Alan Wake is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was released in May 2010 for the Xbox 360, with a Windows version following in February 2012 and a remastered version released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows in October 2021, as well as a Nintendo Switch version in October 2022. The story follows bestselling crime thriller novelist Alan Wake as he tries to uncover the mystery behind his wife's disappearance during a vacation in the small fictional town of Bright Falls, Washington, all while experiencing events from the plot of his latest novel, which he cannot remember writing, coming to life.
In its pacing and structure, Alan Wake is similar to a thriller television series, with episodes that contain plot twists and cliffhangers. The game consists of six episodes, and the storyline continues in two special episodes, The Signal and The Writer, that were made available as downloadable content (DLC) in the year of the game's release. Additionally, a six-episode live-action web series called Bright Falls acts as a prequel to the game, and a number of related books also expand upon the Alan Wake story.
Written by Sam Lake and Mikko Rautalahti, Alan Wake took over five years to create. The game was originally developed as an open-world survival game as an antithesis to Remedy's prior linear Max Payne games, but the team struggled over three years to merge the gameplay with an action-thriller story. In two months, the team reworked the game into a more traditional linear game with an episodic approach that better supported the planned narrative structure, and which allowed the team to reuse previously created open-world assets.
The game received positive reviews from critics, has garnered a cult following, and is often praised for its visuals, sound, narrative, pacing and atmosphere. It was awarded the first spot in Time magazine's list of the top 10 video games of 2010. Alan Wake's American Nightmare, a stand-alone spin-off, was released in February 2012 on the Xbox Live Arcade service. A cancelled sequel became the foundation of Remedy's next title, Quantum Break. Later, Remedy released Control in 2019, which takes place in a shared universe with Alan Wake. A sequel, Alan Wake 2, was released in 2023.
Gameplay
[[File:Alan Wake - Fighting with Light.png|thumb|left|alt=A screenshot of Alan Wake, showing the player's character aiming his flashlight and handgun at an enemy, in an exterior environment.|Above, the player, as Alan, "fight[s] with light" against a Taken. The ammo counter for the gun is visible at the top right, and the flashlight meter at the top left. In interviews, the game's creators hold that the game does not belong squarely in the survival horror video-game genre. The game is primarily set in the fictional idyllic small town of Bright Falls, Washington. The main gameplay happens in various areas of Bright Falls—such as the forest, a national park, or a farm—during the night time; these are punctuated by calmer, non-combative sequences set during the day.
The player controls the eponymous protagonist Alan Wake, a well-known novelist who is going through writer's block. In the game, a "darkness" is taking over humans, animals, and objects. These enemies, dubbed the "Taken", are murderous shadows that attack Wake, wielding weapons of their own, ranging from mallets and knives to shovels and chainsaws. They vary by speed, size and the amount of damage they can take, and some can teleport short distances. Besides the Taken, the player must combat flocks of possessed ravens and animated objects. When enemies are close, Alan can perform a slow-motion cinematic dodge maneuver.
The Taken are protected by a shield of darkness, initially rendering them impervious to attack; they can only be injured with a firearm after exposure to light, which burns the darkness away. This puts significant emphasis on flashlights in conjunction with conventional weapons, such as a revolver or shotgun. Flashlight beams act as a reticle.
Plot
Alan Wake (voiced by Matthew Porretta) is a bestselling crime fiction author from New York City who suffers from a two-year stretch of writer's block. He and his wife Alice travel to the small mountain town of Bright Falls, Washington, for a short vacation at the advice of their friend and agent Barry Wheeler. Before arriving, Alan has a nightmare about shadowy figures who try to kill him, when an ethereal figure in a diving suit intervenes in the dream and teaches him how to utilize light to fend off the shadows.
Upon arrival in Bright Falls, Alan goes to a diner to retrieve the keys to their cabin from Carl Stucky, the landlord, but instead encounters a mysterious old woman, who tells him that Stucky had fallen ill and she was entrusted to give Alan the keys. The woman directs the couple to a cabin on an island in the middle of Cauldron Lake, a volcanic crater lake, where Alan experiences a vision of the old woman. As they unpack, Alice reveals that the real purpose of their trip is to help break his writer's block by arranging for him to see a famous Bright Falls psychologist named Dr. Emil Hartman. Alan is infuriated and storms out, only to rush back when he hears Alice crying for help. He returns just as Alice is dragged into the lake's waters by a mysterious force. Alan dives in after her, blacking out as he submerges.
