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After a decade-long hiatus, the Alan Wake story is finally continuing with the launch of Alan Wake II on October 27, 2023. The much-anticipated sequel will finally answer the many mysteries and secrets lurking within Bright Falls. Whether you are a newcomer to the franchise or a veteran fan who hasn’t played the Remedy thriller in years, you may need a refresher on the game’s mind-bending plot. Here is everything that happened in Alan Wake so you can dive into part two without confusion.
Alan Wake story explained
At the story’s beginning, Alan Wake is visited by a recurring dream where a shadow creature chases him. He is saved, though, by a mysterious light entity that guides him through the darkness. After waking up, Alan and his wife Alice arrive at the small mountain-side town of Bright Falls. The opening explains that the best-selling author has been struggling with writer’s block and hasn’t been able to create anything in two years. To get out of this funk, Alan Wake has decided to take a vacation to escape the city and the mounting pressures of his publisher.
The odd nature of Bright Falls is quickly on display when Alan Wake visits the Twin Peaks-inspired “Oh Deer” diner to get the keys to his cabin from Carl Stucky. Instead of the landowner meeting him, though, he is greeted by a mysterious woman in black who gives him instructions on how to drive to his vacation home on Cauldron Lake. However, it’s revealed that Alan Wake had met with the wrong person after Carl Stucky stumbles out of the diner looking disheveled.
The author and his wife drive to the secluded cabin, which is literally in the middle of a massive lake. Their romantic getaway is ruined, though, when Alice admits that she actually booked the vacation so that Alan Wake could try to write again. Furious, he storms outside and walks to the nearby dock. His moment to clear his head is short-lived when Alice screams in terror from within the cabin. After realizing that something dragged her into the lake, the author dives into the murky body of water to chase after his love. Instead of being underwater, Alan Wake wakes up in his car, which has crashed into a tree.
The story of Alan Wake starts to get weird at this point, as the author starts discovering loose pages of a manuscript scattered throughout Bright Falls that predict the future. The author then realizes that he is literally living the events that have been written in a novel called Departure. As he continues to search for his wife, he is attacked by townspeople who have been possessed by a Shadowy entity called the “Taken.” After reporting his missing wife to the local police, Sherrif Breaker reveals to our protagonist that the cabin on Cauldron Lake hasn’t existed for years. Stunned, Alan Wake then drives out to the vacation home, which is now missing.
Alan Wake’s agent and close friend, Barry, arrives at Bright Falls to help him find his wife. While in the police station, the author gets a call from a mysterious man who claims they have kidnapped Alice and will return her if Alan Wake gives them the entire Departure manuscript. However, we eventually learn that the kidnapper is an actor hired by Bright Falls’s local doctor, Emil Hartman. According to the psychiatrist, he had been working with Alice to get the author out of his writing funk. During these events, FBI Agent Robert Nightingale has arrived in Bright Falls and has been following Alan Wake, who he is suspicious of being behind the city’s recent attacks. After our protagonist learns about the fake kidnapping plot, he and the actor are attacked by the lady in black, whom we met at the beginning of the game.
Alan Wake wakes up in the psychiatric facility of Doctor Emil Hartman, who claims the author had a mental breakdown after his wife had drowned. The writer, however, learns that the psychiatrist is actually aware of the dark entity inside of the town and escapes from the facility with the help of his agent, Barry. At this point in the plot, the game reveals massive lore elements. The shadowy creature Alan Wake has been fighting is called the “Dark Presence,” and it lives inside Cauldron Lake. The monster feeds off fiction and can bring written words to life. In the past, it had previously tried to escape into the town by using the works of a poet named Thomas Zane. We then learn that the lady in black at the beginning of the game is Zane’s wife, Barbara Jagger, who had unfortunately drowned in the lake.
To defeat the Dark Presence, Zane used his own writing against the monster and caused the volcano at Cauldron Lake to erupt, which swallowed the creature and trapped the writer inside the water. Thomas Zane is also the light entity that has been visiting our protagonist in his dreams and who has been guiding him throughout the story. After this revelation, Alan Wake remembers that he is the one who wrote the Departure manuscript, and the Dark Presence has been using his words all along to corrupt the town.
The story wraps up with Alan confronting the creature by entering the lake, which is an alternate dimension called the “Dark Place.” After destroying the lady in black, the author is able to free Alice by finishing his Departure novel. Unfortunately, Alan Wake has to sacrifice himself to save his wife and is now trapped in Cauldron Lake. The Alan Wake story ends with the writer giving players a chilling warning that the Dark Place isn’t actually a lake but is instead an ocean.
Alan Wake Specials: The Signal and The Writer
Remedy released two DLC expansion episodes titled The Signal and The Writer. Both episodes expand on the main Alan Wake story and reveal what happened to the author after he became trapped in the lake. In The Signal, Alan discovers that his own personality is responsible for him being stuck in the Dark Place. The protagonist must confront the dark version of himself that has become paralyzed by fear. The DLC mostly gives us a deeper look at what the Dark Place is and explores the emotional state of Alan Wake.
In The Writer, we learn that the irrational side of Alan Wake has now taken control of the Dark Place. The protagonist must reunite with his other side to overcome his situation and become whole again. Throughout the episode, the author’s every move is countered by his split personality. He is eventually able to reunite his rational and irrational side together. Now whole, Alan Wake forms a plan to escape the Dark Place by writing a new novel called “Return.”
And that is everything you need to know to be prepared for Alan Wake 2! The story is left off with Alan Wake trapped at the bottom of Cauldron Lake in the Dark Place, and he is now writing a new novel to try to help him escape. While we still don’t know much about the sequel, Remedy has revealed that fans will play half of the game as FBI Agent Saga Anderson. So, it’s likely that Alan Wake will be communicating with the agent through his writing. The plot is shaping up to be centered around Anderson trying to rescue the author from the alternate dimension while investigating Bright Falls.
Alan Wake II will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC starting October 27, 2023.
