Alan Wake - General Guide

My guide to the Alan Wake aims to prepare you for all what you might encounter. Including gameplay and combat tactics along with some useful advices that will help you right from the start.

Introduction

Alan Wake is a psychological horror that takes place in a peaceful mountain city called the Bright Falls. It is a small community, where everyone knows each other and so will they know the famous writer, Alan Wake, when he comes into town just 2 weeks before local event - the Deerfest.
As I've mentioned in my review of this game - if you're into horror-themed games or into that kind of game that is rich on story, this game will make you feel right at home.
I've completed the game twice so far, as always before writing a guide, ensuring that I can share just something a bit more than plain information but at least little personal tips and advices as well!



I will do my best to keep the guide free from spoilers so know that all that you are going to read, will not spoil your experience and if it'll be required, I will tag specific sections with a spoiler.

Here's a guide to this game's DLC sequel called Alan Wake's American Nightmare.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=841819934

Characters

There are a few characters that will all make noticable role, except one or two, so I'd like to make a short list of their characteristics and personality.

• Alan Wake - A famous writer going through a hard time, not being able to write a good book lately, feeling under pressure with no inspiration. Therefore he decided to take this vacation at Bright Falls,
  
• Alice Wake - Alan's wife. Caring and patient when it comes to Alan and his outbursts, she's also afraid of the dark,
  
• Anderson brothers, Odin & Thor - former rockers that adapted the viking style and are as of now too old to keep on rocking as they also suffer dementia. They are in care of Dr. Emil Hartman.
  
• Dr. Emil Hartman - Mr. Hartman takes care of several patients in his lodge, two of them being the Anderson brothers. There is a lot more to this man than it might seem.
  
• Pat Maine - Pat is the voice that you can hear on the radio stations that are randomly places around the game. It is nice getting to step into the light to stay safe and listen to Pat for a minute or two. He plays only one, minor scene in the entire game but we can hear his voice throughout the entire game.
  
• Sarah Breaker - The Sheriff of the Bright Falls. She's surprisingly trying to understand Wake and help him, which is more than one could say about agent Nightingale.
  
• Robert Nightingale - This FBI agent is sent after Wake because one of the local citizens distrusts Wake. Nightingale is not really fond of Wake, he mocks him for being a writer and also has drinking problems.
  
• Barry Wheeler - Alan's literaly agent and probably the best and only friend Alan has. Barry is a bit loud guy with eccentric personality but it's him who makes the dark times seem brighter.
  
• Cynthia Weaver - You will encounter this seemingly crazy, old lady at the Deer Dinner at the start of the game, that's Cynthia. She knows the Dark Presence and knows what is in the dark. She might seem crazy but as Alan said, you need to be crazy in order to understand the crazy.
  
• The Dark Presence - Suffice to say, this is your primary enemy. The Dark Presence is what tries to stop you, it is what wants to influence you as it has influenced Barbara. it will possess people and various objects in order to stop you.
  
• Barbara Jagger - Thomas Zane's lover and a person who you will view as your enemy. Do not be fooled, the real Barbara has died long, long time ago and the Dark Presence only took her face.
  
• Thomas Zane - Thomas Zane was a succesful writer and a poet. He lived with Barbara on the Couldron lake but one day, Barbara drowned under mysterious circumstances. Tom being ruined by this, he was told by Dr. Hartman to write Barbara back into his life and he did. Later on, Thomas Zane appears as a hovering being in old diving suit that is emiting very bright light. It is most likely based on the fact that Tom loved diving so this suit was associated with him. He serves as your guide and wants to help you. The Lake has a special power - written stories come true here and Hartman knew that. But you will discover more about this on your own.

There are several more characters involved that will play their role but it's already enough the way it is. The ones I've mentioned above are the most important characters.

Weapons

We have very few, basic weapons in Alan Wake, which is just about right. Along our regular weapons we can also use flares or flashbangs as offensive tools and our flashlight in the means of defense.

• Revolver - It'll be your primary weapon that you will be in possession of throughout most of the game. It can hold 6 up to 6 rounds.
  
• Shotgun - A 2 barrel-action shotgun that appears mainly in the first half of the game and is later on replaced by its stronger version.
  
• Pump Action Shotgun - Stronger version of the previous shotgun with an exception that it can hold 8 rounds.
  
• Hunting Rifle - The strongest weapon when it comes to single shot damage. It can be found on a few occasions along with some ammo. You can only hold either the rifle or a shotgun so make your choice based on how much ammo you have. If you are holding 10 shotgun shells and you can trade that for a rifle with 5 or 6 bullets, definitely get the rifle. Not only it's overall twice as powerful as shotgun but it can therefore kill stronger enemies faster.
  
