Remedy recently released a major free update for Alan Wake 2, titled The Final Draft. Want to know what changes have been made to the critically-acclaimed survival game? We've got you covered.
Join us as we go through all the changes in The Final Draft, both minor and major. With New Game Plus and more in store within The Final Draft, there's plenty to unpack in the latest content update for Alan Wake 2.
Looking for more Alan Wake 2 content? We've got the latest on the development of the game's free DLCs, including The Final Draft, as well as a complete guide to the star-studded cast of Alan Wake 2.
Alan Wake 2: The Final Draft patch notes
Below is a list of all the major changes that were made in The Final Draft for Alan Wake 2. The Final Draft was released on December 11th, 2023.
New Game Plus mode
- New ending
- New Nightmare difficulty level
- New Manuscript pages and video content
- Players retain all unlocked videos, Charms and upgrades
NOTE: To access the New Game Plus mode, a completed playthrough of Alan Wake 2 is required. In New Game Plus, you will find the unlocked weapons in the first available shoebox for the character.
Performance
- Improved overall quality of the occlusion culling algorithm, improving GPU performance especially on locations with a lot of geometry.
- The performance upgrade is most visible in the PlayStation 5 Quality mode, where (incredibly) there are up to 1.8ms improvements. Cauldron Lake should be coughing less.
- Optimized HUD UI content setup so rendering the HUD takes less time. This brings between ~0.5-0.7ms improvements to performance.
- A few selected tweaks and optimizations for path tracing and rendering.
- Improved streaming by removing occasional 10 – 100ms stalls that mostly affected Xbox Series platforms.
- Reduced memory usage by 16 MB on all platforms.
- [PC] Slightly improved performance on by removing some error diagnostics instrumentation.
Tutorials
- Changed when some Tutorials appear in the Tutorials menu.
- Added a timeout to the Tutorial about Fadeouts.
- Players can now slow down to walking speed while a Tutorial is open.
- Tutorial messages are not slowing down player movement speed anymore.
- If tutorials are disabled, the player won’t be locked in the diorama when the first investigation clue gathering tutorial would take place…
Stability
- Fixed several infuriating Lua script errors that made the game more stable and less unpredictable.
- Fixed a hang on Xbox that could occur when attempting to suspend the application during launch.
- Fixed audio middleware crash on Xbox Series platforms.
- Fixed a rare crash that could happen during streaming.
Visuals
- Somewhat reduced specular aliasing (“shimmering”) on shiny surfaces with a new algorithm.
- Improved Trailer Park cinematic lighting.
- Improved shadow quality inside the Valhalla Nursing Home to respect the elderly even more.
- Flashlight shadows are now prioritized to avoid a blocky look in locations featuring heavy dynamic lights usage.
- Fixed (or ruined, depending on your view) the “chameleon chair” visible in front of the sauna. It’s not changing color anymore 🙁
- Fixed LODs on the hotdog stand.
- Fixed a variety of broken or ugly LODs.
- Fixed incorrect rendering culling mode on leaf and coffee pot materials to prevent path tracing issues.
- Fixed broken materials on the garage building in downtown Bright Falls raising property value.
- [PC] Improved quality for low ray-tracing preset, fixing flickering fireflies on character’s faces during cinematics.
Audio & localization
- Improved overall audio quality on PlayStation 5.
- Fixed lip sync being off during the cinematic where Saga and Casey arrive at Cauldron Lake.
- Localization fixes for agent Estevez audio lines.
- Additional fixes for localized subtitles.
We are still working on the audio sync being off for some players on Xbox Series and expect to address this in our next update.
Global
- Fixed an issue with Koskela Brothers Coffee World ad that prevented some players from unlocking the related trophy.
- Father Doll should now be easier to find on the map so that players can complete the last Nursery Rhyme.
- Fixed an issue where the player could be blocked by medical balls by resetting the Wellness Centre props when the mission Return 09 starts.
- Fixed an issue where skipping a cinematic during Deerfest would bring forth premature darkness by fading the screen to black.
- Added heavy duty blockers to stop the player potentially falling out of the world in Return 05 near the Nursing Home.
- Removed the force camera look-at of the Dark Substance at the Witch’s Ladle if the player walks away.
- Disabled the Reality Switch VFX bleeding in the lodge in Return 04.
- Fixed a mysterious blocky shadow in the Sheriff’s station staircase.
- Added a loading screen if skipping a cinematic in Initiation 02 so that lighting can take its time to load correctly.
- Fixed pesky FBC light arrays in Return 06 and 09 to restore their state after loading a save game, and to show the correct visuals when powered on/off.
- Fixed an issue of not being able to pick up some items from red toolboxes after loading into a saved game.
- Fixed a rude manuscript page that was visible but not interactive in Valhalla Home forest shack.
- Fixed an issue where an invisible collision was active near the Bright Falls Sheriff’s Station, making a section of a nearby street narrower than intended.
- Fixed an issue where manuscript pages would stay blank after switching levels when a single page was available in the Mind Place.
- Fixed English being sometimes unselectable in the language drop-down menu after changing language.
- Found manuscript pages should not show up on the map anymore.
- Added UI prompt for items that can be placed from hand to the Case Board.
- Fixed an issue where Saga was misplaced on the ladder after being attacked by the Taken in the Overlap.
- Made ladder interaction icons better positioned.
- Disabled crossbow magnet for dead enemies.
- Fixed missing subtitles in cinematics.
- The player’s inventory now closes when an enemy grapples the player.
- Allow enemies to recover from grapple quick escape when stun ends.
- Changed the orientation of the hint on top of the Bright Falls Sheriff Station Cult Stash so that it its more readable.
- Fixed an issue where the player couldn’t wield a weapon after being interrupted by being hit in the boss fight at the end of Return 03.
- Fixed an issue where in some cases Estevez would not talk to Saga after coming back from the morgue (optional dialogue).
- Added a new goal in Initiation 08 after entering the crime scene so that players are not left without objective in the Dark Place.
- Fixed an issue where Alan could reload his weapon while simultaneously doing a Light Shift. Seems like a thing he should be able to do, but anyway.
- Fixed an issue where Saga could reload invisible weapons even though she was socially bound to not wield weapons in certain areas (kertaus on opintojen äiti).
- Fixed an issue where Saga was able to reload the flashlight and other weapons simultaneously causing the unholstered weapon to disappear and reappear after flashlight reload was completed.
- [PC] Added drag and drop support for moving items in the Inventory and Shoebox.
- [PC] Added a mouse smoothing option (defaulted to on) to prioritize mouse and camera. Movement smoothness over accuracy.
- [PC] Fixed an issue with the mouse that resulted in jittery camera movements if not playing in 30fps.
That's all there is to know about the new content in Alan Wake 2: The Final Draft. Players can expect another content update sometime during 2024, meaning that The Final Draft isn't the end for Alan Wake 2.
For more guides like this one, why not check out all the different weapons in Alan Wake 2, or how to upgrade them? Alternatively, we've got details on whether Alan Wake 2 has co-op multiplayer if you're looking to play the game with friends.