DLC Episode 1:
The Signal
Tropes featured in this episode of Alan Wake:
- All Just a Dream: A lot of the story implies that everything that is happening is just a bad dream. The warped, unpredictable setting, the recurring application of memories made manifest and the nightmare imagery. Even one of the collectibles are just a bunch of ticking alarm clocks.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Alan Wake waking up... back in the Diver's Isle recreation in Dark Place, Alan slowly going mad from desperation.
- Fake Town: The entirety of Bright Falls was recreated in the Dark Place, Alan reliving events in what can only be described as a warped dream-like version of the game's plot and setting.
- Flying Books: Hordes of Alex Casey books swarm together and attack you, behaving exactly like the flocks of Taken birds throughout the main game.
- Genius Loci: Thomas and TV Alan describes the Dark Place's interpretation of Bright Falls as a place literally out to get him, the shifting architecture of the town being the Dark Place playing tricks on him.
- Helpful Hallucination: Midway through, Alan encounters a figment version of Barry sent by Thomas to help Alan escape.
- Invisible Monsters: Taken that only appear as light outlines appear halfway throughout the episode. The only way to make them visible completely is to destroy the darkness around them.
- Literal Metaphor: The Dark Place operates on this principle. Thomas describes the flashlight and gun as merely representations of a gun and flashlight (though they still work as though they were real) and Alan can turn floating words into objects by shining a light on them.
- Rage Against the Author: Inverted. Alan describes TV Alan as an author that has it out for his protagonist (the Alan controlled by the player), effectively him act like a Killer Game Master.
- Shout-Out: When Alan finds his cellphone, Thomas calls him and asks "Can you hear me now?" like the famous Verizon commercial.
- World Sundering: Being a world where reality is loose, the Dark Place's interpretation of Bright Falls is not only imperfectly made, but as time goes on parts of the world start vanishing. Thomas implies that this is the Dark Place playing tricks on him.
