Those who finished "Alan Wake" were undoubtedly left wanting more. If anything that's a testament to the incredible world and story that Remedy crafted, and also to the extreme cliff-hanger they left us in at the end of the game. Thankfully we won't have to wait years to discover the fate of the mighty, flashlight-toting author, as Remedy has announced that two DLC packs for the game are on the way. And apparently that's just the beginning.
I spoke with Matias Myllyrinne, Managing Director of Remedy, about the developer's plans for DLC and he mentioned that, apart from the already-announced DLC packs, "The Signal" and "The Writer," "we'll have a further pack coming later on this year."
Revealing "The Signal"
NOTE: If you haven't finished "Alan Wake," you should stop reading here. The following features some story-related spoilers.
Myllyrinne wasn't willing to discuss much about that mysterious third pack, but he did give us some insight into what we can expect from "The Signal" (which hits Xbox Live on July 27 and will be free for those who saved their pack-in download code).
In describing "The Signal," Myllyrinne confirmed that it will take place after the events of the game and will focus on the strange would which imprisons the writer in the closing moments, saying "we won't be grounded in the realm that we inhabit right now," referring to the "real world" of Bright Falls.
That may worry some people. Will "The Signal" take place in one long, surreal segment similar to what we saw in the closing moments of the game, with Wake shining the flashlight on words to bring them to life? Myllyrinne is aware of these concerns and knows that the DLC needs to be relatable and believable for it to have an impact.
"We have a nifty way of moving [the story] forward and materializing that into gameplay and storytelling without going into a mode of weirdness. For a thriller to work you need it to be grounded in reality. Otherwise all bets are off because the rules don't really apply. So we wanted to have it kind of grounded in reality but also to take a more twisted take, because this is an extreme place and position he finds himself in."
I asked if it was similar to the dream-like sequence in New York City, where Wake spoke to someone that looks a lot like his wife but is clearly something malevolent. Myllyrinne confirmed that we'll see something akin to that in "The Signal," which will have real-looking environments, but "there's something off" about them.
Not a ton to work with there, but hopefully that gives you an idea of what to expect when "The Signal" drops in July.
Update: Microsoft sent along the following statement: "We have not confirmed any additional Game Add-ons for Alan Wake beyond "The Signal." It's a true statement, since it was Matias Myllyrinne of Remedy who confirmed that there would be an additional game add-on for "Alan Wake" beyond "The Signal," not Microsoft.
Update 2: Turns out Matias misspoke in our interview and has since said that the third "Alan Wake" DLC pack was a "misunderstanding." He doesn't rule it out, but it's too early to say whether it'll happen.