Alan Wake is one of those games that’s gained a sort of cult following over the years since its initial release in 2010. So, in response to its status as such, the original team at Remedy partnered with another studio as well as Epic Games Publishing to bring forth a remaster of the game. The team felt a remaster was a better route to take than a remake simply because it fit their goal of “maintaining the core gameplay and narrative elements of the game but improving the visuals for newer game systems with support for 4k resolutions so that the title would appeal to both those that played the original and new players”
Well, now that the game is officially out on all platforms as of today with the Switch release shadow dropping just yesterday on the Nintendo Switch we can finally see if this vision holds true through the game’s remaster.
Now, when it comes to multiplatform releases like this, we’re sure that no one is expecting the Switch to visually look the best of the bunch, but just how far off is the Switch’s release off from its competition? GameXplain’s video above will show just how stark some of the differences can be.
One of the most apparent things in this comparison is the overall frame rate the Switch version has by comparison to its PS5 and even original Xbox 360 counterparts. On top of what’s already a lesser visual experience, due in part to the Switch’s hardware limitations, it seems as though the game’s Switch release is marred by things like unstable frame rates, blurry textures, and less than ideal character models.
While some of this may not come as a surprise to some, as pointed out in GameXplain’s video, it’s a real shame that even the original Xbox 360 release seems to outperform the Switch remaster in some areas, despite being a less powerful console than the Switch is.
All in all, this is no knock on the game’s quality overall. Alan Wake is still very much the same game that it was 12 years ago, it’s just unfortunate that the game’s Switch release doesn’t seem to hold up as well as some might have hoped.
