The following post contains complete spoilers for Alan Wake and Alan Wake's American Nightmare. It also contains speculation about the future of the series based upon extra content put out by Remedy Entertainment, and content found in both titles. You have been warned.
Alan Wake is one of the most successful cult hits in recent memory. While the title did not garner the sales Microsoft and Remedy were exactly hoping for (next time, don't release it on Red Dead Redemption day), it did garner critical acclaim from many outlets. Later, the game did receive a spiritual spin-off (Remedy was never completely clear on what it exactly is), dubbed Alan Wake's American Nightmare. A year passed, and then we learned that Remedy Entertainment was putting the Alan Wake series on the back burner in favor of a new title, Quantum Break. Sam Lake, the creative director of Remedy's projects, came out and apologized to the loyal fans who had been anticipating Alan Wake 2, with multiple reasons behind the decision. These included the lackluster sales of Alan Wake at launch, which in turn affected how much funding Remedy had for Alan Wake 2. Lake commented saying that Remedy could have proceeded with Alan Wake 2, but it would have been "less ambitious", and "wouldn't have done justice to you guys [the fans], to us [Remedy]", and "certainly wouldn't have done justice to Alan Wake". Lake makes it clear that Remedy will return to Alan Wake "when the time is right"...and the video ends with a box containing the "future" of Alan Wake being put away in a storage room, with the "do not open until XX" phrase being cut off at the end. Thus, we are at the present: when will Alan Wake return? Until we know...let's discuss what will happen when he does.
Where does the light shine?
One of my very first blogs here on Game Informer Online was actually very similar to this one; it was looking at where Alan Wake 2 was going to go. That was almost two years ago, though, and since then, I've been able to put my thoughts into words more clearly, and have learned a few tips and tricks about writing here. Originally, this blog was meant to launch what Andrew Reiner wanted to see from us, the community, as he picked Alan Wake for the Super Replay Showdown (and tragically lost to Daniel Tack...), and had wanted us to get involved with discussing the narrative of the game. I love, love Alan Wake, and have done basically all I can to familiarize myself with the game's characters, story, lore...everything about it. Today, I'm going to take a very detailed look at where I think Alan Wake is going to end up going with Alan Wake 2, based on what we see in the games, and what Remedy itself has hinted at (before they switched to Quantum Break). I will not completely explain the story of either game; only necessary elements will be discussed.
First, let's start with what we know from the actual games themselves. The original Alan Wake ends with Wake stuck in the Dark Place, the mysterious alternate plane that can be accessed through Cauldron Lake, somehow. Wake has saved his wife, Alice, who had been trapped at the bottom of the lake, and all of the other characters are shown celebrating Deerfest (the weird celebration that Bright Falls has). During the celebration, we also see Rose (the waitress of the Oh Deer Diner) holding a lamp, with Agent Nightingale (who we saw abducted by the Dark Presence) standing in the background, hidden by darkness. The presence of these two characters indicates that Rose may have taken on Cynthia Weaver's role as the "Lady of the Light", and that Agent Nightingale is possibly the new host body for the Dark Presence, as Barbara Jagger was before him. This is a popular theory among speculators, but we haven't seen anything else about these two really anywhere else, so it's not something I feel is definitely true (there is one clue that I explore later, but it's the only other indicator).
At the very, very end of the game, we see Wake still trapped in the Dark Place, inside Thomas Zane's cabin, typing away. After typing a bit, Wake states "It's not a lake. It's an ocean". We can interpret this in two ways: one, that the power of the Dark Presence is much more powerful than anyone had anticipated. Two, that the power held at the bottom of Cauldron Lake that affects creative works is something more than anyone thought. Regardless of which it is, this line sets the stage for Alan Wake 2, hinting that Wake is going to be dealing with something much bigger in his next adventure. Before we get into Alan Wake 2 and American Nightmare, though, we need to take a look at The Signal and The Writer; the two pieces of Alan Wake DLC.
They both take place in the Dark Place, following Wake's resolution to find Thomas Zane and get out of the lake. Wake moves across a distorted world made of twisted versions of Bright Falls, and eventually comes to confront himself. After fighting the part of him that has become deranged and lost, he finally is able to get back to the cabin once more, and realizes how to get out of the Dark Place. He sets the typewriter up again, and begins to write a sequel to "Departure", the novel he wrote that caused the events of Alan Wake. This sequel is seen as being named "Return", hinting that Return will be Wake's literal return to the world of light. In reality, this isn't exactly true; what really happens is Alan Wake's American Nightmare.
