You know the drill: No time for intro, let’s jump in, starting with Chapter 4, “The Truth”.
Diary of a Madman
Can't say that I am feeling better, no.
At sundown, this place will go up in flames.
Alan… heh… wakes… Okay, I’ll stop.
Alan wakes in a lit room, with Doctor Emil Hartman looking over him. I did say he looked better with a bandage on his nose. Was all this a dream? A psychosis during his stay at this guy’s facility? …which, for the record, is located right next to Cauldron Lake? And what about Alice? Hartman claims that she drowned in the lake and died, and everything Alan has ‘lived’ since is a schizophrenic breakdown caused by that fact. His claim sounds so… hollow. He tries, but he's not credible.
This is a game dev. He's not the least bit threatening. And look at how he apologizes; he's probably Canadian.
Due to their musical genre, I am inclined to believe them. If they did country music, on the other hand...
The psychiatrist takes Alan around to visit the clinic. Its wooden architecture has a rustic charm to it, but it doesn’t wash off the feel of those classic white walls and padded cells that regular mental hospitals have. Other patients include a game dev who has broken down into insanity and muttering nonsense about mullets (don't ask), as well as Odin and Tor Anderson, the aged rockstars from the Diner. These two are the last living members of the Old Gods of Asgard, a heavy metal band that had enough fame to tour the country. The two, who make more sense than everyone else in spite of their oddities, even invite Alan (whom they still mistake for Thomas Zane) to go to their farm.
Of note, some music in this game was provided by the Finnish alternative rock band Poets of the Fall, and attributed in-story to the fictional Old Gods. In fact, some songs Poets of the Fall provided for this game have video clips featuring Ilkka Villi, the model and mo-cap performer for Alan Wake, reprising the role once more in live-action. This one is called "War".
Enter the Storm
I am living a nightmare, and this cardboard cutout is in it.
A storm is brewing overhead as evening comes, so patients are returned to their rooms. Alan attempts to write, but fails to produce a word. A commotion outside brings him back. The captives are taking over the facility. Using this to his advantage, the writer can retrieve the pages of his manuscript from Hartman’s office and flee. However, what he finds there instead is Barry with a… *urgh* another cardboard cutout from Alan’s book tour.
In the room, we also see, plain as day, a coffee thermos. I said in Part 1 that, aside from the manuscript pages, there were several other collection quests; coffee thermoses are one of them. Hey, Alan spends his nights walking the wilderness, he has to stay awake somehow. On top of that, you can: Shoot and knock over can pyramids; look for every radio so you can listen to Pat Maine’s nighttime program; find every TV to watch either Alan discuss his predicament or another episode of Night Springs (the game’s homage to The Twilight Zone); and spot every informative sign that teaches more about the history of Bright Falls. DLC episodes have their own collection quests. You can also try to kill a certain number of Taken with every means made available to you. That’s a lot of stuff to look out for.
Alan retrieves his manuscript but is confronted by Hartman. This guy has been trying, the entire time, to harness the power of Cauldron Lake and its Eldritch inhabitant. For profit? For fame? For power? Hell, HE was the one trying to get the manuscript, which explains the “false kidnapping” arc from the previous two chapters.
Hartman, how the ever-living Hell can you actually believe that you could assert control over a being straight out of Lovecraftian horror?
Did this facility really need a hedge maze?
The Dark Presence attacks and gets Hartman, but Barry and Alan make it out in time. The agent had a head start, so he manages to leave the premises, but his client is stuck inside, fighting Poltergeists and fending off an advancing wave of darkness. He does make it out alive. Barry is on the other side of the entrance grid, but it’s locked. Alan has to make a lengthy detour through a hedge maze and across the lodge’s gardens (including a fight against a boss-level Taken protected by crows). We reach Barry, who has a car and… No, we’re not bringing along the goddamn cutout! When I said this thing follows Alan everywhere… I didn’t mean it literally! But his friend insists.
Children of the Elder Gods
At least Barry knows how to use flares.
Alan remembers the Old Gods’ offer. Yeah, the Andersons’ farm seems like a good place. And although Barry objects to that, he agrees that something weird is going on and that, if they can stop it, they might as well. However, the Dark Presence causes a landslide and crashes their car down a cliff, with Alan falling, landing on a different level of land, and losing all of his gear. The next segment has Alan getting back to Barry and heading to the farm. You actually can witness Barry using flares and other tools to beat enemies on his own. Oh hey, my opinion of the guy is improving.
...who was recording these by the way?
