Alan Wake
Overview
Alan Wake is an action/adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. A PC version was in development for a number of years though was later cancelled for undisclosed reasons. It was released on May 14, 2010 in Europe and in North America on the 18th of the same month. It is played from the third-person perspective and is a horror-themed game, putting its focus on narrative and atmosphere.
The game follows best-selling author Alan Wake, who is suffering from writer's block. Accompanied by his wife Alice, Alan travels to the small town of Bright Falls in hope of finding a cure. When Alice disappears, and Alan's writing seems to take on a deadly life of its own, his real nightmare begins. Using any source of light he can find, he will fight those Taken by the Darkness to save his wife, the town, and discover what he can about the true nature of the Dark Presence.
The game was released to critical acclaim with critics praising it's story, characters and atmosphere as well as it's solid gameplay. However, the game under-performed in North America on launch, selling only 145,000 copies during it's launch window. Alan Wake performed slightly better in Europe, debuting at the #2 spot on the UK sales charts.
Development
Alan Wake was announced at E3 in 2005 as a multi-platform title, originally in development for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. At E3 2006, more details were given on the story and setting and the game was officially announced as a Microsoft-partnered exclusive, set to release on the Xbox 360 and PC title. A trailer and a few screenshots were released but was followed by a long, seemingly never-ending silence from Remedy.
The game's development would go on as a complete secret for two years until E3 2008, where Remedy would release a trailer showing off the game's new custom engine. On February 12, 2010, Microsoft announced the game would no longer be releasing on the PC and would become an Xbox 360 exclusive. It's rough development and constant lack of information to both the press and fans would lead to the question of Alan Wake's actual existence until August of 2009, where Remedy announced the game as complete and was going under final polishing. A familiar silence would, once again, haunt the gaming community for nearly a year until April 7, 2010. It was on this day that Remedy would announce Alan Wake going gold and was released on May 14, 2010 in Europe.
Plot
Alan Wake is a best-selling writer who, thanks to an extended case of writer's block, hasn't successfully written anything in two years. He and his wife, Alice, go to the small town of Bright Falls for what he thinks is a vacation. After meeting some of the townspeople and enthusiastic fans, he is lead to his cabin on Cauldron Lake, where his wife tells him that she brought him to Bright Falls to recover his creative flow. Alan argues that he came to Brightfalls to avoid writing completely. Shortly after, Alan leaves the cabin, knowing Alice will not follow him, as she is afraid of the dark. Alan hears screaming, and heads back to the cabin only to find Alice drowning in the lake, and Alan dives after her. Alan wakes up in the aftermath of a car accident, with no memory as to what happened after he had jumped in after Alice. He proceeds to traverse the forest in order to find help for him and his wife. Along the way he discovers the Taken, hostile citizens of Bright Falls whom have been consumed by the darkness. He finds a gas station, and sees that it has been a week since his argument with Alice. He then calls the police, and meets the town's Sheriff, Sarah Breaker, who informs him that there is no house on the lake, and that the island there had been submerged amidst a volcanic eruption in the '70s.
After being questioned by the police, Barry, Alan's agent, arrives, and gets a call from a kidnapper who claims to have Alice, and has her speak into the phone to prove it. The kidnapper then tells him to come to Lover's Peak, and Barry gives him the keys to a house in the park that the peak is located in. Alan then leaves for the peak, and on the way meets Rusty, a helpful ranger who had been just attacked by the Taken. He gives Alan a piece of the manuscript that has his name, but can't remember writing, and describes what has really been happening to him (which he has been finding around Bright Falls). Rusty then becomes possessed by the darkness, forcing Alan to kill him. Continuing down the peak, Alan finds the kidnapper who helps him hold off the Taken. Afterwards, they get into a fight and they both fall off the peak, though none are severely injured. He then receives a call from Barry, who tells him that the lights just went out in his house. On his way back, he receives another call telling him that he will kill Alice if Alan doesn't give the entire manuscript to him at the coal mine.
Alan goes to Barry and saves him from the taken, and they decide to then ask around in town to see if anybody knows somebody who fits the kidnappers description. The next day, Barry gets a phone call from Rose, a waitress who apparently is one of Alan's biggest fans, and she tells him that she has the manuscript, and after the call, a woman in black praises her for it. When they go to Rose's trailer to pick up the manuscript, they are drugged with coffee given to them by her. Alan wakes up, Barry is still unconscious, and the police are waiting for them, as the park owner thought that they did something to Rose. An FBI agent named Nightingale starts shooting at Alan, so he runs away into the woods. He then goes to the nearby radio station for help, but Nightingale shows up and opens fire. Alan finds a car and heads to the coal mine, but no one is there. The kidnapper tells him that he is in the woods, and when Alan goes to find him, he tells Alan that he doesn't have Alice, and that he never did. He then is engulfed by a tornado of darkness. Just before the kidnapper can finish him off, he grabs a flare, and falls off a cliff into Cauldron Lake, but is saved by somebody. He than wakes up in a mental institute for artists, which is also the Cauldron Lake Lodge.