• Flashbang - Usually more rare then flares but way more effective. Flashbangs are capable of eliminating large groups of enemies and able of dealing heavy damage to the strongest of the enemies.
  
• Flares - Flares can be used mostly defensively compared to flashbangs as they drive enemies away and take off their dark shroud. You can either choose to hold the flare and walk with it to make a path or drop it on the ground and defend your position.

That's it for regular weapons but that's not all entirely. There are still varieties of flashlights available to you. These flashlights are used to take off enemies' protective shroud which then allows you to damage them.

1. Flashlight - The very basic flashlight mostly given to you automatically.
   
2. Heavy Duty Flashlight - Upgraded version of regular flashlight. Can only be found earlier in the game, later on given to the player automatically.
   
3. Lantern - Much stronger flashlight with wider spread. Can be found on several locations.
   
4. Heavy Duty Lantern - Even further upgraded version of the regular lantern.

Enemies

We can split enemies into the following, basic parts: the Taken, Ravens, Poltergeists. The Taken used to be human beings untill the darkness took over and turned them into the one who are taken. Takens (depending on the difficulty) can take variety of bullets before they die depending on choice of weapon and difficulty. It can be either 2-4 or 6-13 from regular revolver. See the chart below:

(chart source: http://alanwake.wikia.com)

Let's go through the Taken types.

• Flankers - Fast-moving enemeis that attempt to surround you but are really weak.
  
• Ranged - Regular Taken capable of both ranged and melee combat. Mediocre enemies.
  
• Tele-Flanker - Version of Flanker but much quicker, hard to see and capable of dealing considerable damage. It's in most cases possible to just avoid them and continue forward with a flare untill they can no longer follow you through light.
  
• Assault - Big, bulky Taken that can charge you from distance. They are covered by a solid black shroud and can kill you in 2 well-aimed hits on nightmare difficulty.
  
• Assault (Chainsaw) - Looking like regular Assault Taken, these big folk carry a Chainsaw. Their shield regenerates and they can only be damaged by boosting your light. They can also power through any source of light so staying pinned in one place is no option.

When it comes to the Ravens, it's simply a flock of birds that will attack you occasionally but it only takes one beam of boosted light to get rid of them. They can only be annoying while you have to fight other enemies.

Poltergeists are objectives possesed by the Dark Presence. The Dark Presence attempts to stop you in any way so throwing a sailboat or a train on your head is no problem for it. But you'll mostly encounter just smaller objects like barrels and such.

Advices & Tips

Combat in Alan Wake is pretty much self-explanatory but I still have a few things I'd like to bring up.

1) Using your flashlight the right way. If you need to reload or are running low on flashlight battery while one or two Taken are heading quickly your way, do not hold RMB (to take their dark shroud shield off) but just press it once. It will send a blinding flash which will stun them for a few seconds which you can use to your advantage and gain some precious time.

2) Especially on Nightmare difficulty, remember you do not have to fight and kill every single Taken you see! A great deal of these encounters can be simply avoid by walking straight, performing a few dodges or using 1 flare at most which will still save you dozens of ammo. Once you get to a lightpole or another source of light, you are golden. I know I was able to always kill every single Taken I ever saw, never had to ignore them. On Nightmare difficulty however, I on several occasions have had to run past them to safety.

3)
Emergency Boxes

Gas Bombs

Safe Havens


Hidden Chests



Emergency Boxes contain all kinds of supply, providing you with anything you need instantly - they aren't really rare and equipment in Alan Wake is not too hard to come by.
Gas Bombs can be shot and after 1s delay they explode and function just like a flashbang.
Safe Haven is essentially a polelight. It provides you with a checkpoint and heals you as well. If enemies walk into it, they will die instantly. If you walk into it while there are enemies around, they will disappear into the darkness but still be around, yet invisible.
Hidden Chests have been scattered around by "some" person that tries to help you. You can always see a little pointer placed on either a rock, a building or a tree. If you're wearing a headset, you can also hear a little breathing sound when you hover over the pointer. These arrowy pointers lead you to hidden chests that serve the same purpose as emergency boxes with the exception of more rare items - flaregun, flashbangs.

4)
Sometimes there will be a message for you left on a wall of house or a stone, these messages serve as a little tips to both player and Alan Wake alike. They have also been put here by your friend.











5)
Some enemies, such as boss variants of Poltergeist or Assault (Chainsaw) Taken require usage of boosted light only, in order to kill them. If the circle is orange, it means only boosted light will have an effect.