American Nightmare, as I stated before, hasn't really ever been defined by Remedy as being a real part of the story or not. If you took the time to play it, though, you'd know that it almost certainly is a bridge between Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2, for several reasons. American Nightmare pits Wake against his doppelganger, Mr. Scratch, who was created by Thomas Zane to act as his replacement in the real world while he was in the Dark Place. Somehow, Scratch became corrupted (or was always corrupted), and set out to try and eliminate Wake. The spin-off takes places in the Dark Place still, but in an episode of "Night Springs", the Alan Wake universe's version of The Twilight Zone. Wake had written episodes for the show before, but at the end of the game it's revealed that the episode he is in is called "Return", and that the manuscript he started writing at the end of The Writer is the story of American Nightmare. That technically isn't stated, but everything points toward that conclusion.
That's enough talking about we've already known, though; now, let's get into where the series is going next. Clues dropped throughout American Nightmare point out that two years have passed in the real world, and people have moved on from Wake's disappearance. Alice, his wife, thinks he is dead, but Barry Wheeler, his agent, does not. Barry has been busy working with the Old Gods of Asgard. Even though Tor and Odin Anderson are senile old geezers, they've somehow managed to return to the world of rock n' roll, and even have a new single, dubbed Balance Slays the Demon. This song is CRITICAL to understanding the future of Alan Wake, so please, bear with me as I explain it. First, please listen to the actual song. If you don't feel like that/are unable to, you can read the lyrics here.
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Now, at the 3:44 minute mark, you heard a garbled mess of whispers that sounded incoherent, and like it didn't mean anything. Well, what happens when you play that in reverse?
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For those of you who couldn't listen to it, the reversed track plays the phrase "It will happen again, in another town, a town called Ordinary". That phrase has vast significance in the Alan Wake universe, even if a lot of people haven't heard it. Before I get into the world of possibilities that phrase opens up, I just wanted to point out a couple of things from the song. For one, it points more toward the solution to fighting darkness being a balance of it and light (which was stated by Wake at one point as well). It also states that "it's not just the light you need" or "just the dark you seek"...I'm a bit hesitant to say this, but it is possible that this is hinting at Wake fighting forces of light as well as darkness, to create the balance that will set things right. Again, this is complete speculation, and is just my interpretation of what's being said.
Almost two years ago now, Sam Lake tweeted 'It's all true. "It will happen again, in another town, a town called Ordinary." It's happening now.', along with a link. This link led to a blog called "This House of Dreams", which is run by a woman named Samantha, who has just moved into her new home. The blog was started on February 22nd, 2012, exactly one month before American Nightmare's North American release. At first, her blog seems to be a normal one; she shows pictures of the house's interior, showing off the old pipes and pieces left behind by the previous owner (she says it has been a lifelong dream of hers to own an old house). A few entries in, she displays a shoebox she found "with typewritten sheets of poems and black and white photographs". When Thomas Zane disappeared into the Dark Place before the events of Alan Wake, he wrote himself out of existence, except his materials left in shoeboxes. Samantha goes on to show the pictures left inside, as well as state the the sheets of paper contain twelve poems.
The two pictures show the same man and woman, on a boat in what is presumably a lake. The man has a diving suit on, and the woman is helping him remove it. I think it's safe to say that this is Thomas Zane and Barbara Jagger, before Jagger died and before Zane wrote himself away and went into the Dark Place. The time period makes sense, as Samantha notes the picture came from the 60s or 70s, and Zane disappeared in 1979. This is direct evidence linking the shoebox to Thomas Zane...but this is only the first part. Now, I know that they're blurry, but please take a look at the poems provided by Samantha. Linked in is the actual poem, followed by her transcription and notes on them.
Poem 1...Transcription Poem 2...Transcription
Poem 3...Transcription Poem 4...Transcription
Poem 5...Transcription Poem 6...Transcription
Poem 7...Transcription Poem 8...Transcription
Poem 9...Transcription Poem 10...Transcription
Poem 11...Transcription Poem 12...Transcription
Well, that was a lot of linking those in. Before we look at all of them, though, I do need to address Samantha's first dream. After finding the shoebox, she has a dream where an FBI agent visits her house (most likely Agent Nightingale), who confronts her about the shoebox. The agent is described as having an inky shadow leaking off of his face, and also as not having "FBI" on his badge, but "AWE". As she searches her house (in the dream) for the shoebox, she also notices that her own face is leaking off the inky shadows, which she remembers from the photos. Afterwards, she is unable to find the shoebox, nor any of its contents. I forget exactly where I saw the idea, but AWE may stand for Alan Wake Exterminator. Now, the poems themselves...
