screens), with the help of DLSS it's a no brainer, and 4K paired with DLSS is a win.

    I also experienced some lighting related artifacts and flickering in the Oh Deer Diner (when we first arrive to the town), which I found could be related to DLSS, MSAA and/or the usage of DSR Downsampling, certain combinations of those made the artifacts go again, while others made them worse.

    I also tested this game on my older PC, sporting an Intel Core i5 4690K at 4.4 GHz (4 cores, no HT), and a GTX 1070; this PC still holds up well for quite a lot of games and the game runs pretty well at 1080, 1440p (for 60 FPS or more) and if you're fine with going below 60, 1620p is also an option, or 4K locked at 30 FPS also ran pretty stable (like on a last-gen console but way higher resolution).

    CPU usage was almost 100% all the time on the 4690K CPU but, surprisingly zero stutters, all very smooth, and GPU usage on the 1070 was pretty high too, above 90% always, so that's perfectly fine.

    After testing the game for a couple days on my older PC, went back to the better PC and I couldn't reproduce the visual artifacts and even the CPU and GPU usage seemed better. Coincidentally, during those past days Epic had disabled their achievement system for the whole platform, whereas when I was playing the first couple days it was active and I suspect it was impacting performance in a way, because many of my achievements didn't pop up, or straight got bugged and never got them.

    That's Epic's fault and not the game, though...so I'm willing to give it a pass for now until Epic re-enables Achievements and sort out their obvious issues.

    I don't have anything negative to say about Epic actually paying for the publishing rights, if they're the publisher for both PC and console, they have a right to keep the game on their platform here on PC, nothing wrong there...if only their platform had the standard features that others like Steam had for years. They'll get there...eventually, but their priorities seem a bit misplaced at times, for now.

    Overall, I have spent almost 40 hours with this remaster on 2 different PCs, and a decent experience on both, the game looks as good as it could without an engine rework or complete migration to a better engine, it plays super smoothly on both my PCs, the gameplay holds up very well, the story is great, and the small easter eggs added to link it to the Remedy Connected Universe are a nice touch, so make sure to look for those : )    … Expand
  14. Jackal_67
    Oct 13, 2021
    10
    It should be called Alan Wake Ultimate Edition, because that's what it literally is. Everything looks so much better than before and it was nice looking game already. Would recommend.
  15. caiolbarbosa
    Mar 2, 2022
    6
    Story is interesting and makes us want to keep going. Gameplay is another story. Game feels old and combat system is really frustrating. Entertained me for a few hours but gameplay ended my patience of finishing the game.
  16. ar1764
    Jul 15, 2022
    4
    Repetitive and nervous game. You have tons of monster around you they kill you and you restart the scene 20x it's very frustrating and boring, no reflexion, just killing phantoms with 3 shots that resuscitate at infinite. This is a stupid game.