6)
When it comes to difficulties, there are actually difficultes of easy, normal and nightmare. I suggest you to completely avoid the easy difficulty as that ruins the game and makes combat too easy. It is just about right to start your first playthrough on the normal settings so that you unlock nightmare difficulty and be able to collect remaining manuscripts only available in the nightmare difficulty.
Also, to say the truth, nightmare seems like the correct difficulty, which should've replaced normal. You'll find the game a bit too easy either way so there is no reason going for easy difficulty anyway.

Collectibles

There are many collectibles in Alan Wake. Some of them serve purely for unlocking an achievement (pyramid cans, coffee thermoses), other however, provide insight into the story (manuscripts, signs). The manuscripts are really an interesting feature. What they basically do is tell the story of Alan Wake. There are normal manuscripts present in the easy and normal difficulty of the game, that makes around 85% of all manuscripts and then there are around 10 manuscripts only obtainable in the nightmare difficulty.
(further explanation that might contain spoilers is below.)

The manuscript pages we are collecting contain a story that Alan has already written a week prior to that under the influence of the Dark Presence. Whatever is written on the Couldron lake, becomes true. The Dark Presence wanted Alan to write it into the story so that it can be able to control everything and get into our world. At one point, Thomas Zane, who shared the same fate as Alan, freed him from the influenced of the darkness, collected some of the pages and continued to place them on Alan's way. He would then find them and read either what has already happened or what is about to happen.

One of the more important collectibles are for example signs. There's 25 in total and each of them tell the history and story of the Bright Falls. What is also worth mentioning are TV and Radio shows. I like TV shows especially. They usually take around 3-5 minutes and they include an interesting story which gives us something to think about while radio shows offer a few moments of relax before going back to the nightmare.



Alarmclocks and cardboards are only present in the two special episodes of Alan Wake, which take place after the original 6 episodes. Cardboards offer a little backstory to several characters while Alarmclocks are just another item to collect, like thermoses and Night Spring video games.

Ending & Explanations

Before you start reading this section, know that it is full of spoilers including the ending and other plot explanations. To make the section easier to navigate in, I therefore won't be tagging it as a spoiler this time. Further below the screenshot is content full of story spoilers.

____________________________________________________________________________

The Ending

Considering you're reading this section after beating the game, I won't be going into too much detail as you should already be familiar with most of the story.
What essentially happens at the end of the game is that Alan Wake manages to free Alice from the lake by taking care of Barbara Jagger (manifestation of the Dark Presence) using the Clicker which Zane wrote into the story for Alan. But, right now Alan is trapped in the Dark Presence's world, just like Zane is. We could therefore say that Alan did sacrifice himself in order to save Alice. To make things look all normal, Zane came up with a figure called "Mr. Scratch". It was supposed to be the identical twin of Alan Wake, whereas Mr. Scratch should've come back to Alice as if nothing ever happened. He is only briefly mentioned by Zane at the end of the game saying: "Don't mind him. He's Mr. Scratch. He will come back to your friends after you're gone." At one point, Alan says: "It's not a lake, it's an ocean." and with these words the game ends. There are theories about this ending mainly focusing on the fact that there is a lot more to the darkness and evil than just what we've seen, more than Dark Presence has shown us. There lies more evil than we have witnessed therefore it's not as small as lake, but big as an ocean.
Also, at the end we can hear Alice say: "Alan, wake up!" Is it a coincidence that she said the exactly same thing at the start of the game after Alan's little nap? And what about that little camera pan at the end of the game which made it look like everything has gotten back to normal as we can see Dr. Emil Hartman alive among other characters. Does this mean that none of what we've been through happened and everything happens in a loop? That time was erased and the first time Alan was told by Alice to wake up at the start of the game, that turns out to be Mr. Scratch after the actual Alan is trapped? Alan's goal now is to write himself back into the existence as it turns out, Mr. Scratch was not a good solution.

Thomas Zane's poem

For he did not know, that beyond the lake he called home,
There lied a deeper, and darker ocean green.
Where waves are both wilder and more serene.
To its ports I've been,
To its ports I've been.

Zane said this to Wake at the start of the game, we were barely into the story and already got overwhelmed with this poem, which actually says a lot but it was too soon for us to understand any of it.

For he did not know, that beyond the lake he called home,
There lied a deeper, and darker ocean green.
- Zane saying to Wake that beyond the lake he called home (obv.), lied a deeper, darker ocean green. That there was much more to it than it seemed at first, already implying that it was an ocean, not a lake.