After a long detour, the author reaches the empty farms. One thing he sees as he explores is another recording of himself talking about how his story has gone from a thriller to horror, with all the deaths it can cause, and how he wrote himself as the protagonist, always giving himself an edge. A story in which Thomas Zane lends a hand at key moments, where he always has an edge over the horrors, where he can vanquish this entity. Past this, Alan takes a car to the Andersons’ field…
…Only to witness Barry, attacked by Taken, rescued by a lightning bolt striking the dragon’s head atop a massive rock band stage equipped with fireworks and pyrotechnics, activating the structure and vaporizing the assailants.
Oh yes, we’re going there. Time to rock out.
This nightmare has taken a turn towards amazing.
Alan takes centerstage, filling his inventory to maximum capacity from the full caches of weapons at the wall, and Barry gets behind the control booth, manning the spotlights and explosives, while the Old Gods classic “Children of the Elder Gods” booms over their heads. Agent and client team up in one of the game’s coolest moments. You’ve got the largest arsenal you could ever wish to have, so the devs throw several waves of Taken at you and expect you to survive. Oh, it’s not an easy moment; but damn, it’s so awesome. The ‘gameplay roulette’ aspect of the game shines through by featuring sequences like this, where the set-up is different enough from everything else seen so far to feel fresh.
I wished I could ruin this cutout with a bullet.
Beyond this ambush, the two have to go through the Andersons’ barn and… Barry! Stop carrying that cutout around! Can I just shoot the damn thing? No? That’s no fun. (For the record, I tried.) So yeah, through the barn, then through a distillery. The Andersons were making their own moonshine, using water from the lake as an ingredient. Sure, let’s drink the abomination, what could go wrong? There’s a ton of encounters that I’m not describing, but the most notable one is when a combine harvester becomes a Poltergeist. Good thing we swapped the flashlight for a heavy-duty lantern just before that fight.
"'Cause I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you thekey..."
It's the first real sleep they're getting in forever.
At last, the Andersons’ house. A safe haven (well, once the fuse box is fixed, of course). Instantly, music resonates from the ground floor: “Find the lady of the light…” Alan and Barry spend the rest of the night in the house, drinking the rockstars’ moonshine, having drunken conversations, and finally getting some sleep. In his dream a scene that you watch through a third-person camera, Alan suddenly remembers everything: He was stuck in the Dark Presence’s world, the Dark Place, for a whole week, writing a novel under the eye of Barbara Jagger. She took on the role of editor, directing him so that the entity would grow powerful through the story. Alan wrote himself being rescued by Thomas Zane, only ever seen in a diver’s suit, and Zane rescued him. Thomas took the manuscript, as written, to sprinkle the pages through Alan’s subsequent quest. The author tried to escape in his car, but was weakened by the previous week, hence the crash.
Alan comes to with a gun cocked at him, face-to-face with Robert Nightingale.
Night Springs
Sheriff Sarah Breaker’s station. A jail cell. Hungover. Barry puked. Chapter 5, “The Clicker”, starts on the right foot.
Alan has a name, you know, asshole.
Nightingale is stepping over the Sheriff’s legal bounds, disrespecting all due process, once again claiming an attempt on his life from that tweed jacket-wearing nerd of an author. When Alan drops from a vision involving the Presence, the FBI agent thinks it’s a ruse. The jail’s lights flicker and fail, and Nightingale realizes that what’s going on is identical to the page he has found, that described him living the current situation. Before he can read that page again, the Dark Presence bursts from the temporary darkness and snatches him.
Ah. Good riddance.
At least I'm not fighting alone anymore.
Sarah is quickly briefed on the situation, and offers to help the protagonists get to Cynthia Weaver, who lives at the power plant, in a rescue helicopter. Barry is left behind to call everyone in town who knows about the ongoing weirdness (using the password “Night Springs”) while the writer and the sheriff go through the town. A highlight of this sequence involves a Deerfest parade float Poltergeist that parallel-parks like a boss. This entity kills, maims, possessed and traumatizes, but traffic violations? That crosses the line!
The team faces multiple ambushes on their way, but come out alive. The Sheriff is a very good shot with her infinite-ammo shotgun. While they pick up the helicopter’s keys in the city hall, they see Barry running at them, chased by the darkness. He’s almost struck by a Poltergeist but survives by diving into a general store. Through a library, into the local church and its basement (leading to more ambushes), and when they come back out they find Barry, flares in hand, bandoliered in Christmas lights, with a big lantern attached to his head.
His idea is silly, but it works. Can't argue with results.
