Remedy’s Creative Director Sam Lake is proud of the work that has been done in the original Alan Wake, and revisiting the game for the development of the remaster made him appreciate it more as a whole.
Speaking with GameSpot, the director of the action adventure game original released back in 2010 commented on going back to it, saying that it has allowed him to take a look at the entire picture with fresh eyes, and the experience has been entirely positive.
Time is a funny thing. Coming out of the project, after being so focused on making it, trying to get everything in, you often see a lot of the problems or miss the things that didn’t make it in. Coming back to an older work, mercifully, all of that has faded away and you can look at the work with fresh eyes, appreciate it as a whole, and not miss those details. So, it’s all positive. I am, and we are, very proud of Alan Wake. It makes me very happy. And many elements invented there are still part of the Remedy game formula, being refined further in Control, for example.”
Remedy also expanded the universe of Alan Wake with Control, which provided yet another chance for Sam Lake to revisit the original game and change his perspective on it.
Coming back to write more Alan Wake in Control felt very easy and natural, like coming back to meet an old friend. And yet, it made me realize that I have grown as a writer, and my perspective on certain ideas and themes related to the character have shifted and evolved. It’s something that is very natural, of course, but without that opportunity, I might not have realized it as concretely. It made me feel grateful for the opportunity. And I absolutely love the fact that now that there is a new audience who have been introduced to Alan Wake via Control, we are able to bring back the original game in a new remastered form for those players to experience as well. And of course, for the old fans as well, who have been tirelessly asking for it.
Remedy developed Alan Wake Remastered together with d3t, and one of the main focuses was preserving the game’s unique atmosphere and enhancing it with the new technology available today. Unfortunately, the remaster was not able to take advantage of the power of current-generation consoles, and shipping to both old and current consoles made the development an intimidating task, according to Community Director Thomas Puha. Still, the team did manage to get some current-gen features in, like DualSense support on PlayStation 5, which contributes to making the game feel more immersive.
Alan Wake Remastered is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One. Learn more about the game by checking out Ule’s review.
