I started Alan Wake’s story last session and have already finished. Making it to the Alan Wake ending was probably the quickest I’ve finished a game, ever. Like I mentioned last post, it was like a good book that I just could not put down.
The story kept me interested to see what was next and the game length was the perfect length to binge. In the end, I now understand why so many other fans have been begging for a sequel. Now at least I had the Control AWE DLC to give a little taste of more Alan Wake.
New Weapons to Fight to the End
Beyond the revolver and shotgun I went over last time, I was introduced to some additional weapons to deal with the increasingly difficult waves of enemies. The newer weapons include pump action shotgun, hunting rifle, flares, flashbangs and flare gun.
Pump Action Shotgun
The pump action shotgun held many more rounds, so I didn’t have to reload after every 2 shots. Sometimes I would be able to swap for this upgrade. Like most of these more advanced weapons, the game would find a way to either keep ammo scarce or take it away as part of the story.
Hunting Rifle
The Hunting rifles did more damage than shotguns, but I had to be a lot more careful with my aim. The game also only allows carrying either a shotgun or hunting rifle. I usually made my choice on whether to swap between the two based on which I have more ammo for.
Heavy Duty Flashlights
Bigger battery capacity and higher intensity light to deal with increasingly difficult enemies. The heavy duty light was like the mag lights that cops carry, then the biggest was a large floodlight variety. The more intense light was definitely better to get Alan Wake to the ending.
Flares
Light is your friend, so flares were great to keep the shadow people away from me when I needed to reload, or when I got crowded. I’m not sure if I can kill them directly with flares, but it did allow me to destroy possessed objects (more on that later).
Flashbangs
These were overpowered and I loved them. That is partly why they were so scarce, but I loved hoarding them until I got into real trouble. When there was a powerful enemy, or a big crowd, I loved using this to just utterly destroy them. The light weakened them and the bang disintegrated them.
Flare Gun
My favorite of all the weapons. The ammo for this was the rarest and only holds one shot at a time, but it can take out just about anything with just 2 shots. Most things were destroyed with just 1.
Environmental Weapons
Besides the car headlights I talked about last time, there were a few other objects in the world that could be used as weapons against the dark. Chasing the supposed kidnapper of Wake’s wife, there were plenty of contruction lights that could be turned on and used almost like claymore mines.
Fireworks and stage lights came in handy for a great rock themed fight on an actual stage. Barry had the rock music blaring while he would alternate between stage lights and fireworks to help me take out the waves the dark.
Generators were also spread across the levels to turn on lights for puzzles or safety. It was a fun little mini game of clicking the mouse button at the right moment to turn the motor over.
Harder Enemies Before Alan’s Ending
The enemy also had environmental weapons where the darkness could possess regular objects or vehicles and use them against Wake. Items like barrels or broken down vehicles would shake and levitate in the air before they were thrown at me.
There were also construction vehicle that would chase after me to run me over or hit me with with the heavy machinery. It took a lot of focused to take them out.
There were guys with chain saws that too a lot to take out. There were also fast moving people consumed by the darkness and that blurred into the environment like the predator.
Crows were also an annoying enemy that would attack you like the bird horror move. It took several focuses of light to take them down and they would sometimes attack in groups from different angles.
The flares, flare guns and flashbangs made quick work out of all these enemy types.
Ending the Great Alan Wake Story
Rock and Roll Fight
Last time, Alan Wake’s agent Barry helped me escape from the mental clinic before it was consumed by the darkness. We were heading to a ranch owned by the Odin and Thor rockers from the clinic to get more answers. They seemed to know a lot more about the dark than anyone else.
Their ranch was one of the best parts of the game where I fought off waves of enemies from their concert stage. Fireworks, stage lights, spot lights and plenty of ammo. It was a little Rock and Roll to contrast the dark story.
Unraveling the Alan Wake Mystery
At this point in the game, I had learned that the darkness took the form of Barbara Jagger, Thomas Zane’s girlfriend. He was the first artist to get swallowed by the darkness of the lake, or rather he was the light to the darkness.
Barbara’s dark form forced Wake to write a story at Cauldron lake to allow the darkness to escape. The lake was like a gateway that made art come to life, but that was allowed Wake to write a way to win.
Thomas Zane helped Wake escape the writers room and was revealed as the person leaving the manuscript pages for Wake to find. They were meant to help fight the darkness. The pages would allow him to know what was next in the story to gain an edge. It was the dark that had to follow the rules in those pages.
Complicated Relationship with the Cops
The darkness took the obsessed FBI agent, literally sucked out a of a room. I almost felt bad for him, but the guy was so obsessed and a creeper. Funny thing is, he even mentioned reading that part right before he was taken.
That did lead to a nice run of working with the Sheriff and Barry to make our way to the police helicopter. After all the work of getting there, I fell out of it. Can’t make it too easy, I guess. It was at least some comfort that their spot light served as an environmental weapon to help me get to safety.
They crashed due to evil crows, but we did all meet up with crazy lady, Cynthia Weaver, at the power plant. She started off in the very beginning super concerned with testing the lights and changing bulbs. This came full circle with her knowing more about the darkness stalking Alan Wake and having an actual vault filled with lights that held a super weapon for the ending.
She had the weapon stored with instructions from Thomas Zane. It was a detached light clicker that had a magical power to fight the darkness. It was something that Wake gave to his wife as comfort against the dark years before.
From the Wake Clicker to the Ending Credits
With that clicker super weapon in hand, I had to make my way back to the cabin that started it all. A jump into the lake using the clicker transported me to another dimension in order to get to the hidden cabin.
It was the journey to the end with a unique mechanic of words floating in air that required lighting them up to make them real. Thing like ladders, bridges, platforms, etc.. It took the whole book theme to another level.
The ultimate showdown was with dark Barbara in the form of the darkness tornado that stalked me throughout the game. It threw cars and boats at me, but I was good at dodging and destroying them with light.
This was the first time I was given unlimited ammo for the flare gun to hit the center of that tornado. That led me to the ending cutscene where Alan Wake embraced the darkness and used the clicker to trap them together.
Alice Wake climbed out of the lake and the deer fest in the town carried on like nothing happened. Alan Wake traded his life for his wife’s. The darkness trapped Wake. It was a grim ending, but fitting end to a great game.
Alan Wake Special Feature DLC Ending
Things didn’t end there though. There were 2 special feature DLCs that acted like playable epilogues. They had me rehashing previous scenes in darker twisted ways that made the familiar, but new.
Using words as weapons and pieces to puzzles carried on throughout the two special feature endings. Words to built, provided ammo, generated environmental traps and caused explosions.
One of the memorable fights in involved using car headlights to focus light on possessed monster trucks while they tried to crush me. Driving forward was tough, so driving backwards allowed me to focus the light longer, but it was hard to not back into things.
One of the best map runs involved using words to break down barriers to allow the lighthouse to shine through and destroy hordes of enemies coming after me. It took a lot of patience to backtrack to allow the rotating lights to hit enemies chasing me.
Towards the end, a rotating set piece held memorable parts of main story maps to traverse. That also included gravity puzzle where I had to wait for gravity to pull a door open or move something out of my way.
It all ended with fighting evil versions of several of the characters from the main story before getting back into the cabin. I found a way to sort of game the system by backing up to a bridge to ensure I could not be surrounded.
With my victory in hand, the Alan Wake story ended with Wake set to write the a sequel to Departure, the main story, called the Return. It’s screaming for a sequel and I can’t wait for Remedy to make it happen.