Alan Wake 2‘s Final Draft mode lets you re-experience the award-winning narrative horror game with interesting additions. Final Draft brings new changes to the Alan Wake 2 experience, and we have them all found out — well, we’re pretty sure we do.
The concern when it comes to the completion of this list is that Final Draft doesn’t bring only large alterations to the story campaign. Its changes range from rather significant to things so subtle you may have to stop and think twice if you’re remembering a scene correctly. Even I felt a bit uncertain at times and needed to go back and watch my old footage to compare it with the new. As such, I decided to split this guide between the major and minor changes the mode brings to the game.
What is Final Draft in Alan Wake 2?
Final Draft is, at its most basic, Alan Wake 2‘s take on the classic New Game Plus (NG+) mode. Just like the standard NG+ experience, it allows you to bring all your weapons and upgrades into a new playthrough. However, Final Draft adds new content along with story changes that acknowledge the events of your prior run.
You can also max out both Saga and Alan during the second run. It doesn’t matter if you managed to acquire every Word of Power or manuscript fragment — neither hero is able to fully upgrade their abilities by the end. Final Draft allows you to push the protagonist’s powers to their upper limit.
Can you experience everything Final Draft offers in any difficulty mode?
From what I can gather, it doesn’t matter what difficulty you choose before playing Final Draft. It’s unlikely that anything will get kept from you because you went with an easier or harder difficulty. If you want to only experience the new changes to the story without any challenge, then ‘Story’ difficulty allows it. If it’s the opposite, the Final Draft update included a new ‘Nightmare’ difficulty mode which increases enemy health and damage.
Alan Wake 2 – Final Draft’s biggest changes
What is a significant change, you ask? I consider any content addition or alteration that affects the story or narrative in important ways to be a significant change. That can range from new collectibles to be gathered up or expanded cutscenes. These are changes that stand as the reason to give the Final Draft a try; content that expands the lore or hints at what could be next for Alan and Saga.
It may seem obvious, but be warned: We’re in spoiler country, friends! If you haven’t played Final Draft until the end, take care of that first.
Expanded intro
Like in the original game, Final Draft begins with a monologue performed by our once-lost Alan Wake. In the Final Draft version, his cryptic introduction is clearly different. There are clear hints regarding how the cast’s players are in a kind of time spiral, which is slowly approaching its end.
More manuscript pages for Saga
There are six more manuscript pages Saga Anderson can find during Alan Wake 2 – Final Draft. Like with most collectibles and changes the mode brings, the pages are fairly hard to miss. They are also only available to find while playing as Saga in the real world.
Here are the chapters you can find the new pages:
- Return 1: The Invitation – Saga Anderson’s Deja Vu
- Return 2: The Heart – Dark Poem 1
- Return 5: Old Gods – Dark Poem 2
- Return 6: Scratch – Breakthrough in the Lake House
- Return 6: Scratch – Dark Poem 3
- Return 7: Summoning – It’s Not a Lake
More video clips for Alan
Alan also gets more collectibles to find in Final Draft. While scrounging around in The Dark Place, you can discover additional video clips that weren’t in the original version. There are only a few, and at least one is fairly easy to miss. Here’s a guide if you want to track them all down, or you can try your luck during these chapters:
- Initiation 1: Late Night – Spiral
- Initiation 5: Room 665 – Signals
- Initiation 8: Zane’s Film – Collaboration
Expanded ending
What happened to Logan Anderson? Is Alan dead? What about Scratch? The original ending left us on a cliffhanger. But Final Draft expands on the ending, with Alan returning to life and noting Scratch’s demise while Saga gets a reply from a very alive Logan. All seems well, but is there more for our heroes?
Alan Wake 2 – Final Draft subtle changes
The subtle changes brought by Final Draft can include additions that add to the story in smaller ways or continue to make nods at the ‘spiral’ theme that permeates the mode.
Alice’s presence in The Dark Place
Alan’s wife, Alice Wake, makes some serious moves in the story of Alan Wake 2. It’s suggested by the end of the original game that she decided to return to The Dark Place in order to help Alan like he once helped her. While she doesn’t appear in person during Final Draft, she does have a slight presence. This is hinted at by a change in Initiation 3: Haunting, in which Alan finds a photo in the elevator leading up to his apartment in Parliament Tower. The message that comes with the photo: “You still need to go through the loop.”
Hang out with the Old Gods of Asgard one last time
Saga gets pulled into The Dark Place following Return 7: Summoning. Naturally, her rockin’ grandfather and great-uncle, Tor and Odin Anderson, the Old Gods of Asgard, go after her. They aren’t seen again in the original version of the story. But they appear in Final Draft to offer Saga some words of encouragement before hinting at their next destination. This could be the last time we see the duo, so the parting feels bittersweet.
There still seems to be plenty more story in Alan Wake 2. Hopefully, we’ll finally see the light at the end of this dark, 13-year-long tunnel soon.
Until then, keep an eye on our Alan Wake 2 guides hub for everything there is to know about the game.
