Alan Wake in 2023: plot, characters, additions, re-releases

A look back at Remedy’s cult thriller after the release of the sequel

The original Alan Wake was released in May 2010.

The game failed to become a hit, but over time the psychological action-thriller gained a lot of fans. We tell you why Alan Wake was developed for a long time, how it differs from other thrillers and how to play it now.

From the text you will learn:

What Alan Wake is about
What add-ons were released for the game
What Alan Wake is still surprising
What disappoints the game in 2023
What Alan Wake was originally supposed to be
How to play Alan Wake now
What to play, read and watch if you like Alan Wake

Table of Contents

What Alan Wake is about?

The main character of the game is a writer Alan Wake, known for his series of noir detectives about policeman Alex Casey. At some point he loses his inspiration, which makes him unable to write a new book. To regain it, Alan, along with his wife Alice, who has a panic fear of the dark, goes to the town of Bright Falls.

The heroes move into a house on an island in the middle of the lake, but at night Alice is attacked by someone and dragged underwater. In an attempt to save his wife, Alan loses consciousness, and comes to himself only a week later in the middle of the forest. Here the writer is attacked by people possessed by darkness.

Soon it turns out that all recent events Wake invented himself and described in his new book called “Care”. Alan will have to break through a series of obstacles, save his wife and defeat the dark force that enveloped Bright Falls.

The game is divided into six episodes and takes about 10 hours to complete.

What add-ons were released for Alan Wake?

Two story DLCs with additional episodes were released for the game, which in total can be completed in a couple of hours. They are part of the base edition of the game on PC and the updated version released in 2021.

Episode “The Signal”. After the main game’s finale, Alan Wake discovers he is still in a dark version of Bright Falls that he can’t get out of.

Episode “The Writer”. Wake is still trapped in another world, but now knows how to escape. To do this, the hero must get to the place where it all began – the house on the lake.

Also in 2012, an independent spin-off Alan Wake’s American Nightmare was released. In the addon, an alternate version of Alan Wake confronts his dark alter ego named Mr. Scratch.

Unlike DLC-episodes, the spin-off is practically unrelated to the main game. In American Nightmare the focus is on battles – there are new types of enemies and weapons. There is also an arcade mode, where you have to fight off waves of enemies.

The addon turned out to be passable. In the main campaign the same locations are used several times, and the passage takes three or four hours. At the same time, the spin-off offers nothing but battles and a crumpled plot, which does not complement the events of the main game.

What Alan Wake surprises so far?

The game has a serial structure and is divided into episodes. The developers from Remedy studio were inspired by intricate thrillers and made the game an analog of a TV show. Each episode has a plot, the main part and a cliffhanger that makes you immediately turn on the next “series”.

Other elements of the narrative also work to create the atmosphere of the series. For example, each episode begins with the insertion of “earlier in Alan Wake”. This creates an additional “seriality” effect and helps to refresh your memory of the game’s recent events.

The gameplay balances between action and horror. Prior to Alan Wake, Remedy was known for Max Payne, a series of third-person shooters with time dilation mechanics. However, in the new game Remedy has shifted the focus from spectacular action to more careful shootouts.

Each enemy in the game has a shell of darkness, which protects from ordinary bullets. Only light – from a flashlight, rocket launcher, flare gun, firecracker or light and noise grenades – can penetrate it and make the enemy vulnerable. Therefore, in battle you have to eliminate enemies one by one and wisely spend the stock of “light weapons”.

Between fights with enemies, Wake explores dark locations where danger awaits at every turn. In addition to people possessed by darkness, the writer can be attacked by various objects: crates, pipes and even agricultural machinery. To save yourself, you need to dodge in time or remove the dark shell from the object. Otherwise, possessed objects knock Alan off his feet and cause a lot of damage. Because of this, you need to be alert and always keep a flashlight at the ready.

The plot keeps the intrigue until the very end. Alan Wake confuses the player and constantly throws up new questions. So, in the process of passing it turns out that all the events of the game were described by Wake himself in his own novel. However, neither the plot of this text, nor how he wrote it, Wake does not remember.

The manuscript is wanted by the Dark Entity, the main source of evil in the world of the game. Alan has to search for the pages of the novel because the Dark Entity is holding Alice hostage. However, what drives the antagonist is unknown. Nor is it known why Wake can rewrite some events, changing the course of history, and why others cannot.

What makes Alan Wake disappointing in 2023

The unusual approach to story presentation and gameplay helped Alan Wake stand out from other games. Now, however, some elements of the game do raise questions.

The flashlight mechanics get annoying very quickly. The trick with piercing the dark defense of enemies is presented to the player at the very beginning of the game. In the course of passing this mechanic is not developed in any way, because of which the firefights quickly get boring. All fights up to the finale follow the same scenario.

The plot turned out to be too confusing. Frequent plot twists and revelations add details to the already complex story. At the same time, the ending of the main game turned out to be confusing: the finale comes suddenly and leaves some questions unanswered. In fact, the real finale of Alan Wake unfolds in the additional episodes, which, thankfully, are now included in the base version of the game.

The levels are too monotonous. The neighborhoods of Bright Falls, where the events of the game take place, are virtually indistinguishable from one another. Whether it’s a sawmill, a dock, or an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, all locations feel the same. There are dense forests and almost impenetrable darkness all around.