After yet another hallucination of the old woman, Alan regains consciousness, apparently having driven his car off the road with no memory of how he got there. He attempts to reach a nearby gas station but progress is hampered by murderous, shadowy figures resembling those in his dream. While fighting the shadows with light, Alan repeatedly encounters an ethereal figure in a diving suit similar to the one from his dream, who leaves behind pages of a manuscript entitled Departure. Ostensibly written by Alan, he has no memory of writing it. He soon discovers that the events of the manuscript are coming true and that the shadowy figures, named "Taken," are townsfolk possessed by a dark force. After killing a possessed Carl Stucky and reaching the gas station, Alan tries to alert Sheriff Sarah Breaker of his wife's disappearance but Sheriff Breaker states that there has been no island or cabin in Cauldron Lake for decades after it sank in a volcanic eruption. Breaker believes Alan is mentally unwell and takes him to the police station. Meanwhile, Barry arrives in Bright Falls in search of Alan.
At the police station, Alan lies to hide the hallucinations he has been experiencing. He receives a call from a man purporting to be Alice's kidnapper, demanding the pages of Departure in exchange for her. Emil Hartman appears at the station to invite Alan to stay at his psychiatric hospital, Cauldron Lake Lodge—Alan punches Hartman as a response. Alan meets the kidnapper Mott at a nearby national park, who demands pages of Departure as ransom. The two fight before Mott runs off into the night.
Alan and Barry attempt to retrieve more pages and attract the attention of FBI agent Robert Nightingale. Alan leaves Barry behind and flees Nightingale, who chases him through the forest unsuccessfully. He meets Mott again to deliver the pages. As he arrives at the location he witnesses Mott being tortured by the mysterious old woman, confessing that he never actually had Alice. Alan and Mott are then attacked by a dark tornado that hurls Alan into Cauldron Lake.
He awakens in the lodge overlooking Cauldron Lake under the care of Hartman who claims Alan is experiencing a psychotic break, triggered by Alice drowning. He claims the supernatural phenomena Alan has been experiencing were all fabrications of his imagination. Alan attempts to escape the lodge as the shadowy force starts to attack it, learning in the process that the fake kidnapper was employed by Hartman to lure Alan to him. Hartman tries to stop Alan from escaping, and gives the impression that he is aware of the supernatural events surrounding the lake. Barry helps Alan escape the lodge before the shadow subsumes it and all those inside.
Alan and Barry gradually begin to learn the truth about Cauldron Lake from other townsfolk. An entity known as the Dark Presence is trapped within the lake, attempting to escape by using the lake's power to turn literature into reality. It had previously tried this with a poet named Thomas Zane—the figure in the diving suit—by taking the form of his spouse who drowned in the lake, Barbara Jagger, the old woman Alan encountered. Zane was able to resist its will and used his writings to cause the volcanic eruption that sank the island, stranding himself within the lake. The Dark Presence has grown strong enough to start to influence the townspeople and create the forces that have pursued Alan. That night as Alan and Barry take shelter, they get drunk on moonshine and Alan recalls memories of being forced to write Departure during the prior week. He realised that the Dark Presence is trying to use his writings to escape, holding Alice in the lake so as to coerce him.
Alan and Barry are arrested by Robert Nightingale but the Taken assault the police station and drag Nightingale away. Sheriff Breaker, now convinced of the Dark Presence's existence, helps Alan and Barry to reach Cynthia Weaver, a hermit who knew Thomas Zane and prepared countermeasures for the Dark Presence's return. Weaver leads them to the "Well-Lit Room" containing a light switch known as the Clicker, which, through the power of Alan's writings, possesses the narrative ability to destroy the Dark Presence. Alan returns to Cauldron Lake alone and dives in, finding himself in a surreal alternate dimension known as the Dark Place, where thoughts and ideas become reality. Alan encounters Jagger and destroys her with the Clicker; realising he must maintain balance in the story, Alan completes Departure by freeing Alice, but strands himself in the Dark Place in the process. Finishing Departure, Alan writes the final line, "It's not a lake, it's an ocean."
Special One: The Signal
Continuing from the end of the main game, Alan finds himself in a surreal version of Bright Falls and realises he is still trapped in the Dark Place. Zane directs Alan to follow a signal through a cell phone in order to "focus" and guide himself through the Dark Place. While navigating the realm's shifting, dreamlike topography, Alan encounters television screens depicting a more maniacal version of himself, who uses the power of the Dark Place to narrate circumstances that plunge Alan into danger, sending hordes of Taken after him. Alan also encounters an ethereal version of Barry, a figment of his subconsciousness, who helps guide Alan safely across the abstract landscape.
