Stephen King once said, ‘a delayed game is eventually good…’
If you want to carry Alan Wake in your hands, but were put off by reports about the quality of the previously released Alan Wake Remastered port, it might be time for a second glance. Remedy Games dropped a patch on February 15 that addresses the game’s rampant performance issues.
🛠️ An update is available for the Nintendo Switch version of Alan Wake Remastered.
The update improves overall framerate and performance, especially when the game is played in docked mode. #AlanWake pic.twitter.com/N4VL9FNRPK
— Alan Wake 2 (@alanwake) February 15, 2023
Alan Wake was first released back in 2010 on the Xbox 360 before later being ported to Windows. It was gussied up for Alan Wake Remastered for Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows platforms in 2021. The Remaster was then ported to Switch last year in 2022. Despite it being over a decade old and having run on comparable hardware, grizzled Destructoid veteran Jonathan Holmes reported that the port sucked out loud and compared it unfavorably to Wii ports of yore.
He did, however, admit that he “likes crappy looking games” and that the poor quality of the port “gives the whole thing a little of that dingy, broken and unsafe feeling you might get from one of Puppet Combo’s Indie Horror titles.” I also like crappy-looking games and especially Puppet Combo, but I have much less fondness for downgraded ports unless they’re running on the ZX Spectrum.
This patch might keep that certain visual nostalgic je ne sais quoi in Alan Wake Remastered, but the framerate looks to have been made more comfortable. Users are reporting that the Switch version has been improved to a steady 30FPS in all instances. Framerate is very important to some when it comes to visual comfort, and that shouldn’t be ignored.
Still, blurry graphics are a bugbear of their own. While this patch is definitely a welcome improvement, I’m not holding my breath that the visual eccentricities will be addressed.
Alan Wake Remastered is already available on Nintendo Switch. If you’re willing to sacrifice portability, it might still be better to pick it up on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox instead.
