10 Most Confusing Video Game Plots

8. Alan Wake

Alan Wake Barry
Remedy Entertainment

Like the shows it was inspired by, Alan Wake's tale of small-town horror is purposefully obtuse, as much about the sheer act of storytelling and authorship as it is blowing shadow demons away with a shotgun.

Following the titular character's stay at Bright Falls on account of his writer's block, Alan discovers the town holds a dark secret when his wife Alice is pulled into a lake by a dark presence. Trying to untangle the mystery of why he's being attacked by monsters and why his wife has been taken, he continues to find pages of a manuscript, written by himself, which has detailed every sinister event before it happened.

Seemingly part of the problem, the game ends with Alan giving himself over to the lake, sinking below while Alice is able to pull herself out.

While you might be able to get your head around all of that, the ending proceeds to throw everything up in the air once again. It picks up with Alan, isolated in the middle of the lake, beginning to finish the manuscript. However, his final comment is an ominous realisation of "it's not a lake - it's an ocean!". What does that mean? I have literally no idea.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.