Alan Wake

Alan Wake (voiced by Matthew Porretta) is a bestselling crime fiction author from New York City who suffers from a two-year stretch of writer's block. He and his wife Alice travel to the small mountain town of Bright Falls, Washington, for a short vacation on the advice of their friend and agent Barry Wheeler. Before arriving, Alan has a nightmare about shadowy figures who try to kill him, when an ethereal figure in a diving suit intervenes in the dream and teaches him how to utilize light to fend off the shadows.
Upon arrival in Bright Falls, Alan goes to a diner to retrieve the keys to their cabin from Carl Stucky, the landlord, but instead encounters a mysterious old woman, who tells him that Stucky had fallen ill and she was entrusted to give Alan the keys. The woman directs the couple to a cabin on an island in the middle of Cauldron Lake, a volcanic crater lake, where Alan experiences a vision of the old woman. As they unpack, Alice reveals that the real purpose of their trip is to help break his writer's block by arranging for him to see a famous Bright Falls psychologist named Dr. Emil Hartman. Alan is infuriated and storms out, only to rush back when he hears Alice crying for help. He returns just as Alice is dragged into the lake's waters by a mysterious force. Alan dives in after her, blacking out as he submerges.
After yet another hallucination of the old woman, Alan regains consciousness, apparently having driven his car off the road with no memory of how he got there. He attempts to reach a nearby gas station but progress is hampered by murderous, shadowy figures resembling those in his dream. While fighting the shadows with light, Alan repeatedly encounters an ethereal figure in a diving suit similar to the one from his dream, who leaves behind pages of a manuscript entitled Departure. Ostensibly written by Alan, he has no memory of writing it. He soon discovers that the events of the manuscript are coming true and that the shadowy figures, named "Taken," are townsfolk possessed by a dark force. After killing a possessed Carl Stucky and reaching the gas station, Alan tries to alert Sheriff Sarah Breaker of his wife's disappearance but Sheriff Breaker states that there has been no island or cabin in Cauldron Lake for decades after it sank in a volcanic eruption. Breaker believes Alan is mentally unwell and takes him to the police station. Meanwhile, Barry arrives in Bright Falls in search of Alan.
At the police station, Alan lies to hide the hallucinations he has been experiencing. He receives a call from a man purporting to be Alice's kidnapper, demanding the pages of Departure in exchange for her. Emil Hartman appears at the station to invite Alan to stay at his psychiatric hospital, Cauldron Lake Lodge—Alan punches Hartman as a response. Alan meets the kidnapper Mott at a nearby national park, who demands pages of Departure as ransom. The two fight before Mott runs off into the night.
Alan and Barry attempt to retrieve more pages and attract the attention of FBI agent Robert Nightingale. Alan leaves Barry behind and flees Nightingale, who chases him through the forest unsuccessfully. He meets Mott again to deliver the pages. As he arrives at the location he witnesses Mott being tortured by the mysterious old woman, confessing that he never actually had Alice. Alan and Mott are then attacked by a dark tornado that hurls Alan into Cauldron Lake.
He awakens in the lodge overlooking Cauldron Lake under the care of Hartman who claims Alan is experiencing a psychotic break, triggered by Alice drowning. He claims the supernatural phenomena Alan has been experiencing were all fabrications of his imagination. Alan attempts to escape the lodge as the shadowy force starts to attack it, learning in the process that the fake kidnapper was employed by Hartman to lure Alan to him. Hartman tries to stop Alan from escaping, and gives the impression that he is aware of the supernatural events surrounding the lake. Barry helps Alan escape the lodge before the shadow subsumes it and all those inside.
Alan and Barry gradually begin to learn the truth about Cauldron Lake from other townsfolk. An entity known as the Dark Presence is trapped within the lake, attempting to escape by using the lake's power to turn literature into reality. It had previously tried this with a poet named Thomas Zane—the figure in the diving suit—by taking the form of his spouse who drowned in the lake, Barbara Jagger, the old woman Alan encountered. Zane was able to resist its will and used his writings to cause the volcanic eruption that sank the island, stranding himself within the lake. The Dark Presence has grown strong enough to start to influence the townspeople and create the forces that have pursued Alan. That night as Alan and Barry take shelter, they get drunk on moonshine and Alan recalls memories of being forced to write Departure during the prior week. He realised that the Dark Presence is trying to use his writings to escape, holding Alice in the lake so as to coerce him.
Alan and Barry are arrested by Robert Nightingale but the Taken assault the police station and drag Nightingale away. Sheriff Breaker, now convinced of the Dark Presence's existence, helps Alan and Barry to reach Cynthia Weaver, a hermit who knew Thomas Zane and prepared countermeasures for the Dark Presence's return. Weaver leads them to the "Well-Lit Room" containing a light switch known as the Clicker, which, through the power of Alan's writings, possesses the narrative ability to destroy the Dark Presence. Alan returns to Cauldron Lake alone and dives in, finding himself in a surreal alternate dimension known as the Dark Place, where thoughts and ideas become reality. Alan encounters Jagger and destroys her with the Clicker; realising he must maintain balance in the story, Alan completes Departure by freeing Alice, but strands himself in the Dark Place in the process. Finishing Departure, Alan writes the final line, "It's not a lake, it's an ocean."

Special One: The Signal

Continuing from the end of the main game, Alan finds himself in a surreal version of Bright Falls and realises he is still trapped in the Dark Place. Zane directs Alan to follow a signal through a cell phone in order to "focus" and guide himself through the Dark Place. While navigating the realm's shifting, dreamlike topography, Alan encounters television screens depicting a more maniacal version of himself, who uses the power of the Dark Place to narrate circumstances that plunge Alan into danger, sending hordes of Taken after him. Alan also encounters an ethereal version of Barry, a figment of his subconsciousness, who helps guide Alan safely across the abstract landscape.
Zane eventually reveals that Alan himself is the cause of his current circumstance; the maniacal version of Alan on the television screens is an irrational aspect of Alan consumed by fear, his frenzied thoughts affecting the subjective world of the Dark Place. Alan encounters a monstrous conglomeration of televisions, through which the irrational Alan tries to kill him. Alan defeats the televisions, but wakes up back in the cabin again, and realises he is still trapped.

Special Two: The Writer

Still trapped in the Dark Place, Alan regains consciousness and accepts that he is the cause of the insanity he is experiencing, regaining his memories in the process. Zane tells him that the "irrational Alan" is still inside the cabin, controlling the Dark Place; the "rational Alan" must regain control in order to have any chance of escaping the Dark Place. Zane directs Alan to a lighthouse across the increasingly surreal landscape of the Dark Place, while the irrational Alan attempts to stop him by creating delusions of Alice, manipulating the landscape, and sending armies of Taken after him. Alan eventually outwits his other self and reaches the lighthouse, passing through it to reach the cabin.
As Alan nears the cabin, the imaginary Barry reappears and tells Alan that he will have to reject all the illusions before he can face off against the insane version of Alan, including the apparition of Barry. Alan is forced to confront Taken versions of Barry and the other townsfolk, defeating them all and reentering the cabin. The irrational Alan is in a paranoid state on the cabin floor; when Alan touches him, the two are made whole again. Alan realises that he cannot let himself fall into a delusional state again for fear of never being able to escape, and returns to the typewriter to start a new story.