I recently played Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake, and was left without concrete closure to the game’s story. Former GN staff writer, current GN contributor, and author of the Nerdology blog Creighton DeSimone couldn’t be more eager to talk about the game once he finished, so the two of us sat down to dicuss the finer — or perhaps more ambiguous — points of this huge title. Here’s what we came up with (many spoilers ahead):
[11:51] Creighton: Alan Wake
[11:51] Creighton: Alan WAKE
[11:51] Creighton: ALAN WAKE
[11:51] Eddie: Haha, hey.
[11:51] Creighton: I finished it.
[11:51] Eddie: I noticed.
[11:51] Creighton: I HAD to. I did 3 chapters in a row.
[11:51] Eddie: Did you enjoy it? Haha.
[11:51] Creighton: Yes, I enjoyed it a lot.
[11:51] Eddie: 4-5-6. I liked those less than 1-2-3. I know 2 peeps who liked them more, though.
[11:52] Creighton: Yup. Well I could feel the story coming to a conclusion.
[11:52] Eddie: I liked 6, actually, now that I think of it.
[11:52] Creighton: I was only going to do 2, and then I thought 6 was going to be short so I started it. When I realized it was full length I had to finish it.
[11:52] Eddie: Ha. I liked the words.
[11:53] Creighton: Words or woods?
[11:53] Eddie: Both, but the words at the end that made the objects appear.
[11:53] Creighton: Oh yeah, that was awesome. I REALLY liked that. Amazing touch.
[11:53] Eddie: All the typewriter stuff.
[11:54] Creighton: The game did so many interesting things and used the videogame medium so much better than any other game. It stands (like I said) with BioShock and Braid in that respect, I think.
[11:55] Eddie: Hmmm.
[11:55] Creighton: You don’t think so?
[11:55] Eddie: From Big Red Everything: “Eddie has also been playing that I-don’t-care-about-it Nier game. He’s also gotten hold of Alan Wake, and without spoiling his review, suffice to say he’s really rather excited. In his words: “I don’t wanna be guilty of driving the hype train, but the game does great things for this industry… so far.” Toot toot!” Hehe.
[11:56] Creighton: Gotcha.
[11:56] Eddie: I think it does good things, but also has some problems. I think the narrative could have been better resolved.
[11:57] Creighton: I’ll agree with that.
[11:57] Eddie: Once I hit the clinic, I began thinking it was just a videogame more than I did early on; things became less metaphorical to me, and more simply supernatural.
[11:57] Creighton: Yeah, for a second the game was almost Shutter Island. I was going to be really pissed if I was a patient the whole time.
[11:58] Eddie: Ha, me too, especially since I had just watched Shutter Island like a week before.
[11:58] Creighton: If that was true I probably would have shut off the game and mailed it back to Remedy with an angry note.
[11:58] Eddie: Ha
[11:58] Creighton: Interesting, on the metaphorical/supernatural. I didn’t think it was taking place in his head. I thought it was real, I was convinced like Alan was that this was real.
[11:59] Eddie: At first I felt like I was led to believe it was psychological, so when it wasn’t, it was a bit of a letdown. I’ll play through again.
[12:00] Creighton: I don’t think I’ll play it again. But there is one achievement I didn’t get that I want… well 2, kind of. “What light through yonder window” – Kill 50 guys with the flare gun. And I got 9 of 10 radio shows, so I’m really close to that one.
[12:01] Eddie: Ha. I don’t know about the achievements; they’re just things I don’t pay attention to.
[12:02] Creighton: I just think it’s the only Shakespeare-referenced achievement.
[12:02] Eddie: Ever.
[12:06] Creighton: The problem is I only have like 25 kills, and the game isn’t exactly filled with flare guns… though it kind of is at the end. I like that the flare gun is the rocket launcher of this game, and flares are like grenades… and flash bangs are like portable fucking nukes.
[12:06] Eddie: Yeah, light as a weapon is just cool, overall.
[12:07] Creighton: Can we talk about 2 things? The ending…
[12:07] Eddie: Yes, ugh.