Zane eventually reveals that Alan himself is the cause of his current circumstance; the maniacal version of Alan on the television screens is an irrational aspect of Alan consumed by fear, his frenzied thoughts affecting the subjective world of the Dark Place. Alan encounters a monstrous conglomeration of televisions, through which the irrational Alan tries to kill him. Alan defeats the televisions, but wakes up back in the cabin again, and realises he is still trapped.
Special Two: The Writer
Still trapped in the Dark Place, Alan regains consciousness and accepts that he is the cause of the insanity he is experiencing, regaining his memories in the process. Zane tells him that the "irrational Alan" is still inside the cabin, controlling the Dark Place; the "rational Alan" must regain control in order to have any chance of escaping the Dark Place. Zane directs Alan to a lighthouse across the increasingly surreal landscape of the Dark Place, while the irrational Alan attempts to stop him by creating delusions of Alice, manipulating the landscape, and sending armies of Taken after him. Alan eventually outwits his other self and reaches the lighthouse, passing through it to reach the cabin.
As Alan nears the cabin, the imaginary Barry reappears and tells Alan that he will have to reject all the illusions before he can face off against the insane version of Alan, including the apparition of Barry. Alan is forced to confront Taken versions of Barry and the other townsfolk, defeating them all and reentering the cabin. The irrational Alan is in a paranoid state on the cabin floor; when Alan touches him, the two are made whole again. Alan realises that he cannot let himself fall into a delusional state again for fear of never being able to escape, and returns to the typewriter to start a new story.
Development
By 2003, the Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment had created the critically acclaimed Max Payne (2001), and its sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003). After shipping Max Payne 2, Remedy Entertainment spent some time "recovering from the crunch," and started coming up with different concepts for a new project. Among these was the concept for Alan Wake. Remedy also wanted cinematic action, so light and darkness was to play a significant factor in the game, which was first built into a dynamic day-and-night cycle. The game would have been more like a survival game; during daylight hours the player would collect resources, such as gasoline to run portable generators to run lights, as to protect and defend the player-character at night. According to Remedy's creative director Sam Lake, this approach created numerous difficulties in establishing a story and narrative for the thriller to explain how the gameplay elements tied together with the supernatural events. For example, Lake said one idea was based on the supernatural events tied to the no-longer-dormant volcano under Cauldron Lake, which would have led to the evacuation of Bright Falls and left Alan dealing only with the supernatural forces. By 2006, Remedy announced they had partnered with Microsoft Game Studios to publish the game exclusively for Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console and then-current Windows Vista PC operating system.
Remedy still continued to struggle with merging the open-world survival gameplay and story, now further complicated with Microsoft's involvement and suggestions for improvement, which Lake compared to a "too many cooks" situation. According to Lake, Remedy took the leads from each department to form a "sauna" group, making them work in a room together to lock down the gameplay that Alan Wake should have without losing much of work they had already done, "with all the heat and pressure on us".
According to Lake, the character of Alan Wake was also intended to be the opposite of Max Payne. While Max was a cop and thus suited to an action game, Remedy wanted Alan to be atypical of an action hero, making him a writer, partially influenced by King, For the character of Alan Wake himself, Remedy used "concept photos" as opposed to more traditional concept artwork. Voice-overs were provided by native actors from Japan and America for their respective regions.
After four years of having repeatedly demonstrated the Microsoft Windows version, in 2009, Remedy confirmed that at that point the game was being developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 and the decision to make a PC version was in Microsoft's hands. The game was announced as "done" and undergoing final polishing in August 2009. The game eventually went gold on 7 April 2010, and was released in May.
After the game's release in 2010, Remedy said that bringing the game to the PC was "not on the cards at the moment."
According to creator Sam Lake, Alan Wake is influenced by, and pays homage to two main sources, one being the works of David Lynch - specifically Twin Peaks - and the other being the bestselling author, Stephen King.
