While on vacation in the small town of Bright Falls, a struggling writer must investigate the mysterious disappearance of his wife while events from his latest manuscript, which he can't remember writing, begin to come true. A game that I really should have gotten to playing through sooner, as it ticks off many of my personal favourite elements of the horror and mystery genres, especially how they are presented through the medium of a video game. When this remaster was announced there was no hesitation in picking it up as soon as possible and luckily it lived up to my expectations. With a play time of around 8 hours (give or take), the game efficiently tells its psychological and supernatural mystery, with the help of excellently written dialogue for all the main characters. Alan himself (voiced brilliantly by Matthew Poretta) provides narration throughout and adds a layer of engaging emotional and relatability to the story. Dividing the game into chapters/episodes, gives it a novel-like structure and keeps the tension high when those episode cliff-hangers hit. The atmosphere and tone is nailed perfectly, with heavy nods to genre legends and inspirations like Alfred Hitchcock & Stephen King scattered throughout and a suitable balance of traditional jump scares, alongside the looming sense of dread. Visually the remaster certainly bolsters the environments especially. Layers of mist, impenetrable fog, spectacularly epic and chaotic set pieces and the always welcome humming glow of a light or lantern. The facial animations and designs have also been substantially tweaked and improved, with Alan looking far more expressive and like his real life voice actor. Gameplay is a very solid blend of third person shooting and a smattering of basic puzzles.The feedback from the guns feels excellent through the PS5 DualSense and the satisfying yet simplistic shotgun, rifle, pistol, torch and on-hand gadgets such as flashbangs and flares allows for a decent rotation. However combat encounters do fall into a repetitive and predictable structure, and though the challenge does ramp up at times, the sense of fear and unpredictability is lost, especially when some combat encounters do outstay their welcome. Most frustratingly is the mapping of the dodge mechanic button being the same as the sprint button. This frequently left me slightly sprinting forward at a different angle instead of dodging to the left or right. Some of the animations and character models could possibly have been smoothed out a bit more to really emphasise the remaster quality, because from an environmental perspective it is genuinely fantastic. Alan Wake is an immersive, engaging and very well paced action packed horror mystery. Led by a brilliant protagonist, featuring solid gameplay and a well designed world. Occasional clunky animations, an irritating dodge mechanic and repetitive encounters are noticeable, but are largely overshadowed by the prior mentioned positives.