[12:07] Creighton: …and the DLC.
[12:07] Eddie: I hated the ending, to be honest.
[12:07] Creighton: Well, OK, so the very very ending: “Alan, wake up…”
[12:08] Eddie: Yeah.
[12:08] Creighton: To me, feels like a cop out.
[12:08] Eddie: Yeah.
[12:08] Creighton: A little bit.
[12:08] Eddie: Yeah. Bleh.
[12:08] Creighton: Because, first of all, we don’t know when he went to sleep. There’s so much we don’t know.
[12:08] Eddie: I want to go back through and note every time that is used, and try to get exactly why; see what it really means, now that I know the whole story… so far.
[12:09] Creighton: Yeah. The visual to go along with the last one was “…”. To me that says he’s writing… or someone is.
[12:09] Eddie: Yeah, like there was a pause in the writing.
[12:10] Creighton: Right. Because he is waking up?
[12:10] Creighton:But OK, let’s jump to DLC for a second then. Have you read the description of the DLC?
[12:10] Eddie: Not the description. I know it’s called The Signal, and it is going to be within the framework of the story so far, to flesh SOMETHING out better and better set up for “season” 2.
[12:10] Creighton: OK. It appears as if Remedy is turning Alan Wake into some sort of deity.
[12:11] Eddie: Hmm, weird. Well, I loved The Matrix, haha — even 2 and 3 — so I guess deification will sit well with me, now that I understand we’re dealing with outright fantasy.
[12:11] Creighton: It says something like “Alan encounters the blah blah blah and he needs to write and get out of the situation.” To me, that means that he is conscious that his writing will change things.
[12:12] Eddie: Yeah.
[12:12] Creighton: Which goes against the whole game except the end. And that’s why the end works (before the “Alan, wake up” part). Because he didn’t finish the story and he needed to write the ending.
[12:13] Eddie: Yeah, during the game, he had already written everything; he wasn’t in-process until the ending.
[12:13] Creighton: Right.
[12:13] Eddie: So with his current knowledge, will he be just writing whatever? To win?
[12:13] Creighton: It seems that this DLC he is writing in order to change things/stop what is going to happen. Right. That’s weird. That’s not what the game is.
[12:13] Eddie: Well, it seems almost like a traditional trilogy structure. This first one was an awakening of his “power” in a way.
[12:14] Creighton: But with the ending we got, with him trapped in the room at the bottom of the lake, how else could they add on to the game? This story doesn’t need a trilogy, like BioShock didn’t need a sequel.
[12:14] Eddie: Alan wake needs a sequel. Maybe not a trilogy, but it needs a sequel, because the ending was not effective at closing the story or even leaving it with a mysterious ending.
[12:15] Creighton: Maybe, but it could have been. They could have wrapped it up in a nice package. BioShock tied itself up nicely.
[12:15] Eddie: It was a suspenseful ending, which is different. Half-Life 2 had an ending that was a little “wtf,” but it was effective because there was still resolution.
[12:16] Creighton: I mean, they’ve got me. I’m going to buy the DLC and in 6 years I’ll buy Alan Wake 2.
[12:16] Eddie: Ha, yeah, me too. I enjoyed the actual gameplay very much, as well.
[12:16] Creighton: But I want to talk about Thomas Zane.
[12:16] Eddie: Thomas Zane, that weirdo.
[12:17] Creighton: Well, I don’t know about that. He seems to have known exactly what was going on.
[12:17] Eddie: Yeah, he was there from the beginning.
[12:17] Creighton: Do you think he was Alan’s father?
[12:17] Eddie: Nah.
[12:17] Creighton: really? OK, do you think he wrote Alan into existence?
[12:18] Eddie: Oooh, now THAT is interesting. It’d be cooler, to me, if Zane wrote Alan.
[12:18] Creighton: I think Thomas Zane wrote Alan into existence because he knew he couldn’t control the darkness, but he knew that his own creation could.
[12:18] Eddie: Hmmmmmm.