For the world-building, background characters, and smaller references in the game, Lake and the team at Remedy drew most prominently from Twin Peaks. Lake also sought to draw from a Lynchian mix of horror and absurd humour for the atmosphere of Alan Wake. To research the Pacific Northwest setting for the game, a Remedy team travelled to the area and drove about 2,000 miles between Oregon; Washington; and British Columbia, Canada, over two weeks, bringing back over 6,000 photographs and videos of various natural settings and Americana of the small towns in the area. These included Astoria, Oregon and North Bend, Washington, the latter where Twin Peaks was filmed, as well as locations used around Seattle for the film The Ring. Even after returning to Finland, the Remedy team contacted Microsoft, based in Washington, for help with additional photographs. Wake's narration directly alludes to King on several occasions, including the game's opening line, in which he quotes a Stephen King essay. The game also pays homage to the film The Shining (based on King's novel of the same name) with a hedge maze area similar to the iconic maze in the film, among other references, as well as King's novel Christine, with one of the in-game cars resembling her. King himself was asked for permission to use his quote. He also received copies of the game as a "thank you", but was unable to try them out because he does not own an Xbox. In addition to King's work, Lake has cited the stories of Bret Easton Ellis and Neil Gaiman as influences, as well as Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.
Additionally, in the game there are a number of television sets that can be found around the town in different places, an allusion to the show within a show Invitation to Love, that is featured within Twin Peaks. They can be switched on and a short episode of the fictional series Night Springs will be played, which is a reference to the television series The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling in the late 1950s. The televisions and Night Springs are itself a callback to the Twin Peaks-inspired show-within-the game Address Unknown from Remedy's earlier Max Payne games. Alfred Hitchcock is also cited as an inspiration, with the flocks of birds that often attack the protagonist being influenced by his classic horror film The Birds.
Episodic format
In its structure, the story of Alan Wake plays out similarly to a mystery television program, where each episode brings another piece of the puzzle to the main ongoing story, yet have a distinct plot of their own. The game's developers expressed interest in following Alan Wake up with a second season or a sequel.
Remedy Entertainment chose the TV series storytelling format to establish a certain stylisation and pacing. The developers felt that watching episodes of certain TV shows—such as the heavily serialised series Lost—in the form of released box sets, at the viewers' pace, was a "natural way of 'consuming media'", and that this episodic format was a better fit for a long game.
Product placement
A number of real-life brands and products appear in Alan Wake. The developers said that they tried to "be very conservative and attentive towards gamers" with their use of product placement, and that they aimed "to make the world feel more real rather than put ads in-your-face."
Examples of such marketing include collectable Energizer batteries and lithium batteries to insert into the player's hand-held lights. The phone service provider Verizon Wireless is another prominent brand in Alan Wake: besides Verizon branded mobile phones appearing on screen, there is a 30-second Verizon commercial viewable on one of the game's interactive TVs, as well as an allusion to the company's famous advertising line "Can you hear me now?" during a phone conversation in "The Signal" DLC. Additionally, billboards around Bright Falls advertise both Energizer and Verizon. Ford and Lincoln automobiles are also featured in the game.
Several Microsoft-related brands also appear in the game. Alan and Alice Wake's car shows that it has the Microsoft-powered Ford Sync in-vehicle entertainment system. An Xbox 360 console can be seen in one section of the game, with the box of the fictional Night Springs video game next to it, which are collectibles in "The Writer" DLC episode. In multiple sections of the game, Microsoft Tag bar codes can be seen; these can be scanned in real life by the user with the appropriate software on their mobile device. When scanned, these tags redirect players to a phone number with the voicemail from one of the game's characters, or to a Verizon-sponsored web site where users gain access to exclusive Alan Wake extras for their console. This functionality is only available in the United States.
Soundtrack
The game's score is composed by Petri Alanko. Poets of the Fall also perform two original songs, "Children of the Elder God" and "The Poet and the Muse", under the name Old Gods of Asgard. The band wrote the ending theme to Remedy's previous game, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, called "Late Goodbye", which is based on a poem written by Lake. "War", however, was not written specifically for Alan Wake. On 20 July 2010, an official soundtrack consisting of 18 tracks was released.
In addition to the original soundtrack and these songs, Alan Wake includes several licensed songs used typically at the closing of each episode or elsewhere. "Haunted" by Poe plays at the end of the second episode. "Space Oddity" by David Bowie plays over the end credits. Anomie Belle's "How Can I Be Sure" is featured in the third episode. "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson is played several times during the game.
Due to expiration of these music licenses, all digital and retail versions of Alan Wake were pulled from purchase from the various storefronts in May 2017; Remedy offered a large discount for the title in the days prior to removal. The removal did not affect those who already own the game, nor did it impact the availability of Alan Wake's American Nightmare, though that title will likely be affected similarly when its own licensing deals expire. With the help of Microsoft, Remedy was able to resecure these licensing rights by October 2018 and the game was relisted on digital storefronts.
