Alan Wake II
2023 survival horror video game developed by Remedy Entertainment
Alan Wake II is a 2023 psychological survival horror video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Epic Games Publishing. The game serves as a direct sequel to 2010's Alan Wake.
Alan Wake edit
- Back to the beginning. We all come to a story with hopes and expectations, looking for an answer. Sometimes, it would be better to live with that hope, without ever knowing the full story. In a horror story, there are only victims and monsters and the trick is not to end up as either. But, trapped by the genre, we are all ripped to pieces along the way. This is not the story I hoped it would be. This is not the ending I wanted. This story will eat us alive. This story is a monster. And monsters wear many faces.
- You can't make something out of nothing. Even in the Dark Place, where the rules hardly apply, it’s very complicated to make fiction come true.
- How many writers does it take to finish a story? One for each draft. It's the same writer, but at a different point in time.
- I dive to the bottom to find the answer, the map-- the map and the key and the compass is combined to form a door leading out! But how do you open a door that's not a door? At the bottom of an ocean that's not an ocean in a lake... that's not a lake?
- I'm lost! I'm lost in the dark, drowning. I'm drowning... I'm drowning, no way out. There's no way out. Sinking deeper and deeper and deeper, this is hell. I'm in hell, I died. I wish I was dead, let me die, I just wanna sleep! Please, let me sleep! I'm so tired-- I just wanna go home, I've written so much. I write and I write, there's nothing left! It's all gone! I don't know how to write. All the words are gone, there's no more words, where'd they go? Did I eat the words? I don't recognize these words anymore. Are the words moving? Oh, God, this is familiar. Why is this familiar? I-- I've been here before. Have I said this before? I've read this somewhere. Where am I? Who am I? "Alan Wake". "Wake"? That's a strange name, "A. Wake," that sounds like a character's name! Did I-- What, did I-- I write that name up, I make that what-- name up? I don't wanna be a character, I-- I don't wanna be in this story, just write me out of the story!
- You will drown here! You're stuck in a loop. You don't have a clue. You're lost. You lost the plot. I'll show you...
- How do you run from an idea? From a thought? From a story that lives in your head? You can't escape your fears. You carry your monsters with you. The devil on your back, it's in you. You're running right back to it -- a loop. I need to stop. Stop running. Stop writing. I won't write another word. It's too dangerous, only horror comes out of it. People get hurt. I will let the currents of this ocean wash me away.
- What the fuck?!
- It's called "Return" because... we return.
- It's time someone gave me a straight answer here!
- I was back exactly where I left. A dark forest outside Bright Falls. A gun in one hand, a flashlight in the other. Haunted by my own writing. Alice taken from me. I knew what I had to do. Stop the horror story from coming true. Stop the Dark Presence.
- I'd driven down this road before. Been driving on it forever.
- In 2010, I had dived in -- a leap of faith. For Alice. With no idea that the cost would be a nightmare worse than death. It had taken me thirteen years to get out. Now Alice was dead because of me. And I was gonna make that leap again, this time knowing the cost all too well. Another way to look at it: I had brought the Dark Place here with me. I never had gotten out. Maybe after this, I finally could. It was a fool's hope. I had no choice, I had to do it. It didn't make me any less terrified.
- [to Scratch] C'mon, you motherfucker! C'mon! Come home!
- What if there's nothing waiting to be revealed? The play of shadows fooled us all; subterfuge to get our price of admission. Darkness, not as a monster, but as emptiness.
- We are none the wiser. No answers, no truths. The hero looks inside, is destroyed by what he sees, and is redeemed. Saga said we're both heroes. I'll pay that price, so will she. We are here to kill the monster. I pray nothing comes after this. Nothing but sleep.
- This is how we win. Is it too easy? What if this is still the Dark Place? Another dream to wake up from. Always coming back to the beginning. The memory of what came before burned away by this terrible realization. Maybe it's a mercy, forgetting. To know nothing when we loop around, back to--
- It's not a loop; it's a spiral.
- A fictional poet once said "Beyond the shadow you settle for, there is a miracle, illuminated." I will not settle for a shadow. I will find the miracle, through the night. It's not just victims and monsters; I see now, there are heroes as well. We can find our way through the darkness. We will break through the surface and crash into the light.
- It has taken so. Long. The process to change reality is so delicate, to be true in just the right way and still find a way past our flaws. So many drafts. So many photographs. So many lives lived outside of time -- an eternity apart on the journey to finally arrive here
- And so I return. With me, I bear the torch of knowledge. The light -- the miracle illuminated. The master of two worlds. No. The master of many worlds.
Saga Anderson edit
- Not a bad place to get murdered.
- It's for us... the text is about us.
- With dead men coming alive, the word "ritual" starts to have more weight behind it.
- It's not true. It's just a fucking story, it's not true!
- I neglected my family for my job. I was too thrilled by the cases, the mysteries. I liked how dangerous the work was. And now that danger has destroyed my family. It killed my daughter!
- My life -- my family -- is just part of a book! Another white asshole deciding what I get to do, how I get to do it. I'll never be free of this story! From him!
- This is our ending. You're not the only one deciding these things anymore.
Alex Casey edit
- Something about morgues, they always cheer me up.
- I'd love to blame this on a mass hallucination caused by inhaling volcanic gas, but we both know that's bullshit. This was supernatural.
- Yeah, the PI from your books has the same name as me. Great! Moving on.
- I've only been lost once in my life... the years I spent with my ex-wife.
- You're not gonna get what you want. You think you know -- you don't know shit. You don't really wanna know. You're gonna get what's coming to you.