He meets the head of the institute, Dr. Hartman, who tells him that Alice died, and everything Alan has been going through are figments of his imagination, which he refuses to believe. When night comes, two other patients (The Andersons, Rock Stars From The 70's) create chaos throughout the institute, and Alan steals the Staff Keys. He then meets up with Barry, who came to visit him, and together they find the manuscript. Dr. Hartman then finds him, and tells him if they work together, they can make something beautiful. The dark then engulfs the lodge, and Alan lets the Doctor die, and he learns that the Andersons understand what's going on. Alan and Barry head to their farm, where a hidden message tells them to "Find The Lady Of The Light". They then remember a woman named Cynthia who carried around a lamp, and they agree to see her the next morning. They then start drinking, and Alan remembers the week between his argument with Alice, and waking up in the car.
He jumped to save Alice, but could not find her, and began to cry on the dock. When he went inside, he was met by The Dark Presence, in the form of a woman named Barbara Jagger, the girlfriend of Thomas Zane, an author from the 70s. It was Barbara who gave him the key to the house. She explains that when you write on the lake, the stories become true due to the Dark Presence. Alan eventually began to realize that he was under control of the darkness, and wrote the story to include his escape. During his escape, he meets Zane, who distracted the Presence while Alan got to his car, which he crashed. Alan then wakes up the next day, being held at gunpoint by Nightingale.
Alan and Barry are taken to their prison cells, but there is a power-outage, and the Sheriff and Nightingale keep watch over them. Nightingale is then grabbed by the Presence. Alan and Barry are set free by the Sheriff. They then go to a helicopter, as they need to find Cynthia (who lives in a power station), but there is turbulence and Alan jumps out. They make their way through the Taken, with the helicopter lights helping Alan on the ground, and they get to Cynthia, who tells him to go to the "Well-Lit Room". They all go up there, and they find a page from Tom telling Alan to use "The Clicker", a light switch that Alan received from his mother as a child, that turns on a magical light and lights up everything. Alan then knows that he has to go to the lake, and use the Clicker to light the town, which will save everyone in town, including Alice. Alan tells everyone that this is something he must do himself, and works his way through the Taken to get to the lake, which he dives in and pushes the Clicker in. He appears in a dark world, and giant pieces of illuminating text form the missing house.
He then sees Alice, who is obviously just Barbara in disguise. Alan works his way through the house, grabs the Clicker and puts it into Barbara's heart, which is accessible from a wound she received from Tom. She begins to glow out of her mouth and eyes, and the house is lit. Alan then goes to the typewriter and gives his story a fitting conclusion: Everything needs to be balanced. Alan is then seen jumping into the lake for Alice, and a time lapse begins, showing Alice swimming to the dock, looking for Alan, Bright Falls is shown during it's annual festival, Deerfest, and Rose is shown holding a lamp like Cynthia as a Taken version of Nightingale forms behind her. Alan then finishes typing and remarks "It's not a lake....It's an ocean." implying that, now in the heart of the Dark Presence, he senses it as an entity far greater than he had thought before. Alice is then heard saying "Alan, wake up." and the text: "Alan Wake's adventure into the darkness will continue" appears.
DLC Plot
The Signal
Picking up right where the main game left off, Alan finds himself outside of the Bright Falls Diner, from the the beginning of his adventure. Night quickly turns to day around Wake--the first implication that all is not as it appears. Alan enters the diner, where event replay themselves in a surreal and ominous manner--the inhabitants of the diner are ghostly apparitions, and small details in his surroundings are different. Alan can't remember how he arrived at the diner, but is compelled to enter the men's room just beside where he was first approached by the Dark Presence. In the bathroom, Thomas Zane contacts Alan through the mirror, warning him that he is lost and must go no further. Zane tells Alan that things are not as they appear, and presents him with a flashlight which he says is not a physical flashlight, but the idea of a flashlight, that will light the dark places in his mind. Zane then presents video footage of Alan in the cabin, struggling with reality and making confused and foreboding predictions of the future (much like the manuscript pages from the main game, yet with scattered and rambling thoughts). Alan finally realizes that he is in The Dark Place, and sets out to find a way to escape.
