Alan Wake's Secret Coffee Obsession

Coffee is inescapable, plastic cups in the hands of every commuter as they trudge to work, and on the desk of every writer, sipping their way to their next best seller. Police officers and detectives alike are repeat offenders of coffee consumption, with new characters to the Alan Wake Universe Saga and Alex Casey being no different. Their appreciation for this blessed brown beverage is likely brought on by long nights either studying files for their cases or on long stakeouts to keep themselves awake. Alan Wake, the star of our story, is possibly the biggest coffee crusader, with it appearing to him in times of need, and following him everywhere he goes. But if we zoom out further still, and look at the world of Alan Wake, taking place in the fictional town of Bright Falls in the Pacific NorthWest. There are television advertisements about a theme park known as ‘Coffee World’ (yes you did read that right) which is truly a sight to behold. Coffee permeates this universe, as a collectible item in the first game, and in the second as a means to save your progress. This concludes that in all iterations of Alan Wake, coffee may serve slightly minute differences. But enough talk, let’s digest this!

The Alan Wake series has been in the limelight recently after the release of Alan Wake 2, the critically successful direct sequel to the original of 2013. The game shot into the limelight not only when it was released in 2023, but when it received a commendation at the Game Awards that very same year for the best narrative (which it rightly deserved). But for the series at large, not only do the other two entries pale in comparison, if nothing else, in terms of gameplay, new fans may have been confused or missing certain plot points. But that’s where I come in! We start the series off with a struggling writer Alan Wake trying to solve the mystery of his missing wife, and how his own writing is entangled in it as reality plays out as it was written in his novel. The game ends with Alan managing to defeat the evil entity known as ‘The Dark Presence’ to save his wife and the town, but in the process was caught in ‘The Dark Place’ a separate reality that the Dark Presence lives in. Alan Wake: The American Nightmare continues the story in a fictional town conjured by the Dark Presence, where Alan meets his own evil doppelganger known as Mr Scratch. That brings us to the present, Alan Wake 2 as Alan attempts to escape the Dark Place, and detective Saga Anderson investigates Cauldron Lake from reality. It’s easy to forget we’re talking about coffee of all things with the stakes so high! But keep going with me on this one! 

Coffee is often synonymous with the themes of rejuvenation, energy, freedom, creative thought and intellect. Now this slips perfectly into who Alan is as a character, as a writer he engages his creativity to write his stories with the freedom to guide the story in the direction he chooses. His suffering as a struggling writer plagued with writer's block is raring for cup after cup of rejuvenation of a nice cup of Joe. To show his obsession with the drink, look no further than the collectible for the first game, you gather up a grand total of 100 thermos’ over the short runtime of the game. This relentlessness makes it feel like they are following you, the exact same thermos appearing time and time again, and could indicate an addiction. Now that we’ve connected Alan and him as a character to the nature of coffee, it’s important to suggest the negative effects of this drug on a person who has consumed too much. It’s ironic that I myself don’t drink coffee (Squash is my vice instead), but I’m aware too much of it has adverse effects such as insomnia, nervousness, nausea, anxiety or pain. Now Alan doesn’t display any of these symptoms outright, you could argue that ‘The Dark Place’ could be seen as a sweeping allegory for these symptoms from too much coffee. For starters, ‘The Dark Place’ is often conceived of as a nightmare, bearing similarities to our reality but playing completely differently with the spectral otherworldly entities. The second Alan Wake game is even referred to as a nightmare, so there is an argument to be made. One could argue this is an accurate depiction of insomnia, perhaps not the feeling of sleeplessness, but more the trappings and isolation felt by this condition. Pain and anxiety are obvious factors, with the enemies attacking you and fearing for your own life. Now, this is only one interpretation of how you could consider this game, perhaps as a cautionary tale against the overzealous consumption of caffeine, and the effect it can have on your mental state. I don’t believe this to be true in any kind of narrative sense, as this would only diminish the entire story. 

As most know, coffee is not an intrinsically harmful substance, and many drink it safely in moderation everyday. Going a step even further, coffee for some is actually symbolic of protection, safety and calm. The same is true for Alan, as what once was an inanimate object for a collectible, is now representative of an important game mechanic. Alan Wake 2 introduces the thermos as a way of saving your progress, often in a small room with a shoe box to manage items. On the surface, this is just a save point, but if we look closer, this is a brief respite against all the mental and physical challenges that await Alan. The use of the thermos as this safepoint is crucially important, as it indicates coffee as the stress reliever and an escape that it is in real life. Imagine a coffee date with a friend, time carved out just for you and them away from the world. A perhaps more convincing argument on how the world of Alan Wake depicts coffee is through the previously mentioned ‘Coffee World’ theme park, as curated by the Koskela brothers. Coffee world, in theory, consists of a number of coffee themed attractions, spanning from a mascot Moose known as ‘Mocha’ all the way to a roller coaster called the Espresso Express. Whilst it sounds like an absolute hoot, the coffee world you find is dilapidated and out of service, maybe an indication of the state of the world and how coffee can’t even save us. Touching again on the themes, the theme park in its hay day was designed with the sole purpose of fun and excitement. The isolated nature of this theme park adds to the stress release aspect, as you are able to distance yourself from the world to awaken your inner child. 

We’ve focused almost exclusively on Alan's own relationship with coffee, as the main character of the series, but the world of Alan Wake is full of characters dying for a sip. We’ve already touched on the effect of Coffee World to Alan himself, but not as a wider influence to the community of Bright Falls. The fact that Coffee World was at one point in time profitable and a keystone of the town is commendable, and showed nearby inhabitants came from far to visit. The Koskela brothers were the minds behind the attraction, but it was not their only business venture. They have many enterprises, all taking advantage of the natural environment around them, and Coffee World is no different. I for one would love to visit a real-life Coffee World, a misstep from the developers to not launch something like this! 

Alan Wake is a markedly impressive step up from the prior entry, in almost every fathomable way. It is honestly one of my favourite games of last year, and will stick in my head for a long time. It’s a peculiarly clever game, as detective based games often are, and really pushes you to think in alternative ways about puzzles, the story and the path forward. Alan Wake originally was let down by its repetitive gameplay, but Alan Wake 2 fixes that problem tenfold. Beneath the surface of the game, there is so much to dive into, and just in this article I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface on what this game was built on the shoulders of. Whilst the references and influence of coffee seems minor, when you consider it against the entire series and stop to think what it truly could suggest, as I hope I’ve shown it is important. Coffee is admittedly one of the smaller and more nuanced pieces of this intricate and interesting puzzle, almost invisible if you’re not directly looking for it. Coffee to me, seems like a double edged sword, it can either be relaxing and guide you to new experiences or open up your mind, or exacerbate your stress and make your life worse than it could have already been. The choice ultimately is yours, and I hope you enjoy combing over Alan Wake to see what you can find as well.