Alan Wake 2 is a long-awaited sequel to the famous third-person action horror game that has set new standards in the genre. The original Alan Wake did everything right, from introducing new fighting mechanics to the proper soundtrack. It was one of two titles that came to Xbox 360 that had me buy the console just to play them. I love these types of horror games. But the storyline was the most prominent feature that had us all coming back to play it all over again.
This article will briefly recap the original Alan Wake and cover what we know of the sequel story so far, so ready your clickers, and let's dive right into it!
What is the story behind Alan Wake 2?
From what we could gather about the Alan Wake 2 story so far, it will continue to follow our troubled novel writer as we uncover the aftermath of the previous part of the game 13 years ago. The game trailer left us with more questions than answers, introducing a plot twist involving a special agent of the FBI, Saga Anderson, looking into the case of strange ritualistic murders in a forest.
According to an interview with Sam Lake at the recent Summer Game Fest, it will be a 50/50 split between the character's story arcs, each of them set in their own terrifying worlds and fighting their own battles with the darkness that looms. It was also announced that their stories would intertwine at certain points while also taking an opportunity to showcase a short sequence of Saga's own gameplay.
Related: Alan Wake 2 gameplay shines bright at Summer Game Fest
We are introduced to Alan working away on his typewriter, his writer's block not appearing to bother him anymore. A strange cult, wearing animal masks, shows up—leaving us with an inkling that somehow Alan is connected to it all. Since the first part of the game, we learned how his imagination could be rather vivid and destructive. For that matter, it would be a fair conclusion.
Who are the characters in Alan Wake 2?
Alan Wake 2 will have not only our favorite writer as a playable character but also a special agent, Saga Anderson, taking a direct part in the writer's story of his creation. Both of these characters will be playable within separate storylines at first, only to be conjoined at a later time.
The more intriguing part of the trailer showed us Alan's testimony, being confronted with an unstable aspect of his own personality manifested into other beings by The Dark Place's power. For more than 13 years, he has been trying to write his way out of The Dark Place he found himself in, figuring out a logical plot progression to rescue himself as a main character out of the hell of his creation.
On the other hand, Saga is an accomplished FBI agent respected by her peers for cracking impossible cases. During the case we saw in the trailer, she experiences a taste of Alan's nightmare as walls of reality start crumbling down on her. I couldn't help but notice the coincidence that her first name is synonymous with the word "story," perhaps implying that she is, in fact, written up by Alan himself as a way to get him out of The Dark Place. This is pure speculation, and her true part in the story of Alan Wake 2 remains to be seen.
Alan Wake 2 Gamescom 2023 trailer shows Alan Wake's book presentation
Alan Wake 2 continues to give us pieces of its jigsaw puzzle of a story during the 2023 Gamescom trailer. We can see Alan struggling to remember more about the novella he wrote, writing himself as the killer in his piece of work. He clearly blames himself, saying it's his fault that it got out, referring to the Dark Presence he spawned into existence with his inspiration in the first part of the game.
Alan Wake's ending explained
The most confusing plot point was that the trailer never truly explained how the second part's storyline ties to the first part's ending. Fair warning for readers who haven't played the first part of Alan Wake: spoilers ahoy!
The ending of the original Alan Wake left our protagonist in The Dark Place, an alternate dimension with a portal at the bottom of the Cauldron Lake in Brightness Falls, where the original story took place. In an effort to save his wife from The Dark Presence, Alan made the ultimate sacrifice to save his wife, throwing himself into the abyss that he wrote into existence.
Related: When does Alan Wake 2 release?
Needless to say, the first part of Alan Wake didn't leave us with a happy ending, which is a perfectly written story if you think about it. Being that Alan Wake uses the story-within-a-story writing concept and that Alan is a writer himself, both in the literal sense and in the way he makes his story path within the game, having a bitter-sweet ending is a completely logical conclusion of the game.
There could never have been a completely perfect, sunshine-and-rainbow ending to this story, not his. Alan is a true novelist, and good novels always have layered endings and logical conclusions that will leave a complex whirlpool of emotions for a long while after you read it.
Looking for more articles regarding Alan Wake series? Check out Epic Games will be rolling out achievements next week! and What is the Release Date of Alan Wake Remastered? here on Pro Game Guides!
Published: Aug 23, 2023 03:59 am