Poem 1: The only thing I can think of to describe the purpose of this poem is that it's from the point of view of the Dark Presence. The reason I think this is because it mentions "We’ll make a ship out of/; Your naïve, broken dreams", which could be seen as the Dark Presence twisting the words and creativity of the people who come to Cauldron Lake for its own purposes.
Poem 2: Recognize the words? All but the first line were in Balance Slays the Demon, showing that the Old Gods of Asgard took several lines from Thomas Zane for their song. This poem is also all dark, with the words "The Dark Place" and "Some are born to endless night" from (according to Samantha) William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence. The latter is most certainly a reference to the Taken.
Poem 3: This one is possibly supposed to be from a "creator" who succumbed to the Dark Place at some point. I say this due to the lines "Everything else down here/; Has been stolen so many times/; Everyone who walks down these steps dies", which would fit with the idea of how creators lose themselves, and their work.
Poem 4: Aside from the coffee stain, this poem is notable for being one we actually heard from Thomas Zane in Wake's very first dream at the beginning of the first game. Although, the first stanza was not mentioned by Zane at the time, and also has "rewrite?" next to it, implying he did take out that portion.
Poem 5: The last three lines of this song also appear in Balance Slays the Demon. If Zane was still alive, he could reeeeaaaally sue for copyright infringement. In any case, the poem simply seems to be against staying in darkness too long. However, there is a note on the last three lines, saying "E’s favorite line, a long talk with him about the meaning, no changes but keep in mind for another time." E is a reference to Emil Hartman, the doctor who "treats" patients at Cauldron Lake Lodge. From the manuscript pages of Alan Wake, we learned that Emil was a sort of apprentice to Thomas Zane, and he also pushed Zane to rewrite Barbara Jagger back to life after she drowned. This is further evidence that Emil manipulated Zane while he stayed at the lake.
Poem 6: This seems to be a reference to someone falling into the depths of Cauldron Lake, possibly Barbara Jagger.
Poem 7: This one I'm a bit iffy on, but I think it's a reference to the Dark Place. The Dark Presence is trying to entice Zane into feeling loved, and succumbing to the darkness of the lake, and its power.
Poem 8: Another one I'm iffy on...well, it again seems to be referencing the Dark Place. More specifically, the deranged part of oneself that comes out inside (the mirror that the poem references), which we saw in The Signal and The Writer. Also, it could be talking about how endless the Dark Place is, as it uses the word "labryinth". There is a drawing of a fan, but personally I'm not sure who he is. There are some fir trees, which could be a reference to the lake itself, and as for the other drawing...I frankly have no idea what that is.
Poem 9: I feel as though this one is Zane speaking in first person, with Jagger being the other person hinted at. "Until that time comes around again/; The shadow falls on this town again" seems to imply that events in Bright Falls happen in cycles, and that the Dark Presence lingers around until another creator comes to the town, and then it awakes to wreak havoc.
Poem 10: One of the poems in the entire bunch that doesn't focus entirely on darkness; there's not even a word related to darkness in this one. It's all about the love Zane ad Jagger had for each other; it was passionate...until she drowned, and then it went "From bloom to gloom".
Poem 11: It's impossible to make out the last two crossed out lines, but I think the meaning of this one is pretty simple. It's referencing the Dark Place once more, as a place that's impossible to escape, and that messes with who you are (There is no knowing/; Am I standing still/; Or running or kneeling").
Poem 12: The comment from "B" is most certainly Barbara, and I think that this last one of the bunch is Zane walking through the Dark Place. He's still wearing his diver's suit ("these holes"), and he is "far below Heaven" and "far above Hell".
I should go scope this place out.
All of these poems were definitely written by Thomas Zane; I don't think there's any question about that. So, what do they point to? Somehow, these poems ended up in this house, which is not anywhere near Bright Falls. How do I know that? On the same day that Samantha uploaded the pictures of the poems, she mentioned people working on her house. Where is her house? She gives it away; "Nothing out of the ordinary in the town of Ordinary (pun intended)." I've looked it up, and there don't seem to be many towns in the United States named Ordinary. There's one in Virginia and Kentucky, at the very least...but there may be others. Regardless of where it is, there definitely are places in the United States called Ordinary, and we now have several lines connecting it to Alan Wake; the line from Balance Slays the Demon; Samantha finding the page in a town called Ordinary...hopefully, things are starting to fall into place.
