Alan Wake 2 ending explained & what could happen next

Are you still scratching your head at the ending of Alan Wake 2? You’re not alone, here’s what it all means with the Alan Wake 2 ending explained.

Alan Wake 2 has a complicated ending that incorporates elements from Alan Wake 1, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, and Remedy’s Control – which exists in the same bizarre universe. Here’s a breakdown of the events that led to Alan Wake 2, the ending explained, and what could happen next.

Remember, to fully understand Alan Wake 2’s story, it pays to have played the first game, American Nightmare, Control, and all the DLC of those three games. However, if you’re jumping into the game without all that knowledge, here’s a crash course in all things Bright Falls and beyond.

Alan Wake: The story so far

Let’s start with the first Alan Wake:

Alan Wake 1

Alan Wake is a crime novelist who after suffering from writer’s block, takes a vacation with his wife Alice to the town of Bright Falls, where Alice hopes he can find some fresh inspiration. After some crazy events and a car accident in which Alice seemingly drowns in a nearby lake, Alan stumbles around the town avoiding the authorities (who want to lock him in a mental institution) by day – and crazed shadow zombies by night, who can only be defeated using light. The creatures are referred to as the Taken.

Alan learns that his latest novel is coming true and that his wife is still alive but is being kept from him. To cut a long story short, Alan discovers that the lake Alice fell into is actually home to an intelligent but malevolent force known to the town as the Dark Presence, and this entity has the power to turn fiction into reality – and has Alice trapped within it, wanting to coerce Alan into doing its bidding.

Alan attempts to free Alice from her prison by writing a scenario where he trades places with her, trapping himself within the Dark Presence instead. During the game’s DLCs, various alternate versions of Alan start competing with him to finish his story, some influenced by the agenda of the Dark Presence which wants to escape its watery confinement and be let loose in the real world.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

American Nightmare is a strange semi-sequel/expansion to the original game which has been confirmed to be canon by Alan Wake 2. Here, Alan continues to write and navigate the psychological dangers of the Dark Presence. Alan tries to write an ending to his story that sees him reunited with Alice, but instead, he seemingly creates a dark doppelganger of himself called Mr. Scratch.

Control

While Control is its own self-contained story, it crosses over heavily with Alan Wake by the end. The game involves a shadowy agency known as the FBC (influenced by the SCP Foundation) which controls and secures paranormal phenomena around the world. Players control Jesse Faden who is made a director of the agency due to her powerful abilities, but in truth, Jesse knows the agency is covering up her brother’s disappearance after they both encountered some paranormal entities as children.

Their base (that exists between the earth and the astral plane) is attacked by a malevolent force known as the Hiss, which has escaped from a movie slide that Jesse and her brother encountered years ago. As the Hiss begins to infect the personnel of the FBC, Jesse leads efforts to defeat it, save the agency – and free her brother from both the FBC and the Hiss.

In the game’s final AWE DLC, it’s revealed that Jesse is a character in one of Alan Wake’s stories and that the FBC has been investigating the Dark Presence trapped within the lake of Bright Falls. Speaking to Jesse from his imprisonment by the Dark Presence, Alan implies that he is responsible for unleashing the Hiss on the FBC in order to give his hero something to overcome – as the Hiss is connected to the Dark Presence. Jesse then turns her attention to the phenomena in Bright Falls as the game ends.

Alan Wake 2 story

Alan Wake 2 involves a new protagonist, an FBI agent known as Saga Anderson who is investigating a series of ritualistic murders in Bright Falls. After discovering the dead body of a character from Alan Wake 1, it’s revealed that the game is set 13 years after it – meaning Alan has been trapped by the Dark Presence for all that time.

Saga also finds pages of Wake’s books, some of them predicting the future and giving her clues as to what’s going on. The FBI is baffled when the dead body they have revives and escapes, turning into a Taken along with other townspeople. The FBC from Control turns up to investigate the paranormal goings on and Alan is seemingly washed up on the shores of the lake.

Alan warns Saga that his evil doppelganger, Mr. Scratch is trying to free the Dark Presence from the lake and this is connected to the murders she has been investigating. Alan then reveals to Saga that he has written her into his story as a character and her fate is now linked with his. However, it’s revealed that Saga is actually been duped by Mr. Scratch and that the real Alan Wake is still trapped within the Dark Presence. Scratch tries to free the entity, but is defeated by the Saga and the FBC.

Alan, within the Dark Presence, learns that his wife Alice has committed suicide after being tormented by Mr. Scratch. He then learns he is stuck in a time loop of trying to escape the lake and different versions of him are all writing to fix the ending of his story, killing each other and remaining trapped. Only Scratch has successfully managed to escape, with him being a version of Alan that is possessed by the Dark Presence and a threat to all of reality.

Alan decides to abandon his story and write a new one which will fix all the events and save everyone. A paranormal entity that was confined in the FBC, and also aided Jesse during the events of Control, also begins helping him. Saga continues to battle Scratch who possesses people close to her. After being sucked into the world of the Dark Presence, Saga receives help from a mysterious woman who gives her the means to defeat Scratch. As Scratch possesses the real Alan Wake – the two once again becoming one – Saga shoots Alan with ‘the Bullet of Light’, seemingly killing both him and Mr. Scratch.

Alan is revealed to still be alive within the Dark Presence and discovers that Alice faked her death to trick him, and therefore also fooling Scratch. She then begins to explain her plan to Alan, telling him his path to escape is “so close” and must be done through “ascension”. Alan then wakes up and exclaims, “It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral.”

Alan Wake 2 ending explained

Alan Wake 2 ends on a hopeful note. Not only is Scratch defeated, but Alice now believes she has the means to help Alan escape the Dark Presence and Alan himself has had an epiphany. While Alan thought he was stuck in a time loop, with one version of himself turning into Mr. Scratch, events are in fact ascending AND looping, and everything that has happened counts towards the wider story – no matter how many times it plays out.

Alan hasn’t been rewriting anything, just adding new layers to a story that isn’t being told in a linear fashion. While the story is indeed looping back on itself, like a spiral, it’s always moving ever upwards towards an inevitable ending.

Of course, a third Alan Wake game will likely reveal there are more enemies to defeat and problems to overcome, but theoretically, Alan and Alice can escape the Dark Presence, and end the threat it poses. This will likely be through Alan’s writing, using the powers the entity gives him as a weapon against it, but this time armed with the knowledge of the spiral. Something that can allow Alan can prevent enemies like Mr. Scratch from appearing again.

It’ll also be interesting to see what any potential DLC reveals and how Control 2 will continue to connect to the story. While Control 2 will likely be its own self-contained story, we imagine that the synergy between the Hiss and the Dark Presence will be explored further. As the FBC has arrived in Bright Falls and have seen the horrors of the lake for themselves, they could also be instrumental in its defeat. It could also help Jesse defeat the Hiss in their own base.

That’s everything you need to know about whether or not you should play Alan Wake before Alan Wake. 2. For more content on the game, check out our guides below:

Alan Wake 2 soundtrack | Will Alan Wake 2 have DLC? | Alan Wake 2 voice actors | Best GPU’s for Alan Wake 2 | 7 games like Alan Wake 2 | Trophies & Achievements | All graphics modes | How long is Alan Wake 2?