Alan Wake 2 patch adds 'much-requested' option to turn down the cheap jump scares that so many people hate

GamesSurvival & CraftingAlan Wake 2Alan Wake 2 patch adds ‘much-requested’ option to turn down the cheap jump scares that so many people hateWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)

Alan Wake 2 screenshot

Alan Wake 2 is a great survival horror game, but it does miss the mark in one particular way: As we said in January, it’s “sostuffed with jump scaresit cheapens the good horror.” Apparently we weren’t the only ones to think so, as the latest patch includes “the much-requested option to tune down the horror flashes.”

Horror flashes are split-second, full-screen blasts of disturbing imagery that appear out of nowhere—jump scares, except instead of a monster charging out of a closet, it happens almost at random. You can get a look at them in the jump scares roundup video below:

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YouTube

They’re not really scary but they are startling, and it’s clear through multiple threads complaining about them in the Alan Wake 2 subreddit that an awful lot of players don’t like them.

“I really want to NG+ this when it comes out, except I don’t want to deal with this shit again,” redditorjdevo91wrote. “It’s so headache inducing. The vibe in this game is already so good horror wise, you don’t need to include these just to have us worry about running into another one. Jump scares are perfectly fine if they make more sense in the context of the environment, but this is just lame.”

“Ihatejumpscares that have no purpose in horror games,“TheMilinerwrote in a separate thread. “As excellent as Alan Wake 2 is, the game isfullof them, and theysuckevery single goddamn time. It’s a serious and extremely irritating complaint that I have with the game.”

The update also adds a new option to replay any chapter that’s been previously unlocked, which is another big feature fans have been waiting for. Instead of reusing your own progression, though, chapter replays will make use of separate premade saves, so your item progression and inventory will be preset depending on which mission you’re playing. Replaying a chapter won’t have any impact on your manually saved games, but you’ll need to ensure you have at least one manual save with your previous character progression if you don’t want to lose it.

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The Alan Wake 2 1.15 patch is live now on all platforms. The full patch notes are below.

New Feature: Chapter Select

New features

Gameplay and missions

UI

Audio and haptics

Visuals

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New Feature: Chapter Select#

New features#

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UI#

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Visuals#

General#

Performance (aka the Northlight flex section)#