Story

Alan Wake is a bestselling horror writer. Early on in his career, his fiancée Alice, was his muse. Just prior to meeting her, he had started to have strange dreams which he used as material for his first book. The book was a big success, a dream come true. But then Wake’s fiancée vanished without a trace. Wake was devastated. He couldn't write anymore, his dreams stopped and he began to suffer from insomnia. At the beginning of the game, Wake travels to a sleep clinic to seek treatment for his condition. The secluded clinic is located near the small town of Bright Falls, Washington, far away from the stressful urban lifestyle. Receiving treatment at the clinic, Wake is able to sleep again. At the clinic, he meets a mysterious woman who is the very image of his missing fiancée, uncannily so. At once, his dreams return, this time as terrible nightmares. Wake begins to write again: a new book based on those nightmares. But something is horribly, horribly wrong. Impossibly, the town of Bright Falls starts to change to something awful that bears a close resemblance to Wake’s new book. Wake ends up fighting for his life with a gun and a flashlight in his hands, trying to understand what’s happening.

Gameplay

The name "Bright Falls" has a meaning. The game promises to have photo-realistic graphic qualities, realistic pixel shading, and dynamic shadows that change according to the position of the sun. To avoid lags and hangs, the game will benefit from a high end PC and the Xbox 360.

The dark-forces (enemies) coming to 'take care of' Alan Wake are vulnerable to light. So the most useful weapon of all is actually the flashlight. You will be able to place booby traps which will illuminate when executed, etc. Light will weaken or hurt Wake's enemies, and creatively taking advantage of any and all light sources within Alan Wake's grim world ought to be one of the interesting aspects of play.

Like Max Payne before it, the title Alan Wake has a double meaning. Combining the main character's first initial with his last name forms "A.Wake," or "Awake".

Remedy Entertainment also promised a free-roam 3-dimensional city, similarly as in the Grand Theft Auto series.

"The basic idea with the free-roaming world is that we give the player goals, and then the player can go about achieving those goals in the way he chooses. Alan Wake is more tightly character-driven and story-oriented. Meaning that the player’s goals and missions are closely focused around Alan Wake and his story. Also, the setting, the tone and the game being an action thriller all set it clearly apart from the GTA games." – Sam Lake

"Intense cinematic action is something that we love to do, and Alan Wake features tense combat gameplay as well, but all things considered the game has a lot more emphasis on adventure and exploration than what Max Payne did. Driving is an integral part of the game" - Petri Järvilehto.

There will be no multiplayer in this game. "We'd much rather give the players a great single-player game, than a mediocre single and multiplayer game." -Petri Järvilehto.