After the first bout of shoebox poems, Samantha has a second dream, in which she encounters a man whose description matches that of Wake himself. Wake eventually ends up screaming for her to turn the lights on (when the house is already very bright), and after she wakes, she sees a silhouette of a male in the window. My guess is that this man is either a lowly Taken, or Nightingale. This is where we start to see Samantha...well, lose it. In a post two days later, we only see "Called 911. Men outside shadows darkcominghelpmoreligh", without a title. When she describes the incident that occurred that night several days later, we really begin seeing her experience the effects that people like Alan Wake and Jake Fischer experienced (Jake Fischer is the protagonist of Bright Falls, the mini-series that serves a prequel to Alan Wake. I didn't think of anything in it that would be pertinent to the future of the series, so I opted to leave it out of the discussion. If any of you have any clues, please leave those in the comments!). At then end of her description, though, Samantha mentions that the shoebox has reappeared, and that "There is stuff inside that wasn’t there before."
Interestingly, Samantha doesn't update for a long time, and then finally does a post talking about how someone had tried to talk her into not updating anymore about the shoebox. She considered this idea, but ultimately rejected it in favor of posting what she wanted to. In any case, she also tells us that the new items in the shoebox are a new set of poems, and an "old light switch". It looks ancient, and when she flicks it, all of the lights in her neighborhood turn off. This is later said to actually have been from a thunderstorm...but I don't buy it. I think that this thing is possibly Thomas Zane's "Clicker", or another creator who arrived at Cauldron Lake. It's certainly an entertaining thought; what if Wake's story is just one that's repeated over and over again, but he's the first one to break the cycle? Anyways, there are only two posts left in her blog now; the final one, and the new set of poems.
Poem 13...TranscriptionPoem 14...Transcription
Poem 15...TranscriptionPoem 16...Transcription
Poem 17...TranscriptionPoem 18...Transcription
Poem 13: The note on the bottom of the poem shows that Zane wrote this poem before Jagger died (or possibly after he had "resurrected" her, but before he had realized how she was actually the Dark Presence in her form), but the story it tells is most certainly that of Zane's feelings towards the Jagger he met which was the Dark Presence in human form. We know this because of how it says "I found a witch wearing her face", 'her' being his princess, which is definitely Jagger.
Poem 14: To be honest...I can't make rhyme or reason out of this one. If any of you have any thoughts, feel free to mention them...but I've got nothing.
Poem 15: I believe that this one is referring to Zane being stuck in the Dark Place; it's vague, but the idea that his crown is "too tall" makes me think he is too much a part of the Dark Place; he isn't human anymore, and is thus ingrained there, "doomed to remain...forevermore".
Poem 16: Woo boy, this one is a bit of a doozy. Let's start with the first stanza. The various things that the shoebox is said to contain all deal with power; money, jewelry...and the "power to punch a hole in the universe". Well, that's a powerful thing to have in a small shoebox. The next stanza has several items crossed out (several which would have belonged to Alan Wake), but then, curiously, has "wor(l)ds" as being contained in the shoebox. This goes back to the original idea of creativity being power; "words" have the power to make "worlds". The final stanza is a reference to Schrödinger's cat, which I believe is a reference to the potential for the power seen used by the Dark Presence and creators to backfire. At the bottom of the paper, though, is a very important section. It seems Zane went on a rant here, first mentioning how E (Hartman) "can't see it", most likely being the potential power of the lake, as Zane then gives the line that Wake himself later gave: "It's not a lake, it's an ocean". Additionally, Zane implies that the Dark Presence, or possibly the power of darkness in the lake, has been around since before time began. Interesting, he ends this with the power existing before "THE POEM", and then saying "I can be a creator, the creator. It has happened before, and it will happen again, many times." This makes me think that Alan Wake universe has a multiple worlds sort of thing going on; not just the Dark Place either. Creators have been able to make other worlds before, and Zane possibly attempted to do so himself. It just...didn't work out.
Poem 17: This is the shortest one of the entire bunch, and I honestly again don't have really any ideas on what it means.
Poem 18: The very last poem we have from Thomas Zane (in this collection at least) seems to tell the story of his own demise. The "friend" that passed away was "taken by/; a dark presence", and the friend's things are kept "in a shoebox", which a direct reference to Zane himself. The underlined "dark presence" also has a note saying that "E didn't find this funny", I guess meaning that Hartman wasn't one to make jokes.