- The rain tried to wash away the sins of this city. Hm. But some sins, the evidence of the crimes committed, could never be erased. Not by the rain. Or any amount of therapy from Dr. Jack Daniels. It remained, bruises under my skin like tattoos. Bruises in my soul. Scar tissue on my heart. The rain never stopped falling. And I never stopped drinking.
- I was dead tired. I just wanted it to be over. It was all my fault. Sometimes, I'd forget the pain was there. Like it was the way you were supposed to feel. I was not in a dark place — I was the dark place, the source of it all, the vessel. Me and the writer... we were the same.
- There wasn't enough alcohol in this city to drown the memories of this nightmare, but I'd damn well try. This case would never be closed, I had more questions now than at the start, the irony of being trapped in a postmodern detective story. I felt watched, the eyes of an unseen audience on me. I wanted to turn to the hidden camera and tell them to fuck off- but I didn't know where to look to break the fourth wall. There would always be another case for Casey. A million stories in this dark city. The night opened up to welcome me. I walked into her arms. Roll credits.
- I'm a goner. Swell. A shadow crawling under my skin. In my head. Call my ex, tell her I'm sorry. Terminal Case Casey.
- It is a spiral.
- Is it over? Anderson?
Mr. Door edit
- After this, I'm sure we'll all be eagerly awaiting the culmination of this Hero's Journey trilogy of yours! A book called "Return", perhaps...
- All this talk of meta narratives has me expecting to disappear once this scene ends.
- You keep opening doors. Peeking in. Reaching through to get what you want, and that puts you in my path.
- The next time we meet, the circumstances will be very different. And you would do well to return the favor by playing your part... or stay out of my way, Mr. Wake.
- Night Springs. A special place -- a shifting space, existing in a countless number of parallel realities. Sometimes a quaint, small town. Sometimes, a hulking metropolis. Different every time we set upon the road that leads us there. And yet, like a half-remembered echo of a fading dream, always familiar to us. These are the stories that take place there. Awe-inspiring. Macabre. Terrifying, heartbreaking, nail-biting, absurd... and thrilling. Sometimes, all of these things at once. A haunting new season of mind-bending episodes written by Alan Wake. I am your host, Warlin Door, and I will see you soon in... Night Springs.
Scratch edit
- We made this! Our story! Our ending! Our book! We are one! We belong together! Welcome me back home!
- The end!
Others edit
- The Cult of the Tree: This is the ritual to lead you on. His friends will meet you when you're gone.
- Nightingale: You are not allowed in the lake until he says otherwise.
- Odin Anderson: Don't be the story. Make the story.
- Thomas Zane: "Oh, mercy. Thousands have gone missing. Beyond the labyrinth of me. When you're lost, you're lost in your own company." And cut! Oh... Now that is drama.
- Agent Estevez: Alan Wake is a Parautilitarian. The word's a mouthful, so you know it's serious.
- Nightless Night Opening Text: In a poem he told us, he once mistook an ocean for a lake. He spent his whole life in the depths of this mystery. Wandering in the shadows under a dark ocean. Forever searching for a way into the light to his love.
- Ahti: Earth is a cyclical song.
- Dr. Casper Darling: This place is a dreamscape! But who's the dreamer? And how do you wake up from this dream...?
- Tor Anderson: Get your guitar roaring and your drums crashing! Blow reality's eardrums!
- Agent Estevez: A whole lot of paranatural crimes happening right now... but it's fucking awesome! I want a t-shirt!
Dialogue edit
- Saga: You know what happens to cops who say this is their last case.
- Casey: Mm-hm. Real funny, Anderson.
- Alan: He's-- He's changed the story! The D-- The Dark Presence! We must stop it... before--!
- Saga: Easy now. First things first, what's your name?
- Alan: My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer! I-- I've been...
- Saga: Wake? Where did you come from? You've been missing for thirteen years!
- Alan: Thirteen...?
- Saga: The writer's name has been scratched out pretty violently, but your name can still be made out underneath.
- Alan: "Scratched out." Yeah. Scratch.
- Mr. Door: Are you okay there, my friend? You look like you've been cooped up in the writer's room for a few too many years!
- Alan: That's exactly how I feel.
- Mr. Door: Y'know, I've waited so long to get my hands on the sequel to "Departure". You left us on quite the cliffhanger! We've all been dying to know what "It's not a lake; it's an ocean" really means.
- Alan: You and me both.
- [After Mr. Door describes "Initiation" and, by extension, Alan's situation: trapped in the Dark Place, trying to write his way out.]
- Alan: Go on! I should be taking notes here, this is great stuff!
- Mr. Door: Notes to that other Alan Wake in that room, writing this as we speak? Are we all in your story, Alan?
- Alan: You're me? Me? I don't understand... There's a lot I don't understand.
- Future Alan: The Dark Place operates in loops. Time is a story. I'm calling you from a different point in that story.
- Alan: From the future? I'm never getting out of here, am I...?
- Future Alan: Yes, you will. And no, you won't. And that is by your own choice.
- Dr. Casper Darling: Have we met? You look familiar.
- Tom Zane: Well, you sound familiar.
- Alan: I'm in control now. The second you try anything, I will shoot you in the head! Scratch wrote "Return", not me. You're a fucking liar!
- Zane: You had given up. You stopped writing! You said it was too dangerous to return, that-- that we didn't deserve to get out! Then he showed up... Scratch. He promised to write. To get me the hell out of here... He was magnificent. A visionary. I mean... It was art. But when he finished... he took "Return" and left me behind.
- Alan: It's still here, and so is he!
- Zane: I know I fucked up. But you can still catch him before he gets out, before he gets to your wife! When you get to him, don't hesitate. Kill the bastard for what he did to us!
- Alan: Masks come off.
- Mr. Door: Oh, I wouldn't go that far. I don't think you even know who's under your mask.
