Alan Wake 2 Praised for Unique Horror Game Experience, Struggles with PC Graphic Demands

Remedy Entertainment's highly anticipated horror sequel impresses with its striking graphics and gameplay mechanics on super-powered Nvidia machines, but leaves lower-tier and AMD systems struggling to adequately run the game due to heavy graphic demands.

Alan Wake 2, developed by Remedy Entertainment, offers a unique horror game experience with impressive graphics and gameplay mechanics, standing out as one of the best games of the year.
The game introduces a new protagonist, Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating cult killings tied to the missing Alan Wake, original protagonist of the series. Players alternate between Saga in the 'real' world and Alan trapped in a nightmare version of New York City.
The game uses a myriad of Nvidia RTX technologies including ray tracing, path tracing, Ray Reconstruction, Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and Frame Generation, helping it achieve beautiful and detailed graphics. However, these features only work optimally on high-end Nvidia machines.
On lower-tier and AMD systems, Alan Wake 2 struggles to run smoothly due to its heavy graphic demands. The game's intensive use of proprietary RTX features makes it more dependent on Nvidia's AI technologies, which can exclude players with less high-end hardware from fully experiencing the game's visual potential.
Despite some bugs encountered during the review period, Alan Wake 2 performs well on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, besides high-end Nvidia PCs, offering immersive gameplay and stunning visuals that combine live-action cutscenes with gameplay.