Another disadvantage of the locations is their linearity. Only occasionally you can turn off the main path to find additional weapons or flashlight batteries. Most of the time, however, there are collectibles – pages from Wake’s manuscript and thermoses with coffee – in the nooks and crannies on the level. Only the pages are worth searching for, as they shed light on some of the plot details. But there is no point in searching for thermoses: the game doesn’t reward you for collecting them.

What Alan Wake was originally supposed to be?

According to the original idea, the main features of the game were supposed to be a serial structure and an open world. Only the first feature made it to the release.

In addition, for Alan Wake was planned to create a dynamic system of changing day and night. During the daylight hours it was necessary to collect resources, and in the dark – to fight with enemies. Generators were placed throughout the game world that could be fueled to light up certain parts of the city. This was a way to create a safe zone from enemies, as there was no flashlight in the game from the beginning.

It took Remedy a long time to connect the twisted plot with the open world. In addition, the studio couldn’t figure out how to explain why Wake was left alone in the city with supernatural forces. One of the ideas was to explain the evacuation of Bright Falls and its surroundings by a volcanic eruption, but this idea was rejected.

In 2005 Remedy announced Alan Wake as an open world game for PC and next generation consoles – Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. By then, however, the studio was running out of development money. Microsoft Game Studios offered Remedy help and agreed to be the game’s publisher. But on the condition that Alan Wake would be released only on PC and Xbox 360 consoles.

So the studio got extra time and decided to use it to its advantage. The team chose several executives, who had to decide on the final vision of the game and finish the development in a short time. In a few months Alan Wake turned into a linear adventure, although the already created levels and the main plot were not changed.

How to play Alan Wake in 2023?

Right now, there are two ways to play Alan Wake: run the original game or the 2021 re-release.

The original Alan Wake. It’s still available on Steam and GOG along with additional episodes and the American Nightmare addon. In 2017, the game was removed from digital stores due to an expired license for some songs from the soundtrack. A year later, Alan Wake returned to stores.

Graphically, Alan Wake is not badly preserved. And while the age of the action game is given away by low-resolution textures and poorly animated character faces, the original still surprises with top-notch lighting work.

Alan Wake Remastered. In 2021, Remedy signed a publishing deal with Epic Games and released the Alan Wake remaster on PC exclusively on the Epic Games Store, as well as on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. After another year, the game made its way to Nintendo Switch.

This version received mostly graphical improvements. In the remaster added textures of high quality, increased the range of drawing and updated the faces of characters. At the same time in all videos changed the lighting and models. However, in some cut-scenes heroes twitch because of the combination of old animations and new models – sometimes it causes the effect of “ominous valley”.

The only one on whom the new appearance looks good is Alan Wake himself. In the remaster, the hero’s face was changed so that now he looks like his version from Control and the sequel.

If you have to choose between these versions, the remaster is the best option to familiarize yourself with the game now. Although not without technical flaws, Alan Wake Remastered looks decent and is available on all modern platforms.

It’s worth buying the original version if you want to save money and are not bothered by the outdated graphics. Or if you want to familiarize yourself with Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.

Which games, movies and books are similar to Alan Wake?

Play. First of all, after Alan Wake it is worth passing Control from the same Remedy. The story about a girl with supernatural abilities continues the ideas of Alan Wake. Moreover, in this game – or rather, in the AWE add-on – the studio confirmed that the action of almost all its titles is set in the same universe.

The Evil Within is the closest to Alan Wake among third-party games. The plot of both parts raises questions about what is real and what is just the nightmares of the protagonist. The games are available on PC on Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5 and Xbox One and Series. The first The Evil Within was also released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but you can only get versions for those consoles on disk.

Buying the game on modern platforms will require a workaround: it can’t be purchased on Russian Steam right now.

View. When creating Alan Wake, the developers were inspired by many classic horror movies. The main one, perhaps, is Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. It is a classic of the genre, which, like Alan Wake, tells the story of a writer losing his mind.

Another source of inspiration for Remedy is David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. The town of the same name from the series became the prototype of Bright Falls. Both are small provincial settlements among forests and mountains, behind the peaceful and cozy life of which lurk sinister secrets.

Among other TV series that influenced the development of Alan Wake, Remedy screenwriter Sam Lake names “Staying Alive” and “The Twilight Zone”. Direct references to the latter can be found in the game as well.

To read. The game is influenced by the work of Stephen King. Paranormal phenomena are in almost all of his works, and writers often become the heroes of his novels. The closest in spirit to Alan Wake works “Bag of Bones”, “Dumas Key” and, of course, “The Shining”.

By the way, Remedy even applied directly to King for the right to use his name and quote in the game. The writer went ahead and sold the rights to the quote for one dollar. After the release of the game, the developers sent King a copy of Alan Wake. But the author couldn’t play it, because he didn’t have an Xbox 360.

Listen. In the game itself, you can meet two old men – Odin and Thor – who call themselves members of the rock band Old Gods of Asgard. Their music plays an important role in the story, and in one of the episodes even helps the hero to get on the trail of the villain. The band’s composition is also heard in Control.

In fact, behind Old Gods of Asgard is a real Finnish band Poets of the Fall. They created a track for Max Payne 2, after which they were asked to record some songs for Alan Wake. Some of the tracks, which were not included in the main game, can be heard in Alan Wake’s American Nightmare addon.

The cooperation between Poets of the Fall and Remedy continues even now. It is already known that Alan Wake 2 will include several new songs of Old Gods of Asgard.