As he leaves the bathroom, the diner is shaken by its foundation, and day turns to night. As Alan looks around the diner, he finds himself surrounded by televisions playing a warning message delivered by Alan himself. He leaves the diner, and strangely finds himself in the forest. Alan asserts that he must have made some kind of mistake when he wrote the ending to "Departure". Alan flees from The Taken, and finds shelter in a house where he finds a jumbled and confusing manuscript page, eerily similar to the scatter-shot nature of a dream. The words from the manuscript page physically manifest in front of Alan, and he finds that when he shines his flashlight on the floating text, objects fitting that description appear before him. Alan shines his light on "phone" and receives a cell phone for his trouble, along with a message from Zane, who tells Alan that he most follow the cell phone's "signal" to avoid from slipping deeper into The Dark Place. If he can successfully do so, Zane may be able to help him.
Alan follows the signal through mixed memories of Bright Falls and the areas he traversed during the main game, as well as encountering more insane ramblings from "TV Alan" and attacks by The Taken. He comes across another manuscript page which reveals the word "friend", and, upon shining his light on it, is confronted by a translucent apparition of Barry Wheeler, his friend and manager who helps guide him to the sawmill, where the signal is taking him. Along the way, Barry reveals that he is merely a creation of Wake's subconscious.
Once he reaches the sawmill, Alan replays memories of Alice in his head. Alan then finds himself in his own apartment in New York, and confronts Thomas Zane in his living room. Zane tells him that he is not being attacked by the Dark Presence, but that the situations around him are his own creations and that he is trapped in his own mind. Alan refuses to believe what he is told, and Zane is forcefully expelled from the room, replaced by televisions depicting an insanely rambling Wake which start to attack him. After surviving the battle, Alan approaches the remaining TV, depicting himself saying "Why...why...why couldn't I make him stop?" Suddenly, a smile appears on the television, an ear-splitting scream is heard, and Alan collapses in pain. Alan wakes to find himself in the care of Dr. Hartman at Cauldron Lake Lodge, but is also shown (in "reality") to be on the floor of the cabin, surrounded by manuscript pages.
The Writer
The ghostly image of Dr. Hartman revealed at the end of The Signal begins to chastise Alan, before changing into Barry Wheeler. Barry and Alan are suddenly outside of the Cauldron Lake Lodge. Without warning, Alan and Barry find themselves at an amalgamation of the Old Gods of Asgard stage show and the front of the Lodge. After using his surroundings to fight off waves of Taken, Alan heads to the back of the lodge and finds Thomas Zane. Zane explains that Alan must make his way to the cabin at Cauldron Lake to "find himself", or else he will be consumed by The Dark Presence. A manuscript page is provided to make a path to Alan's next way-point, the Lighthouse.
The environment becomes increasingly bizarre and disjointed as Alan progresses. He eventually finds himself inside a giant "Hamster wheel" composed of locations from the main game. He navigates this dangerously rotating wheel and finds himself in an elevator. Here Zane explains that Alan is in a dream. He also reveals that he is unsure of what happened to the Dark Presence after Alan's victory, but that he has yet to find a way to escape from The Dark Place. He, like Alan, is only capable of sending transmissions from their world to ours. As Alan progresses through the locations in his memories, Zane that the world Alan is navigating is being created by a part of Alan himself, suffering from a state of insane delusion on the floor of the cabin at Cauldron Lake, who has resigned himself to fate and is ready to give up and die. The Alan Wake being controlled by the player is the other part of Alan, capable of rational thought and planning. He must make his way to the cabin to reunite with himself, and hopefully regain control of his sanity before his delusional self gives in to the darkness. After questioning by Zane, it is revealed that Mr. Scratch is not a representation of Alan, but something else entirely, and although Zane created the page for Alan involving The Clicker, there is more to the situation than Alan realizes.
As Alan continues forward, he finds himself in Dr. Hartman's office, where Hartman is conducting a therapy session for Alan's delusional side, represented by Alan's body with a television for a head. Hartman convinces Alan's delusional counterpart that all he has done has hurt Alice, and it would be better for all involved to remain trapped in The Dark Place. He then plays an audio recording of Alan's wife, who rants about Alan's selfish nature and narcissism. Wake dismisses the scene as a fantasy meant to dishearten him and stop him from continuing, and Zane confirms this fact.