Return.
Along with those poems, there was one additional page, seen above. It says "Return by ___ ___", which is, of course, a direct reference to the story Wake started writing at the end of The Writer and that we saw pages of in American Nightmare. The biggest new thing on this page is the handwritten note in the top corner. We thought that Return was the sequel to Departure; what in the world is Initiation? Does this mean that there's something that happened inbetween Alan Wake and the DLC episodes? Or, is it possible that this new story was written after Return in order to amend the mistakes Return made? Whatever the case is, that exclamation mark is an indicator that Initiation is important, and that we'll almost definitely see it when Alan Wake 2 finally emerges.
Now, before I get into my final predictions, Samantha does have her last post, which is the most recent one, from June 2012. In it she describes another dream, where Thomas Zane (as Wake knows him; the floating diver) appears before her, and explains what happened with him and Barbara Jagger. After Jagger had been taken over by the Dark Presence, he finally went into the lake with her, and he let himself be taken over by a being of light. The spirits of the couple now exist in a "baby universe", somewhere deep down and beyond our world; an escape, a "paradise". Zane tells her of his secret poem (most likely "THE POEM"), which no one has seen, and that he used to create that paradise. He used the power of the sea of darkness to create that world, and his essence, and Jagger's, continued to fight as forces of light, and darkness, in "our world". That's a lot to take in, but in the end, it makes sense; why wouldn't there be some "Light Presence" to combat the Dark Presence? There needs to be a balance in the world, and not a one-sided conflict.
Well...that was a lot of recounting information. But now, for the two of you who actually cared enough to read this far (you are awesome!), let's close out with what I interpret all of this meaning. This will be a bit repetitive, but considering how much I covered...it would probably be best to consolidate my thoughts.
Conclusions We Can Draw
First, the things we know for certain; Alan Wake 2 will take place (at least partially) in a town called Ordinary, most likely located somewhere in the United States, possibly Virginia or Kentucky. The way I think of it is that the Dark Place, as it is an "ocean", is spread out across the world, and there are small entrances to it in various places. Cauldron Lake is one of them...and considering Virginia and Kentucky, it could be another lake, or possibly an underground cave of some sort. It's possible that Wake emerges from this place when he finally manages to break free of the Dark Place. There is the potential for a second playable character being the protagonist, and they help Wake escape the Dark Place...but I think it's going to be Wake himself.
Next, Samantha will play some part in the story. It could be that she holds some piece of information (which could be Zane's secret poem) that Wake needs to combat the Dark Presence, or that she acts like Sherrif Breaker did as a support in combat at times. Regardless of her role, considering that final dream of hers, I think it's safe to say she will play one, minor or major.
Also, after emerging from the Dark Place, Wake may have harnessed the power there in a new way, letting him shape his creations. I'm a little more fuzzy on this idea, but there is a possibility. Even if he hasn't, we will definitely see whatever Initiation actually is. It could be a small side-story/prequel sort of thing...but anything's possible in the world of Alan Wake.
A key theme that emerged late in Alan Wake is the idea of balancing light and darkness, with neither side staying in power. This theme was expanded more in Balance Slays the Demon, and Zane's poems. This doesn't necessarily mean that Wake will fight against light, as it could just be the darkness trying to upset the balance, but I think that we will see that idea come more into play in Alan Wake 2.
I'm not so sure about Rose returning, but after Samantha's dream, I now think that Nightingale has a good chance of returning in some form, even if it is just as a the Dark Presence's face for brief moments.
While there is a lot out there about where Alan Wake's sequel will go, there still are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the lore and universe of the game. Only time can answer those questions, though, and it'll probably be awhile before we know when those answers will come. In the meantime, we can play the games again, and continue speculating about where the series will go. If all of this is any indication though, I think the most definite thing I can say about Alan Wake 2 is that it will be something to behold. Remedy created a masterpiece with the first game, and put a lot of work in trying to make their vision of the world of Alan Wake come true. They recognized when they wouldn't be able to do that, and moved on to something else. Even though I'm excited for Quantum Break (but please put it on Steam...), I'm still going to be dreaming of Wake's next adventure much more.
Alright...phew, that was a long write, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. If you all have any suggestions about ideas you think the franchise is going, or any clues I missed, feel free to let me know! I'm always willing to expand my knowledge of Alan Wake even more. Thanks to those of you who stuck with this long piece, and I shall see you all again tomorrow!
Peace.