Has *Alan Wake 2* made a comeback? Has PSSR2 finally saved the visuals?

That slight jitter that first appears along the edges of road signs is actually what most undermines the atmosphere of Alan Wake 2—this was originally a work that weaves its mood through shadows, grain, reflections, and blurred boundaries, and once the image itself starts to become unstable, the sense of suspense is quietly hollowed out by technical noise, like a psychological thriller meant to sink into the night suddenly revealing the seams of its set in a crucial shot.

This time, overseas outlet Push Square called Alan Wake 2 “an excellent showcase for PSSR2,” and that is no exaggeration. Previously, the game was seen as a typical example of the first-generation PSSR’s problems: obvious graininess, edge flickering, and image jitter. Now, after PSSR2 was introduced on PS5 Pro, related analysis believes those issues have been completely fixed, and the significance of that goes far beyond simply being “clearer.”

On the narrative level, Alan Wake 2 was never the kind of game that drives the experience through numerical stimulation; it relies more on visual coherence to sustain emotion. You can think of it as a film that places enormous importance on the texture of each shot—if every dark detail is jumping and every line is trembling, then the characters’ expressions, the environmental cues, and even the unease that should slowly seep out of each scene will all be weakened. In a sense, what PSSR2 has restored is this work’s very “ability to tell its story.”

Digital Foundry’s conclusion is more specific: in Performance Mode, lines have become clearer, and some texture details have also been improved. Considering that Alan Wake 2 is already an extremely demanding title in terms of hardware, and that its rendering resolution is far below 1080p, this is almost an upgrade built on a remarkably harsh foundation. Precisely because the base is so low and the pressure so high, it has become the most suitable touchstone for testing PSSR2. If even a game like this can be brought close to a native 4K visual experience, then this technology has at least proven that it is more than just attractive wording on a promotional page.

From another angle, the improvements in Quality Mode are actually less dramatic, which is not surprising. Because that mode starts with a higher base resolution, the upscaler has fewer “gaps” to fill, so what PSSR2 brings is more modest refinement, along with some room set aside for performance headroom. Unfortunately, this also reminds us that the problems with the first-generation PSSR were not just isolated missteps in a few games; when low resolution, heavy load, and complex lighting are stacked together, the old solution really could not hold up.

If you have been considering Alan Wake 2 on PS5 Pro, then the current version is clearly more worth picking up, especially for players who care more about atmosphere, composition, and narrative immersion. The deeper issue is that this fix is not merely a patch-level cleanup—it also feels like a technical dress rehearsal: now that PSSR2 can handle this kind of high-pressure scenario more steadily, subsequent titles, and even the graphical direction of the future PS6, gain a little more credibility because of it. For players, this is not a victory of specifications, but finally a chance for a work that was always meant to be gloomy, precise, and layered in its progression to be seen in a more complete form.