Alan finally reaches the lighthouse, and upon climbing to the top, finds himself back at Cauldron Lake, across the bridge from the cabin. He replays a memory of Alice in his mind, and starts making his way to the cabin, which is surrounded by darkness. As he proceeds, the apparition of Barry begins to explain that if Alan reconnects with himself, everything around them disappears, including figment-Barry himself. Alan is resolute in his decision, which causes Barry to attempt to stop Alan, along with apparitions representing Dr. Hartman and the Anderson brothers. As Alan defeats each of these four memories, the darkness around the cabin weakens, and Alan is finally able to go inside. Upstairs, Alan finds his delusional self on the floor, gibbering madly. He places his hand on the other's shoulder, and the two merge into one whole Alan once more. With a new-found grip on his own sanity, Alan realizes that if he becomes unhinged again, he might never escape, let alone survive. With determination, Alan sets up a chair at his typewriter and inserts a piece of paper. He comments that it might be impossible to escape The Dark Place, but that doesn't mean he won't try. Alan begins to write a sequel to "Departure" which he entitles "Return". The game closes with Alan reiterating, "My name is Alan Wake, and I'm a writer."
Gameplay
The game has a large emphasis on combat, where Alan will have to use a combination of light and guns to fend off animated objects and possessed townsfolk. Alan can use his flashlight to weaken enemies and finish them off with bullets, or use a flare gun to vaporize any enemies in the vicinity. Turning on generators will cause nearby lights to activate, creating safe pockets for Alan to stand in. These safe pockets of light also save in a checkpoint style. There will also be cars Alan can use to drive around in, to escape from his assailants.
There are a variety of different flashlights Alan can acquire throughout the course of the game. You start out with a normal flashlight, but later on you can get your hands on a 'Heavy Duty Flashlight', which has a considerable durability upgrade compared to the old one. Later on you can get two different variants on flashlights; lanterns. These drain significantly faster, but have a wider range and do more damage to the shadows surrounding your enemies. The 'Heavy Duty Lantern' is the upgraded version of the lantern, and same as the flashlight upgrade, increases durability and is easily the best portable light source in the game.
Light sources aside, there's also a few conventional weapons you can get your hands on. Apart from the standard revolver that you'll be carrying around most of the time, there's two kinds of shotguns (break action, which holds 2 rounds and a pump action which holds 8; but shoots slower). Best of all - there's the hunting rifle, which is easily the most powerful weapon in the game as it does the most damage.
Besides conventional weapons, there are also a few light based weapons in the game. The one that you will run into the most are flares, which give you a short safe haven to retreat or advance if you are being overwhelmed by your enemies. There are also less conventional methods to using the flares, such as dropping them near a generator to give you the time you need to start it up while keeping your enemies off of you, or in narrow passages to block their entry. Flash-bangs are the secondary disposable items you can use, and they have a much more direct approach to using them. You throw them and enemies instantly disintegrate, provided they are close enough to the explosion. Invaluable when it comes to clearing large groups of enemies that are swarming you.
And lastly we have the flare gun, which as has been noted before can clear a large number of enemies on your screen. The advantage it brings is that it can also be used on enemies that are far away from you, most notably a flock of birds. To deal with enemies you also have the added option to defeat them by using your surroundings. Standalone searchlights can be controlled by you to take out large amounts of enemies at a very rapid pace. The headlights of your car also apply, but you'll have to use the car itself to finish them off. You can also knock them into power cables, or simply into any light source by either shining your light on them, which makes them stumble backwards, or shooting at them.
The game makes a heavy emphasis on music, choosing songs to close every chapter and features songs from real-world artists. Poets Of The Fall, a Finnish band, have a song featured in an in-game radio and the band also briefly feature in a mock chat show. The game closes with David Bowie's "Space Oddity".
Limited Edition
Alan Wake released with a special $79.99 USD Limited Collector's Edition. Included in the limited edition are the following items:
- Game disc in box with unique art
- Exclusive In-game audio commentary and hints by Remedy Entertainment
- “The Alan Wake Files”, a 144-page book that includes a short story written by Alan Wake and compiles the FBI dossiers investigating the events in Bright Falls.