    Might as well play outlast 2 for this type of game, which is 100 times better.
  17. Stayinthe_light
    Oct 7, 2021
    10
    This is basically same, what Resident Evil 4 did with Ultimate HD Edition. No ghosting effect anymore, better textures, better draw distance, improved cutscenes, better foliage. Absolutely the best version of this game from now on.
  18. SupportNewGames
    Oct 7, 2021
    10
    Not perfect, yet okay remaster. All cutscenes look way better than original ones, still not amazing, but way better. To be honest i never really cared for the cutscenes in this game, i have played it since 2012 and i always skipped cutscenes after 1st time i played it. I just find it weird when people play it and act like cutscenes aren't top tier, like people don't understand that this isNot perfect, yet okay remaster. All cutscenes look way better than original ones, still not amazing, but way better. To be honest i never really cared for the cutscenes in this game, i have played it since 2012 and i always skipped cutscenes after 1st time i played it. I just find it weird when people play it and act like cutscenes aren't top tier, like people don't understand that this is updated 2010/2012 video game. For 2010/2012, this game looks phenomenally good. So yeah main improvement is cutscenes, but also everything else, like grass, ground textures, textures in general, lighting. Ghosting effect is gone (thank god). Maxed out, this is now best version of this game and nobody can argue that. It simply looks way cleaner and better and don't get me wrong, fog is still there, difference is that you can actually now see where you are going. I have played this game over 30 times and i always got lost somewhere in the woods, because it was so difficult to even understand where you are. This problem is gone now. Looks good, not perfect, but still best version of this game as of right now. graphically it can almost compete with some modern games. New York level looks better than ever. Anyone complaining about performance - i'm sure they will update it along the way, but overall this game doesn't really need more than 60fps. So it runs very well with RTX 2060.
    If you have never played it and wanna choose between this version or original, 100% pick remastered . It is ultimate edition of this game.    … Expand
  19. sowhat22
    Oct 7, 2021
    10
    So typical, bunch of "where's my 500fps, pc mster race" losers are here with their typical whining and complaining. I have been mostly PC gamer my whole life and i can't even express how much i hate these kinds of people. It's great remaster, but i'm pretty sure all this complaining is actually, because of "where's muh steam release". In all honesty, sometimes i wish steam never existed,So typical, bunch of "where's my 500fps, pc mster race" losers are here with their typical whining and complaining. I have been mostly PC gamer my whole life and i can't even express how much i hate these kinds of people. It's great remaster, but i'm pretty sure all this complaining is actually, because of "where's muh steam release". In all honesty, sometimes i wish steam never existed, so these people would just stop wanting their steam release. When i started gaming, steam wasn't a thing for years and everything was just fine and is just fine right now as well. What matters is that game is on pc, not what store you use to buy it.… Expand
  20. International
    Oct 7, 2021
    10
    This is very solid remaster, better than i expected. If you have never played it, play this version and not original, this one has been improved a lot.
  21. ClassicGaming
    Oct 7, 2021
    10
    Beautiful, mysterious, at times even scary game. Would recommend, if you have never played it before.
  22. GTX777
    Oct 7, 2021
    10
    I was kind of worried, how much will they actually improve, but seems to be decent job. Textures/lighting looks way better. Draw distance is better than ever. All you need is a decent graphics card.
  23. TMCThomas
    Oct 10, 2021
    10
    Still an amazing game, probably my all time favorite! The remaster touches some things up and parts of the game really look better. Especially when watching things from close-up. The original had a lot of models and textures that were clearly restricted by the Xbox 360 at the time. The remaster enhances all the textures to what one expects from a modern game and also has a lot of newStill an amazing game, probably my all time favorite! The remaster touches some things up and parts of the game really look better. Especially when watching things from close-up. The original had a lot of models and textures that were clearly restricted by the Xbox 360 at the time. The remaster enhances all the textures to what one expects from a modern game and also has a lot of new models for items that appeared low poly in the original including the character models. Together with some minor lightning tweaks the game looks really great again. Some limitations of it's time remain but it's definitely an upgrade. Alan wake is really a game that's all about the story and Atmosphere, with that the gameplay for some might be somewhat limited. Personally I think it's great as it is. I don't find it repetitive either. It's the story that drives me forward and the gameplay is a bonus and completely adequate for a story focused game. I would say it's highly recommended to check it out if you like a good story. For people that already have the original on pc it's a great excuse to get into it again though it's definitely not necessarily to get the remaster, the original still holds up great if you don't look at things to closely. The atmosphere is just as great. But if you want the best the remaster is certainly an improvement.… Expand
  24. fallofalanwake
    Oct 7, 2021
    10
    To me it's extremely weird to read that people have some bugs/glitches. I'm not saying that they are lying, because these kinds of things can happen time to time, but it seems to be rare. Before playing it, i was actually worried that this will be bug fest or something, but now i'm in Episode 4 and haven't had any bugs at all. Literally no bugs. Maybe i'm lucky idk, but for me game runsTo me it's extremely weird to read that people have some bugs/glitches. I'm not saying that they are lying, because these kinds of things can happen time to time, but it seems to be rare. Before playing it, i was actually worried that this will be bug fest or something, but now i'm in Episode 4 and haven't had any bugs at all. Literally no bugs. Maybe i'm lucky idk, but for me game runs fine and looks better than ever. I'm sure whatever issues some people have had, Remedy will fix them in coming weeks/months. But overall this version is absolutely best version of this game.… Expand
  25. Engineer1
    Oct 8, 2021
    10
    An excellent plot on it, you can shoot TV shows and films, played for more than 50 hours because I wanted to achieve all the achievements and in the end I succeeded
  26. dotrem
    Oct 30, 2021
    2
    It is not how you make remasters. Dropped the game after first chapter, literally unplayable. Why? You can evev walk a straight line. I tried both mouse+keyboard and DS4 controller and in both cases i can not controll the character. I can not aim, can not walk. When i tried to run everything turns into epeleptic show. The big question how it's possible to make 10 years old game worse. AndIt is not how you make remasters. Dropped the game after first chapter, literally unplayable. Why? You can evev walk a straight line. I tried both mouse+keyboard and DS4 controller and in both cases i can not controll the character. I can not aim, can not walk. When i tried to run everything turns into epeleptic show. The big question how it's possible to make 10 years old game worse. And yeah, original game was great.… Expand
  27. Programmer
    Oct 8, 2021
    10
    + Very atmospheric game
    + I still have a high percentage of interest in this game even after 10 years
    + Control system at height
    + Great sound
    + Looking forward to continuing
  28. Jurigag
    Oct 7, 2021
    4
    The game is really badly optimized, it's even worse than in original. It seems they just put some wrapper to DirectX 12 which is really heavy on CPU. You need like a TOP cpus for the game from 2010 to have high fps(100+). For example on my setup ryzen 3600x + rtx 3070 i have around 40-50% gpu usage and 30-40% cpu usage during a game making it total 60-80 fps in 3440x1440, DLSS does nothingThe game is really badly optimized, it's even worse than in original. It seems they just put some wrapper to DirectX 12 which is really heavy on CPU. You need like a TOP cpus for the game from 2010 to have high fps(100+). For example on my setup ryzen 3600x + rtx 3070 i have around 40-50% gpu usage and 30-40% cpu usage during a game making it total 60-80 fps in 3440x1440, DLSS does nothing because there is cpu bottleneck, it uses maximum 25% of total cpu power. Also there are some problems with movement - when direct input is off(you can switch it in settings) the mouse is hugely accelerated, but when enabled - sensivity is super low - need to set very high dpi amount. Why just not give people option to disable mouse acceleration without enabling direct input?