Marketing and release
Alan Wake was first released exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game console. The game was scheduled to be released on 18 May 2010 in North America, and on 21 May in Europe. When the game went gold on 7 April 2010, the European release date was moved up a week. Therefore, the game was released in Europe first, on 14 May 2010, and then in North America on 18 May, as originally scheduled. On 23 November 2010, Alan Wake was released on the Games on Demand service of Xbox Live. On 16 February 2012, a version of the game for Microsoft Windows was released.
Alan Wake was also released in a limited collector's edition, packaged in a case resembling a hardcover book. The collector's edition contains the game, a book titled The Alan Wake Files, and an exclusive soundtrack CD. It also features a developer commentary, and lends access to virtual items for Xbox 360, such as themes and Avatar clothes.
Microsoft Windows version
Despite the cancellation of the PC version at the same time as the Xbox 360 release as a result of Microsoft's decision, Remedy's Oskari Häkkinen stated that "PC gaming is part of Remedy's heritage" and that the developers still wanted to release a PC version of the game. Remedy continued pressing Microsoft to allow the creation of a PC version, eventually gaining it in mid-2011; Häkkinen attributed Microsoft's agreement partially to their repeated requests, but as well as Remedy's good standing with Microsoft, and the time factor, having the PC version be available ahead of American Nightmare. The PC version was completed in about five months,
The game, which includes the main game and both DLC chapters, was released on the Steam platform on 16 February 2012. Within 48 hours, Remedy announced that revenue from sale of this version surpassed their development and marketing costs for the game. A retail PC version, distributed by Nordic Games, was released on 2 March 2012, in both a regular edition and a collector's edition, containing a soundtrack disc, The Alan Wake Files, and other special content. The PC retail release for the United States was released on 24 April 2012, being distributed by Legacy Interactive.
In December 2013, Remedy and Xbox released a special collector's edition of the game, with new content on the disc, including a 44-page digital comic book with art by Gerry Kissell and Amin Amat, and written by Remedy Entertainment's Mikko Rautalahti, who also wrote the script for the video game.
Bright Falls web series
A promotional live-action tie-in web series/miniseries titled Bright Falls was made available a few weeks before the game's release on the web and the Xbox Live service. The six episodes of Bright Falls were co-written and directed by Phillip Van, and they serve as a prequel to the game, set in the eponymous town before Alan Wake arrives there. The main character in the series is Jake Fischer (played by Christopher Forsyth), a newspaper reporter who visits the town on business.
A number of characters are shared between Bright Falls and Alan Wake, including diner waitress Rose, Dr. Emil Hartman, radio host Pat Maine and Alan Wake himself, who appears briefly in the final episode. The actors who play these characters also serve as voice actors and physical models for the characters in the game.
The web series begins as Jake Fischer arrives in Bright Falls to interview Dr. Hartman on his new book, an assignment from his publication agency. After a series of encounters with local townspeople, Jake soon finds himself the victim of long periods of lost time and black outs. He finds himself waking up in the middle of a forest and other locations where he had not been previously. He also develops an aversion towards lights and daytime. The longer he stays in Bright Falls, the more violent his behaviour becomes. When he realises this, he tries to duct-tape himself to a refrigerator and recording videotape himself in his sleep to see what might be causing the behaviour. It is implied that he is being completely taken over by the Dark Presence, to the point of murdering several people. He then vanishes, just before the arrival of Alan and Alice Wake.
Downloadable content
During 2010, two "special feature" episodes of Alan Wake were developed and released as downloadable content (DLC) on the Xbox Live service, which serve to bridge the gap between the game's ending, and a possible sequel.
The first of the two, titled "The Signal", was released on 27 July 2010. David Houghton of GamesRadar+ said it was one of the best segments of the game, but worried that it made the main game feel comparatively less impressive.
The second episode, "The Writer", was released on 12 October 2010. Erik Brudvig of IGN called it a must-buy for anyone that already purchased "The Signal", and said it satisfyingly closed out the game's story. He did feel that both DLCs were pricey for the amount of content they provided.
Books
The limited collector's edition of the game includes a 144-page book called The Alan Wake Files, which expands on the storyline of the game. An art/making of book, entitled Alan Wake: Illuminated is also available.