[12:18] Creighton: And he armed him with the clicker, the final weapon against the darkness.
[12:19] Eddie: What interests me is the way the rock brothers call Alan Tom all the time.
[12:19] Creighton: Yeah, that wasn’t something I got until later. They were calling him Tom and I thought they were just crazy.
[12:19] Eddie: I noticed in the diner. I was just like, “uh… Tom?”
[12:19] Creighton: I forgot about the diner stuff. It wasn’t until after I escaped the hospital and we were talking about Zane that I remembered his name was Thomas. And if Thomas Zane was going to create someone I bet he would look a little like himself.
[12:20] Eddie: Maybe. There were books by Thomas Zane somewhere. I looked at them. Oh, in the cabin in the beginning.
[12:21] Creighton: Yeah. So the story says when Zane died he wrote himself out of existence, except whatever was in that specific shoe box.
[12:29] Eddie: Yeah, entrusted to the light lady.
[12:29] Creighton: Did Alan have to do the same thing? And does only Alice remember because she was in the darkness at the time? And it’s weird that the box had a page and the clicker (which was tied into the store via flashback beautifully).
[12:29] Eddie: Do you remember what the page was?
[12:30] Creighton: It was a page from Zane’s book, saying, “the things in the shoe box are all that remain,” or whatever. I’m paraphrasing. I don’t know if it ended up in your inventory. Which is another thing: if you don’t pick up pages, if you just avoid them at all costs, the game’s driving force kind of breaks down. Alan says “pages I’ve collected” a few times in cutscenes, but as far as I know you only have to pick up one.
[12:32] Eddie: Hmmmmmmmmmm. I never thought of that, but wtf cares?
[12:32] Creighton: Yeah.
[12:32] Eddie: If you’re deliberately not picking up pages, you’re a dick, and you’re trying to break the game.
[12:32] Creighton: Right, it’s one of those things that you just do as a gamer. It is worth noting, though.
[12:32] Eddie: That’s something the critic looking for flaws does. Some people are overly critical to make themselves feel important. F that. Nobody is going to just NOT pick up pages.
[12:33] Creighton: Agreed. And man, are they laid out great?
[12:33] Eddie: Yeah. They’re always very accessible. Well, almost always.
[12:34] Creighton: Remedy crafted the placement really well.
[12:34] Eddie: A few are out of the way, but like you had said, the game instills great gamer instinct in us because the path is so clear, both forward and as far as side-tracking is concerned.
[12:34] Creighton: Yeah, you kind of know where those are, also. Every time I wandered off the path to look at something, I was rewarded with either a coffee thermos or a page or a chest.
[12:34] Eddie: Yeah, I agree totally.
[12:35] Creighton: I was almost never disappointed. Though I will say I don’t get the coffee thing. Am I trying to stay awake? Why do I keep picking these up? And I thought for sure I picked up more than I actually did.
[12:40] Eddie: See, the coffee…. It was GREAT if the whole situation was metaphorical, if Alan was CURRENTLY writing as we were playing out the story in another “dimension” – in his mind. The story led me to believe this was the case, too, unfortunately, because he commented on how he had to stay awake, had to keep writing, in order to be successful.
[12:41] Creighton: Right, and drive out the darkness/save Alice. I was never hard set that that’s where we were, though. In his mind, I mean.
[12:41] Eddie: And it was all in the present tense, so in that case, the coffee thermoses would be highly relevant, and their inclusion colored my perception of the narrative a bit, which unfortunately led to the breakdown of the story a bit. It felt like Sam Lake was going somewhere with the story, then changed his mind and didn’t clear things up that weren’t appropriate.
[12:43] Creighton: He changed his mind in 2008, and forgot.
[12:43] Eddie: That’s why I said when you got to chapter 3/4 it was a pivotal moment.
[12:44] Creighton: See, I thought you said that because it was all a dream and I was a patient.
[12:44] Eddie: Nah.
[12:44] Creighton: …and I was pretty upset with the storytelling.
