Remedy displays a film-maker’s eye for moody set-pieces. Photograph: Remedy EntertainmentĮither way, it’s easy enough to forgive the clunkers with an atmosphere this engrossing. Is this a meta mind-melter or a hokey tribute? The Dark Tower or Ready Player One? Is Alan a fading hack, or a sharp talent starved of inspiration? If nothing else, the game elicits interesting questions about just where it stands on itself, daring you to take it seriously one moment, then having Wake’s agent Barry wrap himself up in Christmas lights for “Protection, man! Like garlic against vampires!”Īlan Wake Remastered: Alan and his wife Alice. An axeman approaches “like Nicholson in the Shining”, murderous clouds of crows have “gone all Hitchcock” on Wake’s literary agent. On the evidence of Max Payne’s indulgent noir navel-gazing and Control’s overwrought monologues, the studio is quite capable of both ironic and genuinely clumsy dialogue.Ĭlanging heavy-handedness is kind of Alan Wake’s whole deal, though. Whether you can see its stilted dialogue as a tribute to Lynchian uncanniness, or perhaps a wry wink at Alan’s own shortcomings as a writer, will depend on how generous you’re feeling to the writers at Remedy Entertainment. A well-placed round from the launcher is as spectacular as any shotgun, disintegrating Taken into chunky luminescent gibs. Flashbangs and flares deliver dazzling crowd control. Alan can move and fire simultaneously, but enemies are swift and aggressive, so it all feels like a more fluid take on old-school Resident Evil’s spooky, stop-and-pop shooting gallery. You fight back by training Alan’s battery-guzzling flashlight on foes, scorching out the darkness before finishing the job with rusty hunting rifles and revolvers.Ĭombat is all panicky precision. The darkness infiltrates anything it can to stop you, controlling mobs of axe-wielding “Taken” or attempting to mulch Alan by possessing farming machinery, like some deranged Lovecraftian Wurzels cover band. Alice goes missing after an argument, and Alan is forced to unravel the mystery lurking beneath the town of Bright Springs, while grappling with a malevolent entity that manifests as darkness itself. Suffering creative burnout following the publication of his most recent book, two years ago, writer Alan Wake and his wife Alice rent a lakeside holiday cabin somewhere in the American Pacific Northwest. Just don’t let its glow linger on this remaster’s freshly renovated scenery for too long, or you’ll risk getting spooked at just how sparse the improvements really are. In Alan Wake – Remedy’s 2010 very Stephen-King-inspired, Twilight Zone-meets-Resident-Evil-4 adventure – your torch is your trustiest weapon. A flashlight often spells vulnerability in horror games it’s something to grasp desperately when the bullets run dry.