Heather CosyHooks Alan Wake Remastered Review

Ok, so I recently downloaded Alan Wake, having very much enjoyed Remedy's Control Game & wanting to play their back catalogue before Control 2's release. In all honesty, I'd tried to play Alan Wake once before when the game was originally released; I purchased the disc for XBox and then promptly chickened out... I remembered that this game was the only proper horror game to have gotten me in that way ( though the Witch in L4D days almost gave me the same creeps) & thought I'd give it another go now I'm older & wiser. I was pleasantly surprised upon my return to this game with many more hours of gaming under my belt, just how much I enjoyed it. I got past chapter 2 this time & everything! For starters, the remastering is fantastic; the graphics hold up & everything runs smoothly on my (slightly out of date) Laptop (Asus Tuf505dt with upgraded Ram). The landscapes are beautiful & all adds to the world building we find in the story. The storyline is really well written & Alan Wakes actor is perfect for the lead role. He embodies the character so well, putting his all into his performance. One of my favourite things with Remedy is that they continue to add to the realism of their worlds by having their video games intertwined with actual video footage during both some of the cut scenes & during play. It all adds to the believability of the world & keeps you fully immersed; really drawing you in & making you believe it could exist. The game very much draws from the forefathers of the genre, Lovecraft, Stephen King, e.t.c. & their world is straight out of the pages of such novels. All in all, really glad I chose to purchase this remastered version & give it another go. If I hadn't, I'd've been sorely missing out on a beautiful, gothic, masterpiece of a game. The only reason I haven't given 5 stars is due to there still being games I haven't played!