Fortnite’s Alan Wake: Flashback is a sort-of-remake-but-not-quite that lets you replay the whole game in 20 minutes before Alan Wake 2
It's not a Loot Lake, it’s an ocean
Who had ‘playable remake of Alan Wake inside Fortnite’ on their 2023 bingo card? Nobody? Well, nevermind: either way, you can now relive the events of Remedy’s battery-powered horror game before its sequel comes out later this month.
Alan Wake: Flashback is billed as a “reimagining” of the 2010 game that follows its entire storyline, except it only takes 20 minutes to see through to the end. Honestly, as far as ways to remember what the heck happened in the first Alan Wake go, I kind of like it - it beats reading Wikipedia plot summaries, anyway.
Of course, this being a Fortnite creation made in the battle royale game’s custom map mode, it doesn’t quite have the same vibes as the original Alan Wake. While Alan Wake’s very I-am-a-writer observations could become a bit silly at times, it was still an effective spooky thriller thanks to its shadowy levels and genuinely unsettling atmosphere.
Running around Wake’s lakeside cabin and the haunted town of Bright Falls as Naruto, a buff cat person or a naked sentient banana in Fortnite, meanwhile, makes the game’s goofier moments look like a masterclass in gravitas now. While there is an Alan Wake skin headed to Fortnite, because of course there is, it won’t arrive until October 26th, the day before Alan Wake 2’s release date - so you’ll have to make do with squinting at John Wick and pretending it’s the same bloke in a suit for the meantime.
There is an actual Alan Wake Remastered that came out a couple of years ago, but not everyone has the time or money to play through a whole video game just before its sequel arrives. As a playful way of recapping the story in under half an hour in a free game, I think this is good fun. What next - the whole of Final Fantasy XIV and all of its expansions before Dawntrail? Shagging and bathing as Geralt (another Fortnite skin) whenever The Witcher 4 comes out? The whole of Starfield in a Fortnite map? I’d love to see it happen, honestly.
Anyway, you can go and check out Alan Wake: Flashback for yourself by plugging island code 3426-5561-3374 into Fortnite’s Discover mode, or find it in the game’s menu.
Alan Wake 2 is out on October 27th, exclusive to the Epic Games Store on PC - no doubt a helpful factor in making this crossover happen.