Where waves are both wilder and more serene.
To its ports I've been,
To its ports I've been.
- Wilder and serene waves means darkness and light. Saying that he's been to its ports means that he's been beyond the lake, he's been there.

If I were to rephrase this poem it would go like this:
For Wake did not know, that beyond the Couldron Lake he called home, was much more to be seen that one would originally think.
Where there is both good and evil, both light and darkness to be seen. I (Thomas Zane) have already been to that place, I have already been to that place! (as if Zane was saying, "do not do the same mistake I did" - don't make your writings come to life on the Couldron Lake)

Agent Robert Nightingale

We've seen as Nightingale was taken by the Dark Presence at one point but then we get to see him again at the end, looking out from trailer's window. Is it because he's been killed by the Dark Presence and it took his body as a vessel, just as it did with Barbara Jagger, Zane's lover? During the Developer's Commentary one of devs also say that Nightingale will surely play a big role in the future. Could this be it?

Rose Marigold

During the ending cinematic, we can see Rose holding a lantern very closely to her. As of now, we know that Rose has been touched by the Dark Presence just like Cynthia was. Those touched by the Dark have a special connection to it and so it is speculated that Rose has become the new Lady of the Light as Cynthia Weaver was. There are certain connections between characters. Robert Nightingale is now what Barbara Jagger was - a vessel possessed by the Dark Presence. Rose Marigold is now the Lady of the Light, just as Cynthia Weaver was. Why? Cynthia fell in love for Zane but he could not offer the same to her as he already was in love with Barbara. Just as Rose really adored Alan but he already loved Alice. These little connections are what makes the next generation of the manifestation of the Dark Presence (Nightingale) and the Lady of the Light (Cynthia Weaver).

Personal View

I really like games with rich story that goes further than what we see in the game itself. I always love some more backstory and Alan Wake provides all of that in the best way possible. Accompanied with the developer's commentary you really feel immersed into the game as the story unfolds. There is nothing bad I could say about the game, really. It had all I like about games and what I seek.
But if I really wanted to point something out, it'd be all the collectibles. If you're all about achievements and having them all unlocked and everything completed, Alan Wake's 100% completion will take some time but it is well managable with the right guide that I've followed.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtNjbM6SrnmLcuT2jKrfq3CpwWLP3UTQX

Other than that, it was a great run and if you really want that 100% collection, I suggest you follow the list of videos linked above! Well-made walkthrough with a great effort put into it.

Closure

I've made this guide after finishing the game twice, nightmare difficulty included, unlocking all the achievements and collecting all the trophies - as I usually do.

I hope I covered all the things I wanted, if have not and you need to ask something, add a comment below or add me if you want to discuss anything further.

I hope you'll enjoy the game as much as I have and that you found this guide useful.

Remember to stay in the light.

[Nautilus]

I must suck cause normal is a bit hard for me 😅

[beamy slime]

Oh, the thing where they cover their eyes! I'd been wondering if that meant anything. They do walk slower like that, huh...

[Reinborn]

@Oh salmon? There are variants of enemies, some are weaker to the flashlight, some more resiliant. The weaker once will get stunned within 2-3 seconds with the most basic flashlight, the biggest, tougher shadows will take a longer while. What they do is basically cover their eyes as they get lean back a little bit; useful when you need to get around them.
Or tl;dr as tipsy said.

@tipsy I'm glad, imo for a standalone game, this has great story and I'm glad to have played it. Especially when collecting the remaining papers on the hard difficulty, putting the story puzzles together. Honestly, at first I thought it was trying a bit too hard to sell the narrative but then I changed my mind.
Also, what achievement was it that turned out to be difficult for you?

[T9]

And yeah u don't need to kill everyone. Running is ok and not pussy in this game :p

[T9]

@Reinborn. Man sorry. I think I have never answered...
I liked the game in the end. I was stuck with a specific achievement and were upset at that time ;D
Nothing to worry about. Thanks for your reply in 2017.

Guide is great !

@oh salmon: Right-click to power up your flashlight and it removes their shadow shield and then they are vulnerable and get stunned for a moment.

[beamy slime]

Yooooo just flashing the flashlight to stun them? Does that really work? I just tried it (playing for the first time here). Not sure if it really did much to slow them down. I've at least learned that I should spend more time running away.

[Kayo]

Extraordinary <3

[Reinborn]

@Tipsy, Hey man, glad you liked the guide. What is it about the game you really don't like? I understand it's definitely not a game for everyone, though, with its very specific focus on narration and story.

[绯弥]

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[IridescentGC]

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