Alan Wake was a game designed with little focus on the story, but with absolutely everything poured into rendering the suspense factor. Which is pretty much a recipe for disappointment as far as a video game is concerned, because people like a coherent story. With Alan Wake, the developers clearly thought that they could get away with creating a mysterious but shallow game, throwing in all kinds of clues and weird twists and just not bothering to let it mean anything, which is why the ending of the game makes no sense. After traversing a mysterious island and fighting off the forces of darkness, Stephen King (uh, that is "Alan Wake") decides he must give himself over to the lake (whatever that means). From there, our hero appears back inside his cabin, and must... write himself out? At which point he enigmatically declares: "It's not a lake - it's an ocean." Huh? The worst thing about this ending is that tries to pretend that it makes sense, which is even more annoying than if just admitted that it didn't: it dares you to try and connect the dots and work it all out, when really it knows it's all bullsh*t. Sigh.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
