Alan Wake 2 made it onto our best graphics of the year list in 2023, so how does the game hold up now that it sees a full PS5 Pro release?
After all, the PS5 version was already an impressive technological showcase, but it did have its limitations – including image quality issues inherent to low-res FSR 2 upscaling and few of the ray-traced elements of the PC version. Does the PS5 Pro solve those issues by adding in RT and PSSR upscaling? And can it come close to the PC release, with its advanced RT feature set and DLSS upscaling?
Let’s start with the quality mode, which we tended to recommend on the base PS5 thanks to its better image quality and more advanced visuals, despite performance sometimes falling below the 30fps cap. The PS5 Pro version adds in the RT reflections missing on the amateur PS5, which are most evident on surfaces like water or glass and look significantly more realistic than the hybrid SSR and SDF solution on the base console, with fewer visual errors and less noise.
Shadow filtering also seems to have been improved slightly, and other settings don’t appear to have changed from PS5 to PS5 Pro. That means there’s no RT shadows or RTAO as in the PC version, but RT reflections are probably the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade so their selection for the PS5 Pro version makes sense.