Will Alan Wake 3 be ‘Alice Wake’?

I’ve been replaying Alan Wake 2 in the run-up to the release of Control Resonant, to make sure I’m fully up-to-date and understand the Remedy-verse before the next instalment. Or, understand it as best as I can, at least. And, of course, like the impatient petulant gamer I am, it got me thinking about what comes after that. Alan Wake 2 is one of my favourite games of all time and a sequel would be a dream. But I wonder if Control Resonant is indicative of how Remedy will handle sequels moving forward.

It was a big shock when Remedy revealed that Resonant will not feature Jesse as the playable protagonist but her brother Dylan. This got me thinking whether Alan Wake, despite the series having his name, could follow suit and gender-flip the protagonist. The answer to whom is obvious: not Saga Anderson but Alice Wake.

Alan Wake 2 was essentially the second and third parts of a trilogy simultaneously, the dual narrative giving us ‘Initiation’ and ‘Return’. Alan’s story isn’t over but his leading role might be. Based on the ending of the ‘Final Draft’ new game plus mode, Alan is freed from the Dark Place and the Dark Presence is seemingly destroyed. The biggest loose thread is Alice who, like Alan at the end of the first game, essentially swaps places with him, entering the Dark Place and engineering his escape from within, remaining trapped herself.

Alice is in the most interesting position for a sequel. Christina Cole, who took on the role starting with Alan Wake 2, is a great actress, and the character could do with being given a bit more agency. We’ve now seen plenty of Alan’s nightmares, his inner turmoil made physical and dangerous, his version of the Dark Place. Let’s see someone else’s. A great section of Alan Wake 2 has Saga trapped in the Dark Place, her own personal hell where she battles thoughts of being a bad mother and detective, but it happens very briefly right at the end. Let’s get a game of it.

Shifting focus to Alice would be perfect for both storytelling and gameplay. We’ve seen how writing affects this world and an entire sequel focusing on that could be repetitive. I really liked the Lakehouse DLC’s pivot towards paintings and the impact of music in the main game. Alan Wake 3, or Alice Wake, could feature a new type of art to make changes to the world in a new way: photography. Alice is a photographer and I would love to see the kinds of puzzles and location shifts that could utilise a photography mechanic. A plot-relevant photo mode. Capturing objects in photos and being able to move them elsewhere, the horrors lurking in dark rooms, and using a flash as a weapon.

Alice, seemingly, doesn’t have any ingrained parautilitarian powers like Alan or Saga but in the Dark Place or in close proximity to Cauldron Lake surely that doesn’t matter? Anyone can have an impact. In Alan Wake 2 she already shows signs of controlling her environment, having a better, or at least more lucid grasp on the rules of the Dark Place than Alan. Alice is able to communicate through the phone booth, and if you find her photos and place them in the shoebox they save the day, giving Saga the clicker and a bullet made of pure light.

A third game could offer a dual narrative like the second but this time flipped: Alice is in the Dark Place while Alan is in the real world. After spending so little time interacting with the characters and world from the first game, no doubt one of many inspirations from Twin Peaks: The Return, Alan and Cooper sharing many similarities, it’d be nice to have Alan almost feel trapped once again, but this time in a reality where he can’t impact the narrative as greatly. Rose could almost become an antagonist, aghast that Alan wants to find his wife.

I imagine Saga will be involved but I’m unsure if she needs to be such a big part of another game. Maybe she’s now working for the FBC. Her familial connection to Mr Door is surely important for future stories but maybe that will be told elsewhere in the Remedy-verse. Our understanding of what an Alan Wake 3 could look like will surely change once Control Resonant is released.

While Alan is in Bright Falls, or perhaps the real New York to contrast with the twisted version in the Dark Place, Alice could be encountering multiple people with Alan’s face. It’d be fascinating to see her reaction to whatever is going on with Zane, Scratch, and an eventual reunion with Alan. Alice has to confront the darkness within Alan. Scratch was just an embodiment of what has always been inside Alan: his ego, self-destruction, abuses. How does she face that, fight that, survive that? I really want to dive into their relationship, and reveal just how bad Alan was to be around during his troublesome years before the games. For years she was haunted by Scratch, or Alan as Scratch, and yet she still has love for him, comes to save him.  

Focusing on Alice is currently my ideal continuation of the Alan Wake story, but what makes these games so good is the completely unique, unpredictable, and batshit places they go. I almost don’t want to guess right. And there’s so much dense lore and mythology, the series could always go the flashback prequel route. If Alan Wake 2 was Twin Peaks: The Return, a third game could be its Fire Walk With Me. There’s the mysteries surrounding Thomas Zane, perhaps the true author of this grand narrative, and Odin losing his eye in the conflict with Warlin Door. Maybe there could be a dual narrative again, but instead of just dimensions it’s also through time. And if Sam Lake doesn’t want to concentrate on Alice, there’s always Barry Wheeler.