[12:44] Eddie: Ha, me too.
[12:44] Creighton: But you said that because it turns out it was real.
[12:45] Eddie: I was upset that it appeared to be fake, too, but I liked that Alan realized it wasn’t just a dream. That whole clinic scenario was a weird inclusion; it was a little pointless. I mean, this guy was using artists, who are susceptible to influence by the darkness, to make money off of creative work? Wtf?! Why is that even in there?
[12:46] Creighton: I agree that the guy was weird, but I think it helped set up some of the world. It explained the town and the surroundings a little. People have known about this power on the like but they don’t really talk about it. This guy is trying to cash in, and these guys became rockstars.
[12:46] Eddie: Yeah, true. Still, it could’ve been revealed in a different way, the whole community knowledge thing. The most interesting part of that whole segment, to me, was that the other artist became more inspired and prolific when Alan arrived.
[12:47] Creighton: They probably could have done it better, but at the same time, it added a few minutes of “oh shit, was this a dream.”
[12:47] Eddie: Ha, yeah, for the whole walk around the premises, I was just like, “#*@%!”
[12:48] Creighton: It was just long enough for me not to shut off the game.
[12:48] Eddie: I liked how Alan was fighting it, though.
[12:48] Creighton: And then you, yourself become the crazy guy.
[12:48] Eddie: It gave us reason to continue our investigation of truth
[12:48] Creighton: I was like “No. It was real. It had to be real.”
[12:48] Eddie: Exactly. So that was good. Haha. I don’t want to sound like a hater. I really liked this game a lot.
[12:49] Creighton: Yeah me too. I liked it more than I thought I would.
[12:49] Eddie: Oh, one more thing about the ending: Rose.
[12:49] Creighton: OH YEAH
[12:49] Eddie: With the light… did Alan redo the Zane trick, but with a new lady of the light?
[12:50] Creighton: And who was that over her shoulder in side?
[12:50] Eddie: I THOUGHT that was the FBI agent.
[12:50] Creighton: Oh.
[12:50] Eddie: I watched it like 10 times to try to figure it out.
[12:50] Creighton: I can’t tell. All the faces are ugly. Six-year-old technology.
[12:50] Eddie: Haha, yeah. But… why Nightengale… if it was him?
[12:50] Creighton: So if he had to write himself out of the world, he would need a loophole like Zane to get back in. But I was under the impression that the darkness was totally gone, whereas Zane knew it would come back.
[12:51] Eddie: Hmmm. It’s not a lake, it’s an ocean. It’s bigger than the darkness under the lake, maybe.
[12:51] Creighton: Right, it’s an ocean.
[12:53] Eddie: I dunno, it was confusing. I think that bothered me. I’m never really confused by anything. Haha. It felt weird. But I think having thought about it, I feel more at peace with the narrative. I think that’s a good thing, too, that it takes further thought to appreciate the game. Not many games are like that.
[12:54] Creighton: I guess I’m tainted by knowing it was in development for so long, but I did expect a nicely wrapped package for something in development for so long. If they were going to take the time to re-do the game (or whatever they were doing) it should have ended. But that might be unfair, because someone playing this game in 3 years doesn’t know that.
[12:54] Eddie: Right.
[12:54] Creighton: I’ll bet most people playing the game now don’t know that.
[12:54] Eddie: Haha.
[12:55] Creighton: I know it, because I remember the launch trailer… back in 06?
[12:57] Creighton: I was talking up Alan Wake last night to two friends who are gamers, but not really, and they didn’t know anything about it. Try telling the story of Alan Wake to someone who knew nothing about it and try not spoiling it.
[13:01] Eddie: You know what would’ve been cool? I considered this after a second round of watching the cutscenes…. What if every time the “darkness” killed someone (ranger guy, Stucky, FBI dude, psychiatrist, etc.), it was really Alan doing it. He was always right there, and he even had a mischievous grin on his face at some of those moments.
[13:02] Creighton: Well, he wrote the story, so he kind of did.
[13:02] Eddie: True.