    Other than that graphics seems nice and about price it seems fair that it costs 30$.    … Expand
  29. Airacobra
    Oct 7, 2021
    5
    Well, better textures. RTX on? Some RTX. DLSS support. Badly optimized - lags even on 3070 in 4K.

    Story is still magnificent. Not a single cahnge. All-in-all not so bad for the people who missed the game before. Not worth replyaing if you played old one.

    But in the G-d's name tell me - WHAT HAPPENED WITH HIS FACE? Ahahahh! Looks like a drunk gorilla now! Ahahaha!
  30. Wretic
    Oct 7, 2021
    3
    Alan Wake is a great innovative story about a writer, right? right because you probably played the original game a long time ago and thought oh AWESOME a remaster? Got to get my hands on it, with the latest tech it should probably be child's play for the devs. So after me purchasing it on Epic Games and installing / booting the game I was genuinely pumped to replay this old game withAlan Wake is a great innovative story about a writer, right? right because you probably played the original game a long time ago and thought oh AWESOME a remaster? Got to get my hands on it, with the latest tech it should probably be child's play for the devs. So after me purchasing it on Epic Games and installing / booting the game I was genuinely pumped to replay this old game with upgraded graphics since it had been so long. From the FIRST moment I had graphical glitches, literally in the first minute or so it started happening. Thought it was, perhaps, a certain setting like DLSS /V-sync something like that that could've caused it, after playing it for roughly 2h 30m I quit the game, the utilization of your GPU is very very bad, it doesn't even use your GPU as it should, in-game and on desktop my GPU is standard 50c. When normally, when the GPU is actually used to its full potential it's around 70-72c which is very normal. With a 5900x / 3060 ti / 32 GB ram you would expect this game to run like butter, nothing is further from the truth, no this game has FPS peaks from 80 - 120 - 140 back and forth constantly. On top of I had one instance where I could look fully through the game world below the main character (alan). I would highly suggest to dust off your original copy of the game instead of buying or even playing this remastered version. the reason why I give it a 3 is IF you can look past the graphical glitches and it somehow doesn't bother you one bit then I guess it's a decent remaster you would want to play, they sure tried their best 'upgrading' it from what I believe. However I do think the devs are 100% slacking even after the X amount of people posting on multiple sites (like Reddit) how badly this game is optimized and the X amount of bugs / glitches people have ran into is actually quite baffling, some have completely different types of issues then I experienced which shows you how badly optimized this game actually is. They run this game on CONTROL's (game) engine, which is totally fine but I guess they didn't figure out to test the game properly on different types of machines before launching it. The gameplay has always been a clunky even in the original game, yes it is smoother when you play with 60FPS+ however it's still as what it once was, I've been OK with that type of style of combat and this review would've been positive if the issues didn't persist as they're right now.

    For any potential buyers.. if you own LAST GEN or NEXT GEN console, please buy it there instead, I haven't heard any complaints about the console versions thus far, Stay away from the PC version at all costs until they actually patched it properly.    … Expand
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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. GameGrin
    Apr 7, 2023
    100
    I don't see why anyone shouldn't pick this title up; it's phenomenal, enthralling, and — possibly most important — fun.
    Read full review
  2. Riot Pixels
    Dec 23, 2021
    72
    The remastered version retains the familiar gameplay with all its quirks and problems, but looks much better than the original, especially textures. The improvements are not as drastic as in Diablo 2: Resurrected, but definitely put Mass Effect: Legendary Edition to shame.
    Read full review
  3. Het Nieuwsblad
    Dec 3, 2021
    80
    Nothing has been changed about the base of the game. It’s still the same game from 2010, but with a graphical update so that Alan Wake Remastered can compete with contemporary games. At least that was the intention, but the polished visuals cannot hide the fact that they are actually a decade old. So why is it still worth getting the Remaster? The game simply is a masterclass in storytelling and game design.
    Read full review
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