Alan Wake is a bestselling horror writer. Early on in his career, his fiancée Alice, was his muse. When he'd first met her, he had started to see strange dreams which he used as material for his first book. The book was a big success. It was a dream come true.
But then Wake's fiancée vanished without a trace. Wake was devastated. After that, he couldn't write anymore. His dreams stopped and he began to suffer from insomnia.
At the beginning of the game, Wake travels to a sleep clinic to seek treatment for his condition. The secluded clinic is located near the small town of Bright Falls, Washington, far away from the stressful urban lifestyle. Receiving treatment at the clinic, Wake is able to sleep again. At the clinic, he meets a mysterious woman who is the very image of his missing fiancée, uncannily so. At once, his dreams return, this time as terrible nightmares. Wake begins to write again: a new book based on those nightmares.
But something is horribly, horribly wrong.
Impossibly, the town of Bright Falls starts to change to something awful that bears a close resemblance to Wake's new book. Wake ends up fighting for his life with a gun and a flashlight in his hands, trying to understand what's happening.