[13:02] Creighton: Like the FBI guy…. That was totally Alan’s doing. That was some time travel type moment also. It was pretty great.
[13:03] Eddie: I think it would’ve been very interesting if killing the darkness was really Alan defeating his own propensity to murder.
[13:03] Creighton: I think that becomes a different game.
[13:03] Eddie: Yeah, it would be. That theory is easily discarded halfway through, or a bit further. Oh well.
[13:07] Creighton: I mean that could be Alan Wake 2; he loses his mind. And then in 3 he has to find it.
[13:08] Eddie: Ah.
[13:09] Creighton: WTF is Rose going to do with that lantern? And why was the FBI agent even in that town? OH, and that reminds me that the game did break down for me once during a cutscene. It was after we got out of Rose’s trailer, and the FBI agent is there with the cops, who have been nice to you the whole time. The FBI guy says, “you need to come with me,” and Alan just runs away. Why would he run away? He didn’t need to meet the kidnapper for a day and a half. That’s so much time.
[13:11] Eddie: I dunno. The FBI agent was kinda weird. That’s part of why I considered the “Alan is a murderer” plot. A few other things I haven’t reconciled are the coffee Rose gave him, and the moonshine he drank, both of which were with Barry.
[13:13] Creighton: Yeah, and I picked up the page that said that the moonshine had lake water in it. Why would I drink that?
[13:13] Eddie: And all the talk of “muses.” Alan calls his wife his muse. Tom’s muse was the scary veiled lady. And Rose WANTS to be Alan’s muse. So drinks and muses… not really developed well.
[13:14] Creighton: And FBI agents.
[13:14] Eddie: And FBI agents. That would REALLY make the “Alan is a killer” idea workable, but it just doesn’t hold up. The agent is killed and then that whole thread disappears.
[13:15] Creighton: Yeah.
[13:15] Eddie: All this is what leads me to my final conclusion about plot in Alan Wake: there really is no continuity of logically cohesive overarching meaning to the plot. Alan was writing this stuff. He put it all together; each train of thought and beginning of a potential story arc is just a vehicle to advance the situation toward his final goals. Therefore he let things taper off, unresolved…
[13:16] Creighton: Interesting.
[13:16] Eddie: …which is what Sam Lake did with the whole story, and all these unresolved potential theories and meanings. It’s a clusterfuck because of the situation — the supernatural power of writing things into existence.
[13:17] Creighton: But didn’t Alan say he couldn’t control the whole story?
[13:17] Eddie: Yeah, he had to establish possibility space for reality to play out in.
[13:18] Creighton: So things, like the FBI agent, could have been part of reality and then he had to rectify it. It doesn’t explain why he’s there, and Alan doesn’t know, he just has to get rid of him… or the darkness has to, because she was editing the pages, so she had a hand in this also.
[13:18] Eddie: He could have used the FBI agent as a means to return to the town, but it’s true that she was doing the editing, so there’s that. Some things can just be obstacles.
[13:19] Creighton: He says the story is spiraling out of control.
[13:19] Eddie: Right, which it really does do, from the player’s point of view.
[13:19] Creighton: It’s “becoming a horror story,” because she made it that. But what about the call tree. The editor guy had to call all these people and tell them that code word as an early warning that the darkness was back. What was it? The name of the TV show. It was so quick. The dialog happened in the police station right after the FBI agent was killed. That’s why Barry stayed behind, to make phone calls and round up the resistance. The sheriff says she thinks Bright Falls is the influence for that TV show. What was it called? The one that was a bad Twilight Zone….
[13:23] Eddie: Night Springs. All those calls were made, but that never really went anywhere either.
[13:23] Creighton: Yeah.
[13:24] Eddie: It was like rallying an army, but the real fight was between the hero and the evil (again, like The Matrix, haha).
[13:24] Creighton: I was expecting the end battle to have a militia next to Alan, with crazy flashlights and flares and some sort of new spotlight thing.
[13:24] Eddie: Those people will have to come into play later, in DLC/Episode 2….