- Limited edition soundtrack which includes a sampling of the game's original score and licensed songs. The soundtrack track list is as follows:
| Track Number | Song Artist | Song Title |
|---|---|---|
01 | Petri Alanko | A Writer's Dream |
02 | Black Angels | Young Men Dead |
03 | Petri Alanko | Welcome to Bright Falls |
04 | Petri Alanko | The Clicker |
05 | Anomie Belle | How Can I Be Sure |
06 | Petri Alanko | Tom the Driver (Piano Cello) |
07 | Barry Adamson | The Beaten Side of Town |
08 | Poets of the Fall (as Old Gods of Asgard) | The Poet and the Muse |
09 | Dead Combo | Electrica Cadente |
10 | Petri Alanko | Tom the Driver (Orchestral) |
The Limited Edition also includes a bonus disc with special content:
- Exclusive Xbox theme and Avatar award (Alan's jacket and scarf). The Avatar award is linked to the disc as opposed to the usual code download.
- A voucher for the upcoming DLC episode, The Signal.
- Video Documentaries/Behind the Scenes:
The Theme of Alan Wake
The World of Bright Falls
The People of Bright Falls
Alan’s Missions
Promotion
Prior to the games official street date 6 live action prequels were released and made available to XBOX Live Gold Members through the Zune Marketplace, as well as official website. The first episode ("Oh Deer") debuted April 25th 2010 though a preview of the first 2 episodes was posted to the NY Times website on April 23rd 2010.
The episodes follow journalist Jake Fisher as he visits Bright Falls during the annual Deerfest however his true motivation is unclear at this point.
A website was also created for the fictional band, Old Gods of Asgard, at www.oldgodsofasgard.com, that features two songs from the game, one of which is not featured on the soundtrack that is in the Limited Edition of the game.
Soundtrack
As mentioned above, the game uses the following songs during either chapter closing sequences, or on the radio shows. These are available for playback under the 'extras' section of the main menu, once encountered. Apart from the licensed music included in the game, Alan Wake features an original score composed by Petri Alanko.
The songs used for each episode ending are as follows:
| Episode Number | Song Artist | Song Title |
|---|---|---|
| Episode One: Nightmare | Roy Orbison | In Dreams |
| Episode Two: Taken | Poe | Haunted |
| Episode Three: Ransom | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | Up Jumped the Devil |
| Episode Four: The Truth | Poets of the Fall (as Old Gods of Asgard) | The Poet and the Muse |
| Episode Five: The Clicker | Poets of the Fall | War |
| Episode Six: Departure | David Bowie | Space Oddity |
For reference, here is a complete list of all songs used in the game:
| Song Artist | Song Title |
|---|---|
| Harry Nilsson | Coconut |
| Roy Orbison | In Dreams |
| Violet Indiana | Air Kissing |
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | Up Jumped the Devil |
| Among the Oak and Ash | Shady Grove |
| Barry Adamson | The Beaten Side of Town |
| Poe | Haunted |
| Anomie Belle | How Can I Be Sure |
| Dead Combo | Electrica Cadente |
| Charles Brown | Black Night |
| The Rumble Strips | Back Bone |
| Poets of the Fall (as Old Gods of Asgard) | Children of the Elder God |
| Black Angels | Young Men Dead |
| Poets of the Fall (as Old Gods of Asgard) | The Poet and the Muse |
| Poets of the Fall | War |
| David Bowie | Space Oddity |
The original score by Petri Alanko was released as follows:
| Track Number | Track Name | Track Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alan Wake | 5:35 |
| 2 | A Writer's Dream | 1:55 |
| 3 | Welcome to Bright Falls | 4:26 |
| 4 | Vacation | 2:49 |
| 5 | Cross That River | 5:38 |
| 6 | Waking Up to a Nightmare | 2:18 |
| 7 | The Clicker | 1:51 |
| 8 | Deerfest | 3:02 |
| 9 | Taken by the Night | 10:48 |
| 10 | On the Run | 6:09 |
| 11 | Mirror Peak | 5:13 |
| 12 | Tom the Diver | 2:51 |
| 13 | The Night It All Began | 2:02 |
| 14 | Bright Falls Light & Power | 3:17 |
| 15 | Hunters | 5:01 |
| 16 | The Well-Lit Room | 1:42 |
| 17 | Water Pressure | 5:54 |
| 18 | Departure | 3:02 |
Xbox 360 Game Installation
Alan Wake requires 6.2 GB of space to install on an Xbox 360 HDD.
Downloadable content
There are multiple add-ons planned, bridging the story between the first game and a possible (as of yet unannounced) sequel. The first add-on, The Signal, was released July 27th, 2010, at a price point of 560 points and was included with all new copies of the game. The second add-on, titled The Writer was released October 12th, 2010 also for 560 points and was hinted at being the final add-on by Remedy.
Useful Links
- Official website
- BrightFalls.net
- BrightFalls.com
- Alan Wake Wiki
- OldGodsofAsgard.com
- PoetsOfTheFall.com