Man, Barry is rising like a rocket to the top of my list of “Characters I was certain I’d hate but who redeemed themselves as the story progressed”. I need a less clunky title. He’s still a coward, but he has risen to the challenge, made some smart decisions, and still cracks jokes in spite of everything! See? That’s what I meant by the “Stephen King” type of writing: Characters who are annoying or unpleasant when introduced, who reveal their true colors (generally for the better) when the chips are down.
War
Nothing like a song for dramatic effect.
The helipad is just around the corner. Another ambush must be pushed away, and then the three fly off towards the power plant. Their trip in the helicopter is cut short by a murder of crows, causing Alan to fall off (again) without his equipment (again). From here, Alan has to get his hands on weapons, then cross a transformer yard. Inside a garage, Alan turns a radio on. Pat Maine’s comforting voice resonates, announcing the next song, “War” by Poets of the Fall.
Yeah, that’s why I mentioned them and linked to the song earlier! Hey, if I can indulge in foreshadowing, you bet I will.
It feels like the stage sequence from earlier, yet it hits in another way. The slower, emotional song gives an entirely different weight to this fight. Plus, you have very limited resources and the room is cramped. And yet, it’s just as powerful. Like a sense of dread, that this fight is never going to end, that this one tough battle is but a tiny piece of this war. I love it.
I really should remember reloading more often.
Can't I just stay here? No? Darn. Being a hero is tough, I should stick to writing.
Past the transformer yard, across a rotating bridge, then up a hill with the helicopter returning, its light weakening the Taken. Alan makes it to the plant, and is greeted by an angry Cynthia Weaver. Mister Wake, venturing at night is dangerous here! The Lady of the Light has just what it takes to defeat the Presence. She has obtained it from Zane and keeps it in the Well-Lit Room, a place she has arranged within the dam. But there’s no going there at night. She has a passage through a water pipe, also lit. But first, Alan has to cut the power in the transformer yard as something broke and is sapping out the electricity within the plant.
Guess we needed to squeeze in another 10 minutes of gameplay, huh? Like these trips aren’t already long enough!
Paradox
Phew! They're okay.
With the power cut from the yard and kept to the plant itself, Weaver opens the path for the pipe, and Alan calls his friends to tell them where he’s going, only to hear their helicopter crash. Against Cynthia’s pleas, he leaves the pipe to go check up on them. He finds the wreck empty, then sees a flare nearby. They’re alive and kicking! I had a thought: Alan wrote himself to be the protagonist, so everything both bad and good in the quest happens to him. Barry was written as the comic relief deuteragonist, the kind of character that dies fast in horror, but he’s surviving like a champion. He doesn’t have Alan’s “author immunity”!
Imagine spending an entire game being a team of three fighting in this scenario. If they kept the level of smart AI shown here, it would be awesome.
I know the entire point of this plot is that "shit got real" (the pages written by Alan came true after all), but... a TORNADO now? Shit. Got. REAL.
The power trio goes through the woods some more, reaching an elevator, beating another ambush, and getting to the top of the dam. After which Sarah and Barry get inside just fine, but OF COURSE, a giant metallic tube falls, blocking the entrance and forcing Alan to go around. The hike just never ends! So, the usual: Poltergeists, crows, Taken… oh wait. Now, an entire tornado of darkness is coming. The writer can only run from it through the traps laid around the passage above the dam.
At last, our protagonist gets to the elevator where Barry, Sarah and Cynthia wait, and all four get to the Well-Lit Room. Lightbulbs everywhere. Not a single trace of shadow here. Inside a shoebox laid upon the table in the center, Alan finds two very bizarre items. The first is a page written by Thomas Zane, detailing Alan’s childhood and some of his life up to that point. Wait. Did Alan write Zane into existence, or did Zane write Alan… into…
I just spen an hour running through the woods. This room is too bright! Ack, the contrast!
Ack, I’m getting a headache trying to make sense of this. A full-on “chicken or egg” situation. A paradox of writers. Any attempt at putting logic into this will only make your brain hurt more. Allegedly, Zane wrote Alan as a back-up plan if he failed to beat the Presence, but then Alan used Zane as a back-up plan, too, so... er... Ouch. I'm gonna need some aspirin.
The second item, the one rumored to have the ability to destroy the Dark Presence or, at the very least its avatar Barbara Jagger… Is the Clicker that Alan once gave his wife. There is no logical way through which it could have ended up here, either, and yet… Here it is.
He can finish this.
…In Part 4. Did I mention that I love to have cliffhangers in my multi-part reviews too?
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